Feb 26 2018
Re-Translating Lean from Its Origin | Jun Nakamuro | LinkedIn
“The world first became aware of TPS (The Toyota Production System) when Taiichi Ohno published a book about his groundbreaking efforts at Toyota. It was published in Japan in 1978. The Japanese version of his book wasn’t translated into English until 1988. Since ten years had passed, this translation did not fully communicate the nuances of Ohno’s vision. ”
Sourced from LinkedIn
Michel Baudin‘s comments: I have also argued for recovering the nuances of TPS that have been lost in translation, whether these losses are due to incompetence or obfuscation, in the following posts:
- “Wisdom” and “Continuous Improvement” in the Toyota Way
- Does Respect For Humanity Mean The Same As Respect For People?
- “Muda” just means “Unnecessary”
- More musings on “Muda” (Waste)
- Absence of “Value Added” in the TPS literature
- Perspectives on Standard Work
In his article, Nakamuro bemoans the “decades of confusion” caused by our collective failure to translate Taiichi Ohno’s thoughts accurately. According to him, Ohno frequently called different ideas or methods by names that sound identical but are written differently, which strikes me as a poor communication strategy, if your goal actually is to make yourself understood.
The 
Aug 9 2026
Houses of TPS
The “House of TPS,” is popular in the US and Europe as a summary of the Toyota Production System. We trace its origins and review its design and components in a 2007 version from Toyota Europe. Nigel Thurlow posted it on LinkedIn and says he was in the room when his Toyota colleagues drew it. We explore why the Greek temple theme was adopted, and suggest it may have been to make TPS appear less foreign to Americans.
Once stripped of the temple, it is a stack diagram, and we review the content of the boxes from bottom to top. While popular and widely copied in multiple variants by American consultants, the only Houses of TPS I could find in Japanese are translations of Jeffrey Liker’s.
While the House of TPS resonates with Americans, even the version developed within Toyota fails to provide more than a list of keywords, while leaving out key elements. The best it can do is motivate the reader to dig deeper.
Contents
Share this:
Like this:
By Michel Baudin • Management 0 • Tags: House of Lean, House of TPS, Lean, Toyota, Toyota Production System, TPS