taiichi-ohno's first TPS experiments: having a single worker operate multiple machines in sequence rather than one worker per machine. This simple change — born of Toyota's postwar labor shortage — contained the seeds of one-piece-flow, multi-process handling, and the cell-based production layouts that characterize TPS. Workers resisted because the textile industry convention was one operator per machine. Ohno persisted, and the multi-machine experiments became the foundation for reorganizing Toyota's machine shop around product flow rather than machine type. Approximate date — Ohno's accounts place this in the late 1940s.