Modern Origins of Mass Manufacturing

I picked up a book on the recommendation of fellow bibliophile geek and co-author, Mark Warren. The book is VERY obscure, and it escapes me where Mark stumbled across this little gem. Secrets of Industry, by Lewis C. Ord was first published in 1944. The book, in a nutshell is about the evolution of industry in western societies, with a focus comparing Britain and America. For those of you who have an interest in economics, history, industry and politics, its a little gold mine of information from the perspective of a career industrialist. Not full of anything new, but full of tidbits - many of them recognized by leansters.

I'm trying to figure out how to either republish this or just get it posted online since it is still technically within copyright. In the meantime, here are two chapters that I found interesting: Chapter II - Origin and Principles of Mass Production and Chapter III - Later Developments in Mass Production.

Enjoy! I'm curious to hear your comments about the content in Ord's chapters...

New Online Lean Resource - The Lean Edge

This looks like a fairly new online resource for Leansters. Archives go back to November 2009 so a lot of the content here is fresh. A nice aspect about this site is that you get a lot of the popular Lean authors all in one place: Liker, Smalley, Balle, Spear and many others. Check out The Lean Edge.org.

NEW BOOK! TWI Job Instruction Training

What a great way to start the New Year! Or as Jon Miller likes to call it, an Arbitrary Dividing Line in Time :)

Regardless of the time of the year, it is always the right time to pick up a new skill. As of today Mark Warren of Tesla 2, Inc. and I have released our first book: Job Instruction Training: Participant's Sessions Guide & Implementation Manual

(Click on image to left for ordering information)

We are really excited about this, but what is this all about? The basic idea was this: there are a lot of people out there that are using Job Instruction and other TWI J-skills based on several premises:

1) We know it was used at Toyota after the war, (if it works for them, then we should do it)

2) many have mistakenly pigeonholed JI as Standard Work, (Toyota does Standard Work, so we should at least do this!)

3) and recently, many professionals have billed and marketed TWI as one of the foundation stones of lean.

but...TWI blog readers who have been through the archival material on my sites (and in the past year, have visited Mark's newly acquired archive records) intuitively know there is a lot more to know about TWI than what is currently available in a simple 10 hr training session.

This book is our attempt to fill that void of information between the famous 10 hr session and what might be considered a successful implementation. So, the book is divided into two parts. Part One is the Participant's Guide. Our guide follows the best known practices for a 10 hr Job Instruction Session. This would normally be unremarkable, except our book can be used as a self-study guide with the included answer key and references throughout Part One.

Part Two is in chapter format and expands on the concepts learned in the sessions, but also insists on the requirements for sound implementation. This is the first aim of the book - to provide the reader with the things you should know about Job Instruction before you start, but won't find out even in a 10 hr training session. The reason for this combination of guide, concepts and reference is born from experience and the research Mark and I have done over the past two years.

Who is this book aimed at? In keeping with the spirit of Job Instruction - one can learn by doing. So, anyone can use it. But trainers can use the standardized participants guide that will follow most reputable trainer's guides today. To this end, the book is sold in groups of ten to meet this training need, coupled with discounts of single volume sales to keep session costs down.

We also hope this book will succeed in providing a source for those individuals who are unable to attend a Job Instruction session for logistic, economic or other reasons. These thousands of small business owners and individuals who are limited to self study and implementation are at ease knowing they are practicing at the leading edge of JI training without the expense of travel to a 10 hr sessions. By using the included answer key and then digging into the meaty Part Two, one can dig deeper into the concepts of the J-skills in order to expand their leadership ability.

Ordering information for single volumes can be found by clicking here. Contact me with any questions at the email above! To expand on this, look for a trainer's manual between now and February!

Trainers: Order kits of 10 for your Job Instruction Session by clicking here!

Early Vermont Industrialists and Lean Thoughts

Mark Warren at Tesla2.com and I have been chatting about early Henry Ford works. Mark brought up the name Walter Flanders and this got me to do some more digging. Apparently W. Flanders was one of the heavy hitters behind Ford's machine innovation and plant layouts. Walter Flanders was from Vermont, which peaked my interest even more, since Republican Vermont Senator Ralph Flanders was mentioned in Alan Mogensen's autobiography. Senator Flanders was credited in Mogy's book for killing the legislation that would have banned time and motion study. Can you imagine? Thank you Senator Flanders, for us Leansters would likely not exist today!

