Thousands of companies in the United States have been exposed to what has come to be termed world class manufacturing, and more recently lean manufacturing. This has been achieved through a practice referred to as kaizen or just-in-time manufacturing (JIT). Those who have some knowledge of kaizen and JIT understand they are not mutually exclusive processes and were, in fact, designed to complement each other.

Kaizen is a Japanese term which loosely translated means continuous improvement. The practice of kaizen involves accepting that absolutely no process is perfect, including those in the office areas. Kaizen enthusiasts contend there is always room for improvement, even though it may be very minor. But therein lies the power of the process making small, continuous improvements that add up, over time, to a solid competitive advantage.

An oversimplified definition of JIT is an approach hinging on doing things in a manner that provides materials and components just when they are needed but only after they have been called for, or pulled by the next operation performing work. JIT also entails one-piece flow and takt time which are integrated with a leveling method of production scheduling. (We will be discussing these concepts in more depth later.) These concepts are in stark contrast with conventional batch manufacturing where material is pushed onto each process.

Throughout the book I will be interchangeably using the terms JIT, Toyota Production System (TPS), lean manufacturing, world class manufacturing, and globally competitive manufacturing when referring to production systems. The production system I've developed...