Taiichi Ohno Archives | Page 3 of 4

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 32: Operational Availability vs. Rate of Operation

By Jon Miller - October 20th, 2006

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno introduces another concept that is mixed up by people. It is the difference between operational availability and rate of operation. I introduced this concept in some depth in a previous post on this blog, a

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 31: There is a Correct Sequence to Kaizen

By Jon Miller - October 15th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno explains in this chapter that there is a correct sequence to kaizen, and it is as follows: 1) Manual work kaizen 2) Equipment kaizen 3) Process kaizen “Manual work kaizen means thinking of better ways of using the ex

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 30: Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu Shitsuke

By Jon Miller - September 25th, 2006

“Seiri (Sorting) is throwing out what you don’t need and Seiton (Straighten) is arranging items so that they are ready when you want them. Arranging things neatly is only Seiretsu (lining up in rows) and proper shop floor m

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 29: Become a Reliable Boss

By Jon Miller - August 4th, 2006

“I never get angry at the workers. However, I will get very angry at supervisors and above.” Some people say that Taiichi Ohno was not a very nice man. Ohno had a reputation for being very tough on his students, and some ev

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 28: Wits Don’t Work Until You Feel the Squeeze

By Jon Miller - July 17th, 2006

“When I’m sitting in the board room I have no idea what’s happening on the gemba.” Taiichi Ohno begins, and proceeds to tell the story of what would happen when he was sitting in another office, Production Control. When his eye

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 3: The Top 8 Pearls of Wisdom on Kaizen

By Jon Miller - July 13th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno loved wordplay. He would take a few choice Japanese words and pack in as much kaizen wisdom as he could. He chose his words carefully, even though in much of his writing he was informal and direct, and not highly articulat

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 2: Foreword from the First Textbook on the Toyota Production System

By Jon Miller - July 12th, 2006

This is an image of the first textbook ever written on the Toyota Production System. The title reads Toyota Style Production System – The Toyota Method. The Toyota Education Department published this in January 1973. Taiichi Ohno wr

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 1: “I Never Said There Were 7 Types of Waste”

By Jon Miller - July 10th, 2006

One has to be careful these days when making statements about the origins of TPS and check the facts, or else be pinned to the mat for a count of three by the investigative tag-team of Art Smalley and Isao Kato. So I’ll confess t

Gemba Keiei Chapter 27: We Can Still Do a Lot More Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter with the surprising statement “We have done a lot of rationalization on the production floor and we are near the limit. It’s becoming common sense that administrative processes still need a lot of ra

Gemba Keiei Chapter 26: There Are No Supervisors at the Administrative Gemba

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2006

“Administrative work is done at the gemba just the same as the production gemba where we make things. The office is the administrative gemba.” Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter. Gemba is a Japanese word meaning “actual place”. In

Gemba Keiei Chapter 25: Work is a Game of Wits with Subordinates

By Jon Miller - June 16th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter “In order to lead a large number of people in work, you have to be tough. But I think this is basically not a matter of giving orders or instructions, but a game of wits with subordinates.” Ohno says

Gemba Keiei Chapter 24: Fight the Robot Fad

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2006

“We only started talking about ‘reduced volume production’ after the 1973 oil shock. Prior to that we could sell everything we made so cost reduction for mass production was easier.” Ohno goes on to say that although many other

Gemba Keiei Chapter 23: Producing at the Lowest Possible Cost

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter by telling the story of when the President of Toyota, Mr. Ishida, was summoned to the National Diet and scolded by politicians for building passenger cars that were too expensive. Back then even the head

Gemba Keiei Chapter 22: Shut the Machines Off!

By Jon Miller - May 23rd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts by explaining the difference between an automatic loom “working” and “moving” or “running”. Working implies that jidoka prevents it from making defects. A machine “running” and producing defects is n

Gemba Keiei Chapter 21: Rationalization is Doing What is Rational

By Jon Miller - May 15th, 2006

The title of this chapter is somewhat awkward. By another translation you could read it as “Improvement means doing what is rational” or “Kaizen means following reason”. But here Taiichi Ohno is engaging in a bi

Gemba Keiei Chapter 20: What I Learned About Forging Changeover from Toyota do Brasil

By Jon Miller - May 3rd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter by saying “In order to achieve Just in Time you need to solve your changeover problems and reduce lot sizes. Forging processes are the most difficult.” This chapter should really be titled “Toyota

Gemba Keiei Chapter 19: Toyota Made the Kanban System Possible

By Jon Miller - April 17th, 2006

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno explains the origin and the conditions that resulted in the development of the kanban system at Toyota. In the beginning the machining process upstream would replenish what the assembly process downstream u

Gemba Keiei Chapter 18: Supermarket System

By Jon Miller - April 7th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts out the chapter not quite having left the themes of his last two chapters behind. He describes how the jidoka idea that came from the Toyota textile business led to one operator running 20 or 30 machines. This think

Gemba Keiei Chapter 17: The Goal – Improve Productivity Ten-Fold

By Jon Miller - April 2nd, 2006

Taiichi Ohno recounts when he first learned in 1937 that the American worker was 9 times more productive than the Japanese worker. Taiichi Ohno heard this from a Mitsubishi Electric factory manager who had recently returned from a tour

Gemba Keiei Chapter 16: Grandpa Sakichi’s Jidoka Idea

By Jon Miller - March 23rd, 2006

I really enjoyed this chapter for a couple of reasons. First, Ohno uses the old-fashioned honorific for “grandpa” or “old man” when referring to Sakichi Toyoda in the title. There’s a certain warmth there and a reminder that

Gemba Keiei Chapter 15: Just In Time

By Jon Miller - March 16th, 2006

In this chapter, Taiichi Ohno talks about “just in time” but does not focus much on the material and information flow within TPS. Instead, he spends most of his time contemplating the English phrase’s origin. The Orig

Gemba Keiei Chapter 14: Do Kaizen When Times Are Good

By Jon Miller - March 8th, 2006

In this brief chapter Taiichi Ohno emphasizes the need to do kaizen in order to be ready to compete with lowest cost production. When production volumes decrease, one strategy is to produce products with higher value added and higher m

Gemba Keiei Chapter 13: Improve Productivity Even with Reduced Volumes

By Jon Miller - February 24th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno pulls a lesson for Lean manufacturing out of the rice farming situation in the early 1980s in Japan. The government of Japan paid farmers to decrease the area used to cultivate rice in order to limit overproduction of rice

Gemba Keiei Chapter 12: Agricultural People Like Inventory

By Jon Miller - November 25th, 2005

Taiichi Ohno makes an interesting connection between the Japanese as historically an agricultural people and the fact that Japanese manufacturers seem to like inventory. Farmers growing rice are at the mercy of the weather. There are d

Gemba Keiei Chapter 11: Wasted Motion is Not Work

By Jon Miller - November 14th, 2005

In this chapter Taiichi Ohno talks about the importance of training your eyes to see the difference between wasted motion and value added work. Another theme is the way the words you use affect how you think and behave. An English exam

Taiichi Ohno

Start your improvement training today.