Anyway, I haven't made a connection between Walter Flanders and the Senator yet, although I'm pretty sure they are related. Can anybody out there confirm this? Ralph and his brother, Ernest were both known for their pioneering work in setting screw thread standards and creating many innovation in the screw machine industry as they worked for Jones and Lamson in Springfield, VT.

Through my internet research the past couple of nights, I stumbled across a book written by Governor James Hartness, father-in-law to Senator Ralph Flanders and father of Helen Hartness Flanders.

Here is the link to the book, Industrial Progress and Human Economics. It is digitized through the Gutenberg project. You may find it a bit dated. But there are little gems in here that are still relevant today. Given the many references in this book to the concept of specialization and the facts behind how Hartness turned around the ailing Jones and Lamson company through the application of specialization of the flat turret lathe, it is not a stretch to imagine that Hartness was a fan of scientific mangement. However, reading through this book, you get the impression that he saw beyond the narrow focus of scientific management that we know of today - the specialization of tasks and rigid work defined by time and motion study. Hartness clearly was advocating such concepts, but also tried to stretch Vermont industrialists imagination and creativity of what Vermont industry should look like by embracing human economic principles. Some examples that may sound familiar to Leansters:

"There should be no absentee management. The men who manage must be in close touch with the work and the workers—not merely through written or oral reports, but by actual observation."

Sounds like genba management to me!

In order to "Protect the Industrial Spirit," Hartness declared:

"Industries and the workers should be protected from incompetent managers, investigators and impractical theorists.

Industries and the workers go forward by actual work, not on manipulation of stocks, bonds, laws and schemes to wreck or boost for temporary gain of some one interest."

Hartness challenged Vermonters to some simple questions which, in my opinion, require a genba commitment to answer:

"How the individual ability and skill, as well as the group ability and skill is only to be acquired by repetition that establishes habit-action."

"Why repetition of operation is essential to acquisition of skill and special ability."

"Why a plant may be growing in size and paying dividends and may still be dead so far as the spirit of enterprise is concerned."

My favorite part of this book though, is in the "Habit Action, Basis of Skill and Proficiency," section:

"We have many text books on the subject of industrial finance, of engineering, of invention, of industrial management, and all these books are written on the assumption that the human being knows his own kind. A study of our failures seems to reveal, however, that we have misunderstood the human being.

Our fundamental error in understanding our own kind seems to lie in the fact that we fail to recognize that man is a creature of habit to an extent not quite equal to that of the lower animals, but nevertheless to a degree that positively stands in the way of any man who tries to create or manage an industry without giving due value to this one element.

The effect of this characteristic of habit action is so profound that any disturbance in a plant due to changing the position of benches or machinery or changing the character of the work sorely interferes with man's efficiency.

If it is as simple as this, why the need of saying it? The need is brought about by the painful fact that one of the characteristics of habit action is to continue on without change even after the mind has apparently recognized that a change should be made."

"Success comes not from the mere word knowledge of these things, but through action."

This final message from Hartness reminds me of what a plant manager from the Asia Pacific region of our world said to me very recently: "A decision does not make a solution." In other words, just because we say we are doing Lean, doesn't mean we are Lean."

Doesn't this hint at the dichotomy of Lean thinking? How do we challenge the current thinking, practices and theories yet stick to the fundamentals of good management: Respect for People and Continuous Improvement?

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Lean Book Review: Factory Man by James Harbour

Book Title - Factory Man

Author - Jim Harbour with James Higgins

President Obama's pseudo-car czar advisor, Steven Rattner, has quite a task ahead of him. He will serve as a senior advisor under Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the dynamic duo in charge of the auto bailouts. Robin Hood and his band of merry men may determine the fate of GM and Chrysler within the next four years - turnaround or bankruptcy; yet there is zero industry experience between the three of them – only experience in spending taxpayers’ money. There is another, longer lasting and prosperous option: industry needs to adapt to the economic situation and help itself, or die. All parties would be well served to consult with Jim Harbour, the "Factory Man", on this matter.

