THE CONTINUOS IMPROVEMENT SYSTEMS AND THE WASTE: the continuation of TAYLOR’S work

Abstract

After Taylor and Ford’s approaches, the Japanese industry, with its main

leading exponent Toyota, showed that it is possible to have a greater

level of fl exibility and productivity through its principles of “just in time,

versatility of labor, any inventory, continuous fl ow production and continuous

improvement. Diversity of concepts, proposals and even philosophies have

arisen from the original ideas of Taiichi Ohno and his associates, however,

when they are going to be implemented in a organization its key essence is

lost.

The purpose of this paper, result of a review of the literature on continuous

improvement systems, is to show how different approaches developed

around the Toyota Production System interact. At the same time to emphasize

in their common and decisive points to consider in its implementation.

For this task, it has to be turned to original concepts of the leading authors

such as Taiichi Ohno, Masaaki Imai, Hiroyuki Hirano, Shigeo Shingo,

James Womack and Daniel Jones. All of them known such as gurus in the

fi eld of continuous improvement. Thus, this article contributes to a holistic

understanding on continuous improvement systems implementation.

As a conclusion, besides the wasting considered the focus of attention of

different approaches, there is also a general interest in engaging staff in

improvement programs through the change of habits, permanent staff

training in the improvement fundamentals and techniques, leaving behind

the vicious circle that links continuous improvement with a condition of

lacking work, and fi nally motivate a change of mind, create a climate of

trust before starting to implement a continuous improvement program.

In this sense, the management processes and the learning of employees

working in harmony are two aspects that lead an organization to improve in

both: productivity as competitiveness.