Toyota Production System and Modern Society
摘要
This chapter, authored by Nohara, consists of two parts, namely, the study of TPS itself and its influences over society. The former consists of three subparts, documenting the transformationTransformation of production system of FPSFord Production System (FPS) into TPSToyota Production System (TPS), Toyota’s response to workers’ aversion to short-cycle line work and Toyota’s approach towards mitigating differences in conception and execution. The second part provides an overview of the influences of characteristics of TPS over society. The author’s primary concern is that the excellence of TPS probably has substantial influence over the human way of thinking. In other words, as far as the production system itself is concerned, TPSToyota Production System (TPS) or lean production is the crystallisation of modern rationality. However, modernityModernity includes ambivalence. That is to say, if we focus on the production system itself, TPSToyota Production System (TPS) is one of the best examples of modern rationality. But once we widen our perspective and go beyond the production system towards society, we can find the realisation of the danger embedded in modern rationality.