As Harbour puts it, he has "spent nearly 60 years thinking about the factory floor, and here's how I believe it should be run." We should heed Harbour's advice. The auto industry, media and markets have looked to The Harbour Report for many years as the benchmark study largely responsible for opening the eyes of the Big Three regarding the U.S.-Japanese productivity gap. Now that gap is paper thin in the passenger car segment. The Japanese are not much more productive or in some cases, such as the truck and SUV segment, are less productive than the Big Three. Harbour’s conclusion is that the next step for the Big Three is the need to go beyond productivity gains. This is something the bailout is NOT going to fix, it can only be fixed from within. That means to continue the reorganization efforts started by GM’s Rick Wagoner in the mid-nineties in order to compete with the Japanese as an organization, not just at the assembly line level. It means tough talks with the unions and with politicians. And it also means a reduction of model lines and mass standardization. But do not think this book is a manifesto to fix Detroit’s manufacturing problems. Harbour’s plan goes beyond the auto industry and to the heart of the problem – the demise of manufacturing’s importance in American society, economics and the middle class. Factory Man clearly defines the "common" strawman that ALL of industry, i.e. Americans, can adopt and adapt if we are only willing.

What’s New?

Harbour has a reputation for his no-nonsense, straightforward approach. Incidentally, this may be the first Lean book with expletives. That approach isn't new for Harbour, but for Lean practitioners - this book should serve as the start of growing trend of U.S. born Lean books: a take no prisoners message that drives a stake in the heart of the problem in U.S. manufacturing - 1) lack of respect for people and 2) lack of a basic understanding in how our economy and industry works to create lasting wealth. Harbour uses facts and his experiences to illustrate how we got in the current auto bailout situation - and it isn't a pretty picture. He lays blame at the feet of the senior leadership of the Big Three AND Congress - and if his facts are correct, he is more than justified to do so. There is no good reason to doubt his facts; yet I don't get the impression that he wrote this book to make any new friends. Harbour’s message is born from the bitter experience of watching something he loved dearly, die a slow death.

However, in the spirit of kaizen, Harbour lays out a plan for the rebirth of auto manufacturers - which could be applied to any business strategy in these tough economic times. Here you will find many firsthand examples of how U.S. companies in pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and heavy industry are applying Harbour’s "3C" plan and are winning at it. These stories will sound familiar to lean practitioners involved with transformations, turnarounds and such. However, the big unanswered question is: how to make it last? This is one criticism readers will have of Harbour’s story, yet in this economy how can we expect 90% of industry to grow unless they are somehow affiliated with infrastructure, health care or government? Even the best Lean company in the world is at the mercy of an economic downturn. As of this writing, Toyota reports February 2009 sales are down 37% and are requesting a loan from the Japanese government. The ultimate answer to, “how to build it to last?” of course lies with us, and Harbour surprisingly alludes to this plain fact in a kind and helpful manner, sans expletives.

How many Gold Rivets, Rosie? 5/5

Factory Man is a gift to Americans. If you are in manufacturing, you will find yourself nodding in agreement through many parts of this book - and will want to use its message to inspire the same passion for manufacturing in others. Anyone have any contacts in the Treasury Dep't? I have three copies ready to ship!

Lean Book Review: Lean Hospitals by Mark Graban

Book Title - Lean Hospitals

Author - Mark Graban

Register now for the 2009 TWI Summit and hear Mark Graban speak on TWI in Lean Healthcare!
______________________

Bottom Line

At first, I thought, "this is another Lean Simplified book with hospital words" - lean concept after concept with extensive commentary. This isn't criticism of author Mark Graban, it is what I have come to expect of these days with Lean books. It seems everyone re-publishes the same thing about Lean, except the authors use the "Lean ___insert your industry technical jargon here___," approach.

Here in Lean Hospitals, we have a truly unique experience. I had to read this twice, because I was gliding through this like it was another lexicon remix. This caused me to miss the deeper insight that the author, Mark Graban, artfully inserts in example after example. Once I slowed my pace, Graban very quickly takes you deep into thought provoking examples about the healthcare industry – pushing the reader beyond the common Lean definitions and into the real world. How refreshing! No made up stories in somebody’s garden or garage or a skip-hop-and-a-jump through imaginary utopias; NO – Lean Hospitals is the real world application of lean with all of its successes and many lessons learned.

Jammed full of knowledge, testimonials, how-to examples, pictures and illustrations for anyone wondering how Lean could possibly apply to a hospital environment, this book follows a similar pattern of other well written Lean related books where a concept is presented, explanation of the concept is offered and then a host of examples follow to cement the concept in practical application. The real strength of this book is in unique adaptations of kanban and lean concepts which should give some hospital administrators the confidence to take that first step in an otherwise uncertain Lean journey. Bottom line: order several copies and organize a book/work study group with your staff, working out real problems as you make your way through the book. Hint: take your time.

