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Just as many firms copied Ford techniques in slavish
and unthinking ways, many firms copy Toyota's
techniques in slavish and unthinking ways and
with poor results. Our series of articles on implementation
includes a "Mental Model" to assist
the thinking process and guidance on strategy
and planning.
There is no cookbook for manufacturing. Each firm
has its own unique set of products, processes,
people, and history. While certain principles
may be immutable, their application is not. Manufacturing
Strategy will always be a difficult, uncertain,
and individual process. Strategy ("The General's
Art") is still, largely, an art. But, that
should not prevent us from bringing the available
science to bear on the problem.
At the end of World War II, Sakichi Toyoda, founder
of Toyoda Spinning and Weaving company, dreamed
of providing cars for the general public, much
like Henry Ford’s dream thirty years earlier.
He chartered Taiichi Ohno to put in place an efficient
production system to produce high quality automobiles.
Over the next three decades, Ohno developed the
Toyota Production System, now known world-wide
as Lean Manufacturing [1]. The foundation Ohno’s
system was the absolute elimination of waste.
Ohno studied US manufacturing techniques, and
learned a lot from Henry Ford’s pioneer
work in assembly line flow. However, the assembly
line produced large lots of identical cars. Ohno
didn’t have the customer base to imitate
the US practice of manufacturing in ‘economic’
(ie. large) lot sizes. He was captivated by US
supermarkets, however, where a small quantity
of every product was placed on shelves, and as
shoppers removed products, the shelves were rapidly
replenished. He decided to place inventory ‘supermarkets’
throughout his plant, and found that this technique
dramatically lowered the ‘waste’ of
in-process inventory. He named these inventory
supermarkets ‘kanban’.
Because Ohno was converting a spinning and weaving
company to an automobile manufacturer, he already
knew how to avoid making bad product. Founder
Toyoda Sakichi had invented an automatic shut-off
mechanism that stopped a weaving machine the minute
a flaw such as a broken thread was detected. Ohno
moved this concept to car manufacturing, where
he insisted that each part be examined immediately
after it was processed, and the line stopped immediately
if a defect was found.
To maximize product flow, standard work sheets
were created, but these were not developed at
a desk by engineers. They were developed on the
shop floor by the workers who know the process.
Standard cycle times and kanban shelf space for
each item was determined and workflow was leveled.
Production workers were like a relay team, handing
off the baton (product) to the next person. The
handoff required 100% quality and tight timing.
If things got delayed, teammates were expected
to help each other set up a machine or recover
from a malfunction.
Ohno’s aggressive elimination of waste led
him to the twin values of rapid product flow and
built-in quality. Over time, Ohno discovered that
these two values led to the highest quality, lowest
cost, shortest lead time products possible.
The basic practices of Lean Manufacturing in the
1980’s might be summed up in these ten simple
rules:
1. Eliminate Waste
2. Minimize Inventory
3. Maximize Flow
4. Pull From Demand
5. Empower Workers
6. Meet Customer Requirements
7. Do it Right the First Time
8. Abolish Local Optimization
9. Partner With Suppliers
10. Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement
These Lean Manufacturing rules have been tested
and proven over the last two decades. They have
been adapted to logistics, customer service, health
care, finance, and even construction. The application
of the rules may change slightly from one industry
to the next, but the underlying principles have
stood the test of time in many sectors of the
economy.
Summary of W. Edwards
Demming’s 14 points
1. Create consistency of purpose.
2. Adopt a win-win philosophy.
3. Don’t depend on mass inspection; build
quality in.
4. Don’t award business based on price;
minimize total cost; build long-term relationships
of loyalty and trust with a single suppliers.
5. Constantly improve the system of production,
service, planning, etc.
6. Train for skills.
7. Provide leadership: help people do a better
job.
8. Drive out fear and build trust so everyone
can do a better job.
9. Break down barriers between departments; abolish
competition and build a win-win system of cooperation.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and zero defect
targets; the cause of the bulk of problems lie
in the system, and are beyond the power of workers
to correct.
11. Eliminate quotas, numerical goals and Management
by Objectives; substitute leadership.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of joy in
their work; abolish the annual rating or merit
system.
13. Educate and improve individuals.
14. Involve the entire organization.
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