Standing on the shoulders of giants: production concepts versus production applications. The Hitachi Tool Engineering example

Abstract

This article analyzes the methodologies of Henry Ford, Taiichi Ohno, and Eliyahu Goldratt and presents explicitly the four principles of flow management according to these operations management philosophies. The differences among them are related to different instances of the same principles in different environments: Ford in his industry focusing on mass production of few (or one) products, Ohno at Toyota with the Toyota production System (TPS), and Goldratt in a wide range of production environments. The concepts are illustrated and tested in a practical case of implementation in the Hitachi Tool Engineering company. Here, we have the classic case of an unlikely successful attempt to implement a methodology (Lean), and how the Theory of Constraints (TOC) solved this issue. Finally, the limits for the solution proposed by Goldratt for operations management (DBR) are described.