Hersey, P. and Blanchard stated that, "Leadership occurs any time one attempts to influence the behavior of an individual or group, regardless of the reason. . . . Management is a kind of leadership in which the achievement of organizational goals is paramount." It is obvious that management and leadership are not the synonymous.
A clear distinction between management and leadership may nevertheless prove useful. This would allow for a reciprocal relationship between leadership and management, implying that an effective manager should possess leadership skills, and an effective leader should demonstrate management skills. One clear distinction could provide the following definition:
· Management involves power by position. · Leadership involves power by influence.
Warren Bennis drew twelve distinction between two groups as below,
· Managers administer, leaders innovate · Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why · Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people · Managers do things right, leaders do the right things · Managers maintain, leaders develop · Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust · Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective · Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo · Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon · Managers imitate, leaders originate · Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person · Managers copy, leaders show originality
Share this with my friends and hope we can have a deep consideration how we can do better!
At recent moment, I get some information from website for electing the first company which is well implement lean manufacturing. Personally, I am not interesting the result of election because I am so sure that Toyota will be the first one. But, I am so interesting which are the competitive company. Please check the above company names.
To the moment, I was making a presentation for lean committee meeting, so I used the above info to have a culture promotion to all committee member. below is the main point of the presentation,
Including all companies in automotive industry, there are 10 companies related in those 25 companies. It is only 40%.
For the top 10 companies, it is only one company is making automotive. Lean manufacuring is appling in different industries around 60%, although it was started by Toyota. The industries covered such as electronics, food, funiture manufacturing, ...etc. We can find the catholicness of lean concept applied in diverse industries. Nowaday, lean is absolutely not only apply in automotive industry.
What is the main factor for apply lean concept to other industries? Apply lean from lean manufacturing, transforms to Lean management, transforms to Lean product development, transforms to Lean supply chain, transforms to Lean enterprise.
Whatever the stage you are, whatever the industry you are, eventually, we need --- Lean thinking!
"Gemba" is a word from Japanese language [現場] which is meaning of "go to the place, look at the process, talk with people!". There are some explanation as below,
1. Learning model.
Gemba walk is way to build up the learning model liked sensei's apprenticeship. "Sensei" is also a japanese word means "teacher or coach". The subordinates just like the students or apprentices. Sensei should also instill in the students the discipline needed to effectively sustain a lean conversion and have it improve consistently. Sensei has the responsibility of showing the "True North" direction of his students, coach them which is the right direction, when to stop and when to go. Sensei teach by stretching the student's thinking and perceptions through questions that stimulate the student to consider entirely new possibilities. Students might consider questions such as these:
What would you learn if you measured in smaller intervals of time? What is the team leader supposed to be doing in this situation? How could these expectations be made more clear?......etc.
Please remember this is not the concept in conventional, "I say, You do!" Gamba walk is a way of learning model helping you gradually to establish a new, lean way of seeing and thinking.
2. Methodology
The gemba walk should be set up in regularly scheduled basis. The time period must be, long enough to all team to digest the advice and complete the task assignment, short enough to maintain a sense of pace. We always suggest to setup the gemba walk by weekly basis. The team of gemba walk should be firmed with necessary members and should not be changed with no reason. The gemba team should be well informed the schedule, they also need the patience and tolerance for frustration. Sometime, I saw the senior management walking in the workshop without any communication. They just liked a spy to investigate the problem, afterward, they sent a long email to challenge everyone related. And then, everyone was busy in reply his email by explanation. What is benefit to do that? Please remember, the gemba walk must be set up in transparent form. All grading of management should setup their suitable level of gemba walk. The higher of level, the wider to check, the longer of time interval. Offcause, it is no sense of a VP to carry on a gamba walk with technician. They should a relative and suitable member such as the plant manager or general manager.
3. Focal points
As the details of item 1, The leader of gameba walk must have well knowledge in both technical elements lean manufacturing system and lean management system. During the gemba walk, they should lead the team to focus on the below items,
3.1 Process focus, 3.2 Process improvement, 3.3 Leader availability, 3.4 Labor planning, 3.5 Standard works, 3.6 Comunication, 3.7 Workplace organization.
According to the above items, the leader (sensei) should assign the tasks of improvement accordingly. They also has a responsibility to follow up and trace the assigned tasks implementation. It is also a way of leadership discipline.
