One can calculate the labor cost, but the benefits of smaller batch size are more
elusive. In fact, if one could calculate the benefits of each change piece by piece, we
wouldn’t be talking about lean as a system. Therefore, lean systems are a matter of
philosophy, though on the surface it seems to be a straightforward technical issue.
Chapter 2. Define Your Company Purpose and Begin to Live It 21TRAP
Viewing Lean Systems as Piecemeal Technical Projects
The tools of lean can be very powerful. For example, many com-
panies have done one-week kaizen workshops and found they
can save space, improve productivity, and get better quality all in
one fell swoop—great stuff! Some companies even calculate
return on investment at the end of each workshop. Unfortunately,
to get a true lean system requires a connected value stream that
goes beyond what is typically done in individual kaizen work-
shops. And some of the returns on investment are more elusive.
Do not attempt to develop a lean system by justifying every
improvement piecemeal. You will find the low hanging fruit but
you won’t get a sustainable system that continues to drive out
waste, leaving a lot of money on the table.Learning Community
Within many parts of Toyota, TPS is referred to as the “Thinking Production
System.” When Taiichi Ohno started connecting operations to eliminate the
waste in and between the operations, he made a startling discovery. When
processes are connected, problems become immediately visible and people
have to think or the processes shut down. Once the discovery was made, it was
no longer accidental. The real power of lean systems, Ohno found, is that they
bring problems to the surface and force people to think.
But this has a limited impact on the company unless what individuals learn
is shared with others. Reinvention is its own waste. Thus, investments must be
made in learning systems in order to capture the knowledge gained in trying out
countermeasures, so this knowledge can be used again. And learning creates a
new standard and a new plateau to build on for further learning.
Building a learning communitymeans having individuals with the capacity
to learn. This is the basic starting point. Beyond this, a community suggests
belonging, and individuals cannot belong if they are short-term labor to be fired
at will as soon as there is an economic downturn. Belonging to a community
suggests reciprocity: a commitment by the individual to the community, and a
commitment by the community to the individual.