Just-In-Time and Kanban
assembly line used to work on a moving conveyor belt, where operators assembled the parts as a function of each step of the subassembly accord- ing to a standard time: the takt time Takt time was a number defined as a function of the available time of daily work divided by the daily demand. With it, it was possible to determine the production time necessary for each vehicle. This num ber was essential to the production subprocesses, such as machining welding, painting, chassis, etc., processes that supplied the parts for the assembly operation, determined their production capacity in terms of human resources, production, productivity, machine capacity, etc Every process was initiated in the final phase of manufacturing, that is, the assembly operation used the necessary parts as a function of the daily production plan and the subprocesses only supplied the amounts used by the assembly operation. There was the rule of the subsequent process to ensure that only the necessary amount used by assembly was supplied; in this case, the assembly operation was responsible for getting the used part, thus deploying the pull system. In this manu facturing process, Kiichiro Toyoda s concept of producing only the nec essary, when necessary, and in the necessary amount (JIT) becomes very noticeable. Obviously, today this concept is widespread in Toyota's whole opera tional chain, from suppliers, dealers, on through to the final customers It is also evident that now the production chain is very clean; any prob lems in the production chain, such as missing parts, broken machines, inefficient processes, etc., could generate a complete stoppage of produc- tion. Therefore, Sakichi Toyoda's concept (Jidoka) of never sending defec tive parts to the subsequent process becomes crucial to JIT production Total Customer Satisfaction My prior idea of customer, working at an American company, was more directed toward the final customer, that is, the one at the last phase of the operational chain, not worrying about how the intermediary processes were being made. Many times, these processes were inefficient; each one was interested only in meeting production targets assigned to him or her and with a huge amount of inventories between the processes that hid the problem and the urgency reaction about solving the problems was not a common practice among employees. I could only understand better the idea of customer total satisfaction working at Toyota.