In a rebuttal to John Seddon‘s latest paper, An Exploration into the Failure of Lean, Bob Emiliani asserts that the original purpose of TPS was to reduce cost. He quotes both Taiichi Ohno and Yasuhiro Monden saying so, and chides Seddon for not reading their works carefully enough. In the context of these documents, however, I think the quotes are misleading. Neither Ohno’s and Monden’s books, nor any other Japanese publication about manufacturing systems that I have seen, contain a discussion of what costs actually are.
Jul 13 2015
Is Cost Reduction the Goal of TPS?
In a rebuttal to John Seddon‘s latest paper, An Exploration into the Failure of Lean, Bob Emiliani asserts that the original purpose of TPS was to reduce cost. He quotes both Taiichi Ohno and Yasuhiro Monden saying so, and chides Seddon for not reading their works carefully enough. In the context of these documents, however, I think the quotes are misleading. Neither Ohno’s and Monden’s books, nor any other Japanese publication about manufacturing systems that I have seen, contain a discussion of what costs actually are.
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By Michel Baudin • Policies • 12 • Tags: Emiliani, Lean, Management accounting, Seddon, Toyota, TPS