Lean Thinking
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Just as we identified this need in the spring of 1993, Joe Day, the CEO of the Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership, asked one of us to talk at a media presentation of his firm’s lean initiative. In doing this we met Anand Sharma, whose consulting firm, TBM, was offering technical advice to Freudenberg-NOK. Anand soon introduced us to a host of other executives he has advised on the lean conversion including Pat Lancaster at Lantech and George Koenigsaecker at the Hon Company.
At almost the same time, through the MIT Japan Program, Jim Womack came into contact with United Technologies (a Program sponsor) and its subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney. An invitation to visit Pratt led to a completely accidental meeting in the final assembly hall with Chihiro Nakao, one of Pratt’s key advisers on its lean transformation.
Nakao-san, as it developed, had along with Yoshiki Iwata of Shingijutsu taught lean thinking to Anand Sharma in the late 1980s, and later collaborated with him on some projects. The Shingijutsu network soon carried us all the way across the world to Porsche in Germany; to Hitachi, Yamatake-Honeywell, and Showa Tekko in Japan; and back to other firms in North America.
While visiting one of these (the PCI Group in New Bedford, Massachusetts) with Chihiro Nakao, we encountered another link in our North American chain in the person of Bill Moffitt, a former Jacobs Manufacturing Company vice president and survivor of the Nakao school of “special sensei treatment.” He and his associates have been a transforming force in ten of the firms mentioned in this book.
Because the concepts presented in The Machine That Changed the World were devised originally by Toyota, it was not surprising that the next link we discovered was Toyota’s own Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in Lexington, Kentucky, where General Manager Hajime Ohba was cheerfully teaching lean thinking to forty American firms, many of them neither suppliers to Toyota nor in the auto sector. Ohba-san took us under his wing and escorted us through a range of companies trying to transform themselves into exemplars of lean thinking. (One of our major regrets in preparing this book is that TSSC’s clients were only at the beginning of the lean transformation when we had to decide in 1994 which firms to profile. If we had started this volume a year or two later, the achievements of TSSC’s clients, like Grand Haven Stamped Products, might well have been described.)
Once we started down the path with Toyota, we found two additional networks, those of Toyota Motor Sales in California (whose dramatic success in introducing “pull” all the way from the customer back to raw materials was the subject of Chapter 4 ) and of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, where Kiyotaka Nakayama of Toyota’s Operations Management Consulting Division led us through today’s Toyota operations and the supply base.
As Jim Womack searched for firms in North America, Dan Jones was searching for additional firms in Europe and found many of them through the research activities of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at the Cardiff Business School. Unipart in particular became a test bed for lean thinking in a U.K. context.
Our final learning opportunity was completely inadvertent. Jim Womack invested in a small bicycle firm and took a hand in a lean conversion. An ancient saw in the academic world is: “If you really want to master a subject, try teaching it.” This concept turns out to apply with equal force to lean conversions: If you really want to understand the problems to be overcome, try doing it yourself.
As the reader has probably noted, we became very fond of our subjects and began to think of them as a community of like-minded souls. It was logical, therefore, to bring them together in a series of Lean Summits in North American, Europe, and Latin America beginning in 1995. As these events grew ever larger we realized that we needed to create nonprofit organizations to tie the Lean Community together. The mission of these organizations is to move beyond consciousness-raising events to create and teach tools for implementation.
The Lean Enterprise Institute was founded by Jim Womack in the United States in 1997 to publish the ideas of lean thinking in a workbook format and to teach these tools to professional audiences. Its publications and activities are described at www.lean.org .
Lean Institute Brasil was founded in 1998 by Professor Jose Ferro in Sao Paulo to promote lean thinking in Brazil and throughout Latin America. For more information, see www.lean.br.org .
The Lean Enterprise Academy in the U.K. was founded in 2003 by Dan Jones to promote lean thinking across English-speaking Europe. Learn more at www.leanuk.org .
