ABSTRACT
True efficiency improvement comes when we produce zero waste and bring the percentage of work to 100 percent. Since, in the Toyota production system, we must make only the amount needed, manpower must be reduced to trim excess capacity and match the needed quantity. The Toyota production system clearly reveals excess manpower. Because of this, some labor union people have been suspicious of it as a means of laying off workers. In each Toyota Motor Company plant, as well as in the production plants of cooperating firms adopting the Toyota production system, visual control is thoroughly established. Standard work sheets are posted prominently at each work station. When one looks up, the andon comes into view, showing the location and nature of trouble situations at a glance. In the Toyota production system, the fact that parts have to arrive just-in-time means that standard inventories have to be met that much more rigorously.
