← TPS & Toyota
TPS versus Lean and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Art Smalley · Art of Lean article circa 2009
An essay by Art Smalley contrasting a Toyota engine plant in West Virginia with typical North American lean transformations. The plant has no value stream maps, change agents, or U-shaped cells, yet delivers award-winning performance. The article argues TPS is about profit, cost consciousness, and problem solving rather than tool deployment, explains the origin of value stream mapping as Toyota’s material and information flow analysis, and stresses supervisor development through TWI.