The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry by Womack James P. & Jones Daniel T

Author:Womack, James P. & Jones, Daniel T. [Womack, James P.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2007-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

7

DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS

We’ve now walked through the steps in the motor-vehicle production process—the factory, research and product development, and components supply. In each of these areas, we found a large gap between the methods and results of mass production and those of lean production. The last stop in our journey takes us to the real reason for these production efforts: the consumer. We take a look at how the production system knows what the customer wants and how he or she goes about buying and maintaining an automobile. We also examine how the manufacturer goes about delivering the car to the customer.

Why didn’t we begin our odyssey with the link between the customer and the production system? This might seem the logical place to start in understanding any market-driven manufacturing process. Here’s the reason: Throughout this volume, we’ve examined each step of the production process by beginning with the perspective of mass production. And, as we’ve shown in earlier chapters, the success of mass production has been so geared to the needs of the manufacturing and design processes that the customer has tended to come last. So that’s the sequence we’ve followed as well.

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