Lean Frontiers: Are they differences in getting middle management on board from getting executive management support?
Are there differences in getting middle management from executive management on board for 1) developing the lean enterprise and 2) direct engagement on their part? What are the differences, if any?
Posted on May 9, 2015
Archives by Tag 'Sammy'
I agree and think that there may be subtle differences (or similarities)
between visual control and visual management.
But the second question on floor management development system and its role,
can be better explained by what Toyota calls the 4 phases of FMDS.
Visual Management is the entirety of phase 3: Visualization of abnormalities
and target problem solving. The official name for phase 3 is just “Visual
Management”. This is the only phase with laser sharp focus, and straight
and to the point title.
The other phases sound a bit more superficial in their description: ...
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I think the answer to this short question will be a very long list of items
to do or to stop doing.
But at the same time, I believe we should be very cautious to make such a
list past item #1.
Item #1 in my view would be to perform a diligent genba assessment, finding
then the causes and the root causes for the current situation.
Only after item #1 has been concluded, we can continue the list. Perhaps
the immediate next items will include raising awareness, or creating a
burning platform, or bringing in a lean sensei (or psychologist or coach or
etc.).
Having said that, assuming ...
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I think Toyota had some pressing reasons to make Kaizen part of their culture. But I can’t think of any one more evident than the elimination of waste itself.
Perhaps that was what compelled Toyota into making Kaizen, a culture. It is a shared value and belief. It is everyone’s expectation. Kaizen every day, everywhere, by everyone.
At Toyota Japan they call it Kaizen Teian, which is impossible to properly translate into English. Teian can be interpreted as a proposal that has been already implemented, it is done. (in English, ‘proposal’ always means something for ...
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I am not sure what is just semantics when we differentiate a consultant from
a sensei. Is consultant a title and sensei a role? Is that a matter of
posture? In Japanese, sensei means simply professor.
I strongly believe that a sensei can be a consultant and perhaps vice versa.
In fact, some of my Toyota senseis became consultants after they retired.
Now, how good a consultant were they?
Some Toyota senseis who were very respected in Toyota and even had direct
learning from Mr. Ohno, became very poor consultants according to their
clients ("according to their clients" is the key piece of information ...
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As CEO of my company I have a grasp of lean and have experienced it in my career, but now that I'm CEO, I find it difficult to ask my people to make time for improvement work. They’re already completely busy doing their regular work. Moreover, this company is in the outdoor sports industry, and many people join these companies because they want time to climb, backpack, canoe, etc., and I'm reluctant to ask them to work more hours and sacrifice time for these activities. Any advice?
Hi Edgers,
I believe an improvement in the true lean context is continuous (as opposed
to ...
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By Samuel Obara,
- Last updated: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 |
The question on "how to start with lean" allows for a wide range of answers
and perspectives, probably most or all of them correct. Without more
background information, I guess a safe answer would be to find a good
sensei. An easier question would have been how not to start with lean.
Perhaps understanding that could be as helpful.
Top places I believe you should never start:
1) learning how to use the "lean tools". They may all have their benefits
and merits, but once we learn how to use them, we run the risk of using
where they are not needed. ...
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Core competencies and problem solving capabilities as Jeff and Steve
mentioned seem to be good indications that there are multiple reasons why
Toyota would insource or outsource.
I frequently had to do insourcing/outsourcing/nationalization of parts and
components. That included feasibility studies on components ranging from
wire harness to stamped/machined parts to roofing, etc, etc.. In some
cases, the studies would point out that Toyota would need to hire more
people rather than using the existing capacity. In other cases we learned
the floor layout wouldn't allow adequate placing of the oven needed to cure
the glue for the roof trimming. There were also ...
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It sounds like you already have introduced lean to a great extent and that you were satisfied with what you did (otherwise you wouldn't be seeking ways to sustain). Your challenge is specifically in the sustainability of what you did in a decentralized organization that you have.
Besides being decentralized, you may want to consider some other factors that typically make sustainability tougher: Size, larger organizations just seem to have a tougher time sustaining lean company wide (of course there are exceptions). Employee turnover, organizations with high turnover and temporary labor seem to have more difficulties ...
