to “create” a system. While the system is based on TPS, there are modifications in
language, the imagery (e.g., Ford used a five-interlocking gear model), and per-
haps certain policies to fit the company. Considerable time is spent on the precise
language and image. There is broad circulation of the documents andPowerPoint
presentations to get agreement from senior management.
Varying degrees of standard operating procedures are put together. A lean
assessment is created. The company realizes the current measurement system
rewards mass production behavior, so it develops “lean” metrics such as lead-
time, first-time quality capability, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Worker morale is determined by conducting a survey. At Ford, key metrics were
developed for each gear.
“Rolling out” the new production system (sometimes called “operating sys-
tem”) is a process of education and training: education on basic lean concepts
and training on specific details of the operating system. For example, Ford
needed a several-day course on using the new lean metrics since every plant in
the world was required to begin tracking the new metrics and reporting them.
The focus is on one production system standardized for all the plants. This is
the way Toyota operates, and it’s a good vision. It allows for easy sharing of best
practices.
There are many good things that come from the effort to develop and spread
a common operating system. It begins to give the organization a distinctive
identity and a way to identify with its own tailored operating system. It pro-
vides a common language for communicating about progress. The lean metrics
can help promote stability and flow instead of overproduction.
So what can be wrong with such an obviously good thing? The main issue
is whether the cart is being put in front of the horse. The Toyota Way is based
on action and learning by doing. The built-in belief is that people do not truly
understand until they experience lean as a system. Otherwise, it’s just an abstrac-
tion, which you may grasp with your head but not your gut. If you grasp it with
your head, it’s easy to intellectualize it. Basically you have three problems:
- How can you create your production system if you do not truly understand
lean? - Since this is often a consensus process, even if a few individuals have a
good understanding of lean, others may not. - Developing an operating system is attractive to those with a bureaucratic
mentality who love developing metrics, planning training, and envisioning
the organization of the future but are eager to avoid real action.
All this amounts to a slow and expensive process of talking and developing
PowerPoint presentations and teaching and talking some more. You learn lean
by doing, not by talking. Or as our friend and former Toyota V.P. Russ Scafade
puts it: “You can not PowerPoint your way to lean.”
Chapter 19. Lean Implementation Strategies and Tactics 409