1. Scientific Management Theory: Establish Scientific and Standardized Management Methods

In 1878, Frederick Winslow Taylor, 22, joined Midvale Steel Company as a mechanical worker. At that time, Midvale had already implemented the piece-rate system. The piecework wage system, which could mobilize employees' motivation, has the opposite effect because of some "operations" of managers. After the workers increased the output of workpieces, managers reduced the unit price of piecework. In this way, even for workers with extremely high output, their final salary is not ideal.

This behavior by the managers caused dissatisfaction among the workers, who made a "silent" protest. Soon, managers found that workers' daily number of workpieces fluctuated in a lower range. This phenomenon occurred not only for one worker but all workers in the factory.

After entering the factory, Taylor also found this problem. It turned out that to express their dissatisfaction with the management for lowering the unit price of the workpiece, the workers agreed on some workpieces that could be quickly completed without being fired. At the same time, workers also believed that others would have fewer job opportunities if they worked hard.

In his daily observation, Taylor gradually found that the root of this problem lies in the management model of the factory. Traditional experience management ignores the importance of "people" in work. It can't adapt to an increasingly vitality whole by only inferring from previous experience. Therefore, in the following time, Taylor has spared no effort to promote scientific management theory.

From teacher Chen Chunhua," Taylor proposed that what management should solve is how to obtain the maximum output in a limited time, that is, how to maximize labor productivity."

Although the workers disapproved of the "scientific management" promoted by Taylor, it was Taylor's contribution that made the factory management begin to transition from experience management to scientific management.

2. Large-Scale Production Mode: Thousands of Households Have Cars

Under the influence of scientific management theory, Ford, who founded the third company, summarized the lessons of previous failures, spending a lot of effort studying market demand and paying more attention to maximizing labor productivity. The startup was very successful, with Ford creating low-cost and high-quality A and N cars. After being put into the market, the high sales of these two cars gave Ford great confidence.

To have lower cost, higher return output in a short time, Ford is committed to finding better ways of car production. While observing the slaughterhouse process, Ford was accidentally inspired to build the world's first car assembly line. On this assembly line, Ford began to build T-shaped cars.

Firstly, the assembly process of T-shaped cars is divided into 84 different steps, allowing everyone on the assembly line to specialize in one of them. In this way, after the flow of the whole assembly line is completed, a car will be assembled. The use of the assembly line reduced the assembly time from 12 hours to 90 minutes, and similarly, the retail price of the T model dropped from $850 to $300 in the short term. By the 1920s, Ford cars had taken up 60% of the U. S. market.

Ford's assembly line has achieved great success. This standardized workflow can effectively reduce costs and improve efficiency. It soon became the first choice for mass production in the manufacturing industry.

3. Toyota Production Mode: Pull Production System to Reduce Waste

To save Toyota's production process that was on the verge of collapse, Taiichi Ohno, who was Toyota's vice president at the time, went to the Ford factory to visit Ford's production model. 

After introducing Ford's assembly-line production method and running it for a while. Taiichi Ohno found that although Ford's production is fast and convenient, there will be problems such as excessive inventory and the inability to detect quality in time, resulting in varying degrees of Waste. Then, inspired by the way supermarkets buy goods on demand, Taiichi Ohno decided to create a lean production method that "eliminates waste and improves continuously."

Based on Ford's production model, Taiichi Ohno proposed "Just in Time (JIT)" and decided to control inventory and strive to achieve "zero inventory." The basic idea of JIT is "only when needed, produce the required products according to the required quantity." JIT carries out "backward pull" to drive production through Kanban management, realizes clear and orderly production management, drives value flow, reduces products and inventory, and effectively improves production efficiency.

In addition, Taiichi Ohno put forward corresponding solutions for other problems in the production process of Toyota. After continuous optimization and improvement, it finally found a set of standardized processes suitable for Toyota itself and gradually formed people-oriented, full participation, the pursuit of quality. And it can continue to improve the lean production method in the process.

After 1970, with the change of market environment, the shortcomings of mass production mode represented by the United States were gradually exposed. Toyota's lean production mode began to enter people's vision.

In 1996, Professor Daniel T.Jones of MIT published Lean Thinking, summarizing the new management thinking contained in lean production from a theoretical height and expanding the lean approach to areas outside of manufacturing. Lean production methods are no longer limited to the production field, prompting managers in various fields to rethink the enterprise processes, eliminate waste, and enhance the value.