When
Taiichi Ohno
, the architect of the
Toyota Production System (TPS)
, first developed the system, he hesitated to document it, fearing that people would focus only on the tools and techniques rather than the underlying philosophy. Eventually, he described TPS as a
house
-a system where every element supports the others. Remove any support, and the roof, along with everything connected to it, will collapse. One of Ohno's students argued that the system should have been called the
"Thinking Production System"
instead, because its true purpose is to
encourage people to think, learn, and continuously improve
. In TPS,
people are the most important component
, and their thinking drives the system's success.