30 years later, Honda evolves – The Detroit News

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This article discusses the “renowned lean manufacturing and ‘just-in-time’ production techniques of the Japanese manufacturers,” a wording that implies that all Japanese manufacturers use variants of the Toyota Production System (TPS). It is not the case, and it is particularly not true of Honda.

Honda is good at manufacturing, but uses methods developed in-house, based on the founder’s philosophy of self-reliance.Soichiro Honda was known for telling engineers: “Don’t try to find out what the other guy is doing, just solve your own problem!” He also got the company involved in racing early on so as to infuse the “racing spirit” in everything it did. The Honda Way isn’t just a rebranding of TPS or Lean, as so many companies’ “Production Systems” are; it is an original, autonomous development. The white uniform in the picture is part of it. Its purpose is to make stains stand out, so that their sources are identified and removed from production.

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