Toyota is renowned not only as one of the World's greatest manufacturers and for its Toyota Production System (TPS), but also as the company that inspired Lean Production (Lean). However, there is a common assumption that Lean Production and the Toyota Production System are identical. In this research paper we will compare TPS and Lean and will try to answer the question: Are there any differences between TPS and Lean and, if yes, what are they? 

Our approach to comparing TPS and Lean will be based on the 14 Management principles described in Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way. We will briefly describe each TPS principle and then search the Lean literature: books, journal articles, and web-sites to find evidence of whether or not the same principle is present in Lean Production and whether there are any differences in the interpretation of the principle, its scope and depth. It is worth noting that this research paper will focus on one way comparison between TPS and Lean; we will not try to outline topics present in the Lean literature and then identify whether or not they are covered in the TPS literature. 

This research paper is based on the usage of three types of resources: books, articles and organizational web-sites. The books listed in the references section can be generally sub-divided into three groups: the origination of Lean and its connection to Toyota ([1] and [3]), books describing the Lean tools and providing limited guidance on the implementation of Lean ([2], [4], [6] & [8]) and books focused on the successful implementation of Lean and the transition to a Lean enterprise ([5] & [7]). It is interesting to note that K. Suzaki’s book, The New Manufacturing Challenge written in 1987 is a typical book on Lean, but does not use the term "lean", which was first introduced by the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program researcher John Krafcik