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Introduction
Toyota Motor Corporation is widely recognized for having created an important new management system that top managers of many manufacturing and service businesses now seek to emulate. Toyota's management system is variously referred to as "Toyota Production System" ([94] Ohno, 1988a), "Toyota Management System" ([87] Monden, 1993), "Lean Production," ([127] Womack et al. , 1990) or "Lean Management" ([45] Emiliani et al. , 2003). It is also commonly referred to as "Lean manufacturing" due to its origins in production and operations management ([107] Shingo, 1981; [94] Ohno, 1988a). However, this description implies a narrow focus and is now recognized as incorrect because Lean principles and practices can be applied to any organization. Thus, the emergent preferred description for this management system external to Toyota Motor Corporation is "Lean management."
The roots of Toyota's management system dates to the early 1890s, when self-taught inventor Sakichi Toyoda designed and patented a manually operated loom for weaving cloth that greatly improved worker productivity and the quality of the cloth ([79] Kimoto, 1991; [117] Togo and Wartman, 1993; [101] Reingold, 1999; [123] Wada and Yui, 2002). In the 1920s, Sakichi's son, Kiichiro, designed and patented many new loom features, including improved mechanisms invented by his father that would automatically stop the machine when a thread broke, thus avoiding the production of defective cloth ([79] Kimoto, 1991; [123] Wada and Yui, 2002). In part as a result of these innovations, key objectives of Toyota's early management practice have been characterized as "production efficiency by consistently and thoroughly eliminating waste", and "the equally important respect for humanity" ([94] Ohno, 1988b).
Two people are widely credited for having created the Toyota Production System as it is known today: [94] Ohno (1988a), who rose to the level of Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation, and [108] Shingo (1985), a consultant to Toyota employed by the Japan Management Association, famous for his work on single-minute exchange of dies. [118] Toyoda (1985), former President of Toyota Motor Corporation, and Saito Naichi also played key roles ([96] Ohno and Mito, 1988; [127] Womack et al. , 1990; [126] Womack and Jones, 1996).
Both Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno were greatly influenced by American industrialists and their production and management practices ([94] Ohno, 1988a; [119]...