LEAN / THE HISTORY
Lean appeared in Japan after World War II. It was developed by Toyota in a project headed by Taiichi Ohno, its chief of engineering. Realizing that it was impossible to compete with US companies if Toyota used mass production methods, the company came to the conclusion that it needed to develop a production system that would be able to eliminate radically the waste generated in its processes. This was the beginning of what has come to be known as Lean Thinking.
Although it was conceived as far back as the 1950’s, the term “lean” only gained recognition in 1990 with the publication of “The Machine that Changed the World”, a book authored by Womack, Jones and Roos. Their work is a comprehensive study on the automobile industry worldwide, and it shows Toyota’s Production System superior performance in this sector.