Finally, we don't to fix everything in one gemba walk. The main purpose of it is going to fine tune the direction of continuous improvement. Make sure that all the subordinates are working in the same goal. at the same time, we control the speed of the improvement. Is that running too fast, so that many improvement can not sustian? Is that running too slow, we ignore the opportunity for further improving? The factor of success for gemba walk, even in overall lean transformation, is PATIENCE.
The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way is a management philosophy used by the Toyota corporation that includes the Toyota Production System. In long term thinking, company is going to have a process for solving problems, to add value to the organization by developing its people, and to recognize that continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning.
The 14 Principles The Toyota Way has been called "a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work". The 14 principles of The Toyota Way are organized in four sections: 1) Long-Term Philosophy, 2) The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results, 3) Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People, and 4) Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning. The principles are set out and briefly described below:
Section I — Long-Term Philosophy
第一部份 - 长期理念
Principle 1 原则一
Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.
甚至损害短期财务目标的前提下，管理决定亦须建基长期理念
Section II — The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results
第二部份 - 正确的流程产生正确的结果
Principle 2 原则二
Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
建立一个连续的流程，以把潜藏的问题带出来。
Principle 3 原则三
Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.
利用拉动系统，以避免过量生产。
Principle 4 原则四
Level out the workload, work like the tortoise, not the hare.
平衡工作量，工作时像乌龟般稳定，不似野免般不稳定。
Principle 5 原则五
Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
建立一个文化去停止补救问题，要令品质第一时间就达标。
Principle 6 原则六
Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
作业及流程的标准化是持续改善及雇员授权的基础。
Principle 7 原则七
Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
利用目视控制使问题无所遁形。
Principle 8 原则八
Use only reliable and thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.
只运用可靠及已经彻底测试的技术为人及流程来服务。
Section III — Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People
第三部份 - 开发人材为组织增值
Principle 9 原则九
Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
将完全明白职责及工作的人开展为领导者，以推行理念及教导其他人。
Principle 10 原则十
Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy.
开发能跟随公司理念的额外之人员及团队。
Principle 11 原则十一
Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
I downloaded and watch the movie during I was visiting QD on business purpose. The mission of the trip was troublesome. Now, I reviewed this post again and it is also trouble in HZ plant. I found that there were very siminlar to the story liked .
In the movie of , we have no way to know who killed the knight finally. When people falled into trouble, the frightfulness of human beings, such as selfishness and falseness, was going to protect their benefit and reputation. Your friend would change to your enemy in no time. Your enemy would become your friend in no time as well. They are all lost in the situation.
As the comment of the moive above, the choice is always in your hands, why we do not solve the problem by facing problem? Why we lie everybody, even ourselves to protect themselves?
This is a excellent movie which was made in 1950, half century before!!! Everytime I watch the movie, I got some new foundings. It is a great movie!
By the way, I lost a good friend and partner. I learned so much from him, my mind set, management thinking, ... were improved. We fixed so many problems and we faced so many problem together as well. No matter what was the result right now, the future is fruitful and successful.
At recent moment, I discussed so much with my colleagues about the vision and mission for the company. As the conclusion, I would like to summarized them for an experiance as below.
Vision: Long term goal of a company. Usually, it is not necesary to quantify but sometime it needs specify a defined target. Vision can be setup in powerful and great image of company but it should not be easy to achieve. It can encourage the employee to move to its direction and let them keep moving. It is very common of company said "To be number one of the world in XXX industrial!!!" or "To be the leader of XXX industrial in XXX area". If the vision was set properly, the departments were not need to set their vision but just go in the same direction according to the company vision.
Key performance index (KPI): Short term goal of company and departments. This is the part of the policy deployment. Part of purposes of policy deployment is defining the quatified performance to measure the result of operation, and is, adjust the direction of working of different departments from different directions to same direction. Therefore, all the KPI in departments must be set according to the company KPI and with specified and quatified standard. KPI is always adjusted by yearly according to the result of year end to keep improving the operation result. Step by step to move to the vision of company. It is a common mistake of many companies that the goal of lean implementation is not related with the company KPI. They are always set the saving amount for lean, and most of the leader in charge of improvement team is just finding a way to calculate the saving. I am sorry that they are only calculating to have saving, not improving the process to have saving. Therefore, we need to setup the goal of lean closely related to company or department KPI to corelate the accuracy of improvement.
