Locking in the Gains: The Need for Standardization

Chapter 2 introduced Spear and Bowen’s four rules of the Toyota Production System. Rule 1: All work is standardized in terms of content, sequence, timing, and outcome.1 Standardization is the foundation of Lean manufacturing. The first questions a Toyota Lean specialist asks when faced with a problem are, “What is the standard?” and “Did we follow the standard?”