The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

by Jeffrey K. Liker

As you make Ohno's journey for yourself, and look at your own organization's processes, you will see materials, invoicing, service calls, and prototype parts in R&D (you fill in the blank for your business process) being transformed into something the customer wants. But on closer inspection, they are often being diverted into a pile, someplace where they sit and wait for long periods of time, until they can be moved to the next process or transformation. Certainly, people do not like to be diverted from their journeys and to wait on long lines. Ohno viewed material as having the same degree of impatience. Why? If any large batches of material are produced and then sit and wait to be processed, if service calls are backed up, if R&D is receiving prototype parts they don't have time to test, then this sitting and waiting to move to the next operation becomes waste. This results in both your internal and external customers becoming impatient. This is why TPS starts with the customer, by asking, "What value are we adding from the customer's perspective?" Because the only thing that adds value in any type of process—be it in manufacturing, marketing, or a development process—is the physical or information transformation of that product, service, or activity into something the customer wants.