Mission: The tasks of the people, department or orgainzation needs to in charge by accountability. They also needed to compactable with KPI and vision of company or departments. If the vision is to be the number one of the world in manufacturing indsutry, what is the mission of the company? earn more money for the boss only? For this, I suggest we should consider in different faces. On the customer side, if the supplier is number 1, they expect they can have better product and service from her supplier. On the employee side, they expect company provide better working environment, offcause, better salary and benfit as well. On the government side, they expect company provide good working opportunities to local area, offcause, more tax receiving as well. Those factors can improve the motivation of company and her all employee. This is sense of mission of anyone!
Please check the mission of Toyota as below,
To operate to become the most Customer Focused and Environmentally friendly automobile company in the country.
To broaden our understanding of our Customers' needs and endeavour to satisfy these needs to achieve maximum of Customer Satisfaction.
To contribute to the Society as a good corporate citizen.
Turn around to lean, a simple question for you, everyone, lean leader ask for (push) improvement of everything such as manufacturing process, material flow, operation flow,...etc. When much saving come out, the members of the kaizen team will start to ask the question for themselves, we can we get? I contribute my effort and intelligence for company, what is the payback? I am sorry to talk about this real situation but I am so sorry it is human being! I always ask the same question to myself as well.
That's why when we look at the books which are talking about lean or toyota production system, the first chapter is always talking about the vision and mission of toyota. Because, it is the first element of success of lean implement, even if, success of anything! One more question, what is your mission in your FAMILY? if you can not achieve your mission, can you have a happy family? That is the same thinking of all! Eventually, may be this is not a complete explanation of policy deployment, but at least I shown you something for them related to lean transformation. Agree?
Here are the content of the video for your reference.
Food is indispensable to our survivalbut today, it is undergoing great change,for example, let's take tempura soba.it's a traditional japanese cuisine.but 80% of the ingredients are now imported.Currently, japan only produces about 40% of the food it consumes.This is the lowest among all major developed nations,This is a result of the significant change in the japanese people's diet.
In the past, they ate more rice, fish, vegetables,so their diet was nutritionally well balanced.but nowadays they consume more meat, fat, and oil.lots of soy and cereal grains are needed to make feed and oil,so they are being imported in large quantities,and such a changed in the diet has disrupted the nutritional balance,giving way to a wide spectrum of health problems,furthermore, although japan imports a lot of food,it also disposes of more edible food than the entire world food aid.The decrease in demand for domestic agricultural produce leads directly to the decline in agricultural productivity.
Currently, japan is tacking issues such as aging farming population and increase in abandoned farmland.What's more, 70% of the land in japan is mountainous.This means that even if all the flat land were used only for farming,it would not be able to produce enough food within its own borders.Japan depends on a very small number of countries for the majority of the food it imports, therefore its food supply base is quite vulnerable.Moreover, the global food landscape is changing drastically.First of all, the global population is growing exponentially, and it is expected to maintain its upward trajectory in the future.Next, there's rapid economic growth in developing countries.The consumption of meat, fat, and oil increased, resulting in greater demand for soy and cereal grains.
We also face energy issues. Today, food or feed crops are being used to develop biofuels.and lastly, we are challenged with various environmental issues.The progression of global warming, climatic anomalies, and exhaustion of ground water are creating tougher farming conditions all around the world.In response to such global change,the food prices are rising sharply.so, what should be done to meet food security needs?first, each and every one of us should start thinking about the global food situation as our own problem and reexamine our lifestyles,for example, going back to the japanese diet involving mainly rice and domestic agricultural produce will lead to a better nutritional balance.and the food industry should provide what consumers seek and label them accordingly.
Moreover, farmers should efficiently use the limited agricultural resources, and offer safe and high quality produce which meet the needs of consumers and the food industry.The increase in the demand for domestic agricultural produce will drive agricultural development and enliven agricultural communities. As a result, our tables will be enriched with agricultural produce growth in our own countries.Japan, as the world's largest new food importer, will engage in all possible efforts to contribute to stabilization of demand and supply of food in the world market through increasing its own food self-sufficiency rate.
After studying and experience of Kaizen project, I will like to make a summary of the understandings of “just in time” concept and it affects the portion in company.
