Lean production, Toyota Production System and Kaizen philosophy

TLDR

This literature‑based study, one of the first to compare Lean/TPS and Kaizen principles with Japanese Zen philosophy, acknowledges that findings depend on the available literature and authors’ expertise. The paper aims to compare TPS, Toyota Way, and Kaizen principles with Zen Buddhist principles and broaden the debate on lessons to prevent Lean implementation failures. The authors conducted a systematic review and content analysis of Taiichi Ohno’s book, Toyota Way texts, Kaizen papers, and Zen philosophy literature, then compared the derived principles. The analysis revealed numerous theoretical parallels and practical lessons—such as Jidoka, just‑in‑time, waste elimination, challenge, Kaizen, Genchi Genbutsu, respect for people, and teamwork—that can help practitioners avoid Lean failures.

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare principles from the original Toyota Production System (TPS), the Toyota Way 2001 and Kaizen philosophy with principles derived from Japanese Zen Buddhism. The paper would also like to enlarge the debate concerning some lessons learnt from Japanese culture in order to avoid Lean implementation failures. Design/methodology/approach The original English version of Taiichi Ohno’s book dedicated to the TPS, the Toyota Way 2001 and other relevant papers regarding Kaizen were reviewed and analyzed. The principles that emerged from the review of this literature were then compared with similar philosophical principles from Japanese Soto Zen Buddhism. The literature concerning Zen philosophy was methodically analyzed and categorized using the content analysis. Findings The results of this research show many theoretical parallelisms as well as lessons for practitioners, in particular referring to principles such as Jidoka , just-in-time, waste identification and elimination, challenge, Kaizen, Genchi Genbutsu , respect for people and teamwork. Research limitations/implications Analysis and results are mainly based on the literature that was found, reviewed and categorized, along with the knowledge of authors on Zen philosophy. Results could differ depending on the literature reviewed and categorized. Practical implications The results of this research bring food for thought to practitioners in terms of lessons learnt from Japanese culture, Toyota principles and management style in order to avoid Lean implementation failures. Originality/value This is one of the first papers which compares Lean-TPS and Kaizen principles with the Zen philosophy to try to learn lessons for succeeding in Lean implementation.