Comments on: Remembering NUMMI: Gipsie Ranney

By: Health Care. (united health care, universal health care) » Blog Archive » Of Course Inventories are Swelling in Long, Slow Supply Chains

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:10:56 +0000

[...] “control” systems are only as good as the data that’s fed into them. I recently read a great blog post where Toyota commented: The person asked what kind of computerized inventory system they had at [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:25:16 +0000

Brian -
Toyota has very sophisticated computer systems. Every car has a configuration (carried by its VIN) and the specific parts associated with it. Their systems know which parts are installed at each position on the line. But – and this an important distinction – those systems do not operate on the same models are traditional MRP do. They may look like it, but they work differently.

Go back to Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System and look at the rule for connections: Discrete request, specified response. Their information systems reflect this model. Also look at the chapter on information systems in The Toyota Way. An information system is a countermeasure – something that is used to solve a specific problem, vs. “This will solve all of our problems” or worse a general attitude that “sophisticated computer systems are good.”

By: Brian Dail

Brian Dail — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:31:59 +0000

Great article. Mark, can you expand on how Toyota maintains their inventory systems? Specifically, how have they removed the need to rely on computers to track material and what have they done to replace the BOM?

By: Bernard Mériaux

Bernard Mériaux — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:51:14 +0000

Good observations much more related to the management philosophy in place in Toyota than to the TPS tools themselves.
One Toyota top manager even said in the past: “TPS stands also for Thinking Production System”
Bernard