Page 421 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook

394 THE TOYOTA WAY FIELDBOOK

3. People. You can work to train and indoctrinate your people into the new
lean way of thinking, directly effecting culture change.
4. Problem solving. You can train people in a problem-solving methodology
and give them time to meet in groups and solve problems.
All these approaches have been tried at various companies over the years
with mixed success. And to some degree, you need to work on all of them. But
if you have to pick one place to begin focusing your efforts, it has to be at the
process layer—reducing waste in the transformation process. Having said this,
there are still many choices to make.

Lean Implementation Levels,
Strategies, and Tools

Another way of slicing the problem of planning implementation activity is to
think about your organization in levels from the biggest slice to the smallest
component. In Table 19-1 we look at levels from the extended enterprise, which
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includes all of the organizations and companies that somehow touch your product
and work down to the level of the detailed individual process. Let’s consider
each level, starting at the bottom with the individual process.

Process Improvement Approach
The individual process is what is done at a particular machine or by a particular
worker for a manual operation: stamping or welding parts, performing an assem-
bly, mixing a batch of paint, taking calls at a call center, entering data, etc. There
should be a specific improvement objective for that process. It can be to reduce
defects by 20 percent, reduce cycle time by 20 percent to improve output, elim-
inate work-in-process inventory by 50 percent, reduce downtime from 10 to 2
percent, and so on.
One common approach to process improvement as a lean strategy is the one-
week kaizen event. The kaizen event structure (a.k.a. kaizen workshop, rapid
improvement workshop, lean event, rapid improvement event) is:
1. Prepare in advance. Two to four weeks of advanced preparation for the
workshop to define the scope of the problem, decide on a team, collect
data on the current situation, decide what lean tools to use, and make
logistic arrangements for the event. In some cases there is advanced pur-
chase of tools, materials, or equipment that cannot be done in the lead
time of the one-week workshop.

Much of this discussion of implementation strategies and the figures used for the different strate-
1
gies are based on a training course developed and taught at the University of Michigan by Bill
Costantino, former Toyota group leader where he was an associate of David Meier.