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The Evolution Of Lean Manufacturing

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LEAN MANUFACTURING
Origins of Lean Lean originally originated from Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) (McCarthy, 2015) in the early 1900’s however it wasn’t until the Toyota family introduced the Toyota Production System (TPS) into their company manufacturing operations that it began to gain recognition. In the 1950’s, Toyota first implemented quality measures within the production lines process and hence the initial stages of continuous improvement. Taiichi Ono, who was the executive vice president, developed and implemented the renowned Toyota Production System (TPS) after the Second World War as a means of producing a highly effective and efficient manufacturing line for their products. Ono took great inspiration from Henry Ford’s early lean concepts and applied it to meet the demand of their own Japanese market. This built the seeds of TPS, which today is better known as lean manufacturing (Womack&Jones, 1996). Nowadays, Lean is used globally throughout industry in all different sizes of enterprises that can depend on the successful implementation of Lean. (Herron, 2008). Toyota’s success as one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers and leading Lean implementers stands as proof of Leans merits. (Institite, 2000-2016). This has led to enormous demand for knowledge on leans tools and techniques as companies continue to have success with its implementation.

What is Lean? Lean is commonly referred to as a systematic methodology to approaching and

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