What’s New?

Mark Graban, who has extensive experience in Lean Healthcare implementations, diplomatically chips away on the mainstream approach to 5S - housekeeping - something I have blogged harshly on for over a year now. He stresses the importance of taking 5S out of the narrow crawlspace of housekeeping and into the infinite world of daily idea generation, involvement and continuous improvement. My only criticism here, if you could call it that, is that we only get a glimpse of this alternate 5S universe for a brief period. My neediness aside, this book is unique; non-Japanese AND goes beyond what we know as 5S conventional lean approaches. Mark shows us how hospitals are adopting lean and adapting to their unique environment, the ultimate lesson we should all learn. This is not only rare but refreshing for those of us that have struggled with the way 5S and Lean was interpreted over twenty five years ago and subsequently (and superficially) taught to thousands over the decades. Kudos Mark, for daring to go there, but on this matter - I was hoping you opted for a surgical grade bonesaw instead of a scalpel!

Mark touches briefly on TWI and in particular Job Instruction while you are knee deep in the Standard Work for Hospitals section. Here Mark draws a clear picture of the need for Job Instruction in order for Standard Work to be useful on a daily basis. I believe that this is the only book I have seen that explains the need in a non-manufacturing setting – again, illustrating how hospitals can and are adopting and adapting lean concepts to a real world environment. This may be a good opportunity for readers to point other Lean/TWI skeptics to a real world example of how JI is an elemental skill for Lean leaders. Even more so, TWI and Lean zealots alike will see how this book is substantial, should be taken seriously, and certainly not a Lean “___insert your industry here___“ book.

In a previous book review of Managing to Learn, I reveal how John Shook presents a new "pull based authority" concept. In Lean Hospitals, Graban shows us how pull based authority is applied across hospital departments – here we get clear insight on the kanban “how-to” and the reasons why we should consider this approach in administrative situations. It is very important and worth every penny for this chapter alone. This and many other sections of the book take complex Lean concepts and present them simply and clearly for anyone at any level in a hospital setting.

How many Gold Rivets, Rosie? 4.5/5

Lean Hospitals is a great book, loaded with how-to and sharp insight that predicts the future of healthcare; those organizations that run business as usual and those that are customer-oriented. The style is straightforward - concepts backed up with know-how, but may require another read to fully grasp the full context. This is because the examples tend to chop up the flow of the concepts and I found myself going back a couple of times to tie it all together. Regardless of my minor observations, keep this fantastic reference handy; I have pulled it off the bookshelf several times already and I work in consumer goods manufacturing, so it should be extremely useful to anyone in a hospital setting.

Update: Lean Book Review: Managing to Learn by John Shook

UPDATE: LINK to purchase Managing to Learn

Book Title - Managing to Learn, Using the A3 management process to solve problems, gain agreement, mentor and lead.

Author - John Shook

Bottom Line

This book is a nice blend of experience, practical how-to and provides a fair amount of “pulling back the curtain” on Toyota’s management and problem solving methods and philosophy. A simple explanation of the A3 process has been long overdue and John Shook delivers it here. Shook and publisher LEI continue the ACME Mfg story that many readers are familiar with. In fact, Shook provides an example A3 that details the fictional ACME Stamping transformation along with several other real-world A3’s from client companies. But the real strength of the book is the “how-to” experience from the perspective of both A3 novice and A3 coach. This book will be a great way for management teams to learn and understand the A3 process together. Bottom line: order a bunch and put together a book study group with your staff, working out real problems.

What’s New?

Shook takes a unique approach in telling the A3 story – from the perspective of fictional users. Readers follow along the learning journey of the two main characters Porter, the novice and Sanderson, the mentor. Some well read Lean zealots may tire of these industrial novellas, but Shook pulls this off with a new twist: the stories are literally side-by-side. So, readers can work their way through the experiences of both novice and mentor simultaneously, on the same page. This is a truly a two-for-one book value!

Shook mercifully reinforces a concept in Lean that doesn’t get nearly the attention it should. Shook describes a “pull based authority” concept at Toyota. Here is a book where you will find that concept in action: Lean concepts such as pull and kanban applied to more than just materials, in this case, management, learning and problem solving. In short, Shook reinvigorates Lean purists with the core underlying philosophy of Lean – pulling at the demand of the customer – applying it to everything we do.

