History of LEAN

This article modified from the info of website
Start from…1800

Eli Whitney (1799)
While Eli Whitney is most famous as the inventor of the cotton gin. however, the gin was a minor accomplishment compared to his perfection of interchangeable parts. Whitney developed this about 1799 when he took a contract from the U.S. Army for the manufacture of 10,000 muskets at the unbelievably low price of $13.40 each.
Next 100 years, our system of engineering drawings developed, modern machine tools were perfected and large scale processes such as the Bessemer process for making steel held the center of attention.

Frederick W. Taylor (1890's)
Frederick W. Taylor began to look at individual workers and work methods. The result was Time Study and standardized work and he called his ideas Scientific Management. The concept of applying science to management was sound but Taylor simply ignored the behavioral sciences. In addition, he had a peculiar attitude towards factory workers.

Frank Gilbreth (1900's)
Frank Gilbreth added Motion Study and invented Process Charting. Process charts focused attention on all work elements including those non-value added elements which normally occur between the "official" elements.

Lillian Gilbreth (1900's)
Lillian Gilbreth brought psychology into the mix by studying the motivations of workers and how attitudes affected the outcome of a process. There were, of course, many other contributors. These were the people who originated the idea of "eliminating waste", a key tenet of JIT and Lean Manufacturing.

Henry Ford (1910).
Ford and his right-hand-man, Charles E. Sorensen, fashioned the first comprehensive Manufacturing Strategy. They took all the elements of a manufacturing system-- people, machines, tooling, and products-- and arranged them in a continuous system for manufacturing the Model T automobile. Ford was so incredibly successful and put the world on wheels. Ford is considered by many to be the first practitioner of Just In Time and Lean Manufacturing.
Ford's success inspired many others to copy his methods. But most of those who copied did not understand the fundamentals. Ford assembly lines were often employed for products and processes that were unsuitable for them.
Ford production depended on a labor force that was so desperate for money and jobs that workers would sacrifice their dignity and self esteem. The prosperity of the 1920's and the advent of labor unions produced conflict with the Ford system. Product proliferation also put strains on the Ford system. Annual model changes, multiple colors, and options did not fit well in Ford factories.

Alfred P. Sloan (1930's)
At General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan took a more pragmatic approach. He developed business and manufacturing strategies for managing very large enterprises and dealing with variety. By the mid 1930's General Motors had passed Ford in domination of the automotive market.

Taichii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo (1950)
At Toyota Motor Company, Taichii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, began to incorporate Ford production and other techniques into an approach called Toyota Production System or Just In Time . They recognized the central role of inventory.
The Toyota people also recognized that the Ford system had contradictions and shortcomings, particularly with respect to employees. Toyota soon discovered that factory workers had far more to contribute than just muscle power. This discovery probably originated in the Quality Circle movement. Ishikawa, Deming, and Juran all made major contributions to the quality movement. It culminated in team development and cellular manufacturing. Shingo, at Ohno's suggestion, went to work on the setup and changeover problem. Reducing setups to minutes and seconds allowed small batches and an almost continuous flow like the original Ford concept. It introduced a flexibility that Henry Ford thought he did not need.

Norman Bodek (1970's)
Norman Bodek first published the works of Shingo and Ohno in English. He did much to transfer this knowledge and build awareness in the Western world. Robert Hall and Richard Schonberger also wrote popular books. By the 1980's some American manufacturers, such as Omark Industries, General Electric and Kawasaki (Lincoln,Nebraska) were achieving success.

James Womack (1990)
James wrote a book called "The Machine That Changed The World". Womack's book was a straightforward account of the history of automobile manufacturing combined with a study of Japanese, American, and European automotive assembly plants. What was new was a phrase-- "Lean Manufacturing."

To now…2007