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As a resource, I would suggest the book Getting the Right Things Done, by
Pascal Dennis, or the Hoshin articles by Darril Wilburn.
A common theme on those resources indicates that there is one tricky and
sometimes difficult to accomplish element of Hoshin Kanri. And that is
the early step of bringing all the "liars" to the room (at the same time).
Even when that is possible, the job is far from done.
I recently facilitated a smaller scale PDCA (Hoshin is a PDCA in larger
scale in my view) with the executive team of a multi billion dollar
company. Although that same team ...
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The same way we have different ways to handle manufacturing scenarios: slow or high mix, low or high volume, custom or standard products, etc, etc… I think there are some distinctions when we talk about office environments. There are those transactional standard procedures with limited variations, such as the one a postal service clerk would have at the counter. There are those that can require a lot more decision making and unpredictable resources, perhaps as in mortgage banking. There are those of knowledge creation, which may seem one of the most difficult ...
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old question but very current,
A friend of mine, ex-Geek Squad, told me BestBuy created an incentive
bonus to those store people who sold the highest number of gift cards that
month. Gift card sales indeed went up that month, I'm not sure revenues
did, though. He said he and his friends sold their gift cards by easily
convincing customers to pay for their already planned purchases using a
gift card. It worked like this: They would get customers' payments for
say a laptop (cash, charge or cheque), buy the gift card with that money,
pay for the purchase with that card, and get bonus points ...
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Great topic. As to how widespread Ringi is in Toyota, I think most people in Toyota would be well familiar with this practice as it is used in all areas, from production to sales to IT. In Toyota they refer to it as Ringi Sho, which is roughly translated to Approval Document. But as some other Japanese or Toyota terminologies, this one should not be just roughly translated. It brings a much deeper concept which makes it fair to use the Japanese terminology.
Ringi as used by Toyota, ensures that resources will be allocated ...
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Interesting notes from different perspectives.
The little I know about sales and its TPS practice comes from joint efforts when they were teamed up with us, production engineering, in my old days at Toyota.
1) They did genchi genbutsu to its full extent. A few examples: Once, we went w/ sales people to the port of Santos in Brazil to follow up cars arriving from TMC to be sold in the Mercosur market. Also, when in Japan, their first several weeks on the job included selling cars door to door. Another example when I ...
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Ensuring a constant focus on lean efforts seems to be a current interest in many organizations.
I believe that constant focus has always been a reward for constant inspection. As manager Doug Jennings from NUMMI used to say, you get what you inspect, not what you expect.
It would be very difficult if not impossible to keep the focus and momentum along the lean journey, if you don’t have a structure of constant follow up. Some of the existing metrics/indicators in your organization, provided that they are correct, will have to be inspected daily, weekly, monthly or with the frequency that is ...
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Maybe the core question ends up being: whose role is it to improve?
The question seems too simple now:
When we say we are improving specifically the "standards", and if by that we
mean improving standardized work and its three documents, then very often
that is done by a team as small as 2 people, the team member and his
supervisor (or many times a process engineer), who can document, do time
taking, record steps on paper, etc.
On an extended definition, I think that in most cases, when we say we are
improving standards, it is implied that there has been an improvement in the
process first, so ...
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I'm not sure we are not doing anything about it. But perhaps what we are
doing is not working. Perhaps the PDCA element is missing.
As people say, the problems of today are all solutions from yesterday.
One example is the home ownership catastrophe. Smart people created several
avenues to allow millions of people to buy their own home. Home ownership
was solved for people who otherwise would never afford to buy those
much-more-than-I-can-afford-mansions. Those smart people were celebrated by
the home buyers, builders, banks, and even the US government. The great
solution for home ownership almost became the great depression of the
century.
Perhaps it is not that we ...
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I think the ability to influence other people and the skills needed to do so
would be somewhat similar to both types of leaders, provided they are both
good leaders.
Perhaps a distinguishing trait between the two leaders can be perceived by
observing how they interact with their followers. While the lean leader
will frequently challenge their followers beliefs and paradigms, the good
traditional one will put a lot of weight in the praise and motivation.
Maybe implicit in the lean leader's approach is the opportunity to learn and
develop the thinking. A good leader will show the way, a lean leader will
have the follower find it.
In the ...
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Sandrine Olivencia