Such contact with knowledgeable employees allows for another opportunity for information transfer. Toyota s president, Shoichiro Toyoda, states that waste is anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts, space, and worker s time, which are absolutely essential to add value to the product. 7 Waste management links all aspects of the JIT process. Overproduction - involves excessive use of manufacturing resources. Waiting time requires space, adds no value.
Inventory causes idle resources, hides quality problems and production inefficiencies.
Processing waste makes unnecessary production steps, scrap. Product defects requires rework costs and possible sales loss due to customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, the concept of Kaizen, continuous improvement, was put into the process as well. For almost a decade, Toyota and its suppliers were alone in the use of the Toyota Production System. By the late 1970 s, other Japanese automobile manufacturers began to take Toyota s ideas and put them to practical use.