I will divide the JIT (just in time) to two portions in internal and external. We know JIT is closely relative to material flow; therefore, I identified the material flow in or out of company as the external JIT. On the opposite side, the material flow within the company will identify as internal JIT.
External JIT:
Most of company is monitoring this portion very closely. I can also say they are working well for that area. External JIT includes the raw material flowing in to warehouse and the finished goods flowing out to customer or logistic company. Because of the direction of minimize the raw material inventory, we are requesting the supplier to ship the material daily, or hourly. It helps to minimize the space for warehouse and material handling.
On the other hand, we established the system of build-to-order. We only build the finished goods to customer according to their demand and our shipping time. We won’t keep finished goods inventory more than the sales or market demand. It directly relates to our capital investment and most of company can perform a good result in now a day.
Internal JIT:
I would like to say that not many companies can fully understand and performs in proper way for this portion. The internal JIT is relating the material flow from warehouse to production, the first process station to the next station still the end, from the last station back to warehouse. We always ignored the internal customer relationship and the internal JIT needs cooperation between many parties such as material planning, customer service, quality control, warehouse and production. Self-regarding of the department always blocks the way of improvement. Huge amount of idle raw material and WIP abundant in every corner in the factory. Kaizen project merely a beginning but creating a lean culture is an important factor of success.
Summary:
External just in time 1. Flow from supplier to warehouse. 2. Flow from warehouse to customer.
Internal just in time 1. Flow from raw material warehouse to first manufacturing station. 2. Flow from first station to next station still the end of process. 3. Flow from end of process to final inspection. 4. Flow from final inspection to finished goods warehouse.
From lean concept, flow is existing in everywhere of company. 1. Flow of material 2. Flow of people 3. Flow of workstation (layout) 4. Flow of information (invisible flow)
Based on the last blog, just in time is very important factor of material flow. From external JIT to internal JIT back to external JIT again, it forms a continuous flow just like water. We can imagine only one part of JIT was ignored, the turbulent flow will make water flowing out everywhere. To maintain the material in linear flow, we must ensure all the connection between external JIT and internal JIT joint in right position.
When a KPO run a kaizen project to improve the material flow, he should act as a pipe fitter. Identify piping system (overall material flow system), and then he should check which joint is mismatch with wrong pipe. In some case, there are some pipes missed (external or internal JIT), he will get a new pipe (individual flow system) and cut in a suitable size (fine tuning), fit into the overall pipe system.
OK, make sure that water comes out in right place and no leakage!!!
In formula 1 championship, we find an impressive activity in the racing. We saw that there are some mechanics working in pit to replace the tires and fueling for the racing car. The quick, skillful and planned actions always attract our sight. But, actually how can they do that in short time to complete the all complicated mission?
The car is guided into its pit by the 'lollypop man', named for the distinctive shape of the long 'stop/ first gear' sign he holds in front of the car. The car stops in a precise position and, if a tyre change is required, is immediately jacked up front and rear. Three mechanics are involved in changing a wheel, one removing and refitting the nut with a high-speed airgun, one removing the old wheel and one fitting the new one. At the same time two mechanics operate the heavy fuelling rig, which must be precisely slotted into the car before fuelling can start.
How long for the mechanics to complete the mission in average? 7 seconds.
Talk about teamwork for the mission, it including some factors as below, 1. A good organization. Every members has enough capability. 2. Well planning. Every step of action is well planned and scheduled. 3. Well training. Every step of action is needed fully practiced.
In modern industry, we needed good team to complete all activity in company. It is a very important key factor for success to improve the competitive ability. Can you find the good team work in your career?
1. Kick out the crutch. In order to develop as a lean leader you need to leave your comfort zone and it helps if you have something to force you out of that comfort zone. 2. Take on a new role that you are not really prepared for, sign up for a near-impossible challenge or remove whatever security blankets you have around your process. 3. Apply lean to your own work. Between what you learn and what you demonstrate, only by practicing lean on your own work will you become an effective lean leader. 4. You must be a learner first. Lean is about how an organization learns, but organizations are made up of people, so how people learn will drive the success of lean. 5. You must be the first for trial. No matter what was your position before the lean leader, work by yourself and no more order to the other during the kaizen event. 6. Regularly experiment and reflect on your own work. Systematically issue your report to all the peoples and ask for comment. 7. Engage people from where they are and help them move forward to their own idea of progress.
