These posts are dedicated to Japan's favorite car company, Toyota. But we aren't here to talk cars - instead we are going to examine the method of doing business developed by Toyota, lovingly referred to as "Lean". For the first entry, I will be summarizing an article called Lean Primer written by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde, which can be downloaded from the Lean Primer website.
The term "Lean Production" was coined by MIT researchers, and the intention is to contrast the idea of "Mass Production". Often confused for reduction of waste, the true focus of Lean is to "watch the baton, not the runner". In other words, companies should be concerned about product quality, not the actions of the employees. Often in the west, we are more concerned with employee activity, and I'm sure you've had a manager that hated the idea of you not having anything to do.
There's more to it than baton-watching, though. Really, Lean is a way of thinking, with an emphasis on respect for the customer. The customer could be the person purchasing your product, but it can also be a supplier or the next person on the assembly line. When you respect the customer and do your best to make their experience as simple and hassle-free as possible, you will find problems and endeavor to fix them. That leads to continuous improvement, and all the other processes associated with Lean. The goal is that, when you respect your customer, all of the 'reduction in waste' and 'challenge everything' comes from a desire to make life excellent for your customer.
Unfortunately, there are some misconceptions about what Lean is. Some have tried to take pieces of Lean and implement them without the overall culture shift that is at the heart of Lean. For example, the Management Tools associated with Lean, or overall waste reduction. While these are a part of lean, they do not encompass all of Lean. Without changing the mindset to respect others and empowering your employees to improve the processes all around them, you are not truly using a Lean methodology. Lean is really a a mental shift, both in how to treat your customers and employees, and any improvements or processes are born from this shift, rather than for the sake of a better process.
The respect for people is shown in the continuous learning of it's employees. Each employee is trained in the Lean way of thinking and how to spot waste and issues to report them, and all of this is taught by the managers. Rather than sitting behind a desk and passing down verdicts, managers are expected to go see the issues for themselves. The saying that particularly struck me was "My manager can do my job better than me". I wonder how many American employees can say that about their current managers?
Another major term associated with Lean is Kaizen (改善), the relentless focus on continuous improvement. The improvement is for the customer, but goes beyond that - it is improvement just for the sake of improvement. Stated another way: the relentless pursuit of perfection.
Of course, there's much more to Lean than what can be outlined here. Hopefully, this overview gave you a good idea of what Lean is all about. In the next post, I will give you my thoughts on the article. Stay tuned!
