Eiji Toyoda on the Roots of TPS (1985, Translated)

A translation of a 1985 Nihon Keizai Shimbun article by Eiji Toyoda titled The Roots of TPS, translated with historical commentary by Art Smalley. Eiji describes Kiichiro Toyoda’s 1937 introduction of flow production and the phrase just-in-time at the Koromo plant, including the thick manual he calls the actual roots of the Toyota Production System. The commentary corrects common origin anecdotes, credits acknowledged outside influences, and closes with a Japanese-language reading list on TPS history.