Focus on Minimum Resources / Maximum Profit - Customer expectations for repeat sales. Understand and”LIVE” by FORD Motor Co’s Mission, Values and Guiding Principles Values People - Products - Profits (people should be the most important resource in any Co) Guiding Principles Quality comes first, Customers are the focus of everything we do, Continuous improvement is. . . . essential to our success, Employee involvement is our way of life, Dealers and suppliers are our partners, Integrity is never compromised. M.V.&GP. Statements always focus on External and Internal human elements External elements - To customers, to community, to suppliers. Internal elements - Management of people. It’s the internal elements values which are implicit in promoting true empowerment and therefore quality of the product and service throughout the Co. Managers should know and lead by the Co’s documented philosophy on how their business is / should be run. Managers must set examples and behave in a manner which reflects the Co’s values and guiding principles. People are a Co’s most valuable asset involve, them in understanding the change process required and exactly what is expected from them. Managers have to learn to value their people (recognising their individuality and capabilities). Typically 80% of Co initiatives fail due to - No backing of Snr Management Team - Mgt not realise the need for them to change the way they manage - Mgt not realise the level of their commitment required to demonstrate the change.
4 key differences to Management’s way of carrying out part of their job in an environment where Lean principles are applied, such as Toyota compared with a typical traditional Western approach where there is less trust and the Co survives from one crisis to the next. Process focus instead of just being results focused Leading by example and why its so important to create confidence and trust. Go and see approach to managing problems and situations. Looking for the Abnormal understanding Standards.
Results only focused Management will Force Results (push in one direction) this has an effect on other elements, putting pressure on people, requiring more people to do the work, develops a fear culture. Overlook Standards priorities apply standards are forgotten and so destroyed. People will not follow consistently temporary standards which change and appear to be on a management's whim. New Initiatives are introduced and are prioritised to manage the latest problems, they are soon forgotten when the next initiative is brought in, workers soon lose confidence since there is no stability in what is expected of them. Dictated Deployment is the only way the management think they can manage since they feel they are the only ones who can control the way the business is run. Controlling Role is the only way the management can handle the problems, they believe they must cover their backs for fear of someone discovering how they affected the results and the consequence on other elements. Short term Results since they are dependent on the priorities at the time(typically a Co will accept a % of defects as a normal part of business). Priorities move from productivity to quality to labour to various costs dependant on direction. No Confidence at all levels of the Co, the shop floor just do what they are told, supervisors and managers are fearful of trying anything new since a mistake could mean a threat to their career (it is a culture of no change is good and mistakes are a symptom of lack of effort). The organisation tends to be inflexible in its operations and workforce and incapable of developing a Continuous Improvement attitude for fear of the effects, although the Snr management will be constantly pushing themselves to identify ways to achieve the required results and then driving others, often unreasonably to go and get those results by whatever means.
A balanced approach is absolutely necessary for maintaining consistent results. Pushing results in one direction alone will have a consequential effect on the other process elements. Consider all process elements equally means looking at problems within the process in order to keep the balance, therefore improving the process, not just managing it to attain a result. Always look at the Potential for the process Potential for a Mistake or Error --------Quality - Safety - Breakdown - Human effect. ( WASTE ) Potential for Improvement ------------- Efficiency - Cost ( WASTE elimination). Identifying and removing the Waste from a process does not have a detrimental effect on the controlling elements of the process. Looking at the process capability means considering e.g. Effort required for the process Quality Check frequency Type of Quality check Value of Quality check Consequence of defects and multiple defects on the process, lines and customers Once you fully understand the process and its varied consequences you can the address its potential.