How many Gold Rivets, Rosie?

Managing to Learn is a quick easy read, with loads of examples and a fresh writing style which many readers will be thankful for. I suspect though, a few people may not like the style...but you can’t make everyone happy. Shook offers his personal insight and experience to you in a package which follows a logical order so you can start learning and using today.

Lean Book - Factory Man - Relevant to today's Big Three woes

Jim Harbour, founder of The Harbour Report and auto industry insider is releasing a book in February, published by SME. Members get a discounted price for $26.

I've pre-ordered mine and will share my book review here in February!

Factory Man Press Release

Next week, I hope to have finished Lean Hospitals by my blogging friend Mark Graban, of LeanBlog and will post my review for that here as well.

National Foremen's Institute

Does anyone know whatever happened to the National Foremen's Institute? Perhaps it is obsolete? Perhaps it has changed name over the past half century?

Any ideas?

TWI Bookstore back online!

O.k., I'm finally plowing my way through the final updates of TWI Service. This past weekend I uploaded the TWI Service bookstore.

One thing I really like about the TWIS bookstore is that you have access to thousands of Amazon booksellers - translation: low cost books! I can't stand paying a lot for books, and if you wait a few weeks without jumping on new releases, you can save over 50% on even new books!

Check out the TWI Bookstore for newest lean books: Extreme Toyota and A3 Thinking. Your purchases through the bookstore ensures that the original materials are made available on the web and available to all people industry! Thanks for your support!

Continuous Improvement Booklist

Some of the best insight into Lean Manufacturing is provided by the early pioneers of Industrial Engineering and Scientific Management. Jeff Maling of IBM has a real knack for uncovering some of these gems, like C.E. Knoeppels - Installing Efficiency Methods, where he describes the first pull system: in 1915.

I'm slowly building a list of these references in a Google library. All books are "full view" which typically means they are in the public domain.

If you think Lean is a Japanese culture thing---read these books and think again!

Wastes in Manufacturing - 93 Years Ago

Still plowing through Installing Efficiency Methods, by C.E. Knoeppel. Wish he was around today, he is probably rolling in his grave silently cursing all of us for not taking his words of wisdom to heart. 93 years ago, he wrote this book mostly based on his experience in foundries, hardly a high volume, low variety kind of manufacturing that we all wish we had. Who am I kidding, a lot of us do have that! Yet he identified these 15 wastes in manufacturing. Perhaps in this list, you will recognize a few as our eight wastes identified in Lean Manufacturing and made popular by Taiichi Ohno of TPS fame:

Knoeppel's 15 Wastes - from 1915:

1. Delays - "...mean a loss of money. As most of them can be eliminated, study of their causes is worth while."
2. Rejections - "Rejected work is a waste of the worst kind..."
3. Manufacturing Changes - "machines broken up because of rush order, incomplete designing..."
4. Idle equipment - "the burden...must be absorbed by those that are working...means a loss in production."
   
5. Inefficiency of Management - "...beyond the control of workmen is something that should be closely watched, for so long as it is in evidence maximum results are out of the question."
6. Inefficiency of Workmen - ditto.
7. Changes in operation - "When changes are necesseary in the tasks set before the men, the real reasons should be invesetigated in order to reduce them if possible to a minimum."
8. Purchase failures - "waiting for material purchased is one of the most annoying things to contend with and is a much larger factor in manufacturing than many have any idea of. It means delayed shipments, rush and hustle, loss of business, night and Sunday work, interference with plans made and numerous extra machine changes."
9. Delayed shipments - "The reputation for prompt delivery is the desire of every concern. The aim is therefore to wathc this in an effort to improve the shipping so as to enable the concern to retain the good will of the trade."
10. Faulty Movement of Material - "Managers fail to realize how easy it is to waste money in moving material."
11. Poor arrangement of equipment - "The efficiency of each unit may be high, but when inter-relation is considered, loss due to faulty arrangement is apparent."
12. Complaints - "While many men are unreasonable, the majority do not kick without having something to kick about. Where there is smoke there is fire, and analysis aims to find the fire."
13. Lack of Co-operation - "Success in increasing efficiency is largely dependent upon securing the full co-operation of men and shop management. If there is an absence of this essential, the engineer should know it, and why."
14. Faulty planning - "Anything which interferes with the most efficient planning will cause loss, confusion, and delays. As these are the very things which the engineer must eliminate if his work is to be successful, he will have to find the faults preparatory to elimination."
15. Congestion at machines - "This often holds a shop back and blocks progress. Whether the trouble is lack of equipment or the fault of the shop is something the engineer can only ascertain through analysis."
    

