ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the basic principles upon which it was built and presents the philosophy, methodology, and outlook of this revolutionary approach to modern production in the order of its development. The first concept developed as a basis for production management is the minus-cost principle. The Toyota production system developed to its state after repeated trial and error. In turn, the only method for cutting costs is thorough waste elimination. Elimination of the waste of overproduction became a distinct possibility. Two things are clearly required to achieve production to order: small lot production and dramatically shortened production cycles. At that point, it became clear that flow operations would be even more effective if upstream processes were linked directly to the assembly line, and the system evolved toward comprehensive integrated flow operations. Shortened setup changeover times are an indispensable prerequisite for production to order. Kanban became an effective tool to support the running of the production system as a whole.