Not to do:
1. Don't stand in a field asking for everyone to join you. 2. Don't ask people to make an impossible leap. Take your knowledge, skill and vision from lean and help the person move forward from where they currently are. 3. Don't ask them to give up their own pursuits to join yours.
At the beginning of January 2008, I have a chance to discuss with some friends for how to select a suitable candidate for lead leader and KPO in company. It was so surprise me that they have already started to implement lean manufacturing or lean enterprise but they still don’t understand a most basic concept of lean.
What was that? “RESPECT TO PEOPLE!”
When the productivity improved and the demand of manpower reduced, it doesn’t mean that we can layoff the worker or any employee. It gave a chance for the company to ramp up its sales amount without any facilities investment or additional manpower demand, in another words, use the same resource to grow up the business. How about if the employees know they will be fired after they improve the output? It is a totally incorrect concept!!!
On the other hand, during the lean manufacturing implement, it is similar to run a project and no doubt we need a strong leader to manage and coach the team to execute the improvement actions. Some guys thought they have budget and can get a “superman” outside to be the lean leader or KPO, afterward, everything will be alright. It also a serious mistake! As a lean leader, who needs to identify the opportunity of improvement in the production floor or company operation system. The most suitable solution is selecting the suitable guy and promotes him/her to be the leader or KPO internally. Off cause it has so many conditions required for the job, but, it is also an attitude of “respect the people”. Any company has room to be improved but it doesn’t mean nobody can improve the situation in the company. May be somebody in the company already has ideas how to improve but they finally understand they have no chance to lead the project. What will they do?
I give you some conditions to select for lead leader or KPO as below, 1. Aggressive for working,
2. Willing to change,
3. Well understand the company operation system or procedures,
4. Well understand the weakness of company,
5. Technical background,
6. Honorable in contribution for company,
7. Well communication skill.
Why we need a technical people to lead the lean transformation? As a technical guy myself, I am not going to promote the people in professional of technical. In lean implementation, we always start the improvement from workshop, especially in manufacturing process improvement. Therefore, we need the technical guy lead the lean in the first stage. Afterward, all the people in the company can find the improvement result easily, in other words, it is one kind of lean culture promotion. That's why I strongly recommend we need a technical guy to lead in the beginning stage.
Actually, I am sure that the suitable person existed in every company and the problem is the senior management is willing to search or not! They respect their employees or not?
We start to talk about this subject by language session first. Autonomation is a special terms in lean manufacturing concepts only.
In Janpanese, autonomation is written in "自働化" or "Jidoka". In Chinese, there is only automation is written in "自動化" In English, automation is meaning automatic motion, autonomation is meaning automatic NO motion.
The concept is operating of the equipment will be stop automatic when its conditions achieved the limited of setting. The conditions can be considered in limit of quality or quantity. It may also be described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with human touch". Due to concept of "process focus", it makes possible the rapid or immediate address, identification and correction of mistakes that occur in a process. It was developed by earlier stage Toyota production system. At that moment, Toyota was developing the textile machine. Without the autonomation, when some wires broken, there was many defect product produced by the machine after final inspection. They came up a idea and improved the machine to detect if one of the wires broken, the textile machine will be stop automatically to prevent producing defect. After many years of implement, Toyota spread the idea to the process of automotive production and autonomation became a important principle of lean manufacturing.
Autonomation is a quality control process used in the TPS which applies the following four principles. 1. Detect the abnormality. 2. Stop. 3. Fix or correct the immediate condition. 4. Investigate the root cause and install a countermeasure.
To detect the abnormality, It is a method of preventing errors by putting limits on how an operation can be performed in order to force the correct completion of the operation, called "POKA YOKE". The earlier stage of TPS, it called in "BAKA YOKE", means "fool-proofing" or "idiot proofing". It is obviously that not respect to people and disobeied the one of spirits of lean manufacturing. Afterward, they changed that to "POKA YOKE" and means "mistake-proofing" or "error-proofing".
TPS recognises three types of Poka-Yoke: 1. The contact method identifies defects by whether or not contact is established between the device and the product. Colour detection and other product property techniques are considered extensions of this. 2. The fixed-value method determines whether a given number of movements have been made. 3. The motion-step method determines whether the prescribed steps or motions of the process have been followed.