Any parallels here to the eight wastes? Please, leave your comments!

Lean invented in United States

Well, the initial bibliophile convention is over. Tomorrow, the work begins of sharing and learning. Tonight, a number of us at the TWI Summit: Jeff Maling of IBM, John Shook, Jim Huntzinger, etc. poured through the TWI, Inc. materials, namely the Problem Solving Material available here.

The gem of the century, check that, previous century was Installing Efficient Methods by C. E. Knoeppel. Thank you Jeff! This book was published in 1915.

If you do ANYTHING with your professional development this year, do this:

Download the free and publicly available book by Knoeppel here. Read it. You can thank this group later.

The headline: Pull Systems invented in U.S.A.!!

New Book - Lean Hospitals by Mark Graban

Mark Graban of the Leanblog has released a new book available at www.leanhospitalsbook.com I'm ordering mine today, there are many lessons that can be learned by other industries as they face their problems head on. The common theme we all can relate to is continuous improvement and Mark does a great job of leading this effort in the healthcare industry.

Toyota Book - Quest for The Dawn

There are several autobiographies available by the likes of Eiji Toyoda and others who were executives in both mfg and sales. I have about a half dozen on my book shelf at home and find them very useful in understanding the philosophy behind Lean concepts such as JIT, Jidoka for example. They are very insightful, getting into the minds of people like Kiichiro Toyoda. If you can find it, and don’t mind choking on the cost of a rare, softcover book, look up “The Quest for the Dawn.” It is a story about Kiichiro, his father Sachiro and subsequent Toyoda family leaders as they struggle to break into the auto market.

There is some discussion about 100 year plans on NWLEAN.net right now and how the use of such plans is a major advantage for Toyota.

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I don’t recall any mention of a century plan in any of the books as a source of reference regarding 100 year planning. But the reason I’m not sure about this is because the book reads like these people are thinking long, long term. So, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they do, in fact, have a formal 100 year plan. When you start talking about “respect for humanity” and literally believe in that, you start to do some pretty unconventional things.

Toyota Culture Book Review I

I'm reading the new Liker and Hoseus book, Toyota Culture. Essentially this book is about how Toyota has taken the unique human systems (human value stream, if you will) painstakingly developed in Toyota Japan and transferred it into a very different Western culture. In short it requires change. If you are a leader and in particular an HR manager wondering, "how do I fit in with this lean thing?", you need to get your hands on this book. As I poke through this book a number of things jump out at me that scream TWI:

Page 25 - “Perhaps because of the profound influence of Sakichi Toyoda, who believed in contributing to group and society, but was also a brilliant inventor, Toyota seems to stand out in placing a high value on both group and individual achievements.”

Since TWI trainers encourage people to establish and improve their own work standards , it is not surprising to see the perfect fit with Toyota’s philosophy of valuing people and their ideas. The missing element in western society seems to be getting individuals to look past the individual rewards and recognize the benefits to the group. Perhaps we make too much hay out of encouraging the line operator to see the “big picture” and don’t balance the emphasis we make on individual and group benefit when an improvement is made? Perhaps we should take a smaller step, not overwhelm the person and encourage them to see the “medium picture” for her team? This seems to be the general approach that Toyota has taken within the gemba: a team leader, who sees the slightly bigger picture above, is able to paint the picture for the team within the scope of that team’s work. Is this the way Toyota deploys the “top-down, bottom-up” management system? Funneling and filtering the big picture down into meaningful chunks of information for the person doing the work in the gemba?

New Book Release - Toyota Culture by Liker & Hoseus

An excerpt from the McGraw Hill Professional website on the new book release by Liker and Hoseus, Toyota Culture:

Toyota has changed the economic and business landscape, and in The Toyota Way, Jeffrey K. Liker explained that this success was the result of consistently applying four key management principles for organizational excellence-Philosophy, People, Problem Solving, and Process. In Toyota Talent, authors Liker and Meier explained how people are trained to perform their jobs at exceptional levels. Now Liker and coauthor Mike Hoseus delve even deeper to explore how Toyota creates and maintains a culture that sustains consistent growth, innovation, profitability, and mutual prosperity between the company and its employees.

