"From the supermarket we got the idea of viewing the earlier process in a production line as a kind of store. The later process ( customer) goes to the earlier process (supermarket) to acquire the required parts ( commodities) at the time and in the quantity needed. The earlier process immediately produces the quantity just taken (restocking the shelves). We hoped that this would help us approach our just-in-time goal and, in 1953, we actually applied the system in our machine shop at the main plant.

In the 1950s, American-style supermarkets appeared in Japan, bringing the object of our research even closer. And when in America in 1956, I finally fulfilled my desire to visit a supermarket firsthand."

— Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System, English edition of 1988