This the most important principle concerning quality in lean manufacturing system. It is also suitable for many kind of manufacturing industry!
Yes, I am going to talk about push and pull system again. You do not need to misunderstand that what is the topic I want to talk when you saw the photo shown on the left hand side. I am just using a common sample for supporting my explanation of pull system and it is easiler to let you understand what I say.
Pull system - Kaiten sushi
(回転寿司 かいてんずし )
Kaiten = Rotating
Zushi = Sushi
If you read up on Japanese etiquette, you'll be told that if you want to take somebody out to dinner, don't take them to sushi. It would be like taking somebody to McDonald's. In Japan you can find Kaiten Zushi shops all over the place and often they are open very late. Later than most other food places. Sorry, once again, I am not going to where to eat sushi. Actually, Kaiten sushi is the typical pull system in food industry. I list out some main points as below,
1. People only takes which they want to eat. The cook only put the sushi back to the empty place which taken by customer. This is representative of customer pull. Usually, the different kinds of sushi were put in a special sequence and it is easiler for the cook to find out which kind of sushi was taken so that he can replace the empty dish.
2. The WIP is only stored on the rotary and it would not cause any extra scrap. It is also easiler for them to dig out which kind of sushi is the best selling product, so that the restaurant can better handling the material ordering. Therefore, the material inventory is low.
3. For quality, every dish running on the rotary will not last long and maintains the fresh of sushi. If you observe the handling of kaiten sushi carefully, they can find that the cook only take out the fish from the refrigurator when they needed. The cook prepare the sushi when some dishes are empty.
4. It is more flexible to handling the product. When the cook find out one kind of sushi is more favorable for those customers, the cook can place more dishes of that kind of sushi on the rotary instead of other sushi. If you have visited the Toyota plant before, you can find that the production line of Toyota just similar to the rotary of sushi. Every car on the line is different in model and color.
5. At last, one more point we need to consider. Even in kaiten sushi, there is visual management in place. The corner of bottom left in photo, we can find a board to show the price for different color of dish. The customer can easiler to handle what kind of sushi they want according to the money in their pocket. Very smart!
Buffet dinner - push system
May be I do not need explain here in detail because I think most of the people has buffet before. Restaurant only put much food on the table and let the customers to pick what they wanted. Sometime, you will find that the food has already become cold and degenerative. Some kind of food, which is more favorable of customer, it will be empty in short time and you need to wait for a long time to pick more after the cook refilled of that. Also, you need to pay a fixed amount, usually is not cheap, but no matter how much food you have eaten. The biggest problem is the push system is pushing you eat more and more, because of there is too much food and you want to balance what you paid. It made you eat more and the fat in your body also more and more. It is not lean!!!
May be the explanation above is not detail enough, hope you give me some comment to make it complete. Thank you very much!
Today my good partner Mr. Steed Wei told me a good trope of the phenomena between pull and push system. I would like to share with my reader. In mass production world, push system is using for the processes. The trope is like a long chain of safety pins, fixed one end and push from another end. What will happen? all safety pins pushed and mess together. Every safety pin represented one individual process. If a push system apply on the continuous process, we can find there is so many raw material, WIP all mixed and idle between the process stations. Just like the chain of safety pins mess together and pin cover by another pins. You can not identify the problem in such mess situation. In lean production world, pull system is using for the processes. Just like the safety pins fixed one end and pull from another end. The safety pins will attach and pull in sequence. That's meant all processes are well assigned in order. No raw material and WIP idle between them. The most important thing is we can identify all the problem in every process. Please remember that the important principle of lean manufacturing is PROCESS FOCUS, and that's why we need to apply pull system to show us the problem between or on the processes. On the road from PUSH to PULL, we can find a lot of problems and that is what we want to identify for further improvement. However, the responsible members are always not understand the destination of the system. They always rise so many opposite excuses to go back to the original way of working because they have more buffer in push system. The leader of lean transformation like us needs to well explain the team for what is the expected outcome and encourage them for further improvement. Actually, I faced the same situation right now. Do you have the same problem?
