Design rules for implementing the Toyota Production System

The Toyota Motor Company has risen to a place of world prominence in the automotive industry by redesigning the mass production system into the Toyota Production System (TPS), or what is now known worldwide as lean production. In redesigning the mass production system, they changed the final assembly into a mixed model final assembly system to level the demand on their suppliers, converted the linear subassembly lines into U-shaped subassembly cells and redesigned the job shop into manufacturing cells. Final assembly operates with a takt time, and the cells are designed to have a cycle time slightly less than the takt time and to operate on a ‘make one, check one and move one on’ (MO-CO-MOO basis). Single-cycle machine tools are used with built-in devices to check parts (poka-yokes). Between the machines are devices (decouplers) designed to assist the standing, walking workers producing the parts in the manufacturing cells. This paper will discuss four design rules for implementing the TPS.