Following article written by Norman Bidek talks on why companies are reluctant to empower their employees.
A few years back, I visited Toyota’s plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, with the group of executives from various construction corporations. One member of our team asked Gary Convis, the first American to head a Toyota vehicle plant in North America, “What do you expect from your workers?”
“Only two things: Come to work, and pull the cord,” Convis answered.
Simple, but how many organizations attempting to build a lean operation allow their employees to pull the cord, stop the line, and have literally everybody in the plant wait until the problem is resolved? I would guess that less than 1 percent of companies allow their workers to stop the line. Why?
I say “simple” because if Toyota can do it, so can you. Lean is a powerful process that has allowed the automaker to grow from a small company in 1952 to one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world. The essence of lean is to empower every employee to become a problem solver, to make every employee self-reliant. But how do you do this? How do you learn to trust that your employees will make the right decisions for the company?
Yes, you run kaizen blitzes, and they are effective. Yes, you make value-stream maps, and they are wonderful. Yes, you do 5S, set up work cells, do hoshin kanri, and use many of the wonderful Toyota tools, but you are, for some strange reason, not empowering your employees to be self-reliant.
In 1984, Toyota, probably uneasy about building plants in the United States, suggested a joint venture with General Motors, where GM would provide the plant, and Toyota would teach the company how to use the Toyota Production System (TPS) and apply it to other plants. GM selected its worst plant in Fremont, California, and gave it to Toyota to run. One year later, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) became the best plant in the GM system, but GM never really learned how to implement TPS properly in its other plants. Eventually the automaker went on the bankruptcy and bailout road. NUMMI closed its doors in 2010.
I recently returned from Japan, my 81st trip, and was told that Toyota is still the best model to follow. I strongly recommend that companies learn how to emulate Toyotoa and get every single employee involved in continuous improvement. Find a way to let everyone in your company walk on two feet. But I ask you, "How are you going to do it? How are you going to make lean work?"
Follow Toyota’s advice and empower your workers to solve problems around their work areas. Allow workers to stop working when they detect a problem, call their supervisor and co-workers over and get to the root cause quickly. At Toyota the line could stop 30 times during a shift for only a few seconds each time, and the workers know they might put in a few minutes of overtime to get the daily production done.
A few years back, I visited Toyota’s plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, with the group of executives from various construction corporations. One member of our team asked Gary Convis, the first American to head a Toyota vehicle plant in North America, “What do you expect from your workers?”
“Only two things: Come to work, and pull the cord,” Convis answered.
Simple, but how many organizations attempting to build a lean operation allow their employees to pull the cord, stop the line, and have literally everybody in the plant wait until the problem is resolved? I would guess that less than 1 percent of companies allow their workers to stop the line. Why?
I say “simple” because if Toyota can do it, so can you. Lean is a powerful process that has allowed the automaker to grow from a small company in 1952 to one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world. The essence of lean is to empower every employee to become a problem solver, to make every employee self-reliant. But how do you do this? How do you learn to trust that your employees will make the right decisions for the company?
Yes, you run kaizen blitzes, and they are effective. Yes, you make value-stream maps, and they are wonderful. Yes, you do 5S, set up work cells, do hoshin kanri, and use many of the wonderful Toyota tools, but you are, for some strange reason, not empowering your employees to be self-reliant.
In 1984, Toyota, probably uneasy about building plants in the United States, suggested a joint venture with General Motors, where GM would provide the plant, and Toyota would teach the company how to use the Toyota Production System (TPS) and apply it to other plants. GM selected its worst plant in Fremont, California, and gave it to Toyota to run. One year later, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) became the best plant in the GM system, but GM never really learned how to implement TPS properly in its other plants. Eventually the automaker went on the bankruptcy and bailout road. NUMMI closed its doors in 2010.
I recently returned from Japan, my 81st trip, and was told that Toyota is still the best model to follow. I strongly recommend that companies learn how to emulate Toyotoa and get every single employee involved in continuous improvement. Find a way to let everyone in your company walk on two feet. But I ask you, "How are you going to do it? How are you going to make lean work?"
Follow Toyota’s advice and empower your workers to solve problems around their work areas. Allow workers to stop working when they detect a problem, call their supervisor and co-workers over and get to the root cause quickly. At Toyota the line could stop 30 times during a shift for only a few seconds each time, and the workers know they might put in a few minutes of overtime to get the daily production done.
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