In last month, I just completed my MBA course in HK. The first subject was marketing management. During the lecture, I understood a concept of customer satisfaction and here is the usage in the case of lean manufacturing. In lean concepts, customer satisfaction is also a main factor in overall lean transformation journey. I will explain that as below. When we talking about customer satisfaction, in other words, is talking about 2 E's (Expectation and Experience). If cusomter expection is higher than their experience, they will not satisfy your product or service. In opposite way, if customer's experence is higher than their expectation, they will satisfy and happy with your job. Turn around to lean, for a long time ago, Toyota setup their goal to have the product in high quality, low price and low energy consumed. How come from these goal? They are the demand (expectation) from customer. In the workshop of Toyota, we can find the slogan everywhere that shown "customer first!". If a company always produces the product higher than the customer expectation, we can sure that she is leading the market in her industry. There are two cases for your reference. Welcab is a special type of car designed for handicapped. The price of that car is not high but it made the chance for handicapped people to have the fun of driving. It was not only improving the word-of-mouth for handicapped because Toyota considered the physical hindrances of the handicapped, it also improve the word-of mouth for the normal people even the society due to Toyota has considered the special requirement of people. In 1971, US government tried to put a plan of addtional import tax for Japanese car, although the plan was revoluted eventually, but US government has not return the additional import tax to the companies ontime. But, Toyota has return the tax to her customer by her cost, offcause, it made a serious loss for the company, at that moment, Toyota was only a company which was struggle to survive. For the concept of marketing management, the retention cost 8% to 12% of acquistion cost (retention cost is using for keeping the existing customer, acquistion cost is using to attract new customer), but the action from Toyota earned the customer long term relationship. The another item of success is loyalty of customer satisfaction. From the cases, we should learn that how to manage the customer expectation. Actually, it is not only the concept from lean and it is the tools of any successful companies. If you have any case or ideas, welcome to share with us.
On October 27,2008, I joined a training of "Developing Toyota talent for lean manufacturing" which held by Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC). The training was conducted by David Meier who is the co-author of "The Toyota Way Fieldbook" and "Toyota Talent". I learned some ideas and want to share with you in these several article.
The balance between "width" and "depth" is always the cause of failure for lean transformation. The width is meaning of the concept and knowledge of lean manufacturing applying in the organization. The depth is meaning of the professional level how the employee handling the tools. We always found that some organization spend too much focus on speed of implementation. They setup a list of the Kaizen projects in different target with different lean tools such as standardization, mistake-proofing, 5S, ...etc. They always ignored how important to develop the capacity of the employee. The fact is that organizaion held a set of kaizen in a very short time but the people has no time to digest the knowledge and experiance they got in the projects. Eventually, all the projects are held as schedule but all the projects can not meet the goal they setup, even they missed a big room of improvement. Sometime, they success in one project in a specified area but failed to promote the implementation to the other similar area. Those problems were caused by the organization has not focus on develop the capacity of the people. Or, we can say that the effort spent on the width of implementation not balance with the effort spent on the depth of culture.
The culture of lean is the foundation of lean manufacturing. Without the cutlure supporting, all the action is impotent and weak. The effort spent in kaizen would change back to the original status and hard to sustain. We need to continuously spend effort of promotion of lean, provide suitable training to the leader of kaizen, develop a set of internal professional trainer to continuous spread the lean culture. If the organization has not put enough resource to develop their talent of lean manufacturing, all the actions are just a fireworks. It looks beautiful but disappear in no time.
In Toyota, she does not need her people in higher academic level, she also does not need her people very smart. Toyota just keeps spending her effort to train the employee by Toyota way of concept and management method. This is also the spirit of lean, we called "respect to people". Without those capabile people to support, who were developed by the organization, how can the organization success in lean implementation?
If the organization promoted a long time of lean manufacturing and they reach a level of lean concept but found hard to improve anymore, the improved action hard to sustain or hard to promote the improvement to the other area, they should think about this question and spend more effort to develop their "talent".
At last, I used a quote from Mr. Meier to finsih this article. "People or organization needs to create its owned solution to its owned problem, otherwise, it won't success!" I believed that it is the spirit of lean manufacturing and suitable for all situation.
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About Me
Tony Wong 黃和威
MSN: wongwowai@gmail.com Welcome to anybody who has interesting for lean manufacturing, ready for discussion.
Mission of my blog:
1. Summarize my experience of leading lean transformation. 2. Hope to raise intelligent discussion about implementation of lean manufacturing. 3. Spread lean concept to the others.
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