Typically to go from an organisation where only results are the focus, where people feel they have to cover their backs for fear of blame and generally few take responsibility for improvements without being pushed, then you would expect to spend up to 75% of the time to change the culture over, in discussion, debate and negotiation with the workforce. Time spent communicating and planning is crucial to the success of any major Co change such as lean manufacturing. The management must demonstrate clear new ways of managing the workplaces and processes. Empowering people is about developing trust and confidence, Toyota follows a typical business management approach of the 7S’s. Strategy - long and short term. } Structures - responsibilities, functions and locations } HARD S’s Systems - operation methods } The hard S’s are highly structured and tend to reflect managers strengths, we can all analyse, conceptualise, plan, develop systems and critical paths to make things happen. However it’s the soft S’s which relate to people their actions and their roles that if managed correctly encourage initiative, creative thinking, flexibility and the desire to continually improve things. Staff - a Co’s most valuable resource? } Skills - to enable development of an individual } SOFT S’s Style - managers and leaders styles } Shared values - forward thinking preventative culture } geared to continuous improvement }
Stay in Touch Constant communication and encouragement demonstrates the importance of peoples involvement in a continuous improvement environment. Being in touch means understanding peoples issues and difficulties which means everyone really can look at the process without apportioning blame. Follow Principles Be encouraged and confident about the principles and standards (they are the foundation of the organisations operation), be prepared to fight and confirm the benefits and purpose of these principles - people respect someone who is true to standards and principled beliefs. Be adventurous and challenge the old way (change has to be demonstrated through change) demonstrate new ways of working through visible actions, be prepared to get it wrong, We learn more from making mistakes than ever we learn from getting it right (improvements come from knowledge). Be Honest means being true to your principles, be prepared to be self critical everyone makes mistakes, the more we admit them the more people trust our integrity especially when we support them to understand and prevent the mistake happening again. We all know in our hearts when we are not following our principles, Discipline is the key. Everyone watches everyone else and most people are boss watchers - they watch what the boss does and says, if the boss is not honest, not self critical, with no vision or forget principles when the going is tough then people lose confidence in the boss’s credibility. People will only model themselves on what they see, so the boss with integrity and honesty spreads those characteristics which over time develops a trusting culture focused on continuous improvement. Leadership is about emotion - The people who lead the Co have to understand the impact of their presence, actions and behaviour on others, it must be the guiding principle in everything they do. Decisions even unpopular ones when they are backed up by fact and true principles cannot be argued against.
Go and See means compare the actual with what is assumed, this can only be done out of an office. Speak with data and actual facts not emotions, opinions or feelings Good accurate data and facts enable good judgements, competent decisions and accurate planning Measurables data, graphs and charts serve 3 purposes - to see the improvement on yesterday - to prioritise issues - to effectively plan for tomorrow Measurables should not be used just as plant, area, line or product comparisons - it becomes divisive and results focused Go and see means - you have to communicate - you learn - you coach others - people see the importance of your attention and commitment towards continuous improvement. Stand and watch with your eyes open, see, ask and understand everything,, then you can really understand the process and its potential Many of Toyota’s process layouts are designed with visual management capability from only 1 or 2 locations on a line Promote a do it culture (small steps learning constantly) Practice welcoming problems as opportunities to improve existing methods and systems If you walk the same path every day you will see the same things but a different picture, its how you interpret that picture and how deep you analyse the abnormal and all its factors which enable you to really kaizen the process
Constant monitoring means you see changes regularly which helps you to understand the processes and to look for the potential. Encourage others to look for and highlight the non standard, coach others to recognise the benefits of standards to help highlight problems. Its important to make standards clear. Non standard could be a mistake - look at the process - why did it happen? - encourage everyone to look deeply into the process, what is the gap? What idea’s can make the process capable? Taiichi Ohno said - Make your workplace into a showcase so that anyone could look and completely understand the status of the process in terms of performance, operation and quality Creating Standards which are clear and easy to understand are vital towards developing an organised operation, it is measuring against these standards that will show abnormalities allowing investigation and analysis of the process for improvements and raising the standards level. Visual Factory and Quality Process System are key tools in developing clear standards for everyone to understand and interpret the abnormal Once the abnormal is identified it must be logged and understood in order that an immediate countermeasure can be implemented, followed by an investigation into the root cause to confirm or improve the countermeasure Quick countermeasures mean the standard and problem is important, attention may seem trivial at this time, you are trying to change a culture - you need to let everyone know that your actions are different from before.
Taiichi Ohno (Toyota mentor for JIT and Toyota’s Production System) said; Quality and Improving Processes is about thinking both - Why something is done? - Why is it done that way? Then thinking differently (sometimes radically) to improve it! Organisations must use the skills of the workforce to help initiate the improvements, that way there are thousands driving the improvements rather than just a few engineers or managers. This means they need support, encouragement and most of all trust and confidence. Introducing a change to Lean Manufacturing is about attitude - Not just spending money - Not just about changing the shopfloor - Not just about changing the management It is engineered over time through developing and creating effective human relations throughout the workplace.