© 2007-2008 Bryan Lund
TWI Service is committed to web standards and continuous improvement
Lean has been popularized in industrial literature and business consulting for one reason: Toyota’s success and the popularity of their business acumen which has evolved over nearly one hundred years. Why is Toyota successful? There are thousands of reasons, but two reasons stand out while most people in lean ignore one of them altogether. One is the concept and systematic application of it's production system. Although the concepts are not new and old as the company itself, Toyota has tediously refined the application of its production system with an eye on perfection, and its success undoubtedly the reason for widespread mimickry. What about how people interact with the system? How is this system monitored, maintained and improved? The system itself is easy to mimic, but the process of refinement or ongoing improvement is entirely another. The hidden factor behind Toyota's success is through the development of its people in order to get business results through ongoing improvement.
This success factor of ongoing continuous improvement or, kaizen, although acknowledged in literature, is largely ignored in the western management practice.
What is it that Toyota values so greatly that we seem to miss in U.S. industry? A hint to this answer lies in how Toyota took a simple observation made by Alan Mogensen in his 1932 work, Common Sense Applied to Motion and Time Study:
"The person doing the job knows more about it than anyone else in the world and is therefore the one person best fitted to improve it."
...and took that to a whole new level.
| Year | No. of Suggestions | Adoption Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 463,422 | 84% |
| 1977 | 454,522 | 84% |
| 1978 | 527,718 | 88% |
| 1979 | 575,861 | 91% |
| 1980 | 859,039 | 94% |
There are some great books on Kaizen Teian, the Japanese phrase for Suggestion or proposal systems. Most compare the Japanese systems to U.S. systems. In these comparisons, it is noted that the success of the Japanese systems is rooted in its notably reverse, or contradictory thinking philosophy when considering suggestions. This reverse thinking can be seen in kanban/pull system principles.
In the U.S. mass production model we push. In the Japanese mass production model we pull. In the U.S., a suggestion is accepted if it is of high value, is rewarded accordingly, and often the responsibility to implement the improvement is assigned to someone else. As a result, adoption rates of U.S. suggestions systems are low, typically under 30%.
Contrast this to 95% adoption rates, small rewards, and notably simple improvements in Japan and one wonders if the U.S. will ever get their act together.
Well, we had it together at one point in time: WWII. There were millions of improvements made in the war that improved safety, saved hundreds of millions of dollars, improved quality and deliveries. This was done through the TWI J program training.
Toyota simply took this training program and turned it into a permanent development program for their people. Will we have the same fortitude to turn our current thinking on its head? I’m sure we can do even better than Toyota if we would only commit to the idea that our job as leaders is to empower people through work simplification and process improvement development.
To gain a better understanding of modern day kaizen, it may be of advantage to learn a bit more about the development and history of TWI.
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TWI Service considers the wartime manuals available at this site within the public domain and free to download and use according to Fair Use and current copyright law.
© 2007-2008 Bryan Lund
TWI Service is committed to web standards and continuous improvement