51.1 INTRODUCTION

Lean manufacturing is a system whose techniques aim to significantly eliminate waste in the manufacturing process. Japan had learned management and improvement techniques/methods such as industrial engineering (IE) and quality control (QC) from Europe and America. Those methods were further developed in Japan and resulted in the technique known throughout the world as KAIZEN. During this movement, Toyota developed their own unique methods in manufacturing. The concept was completely different from the mass production method (represented by Ford s T-type). In Ford, they produced one type of automobile as a batch. That s why it is referred to as mass production. However, Toyota started to produce automobiles one by one when it was actually needed. Moreover, suppliers started to produce parts only when they were needed (producing to actual demand). In contrast to the push production used by almost all other manufacturers, Toyota s concept was referred to as pull production. Moreover, they tended to expose problems by reducing inventory for materials, work-in-process, and then solved those remaining problems thoroughly. Lean manufacturing is a name applied to these ideas and methods. Toyota used its own term, Toyota Production System (TPS), instead of using lean manufacturing.

Producing products without waste and providing them to customers is one of the essential functions in manufacturing companies. In the current economic situation, many manufacturers in North America have moved/have been moving to Mexico and to China. Therefore, manufacturers especially in North America...