Page 346 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook
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Chapter 13. Problem Solving the Toyota Way                 321


                  11 percent fewer forklifts, 20 percent less space and less walking in
                  the process, and a whopping 85 percent quality improvement
                  because of reduced damage to parts. This started in 2003, and
                  by July 2004 was about half complete.
                ◆ On a smaller level, a team leader kaizen in stamping focused on
                  using a yamazumi chart (operator work load balancing) to reduce
                  one process from an operation. This PKA (practical kaizen activity)
                  was designed to teach TPS by doing. The team leader used a
                  Standardized Work Combination Table to chart what the person
                  and machine do. He identified waste, largely from conveyance,
                  and combined what the conveyance driver was doing with the line
                  operator’s job. There had been 499 minutes of work over a cycle of
                  450 minutes per day. By reducing waste by 49 minutes and bring-
                  ing the workload down to 450 minutes, one  operator position was
                  removed from the operation. Safety and quality were carefully tracked
                  and there were no problems. New standardized work was created
                  by the team leader, an hourly employee.
                These aggressive kaizen projects are being done at all levels and for big,
                medium, and small projects. They are being done cross-functionally and
                from the manager to the team associate level. Why would hourly team
                associates and team leaders participate in this when many of these
                projects lead to process reductions, which imply labor reductions? The
                reason is simple. Since the opening of the Georgetown plant, no full-
                time team associates have involuntarily lost their jobs. Those “kaizened”
                out are reassigned and eventually, through attrition and by reducing
                the use of temporary workers, the employee levels are adjusted. More
                recently Georgetown began to offer early retirement packages and
                voluntary severance packages. The drivers for these aggressive process
                improvements include pressure to compete in cost with China and
                Korea, a target to become self-sufficient from Japan, and aggressive
                quality improvement targets. This is constantly communicated. The goal
                is to be competitive and healthy for the long term.



                      Reflect and Learn from the Process
                      The ability to identify and correct problems quickly and effectively
                      is at the heart of Toyota’s success. Many aspects of the Toyota
                      Production System are designed to surface problems quickly and
                      at times harshly. The ability to solve these problems must exist at
                      all levels of your organization so continuous improvement is pos-
                      sible. Reflect on the following questions to determine what steps
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