Employee Involvement and → Empowerment – organizing workers by forming teams and giving them training and responsibility to do many specialized tasks, for housekeeping, quality inspection, minor equipment repair and rework; allowing also them time to meet to discuss → problems and find ways to improve the process

Reduced Setup Cost and Times (for semi-versatile machinery such as big stamping presses) – from months to hours thus making small-lot production economically viable; achieved by organizing procedures, using carts, and training workers to do their own setups,

Small-Lot Production – allowing higher → flexibility and pull production (or just-in-time manufacturing)

Quality at the Source – → total quality management (TQM) and control; assigning workers, not inspectors, the responsibility to discover a defect and to immediately fix it; if the defect cannot be readily fixed, any worker can halt the entire line by pulling a cord (called jidoka)

Pull Production, or Just-In-Time (JIT) – the method wherein the quantity of work performed at each stage of the process is dictated solely by the demand for materials from the immediate next stage; thus reducing waste and lead times, and eliminating inventory holding costs  >>>

Continuous Equipment Maintenance – as pull production reduces inventories, equipment breakdowns must also be reduced; thus empowered operators are assigned primary responsibility for basic maintenance since they are in the best position do detect signs of malfunction

Multi- Skilled Workforce – as employees are empowered to do many jobs, they must be provided with adequate training

Supplier Involvement – the manufacturer treats its supplier as a long-term partners; they often must be trained in ways to reduce setup times, inventories, defects, machine breakdowns, etc. in order to enable them to take responsibility for delivering the best possible parts/services to the manufacturer in a timely manner.