Toyota is Inspirational!

June 20th, 2003 by Hal

I had two great plant tours this week. As part of the Lean Project Leadership (Shusa) Program that I comduct with Greg Howell we went on a visit to the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY and the Aisin plant in London, KY. You haven't seen lean 'til you've seen a Toyota operation.

I've been studying lean production since 1986 when I visited Japan for 3 weeks. At that time I visited electronics manufacturers. I'd always wanted to see Japanese automotive companies. About 5 years ago I visited NUMMI in CA. Three things stuck out at the two KY companies:

Everything was clean, orderly, and obvious. There were numerous examples of special-purpose tools and examples of incredible kaizen.
The pace of production exceeded my expectation. People were in constant motion. I saw no one on the production line resting or in conversation with others. And yet, people didn't appear stressed. Most people were in great physical condition.
Both firms went to extremes to communicate with and among the production workers. There were communication stations throughout the production areas that described the standard work for that area and the current performance. The plant manager and the local president walked the production areas every day.

While touring I frequently wondered what practices could be adopted to make projects lean. Eventually, I got to ask a few questions about that. Both companies said the same thing. "Find ways to put all of the talents of the people to work on your projects." Sounds like good advice.

Develop Your Staff the Toyota Way

Humility Makes Toyota Different

Learn Mastery from Toyota

One Last Story on Toyota (for February)

Not Even Toyota Is Flawless

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