The Toyota way in services: The case of lean product development

Toyota's Production System (TPS) is based on lean principles including a focus on the customer, continual improvement and quality through waste reduction, and tightly integrated upstream and downstream processes as part of a lean value chain. Most manufacturing companies have adopted some type of lean initiative, and the lean movement recently has gone beyond the shop floor to white-collar offices and is even spreading to service industries. Unfortunately, most of these efforts represent limited, piecemeal approaches-quick fixes to reduce lead time and costs and to increase quality-that almost never create a true learning culture. We outline and illustrate the management principles of TPS that can be applied beyond manufacturing to any technical or service process. It is a true systems approach that effectively integrates people, processes, and technology-one that must be adopted as a continual, comprehensive, and coordinated effort for change and learning across the organization.