My pre-book review is this: Toyota Talent revealed the 60 year old foundational secret of how people are developed at Toyota using the skill of Job Instruction. If Toyota Culture does the same for the culture and philosophy side, the current Lean world has an important opportunity to step forward, relying less on "tools" to get results and begin to actually start learning about the process.

The Thinking Process

As told in a previous post, I’m reading Managing Minds by Charles Allen, a major influence on the founders of TWI, particularly Job Instruction. In the context of vocational training and industry management, Allen and co-author Harry Tiemann dedicate a chapter to real versus pseudo thinking. Real thinking being a conscious effort and pseudo thinking classified two ways: 1) copying and 2) guessing. Allen and Tiemann explain pseudo thinking classifications through simple illustrations:

Guessing avoids the real thinking process and is no different than say flipping a coin. By guessing, we don’t necessarily consider the facts in a situation.

When we base our decisions on analogy: “it worked for them, so if we do something similar we will come out alright” we substitute copying for real thinking. Guessing and copying sound like gross oversimplifications in explaining the thinking process, but think this through in your own experience: how many series of meetings have you sat through where the final decision was “well, what have we got to lose?” or “it can’t be any worse than we are off now”, or “we don’t know, let’s just try it, we can change it later if we need to.”

The concept of copying something instead of thinking through a problem reminded me of a common occurrence today: “how many companies are literally copying the Toyota Production System?”

Of course sometimes we make a correct guess or get lucky when we copy another tactic or strategy. This leads us to believe that we did think it through properly and made the right decision. The real truth is that we could have made a better decision, or we are ignoring the consequences of the decision (lack thereof) we made. Often the latter is more destructive than we care to admit.

When we change without thinking through the process, we are confusing activity with progress. This is turn breeds discontent among the ranks, people become fatigued with the constant change and vague explanations as they try to adapt; change is difficult to sustain in this way.

Regardless of the consequences, this line of aimless thinking becomes habit. When something becomes habit it completely eliminates all conscious thinking. Any hope to change that persons habit is gone without somehow influencing his thinking, but since habit has replaced conscious thinking, we find little hope. Allen and Tiemann help us out here...

In Job Methods, the first question we ask when analyzing the job is “why”. I found it interesting that Allen and Tiemann conclude their chapter on the thinking process by suggesting that the only effective way to break a habit and instill conscious thinking is to ask the person “why” something must be done that way. This forces the person to answer consciously, not aimlessly which is a hallmark feature of habitual thinking.

I wonder if the founders of TWI found Allen to be influential in Job Methods as much as he was in Job Instruction.

Unconscious Experimentation - The Current State of Training

I'm currently reading Managing Minds, by Charles Allen and Henry Tiemann. Allan wrote the TWI inspiring book, The Instructor, the Man and the Job in the mid-20's. Managing Minds is called a "practical" psychology book and deals not with the direct control of minds, as the title leads one to believe, but rather the indirect control of the mind. Allan and Tiemann argue this is achieved by not knowing "why the mind works in certain ways", but rather by being concerned with "the fact that minds do work in certain ways under certain conditions."

There is much discussion in the book about different forms of instruction. One of the reasons TWI-Job Instruction is so important to many of us in Lean is that we practitioners understand that basic stability comes from standard work, and standard work is borne out of good instruction. One of the questions in JI training is about learning by "trial and error", which good JM trainers want to encourage in controlled environments, but JI trainers abhor since mistakes can develop into bad habits. Allan and Tiemann touch briefly on the problem of allowing trial and error during instruction:

"The experimental method is given the highest educational value because it involves learning by trial and error. It requires initiative, resourcefulness and the use of all the other [instructional] methods. Its high cost practically prevents its frequent use."

What really struck me about this is that lack of good training promotes the experimental methods described. Often, a new hire enters the company, is briefly trained if at all, and then left to their own abilities and resourcefulness. Allan and Tiemann are speaking of controlled, experimental instruction; not unbridled, poorly defined, left unchecked and conducted by trainees on their own. The fact that experimentation is of high cost makes sense: new hires left on their own naturally have more scrap, less production and exhibit a higher potential for injury. Worse, their bad habits developed through unconscious experimentation may or may not be passed onto other new hires. It is no wonder we can't Kaizen on a daily basis in U.S. plants....we have no stability!