The Toyota Production System and art: making highly customized and creative products the Toyota way

The Toyota Production System has led to a movement of 'lean production' focused on taking waste out of value streams. Most applications have been to high volume, and relatively standardized products. Under this system work becomes highly standardized specifying to the second what the operator should do. Buffers are precisely sized and controlled through various types of pull signals. When possible, use of one-piece flow cells result in a completely balanced production line. The performance benefits of these lean systems are often remarkable, greatly improving quality, cost, and delivery. But what of companies that are not making standardized products at high volume? What can they learn from lean? In this paper we argue there is a fundamental misunderstanding of TPS, viewing it as a specific tool kit technically implemented in a formulaic way to achieve pre-specified results. In fact, TPS is a philosophy that can be better described as a set of general principles of organizing and managing an enterprise which can help any organization get on a path of positive learning and improvement. A case example of a low volume, highly customized artistic clay tile company illustrates the process by which the firm used TPS to learn how to understand its process, gain stability and control, empower its workforce, and become far more profitable.