I just finished reading the book Workplace Management from Taiichi Ohno. It has been suggested that his book is not something to read as an introduction to Toyota Production System, or Lean, but something to gain more insights once you have learned some. I think generally this might be correct, but there are such good lessons within this book that I would recommend anyone to pick it up and read it. If there are things you are unsure about, then use that curiosity to discover and learn on your own. That is one of the biggest lessons of this book, the learning must become your own, and so you must do something.
If there was one image within this book that sums up the underlying theme, it would be this one. Look at the two perpendicular lines on the left. Ask, "which of these is longer?" You may say that the vertical line is longer, but that would be a misconception. When you rotate these to be parallel with each other, we find that they are in fact the same size! Throughout this book Ohno describes all the misconceptions that he and Toyota worked through during his tenure working there. A lot of these misconceptions are hard to break, and Ohno found himself right in the middle of it all. In fact, instead of calling the way of management he practiced The Toyota Production System, they had, for quite some time, called it The Ohno System. If this system were to fail, we would all know who's system it was. Ohno took full responsibility for this, and until others could fully understand and learn it, it would not become the "Toyota Production System."
Ohno starts his discussion with two sayings from Analects of Confucius: "The wise will mend their ways" and "The wise man should not hesitate to correct themselves." As you think about these two things, you begin to realize the influence these two teaching have on the ways of "Gemba management." Kaizen itself is born from the idea that we must constantly strive for better, so if the previous way was not perfect, then we shall continue to mend our ways until we reach perfection (which admittedly is a never ending process). This leads to the first major misconception of management. Traditionally, management is in the role of making the "right" decisions for all to follow. This may not be just management, but also occurs within engineering as well. For some reason, in our minds, we believe we have the right way of doing things, and if everyone were just to follow that we would be fine. However, we must break that misconception. We must adopt the sense that not everything that we think of is the right way, and in fact could be the complete opposite. Working with people, we must admit our own failures and try the ideas of others. There is a strength in humility, and this first way of thinking is the foundation of the way of thinking in the Toyota Production System.
Ohno describes how misconceptions reduce efficiencies. He tells of a story where he speaks with an operator. He asks "how long does it take to make the hole?" to which the operator responded "30 seconds." Ohno replied, "so you can make 2 holes in a minute, 120 holes in an hour." The operator made 80 in a day. Ohno goes on to describe the misconception that because we are in motion that we are working. It is quite dangerous to believe that moving about and building up a sweat is working. He describes that this misconception can lead to overproduction as well. Since we must continue moving, we make more and more parts. We only need 80 parts, yet if we have extra time, why not make 100?
Another misconception plays right off of this thought. There are a couple conceptions that he breaks, first is with the idea of profit. There are 3 ways to describe profit.
Profit = Price - Cost
Price - Cost = Profit
Price = Cost + Profit
In the last equation, we set the price based on some set profit we seek to make. If the cost to make the item were $100 and we want 20% profit, then the price becomes $120. This does not consider the price the Customer is willing to pay, and over time we may price ourselves out of a market. The first equation is closer to correct, our profits are a function of the price the Customer is willing to pay minus whatever cost it takes to create that product or service. While closer to correct, Ohno says that this equation can lead us astray as well. We may focus on only those "high value" items that provide the largest profit. We drop those lower value items, and we ignore large swaths of Customers in the process. Instead, he focuses on the middle equation. There is something our Customers want, so we produce it at the lowest cost possible. This ties to the previous misconception. Often we allow cost accounting to drive decision making. By making 100 parts in a shift we see the cost per piece has gone down! Wonderful! We saved money! However no one has bought the extra parts, we only had orders for 80, we have spent more than we needed and now we spend more to hold those items in inventory, we spend more moving them about. Motion is not work. While the goal is cost reduction, we must not blindly reduce costs, we must see the bigger picture and from there do kaizen.
