In our experience it’s easy to get executives to see the benefits of lean and
even get enthusiastic about it. But the difference between success and failure is
the difference between head nodding and verbal support from the top and get-
ting real action from the top. One dictionary defines “commitment” as devotion
or dedication to a cause. Lean is a cause. A leader needs a vision of a lean learn-
ing enterprise and then the dedication to move toward that vision. Even in the
face of opposition, the leader must press ahead and be unwavering in support.
If the leader wavers, then subordinates will certainly waver. And if the leader
turns every lean step into a cost-benefit analysis of whether it’s worth doing,
that will be seen as wavering.
A committed leader must provide the resources to keep things moving.
This includes top-notch people to work on lean, financial support, and account-
ability for delivering results. It must be clear that this is important to the com-
pany and participation is not optional. It must be clear that the Process Owner
in Figure 20-1 is responsible for success and will be held accountable. This goes
both ways. The Process Owner needs to be accountable upward, and the Sponsor,
as the diagram shows, must reward and encourage the Process Owner for hard
work and results. This suggests that the Sponsor must know what’s going on—
not in the bureaucratic sense, but in the Toyota Way sense of genchi genbutsu.
The sponsor must go and see to truly understand the status of the improve-
ments.
432 THETOYOTAWAYFIELDBOOK
TIP
Schedule Regular Reviews of Progress on the Floor
Unfortunately, top leaders get into a pattern of e-mail, meetings,
and travel, and walking the floor to see firsthand lean progress is
at the bottom of their priority list. Fujio Cho (quoted in The Toyota
Way) describes getting Americans to seriously use the andon sys-
tem by personally going to the floor every day to encourage them
when he was president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing in
Kentucky. This is a serious commitment and requires the execu-
tives to know enough to understand what they are seeing. There
should be a regularly scheduled walk-through of the facility... or
multiple facilities. There should be visual indicators of progress in
the lean projects, and general metrics so it’s clear when walking
into the area how the projects are doing. A checklist for the execu-
tives, noting what to look for in their go and see walks, would be
a good addition, at least at first. And these visits should be seri-
ously scheduled and moved to the top of the list of priorities.