I am an Industrial Engineer who is lucky enough to work for one of the world's most prestigious manufacturing companies -- Toyota Motor Corporation. As everyone in any manufacturing industries knows, Toyota is best known for the Toyota Way -- the Toyota Production System (or TPS).
I have always been very interested in learning more about the essence of TPS. In the beginning, I have no trouble finding materials on the topic, for example, from the Internet, various popular blogs, training courses from work, books etc.
However, as I learned more about it, and began to put the knowledge in practice, I started to getting a lot of unexpected results. Sometimes, it seems that it is impossible to achieve the desired results even though I believe I've fully followed the philosophy. Other times, I feel that people around me are preaching the concepts, but are acting very differently in reality.
I began searching for outlets where instead of discussing only the principles of TPS, the actual implementation of TPS is being documented for people like me to review and learn from such experience. The search, so far, has been fruitless.
So, here is my way of contributing to the understanding of TPS: This blog will document my own experiences with TPS.
It is not my intention to say I have all the answers to all the problems I will be discussing. In fact, this blog will serve as a collection of real life experiences of TPS implementation for discussion and learning. This is very similar to learning via the CASE STUDY method that is popular in many MBA curriculums. By identifying the problems between the theory and practice of TPS (i.e. what we call "identifying the gap" in TBP language), I hope that you and I will gain valuable insights in TPS.
Looking forward to sharing my experiences with you.
