In Toyota philosophy it is very important to know the facts when making improvements and analysing a situation. This is expressed through the go-and-see philosophy.
Genjitsu:
Japanese for “Reality” used to refer to “the real situation”. Part of the go-and-see philosophy used by Toyota.
I want to share a passion of mine, reading. Over time I will be adding more books that I recommend for other students of Lean.
First out is the classics, The Toyota Way and Lean Thinking. These are the books that really got me going and woke my thirst for more.
If you have any recommendations for me you are free to post below.
Kaizen – Change for better
Kaizen is the Japanese word for “Improvement”. The literal translation is “Change for Better”.
Within Lean is often referred to as Continuous Improvement, even though this is not in the literal translation is implied in its use. Continuous Improvement is one of the two base pillars of Lean, the other being respect for people (or respect for humanity).
The process of Kaizen is built around the philosophy that you should always strive to better yourself or better the processes of your business. Eliminating waste is the main focus of Kaizen and it is beneficial for both the workers and the company. One should always strive to root out waste and make daily improvements. The big improvements may be impressive, but the small improvements add up over time and make a culture of improvement present within all layers of the company. Each time an improvement is made it becomes deeper engrained in the culture of the company.
Exactly how these improvements are made differ through many different tools and methods. In the workplace the method of 5S is common to organize and set in order for an efficient work environment. When it comes to more advanced improvements it is common to work within the framework of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act).
No matter how you go about it you should always document the improvements made, this is important not only for benchmarking but also to learn and fully understand what has been done and why. Also, it is a great help if you are to spread a particular solution to other parts of the business. Due to the documentation some companies refer to form where you document your improvements as Kaizen and they are sometimes divided into different levels depending on the size of the improvement.
Visual feedback system for the plant floor that indicates production status, alerts when assistance is needed, and empowers operators to stop the production process. Literally “Paper Lantern”
An informal process of getting support from coworkers and others before starting a project in order to increase the chances of success.
Toyota Production System. A manufacturing strategy developed by Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan over a period of many years. TPS focuses on the complete elimination of waste from the manufacturing process, and is the progenitor of lean manufacturing.
Stacked bar chart used to balance the workload of different operators/stations in a production line. Sometimes also called Yamazumi board.
When I first came in contact with Lean, I was working at a factory within the automotive industry. I must admit that at first I didn’t get it at all. It seemed to be used only as a tool to downsize and to lower the number of people needed on the production line. This lead me to get a very bad first impression. Also it was not really involving the workers of whom I was one so it was hard to get a grip of what it was all about.
As time went on I started to pick up on things that lead me to think there was something more to this Lean. I decided that I had to learn more, I wanted to know what the reasoning was behind what I saw.
Since I had learned that Lean was originally from Toyota, it seemed that Jeffrey Likers The Toyota Way was a good place to start. The short of it is that I was hooked immediately. The next book was Lean Thinking by Jim Womack. Again, it really opened my eyes to a whole new world. At this point I didn’t really know who any of the famous Lean-thinkers where but as it happens I had picked a good starting point.
Now began the journey to learn from the real world and to get everything I had read in perspective. To be honest this turned out to be very hard. What I had read and what I saw was not really matching up. At first I got confused but soon realized that most people around me knew as little or sometimes even less than I did about Lean.
The first line managers used a lot of expressions in Japanese but I don’t really think they knew fully what was behind them. This was evident it the way it was applied and presented to us on the factory floor. I decided that if I was to become more familiar with Lean and to understand and practice it fully this would be something I needed drive myself.
In the following year I read a lot, listened to podcasts, listened to colleagues and talked Lean. With every conversation and with everything I read I grew as a person and as a Lean thinker. However it was a hard journey, I didn’t really have backing from my manager or my surroundings. The joy of learning and developing skills made it worth every effort and I realized that if my current employer wasn’t going to utilize my newly found knowledge I might have to find someone who did.
This was but the first chapter of my journey to learn about and practice Lean.
