ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that the benefits of lean production have been documented across many industry
settings, firms find it difficult to extend lean principles downstream into their distribution systems.
The application of lean to downstream or distribution operations has been scarce. This has been
recognized by manufacturers, including Toyota itself. At the Detroit Motor Show in 2000,
Toyota’s president Fujio Cho-who incidentally co-authored the first article written in English
on the Toyota Production System (TPS) (see Sugimori et al., 1977)—announced that it was now
‘‘time to apply Toyota’s mastery in Just-in-Time production to its distribution and marketing
operations’’ (Andrews, 2000).