Another misconception Ohno recognizes is that of management that are not at Gemba. From outside Gemba we may imagine we know what is happening, but in reality we have no idea. I have a story of this of my own. In one site we have been working with, two managers argued about the process flow we had on the floor. They spent nearly 10 minutes arguing the steps together. We asked "what could we do to resolve this?" For months we have been using the idea of "Go to Gemba" and leading others to see at the Gemba. The managers said "well we can go see right now." And so we walked to where the work was and watched. We talked with the employees to understand what was happening. It turns out, both managers were wrong! We didn't really know what was happening at all! We allowed ourselves to be deceived by our own thoughts, and did not find facts first hand at the Gemba. It is very powerful to have a "Gemba management" style, not just for the learning that occurs, but also for the culture.
Ohno breaks down the misconception that management must always be in competition with labor. In fact, by practicing Gemba management, we form stronger bonds and relationships between management and labor. He describes how he would teach his supervisors to just go out and help workers. Do this over and over again and people will want you to be there. He said of Gemba Walks that it should take you hours to go 100 meters because of how many people want you to come over to where they are working. He also talks about how this method ought to go outside the production floor and into administrative areas. He tells of a story of a secretary who was not doing anything, and when he looked over in her direction, she went straight to work doing something. He didn't know what she was doing, and only looked over to say hello. She was in motion creating some report, but was it due right now? As it turns out, we often ignore all the motion that occurs in the office environment. We create many things to "stay busy" to feel as though we are producing something. In fact, we are just in motion, not working at all! We must also treat our administrative tasks in the same way. Motion does not equal work.
Just in Time had been misunderstood when it was introduced in the United States. At Toyota, they created a lot of pressure on their suppliers to deliver material at a specific time. If an operation needed it at 1 pm, then the truck ought to arrive at 11 am. They recognized that by delivering things at exactly 1 pm, there is a chance that we would run out of product, so it is better to be "only a little bit" early - 9 am is too early! The way that some understand "Just in Time" in English is to be "exactly at" a specific moment. We need to understand then that Toyota is not thinking of "exactly when I need it" but "just about when I need it."
There is so much more learning in this book, but I wish to cover just one more idea that has been in my mind as well. Standard work often is described by people as "the way we must do things" or can be heard when people quote Ohno saying "without standards there can be no kaizen." I think there is a misconception here as well. Standard work, as described in Ohno's own words, is the work that is actually happening right now. He says that it is important to allow people to try different ways of doing things, if it is better than the current way, it is called kaizen, and if it is worse it is called kaiaku, or change for the worse (not be to confused with kaikaku which is large change). We must not allow standards to be instructions "that were made" but instead become the standard "that you made." Each and every person has a responsibility to make things better, and so each and every person must define the standard work. If they try what a supervisor suggests and they find it turned out worse, they learn together and do something else. This is a key relationship to build as part of Gemba management, such that no one is thinking that it is not their role to make change for better. This admittedly is a difficult thing if, as a manager, you think it is only your responsibility to tell others what and how to do things.
I have found reading this book useful for my own growth in how I can help others learn. In essence we must form ways to get out of classrooms and into the Gemba. We must create constantly learning at the Gemba, for that is the only place where value is created for the Customer. We will find that much of our administrative tasks are nothing but motion, wasted effort. Calculating cost and forming ideas to reduce costs from the office makes no sense when we have so many misconceptions away from the Gemba.
I'll leave with a short anecdote. It is the summer now, and there are heat waves across the nation. As part of the business we have a lot of employees who work outside in the heat. As an effort across the company we have made it a point to keep heat safety in the forefront of everyone's minds. From an office somewhere, a few messages were pushed to all employees who work outside "Dress in layers so when it gets hot you can remove layers as needed," "The most serious illness is heat stroke. Be aware of the signs," and "Drink small amounts frequently; one cup every 20 minutes." From the office these messages seem as though they are helping, but what good does dressing layers do when at 9 am it is already in the 90s? What are the signs of heat stroke and in what ways are we making the process better to avoid the causes? Where do I store over a gallon of water and how do I keep this water cool? At the Gemba we can learn that the vehicles have no air conditioning, we can learn that we can make adjustments to operations so we are outside a few hours earlier outside of the hottest times of day, we can learn of many ideas people have to help stay cool in an environment where it is quite difficult to do so. Yet there is a misconception that these messages help solve the problem of heat related illness, when in fact we continue to destroy the relationships between management and labor. We must become wise and mend our own ways, and not hesitate to correct ourselves. If we have not yet gone to Gemba, then the time is right now.