Taiichi Ohno

Ohno was a Toyota production engineer, not a chief executive, and from the late 1940s to the 1970s he developed most of what became the Toyota Production System on the factory floor: just-in-time supply using kanban cards, stopping the line to fix problems, and relentless cutting of waste. It became the basis of lean manufacturing worldwide. He rose to executive vice-president, but his real legacy is the method.