was a Japanese industrial engineer and businessman. He is considered to be the father of the

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile ...

, which inspired

Lean Manufacturing Lean manufacturing is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers. It is closely related to another concept called just-in-time manufacturing (J ...

in the U.S. He devised the seven wastes (or muda in Japanese) as part of this system. He wrote several books about the system, including ''Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production''.

Life

Born in 1912 in

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on ...

, China, and a graduate of the

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

Technical High School (

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

), he joined the Toyoda family's Toyoda Spinning upon graduation in 1932 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

thanks to the relations of his father to

Kiichiro Toyoda was a Japanese businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyoda ...

, the son of Toyota's founding father

Sakichi Toyoda was a Japanese inventor and industrialist. He was born in Kosai, Shizuoka. The son of a farmer and sought-after carpenter, he started the Toyoda family companies. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, would later establish Japan's largest automaker, Toy ...

. He moved to the Toyota motor company in 1943 where he worked as a shop-floor supervisor in the engine manufacturing shop of the plant, and gradually rose through the ranks to become an executive.

Influence

Ohno's principles influenced areas outside of manufacturing, and have been extended into the service arena. For example, the field of

sales process engineering Sales process engineering is intended to design better ways of selling and make salespeople's efforts more productive. It has been described as "the systematic application of scientific and mathematical principles to achieve the practical goal ...

has shown how the concept of Just In Time (JIT) can improve

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

, and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

processes.

Seven Wastes

Ohno was also instrumental in developing the way organizations identify waste, with his "Seven Wastes" model which have become core in many academic approaches. These wastes are: 1. Delay, waiting or time spent in a queue with no value being added
2. Producing more than you need
3. Over processing or undertaking non-value added activity
4. Transportation
5. Unnecessary movement or motion
6. Inventory
7. Defects in the Product.

Ten Precepts

Ohno is also known for his "Ten Precepts" to think and act to win. # You are a cost. First reduce waste. # First say, "I can do it." And try before everything. # The workplace is a teacher. You can find answers only in the workplace. # Do anything immediately. Starting something right now is the only way to win. # Once you start something, persevere with it. Do not give up until you finish it. # Explain difficult things in an easy-to-understand manner. Repeat things that are easy to understand. # Waste is hidden. Do not hide it. Make problems visible. # Valueless motions are equal to shortening one's life. # Re-improve what was improved for further improvement. # Wisdom is given equally to everybody. The point is whether one can exercise it.

Published works

* Ohno, Taiichi (1988), ''Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production'', Productivity Press, * Ohno, Taiichi (1988), ''Workplace Management'', Productivity Press, * Ohno, Taiichi (2007), ''Workplace Management''. Translated by Jon Miller, Gemba Press, ,

References