The design and digital world  involves lots of digital product development efforts, and plenty of methods were tried out. Some were better than others, but lean stood out as one of the best methods.  However, if we dig into it, we find out that the Lean method has been inspired by the one and only Toyota Product Development methodology, which has connected all the dots through the lens of automotive product development, and paved the way for new revolutionary breakthroughs in countless other industries. 

When you think of efficiency and reliability in the automotive world, one of the first thoughts is Toyota. With core principle values like Jidoka and JiT (we will get into these later) they are industry leaders in durability and quality. Toyota product development and their 5-step process proved to be useful problem-solving and can be applied to various industries. 

How Toyota Integrates Product Development?

Working as a team is a key feature for success, so to integrate their product development Toyota implements a collaborative approach where engineers, suppliers, and cross-functional teams work together to get the ultimate quality product.

What else, you ask? They rely on two more things:

• Set-based concurrent engineering. This sounds complicated, but what it really means is that big decisions are delayed until everything is taken into consideration. In the article published on Research Gate on this topic, it is explained like this:

‘…what we call ‘set-based concurrent engineering’ (SBCE) begins by broadly considering sets of possible solutions and gradually narrowing the set of possibilities to converge on a final solution.’

Due to this framework, Toyota new product development process usually takes longer in the beginning but starts to detangle as additional information is gained from each phase and input. 

• Lean principles. What makes Toyota special is their awareness of the environment around them. For this reason, they have Muda (無駄, waste), Mura (斑, unevenness), and Muri (無理, overburden), as their lean principles. It resolves around identifying and eliminating excess in the process, so for example:

Overproduction – Avoiding unnecessary designs or excessive prototypes.

Overprocessing – Avoiding excessive engineering iterations without adding value.

Excess inventory – Minimizing unfinished projects and unnecessary piling of ideas.

The two pillars of TPS -Toyota Product System

TPS is based on two pillars as their starting point, they are called Jidoka and Just-in-Time. What I like about these pillars is that one sounds traditional and ancient , probably due to the Japanese name, and the other one modern and minimalist. However both of these express advanced and innovative production concepts.

Jidoka or in the language you understand, “automation with a human touch.” This means machines and equipment are designed to detect problems and stop automatically. Operators can also stop the process manually if needed. This helps prevent defective products from moving forward and improves quality by identifying and fixing issues early. Since machines stop on their own when a problem occurs, workers don’t have to constantly monitor them, reducing the need for extra labor and saving time.

Just-in-Time. As the base of both of these pillars is Kaizen, the continuing need for improvement. It is Japanese business philosophy that encourages incremental growth at all levels which leads to designing and producing better products and satisfied employees.

Who developed the toyota production system?

The key figure behind Toyota Production System (TPS) is Taiichi Ohno. Let’s start with his point of view through this quote: 

“The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think‘.” 

With this way of thinking, it is no surprise that Toyota became one of the giants of the lean manufacturing world. He was born in 1912 in Dalian, China, which was under Japanese control at the time. He later moved to Japan, where he studied mechanical engineering. His career at Toyota began in the 1930s, where he worked his way up and eventually developed the Toyota Production System (TPS).

Employee training – The “Ohno Circle” 

Ohno had a specific way of training employees. He would draw a circle on the factory floor and tell a worker or manager to stand inside it for hours—just observing. What was the goal? He wanted for them to see flaws in the workflow before being allowed to suggest improvements.

This method forced people to improve their problem-solving and analytical skills, even though they probably didn’t enjoy it. For more insight about the Ohno way of management you can check out the book ‘Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management’ which might give you some advice about business and management.

Final word

Toyota’s product development is like a well-oiled machine, with their principles and pillars showing us, structure and boldness is needed to succeed. Taiichi Ohno didn’t just build cars; he built a mindset – one that says, “Work smarter, not harder (but maybe stand in a circle for a while first).”

Whether you’re running a factory, a startup, or just trying to be more efficient in life, Toyota’s approach proves that small improvements lead to big results. Also keep in mind that perhaps something you do today that doesn’t seem important could come as a surprise in the process later on.