APPENDIX
Individuals and Organizations Who Helped
Organizations (all affiliations listed as they were at the time of interactions during the writing of the first edition)
Alexander Doll: Patty Lewis
Bene Buromobel: Ing. E. Weichselbaum
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group: Dave Fitzpatrick
Britvic Soft Drinks, Ltd.: Richard Archer, Paul Howard, Martin Thomas
Brooks Electronics: Gary Brooks, Marty Carroll, Mary Pat Pietrzak, Hans Cooper
Calsonic International Europe, Ltd.: Mike Reilly, Lyndon Jones
Chrome Craft: Richard Barnett
Chrysler: Bob Eaton, Bob Lutz, Tom Stallkamp, Francois Castaing, Glenn Gardner, Ed Sprock
Coleman Foods Ltd.: Ian Glenday
Doyle Wilson Homebuilder: Doyle Wilson
Federal Express: Fred Smith
Flex-N-Gate: Shahid Khan
Freudenberg-NOK: Joe Day, Gary Johnson, Sharon Wenzl
Grand Haven Stamped Products: Frank Nagy
Grand Rapids Spring and Wire: Jim Zawacki
H&W Screw Product: Gary Soloway
Hitachi Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Systems: Tsuneharu Takagi
Honda UK Manufacturing, Ltd.: Andrew Jones
Honda of America Manufacturing: Hiroyuki Yoshino, Scott Whitlock, Toshi Amino, Dave Nelson, Tom Griffiths, Doug Chamberlin, Rick Mayo
IG Lintels Ltd.: Keith Williams
ITT Alfred Teves, Ltd.: Horst Vogt
Kaizen Institute: Masaaki Imai, Peter Willat s
Keiper Recaro GMBH: Rainer Simon
Lantech: Pat Lancaster, Jim Lancaster, Ron Hicks, Jose Zabaneh, Bob Underwood, Jean Cunningham, John Fain
Leyland Trucks Ltd.: John Gilchrist, John Oliver
Linread Northbridge Ltd.: Ed Brooks
Mexican Industries of Michigan: James Merkhofer
Moffitt Associates: Bill Moffitt, Bob Pentland, Jim Cutler
Nippondenso: Masayoshi Taira, Mineo Hanai, Ryozo Mitsui
Nissan Motor Manufacturing, Ltd.: Ian Gibson, John Cushnaghan, Peter Hill, Peter Wickens, Terry Hogg, Bob Hampson, Colin Dodge, Mike Peacock, Arthur David
Northern Engraving: Philip Gelatt
Parker-Hannifan Automotive & Refrigeration Group: Larry Hopcraft
PCI Group: John Cosentino, John Rachwalski
Perkins Group Ltd.: Tony Gilroy, Mike Baunton
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG: Wendelin Wiedeking, Gerhard Hofig, Uwe Huck, Anton Hunger, Manfred Kessler, Raimond Klinkner, Wolfgang Laimgruber, Dieter Lange, Uwe Loos, Michael Macht, Hans Riedel, Eckart Riefenstahl, Dietmar Scherzer, Michael Schimpke, Rainer Srock, Franz Steinbeck, Gunther Wittenmayer
Pratt & Whitney: Karl Krapek, Mark Coran, Curtis Cook, Ed Northern, Bob Weiner, Bob Jackson, Angie Negron, Grace Reed
Robert Bosch Ltd.: Gerhard Turner, Stefan Asenkirschbaumer
Rohr: Greg Peters, Martin Lodge
Rover Group, Ltd.: JIT/DE Team—Alan Naylor, Peter Bailey, Bob Hollier, Mike James Moore
Senco Products: Dennis Pinkelton, John Dean, Bob Clark
Shingijutsu Co., Ltd.: Yoshiki Iwata, Chihiro Nakao, Kumi Iwata
Showa Manufacturing: Keiji Mizuguchi, Takeshi Kawabe, Tsuneo Aiga
Sloane Toyota: Bob Sloane, Fred Slyhoff
Summit Polymers: James Haas, James Askelson
TABC: Tom Tullius
TBM: Anand Sharma, Bill Schwartz, Sam Swayer, Stuart Fisher
Tesco Stores Ltd.: Graham Booth, Barry Knichel, Peter Worsey
Toyoda Iron Works: Shigeru Hayak
awa
Toyota Motor Corporate Services, U.S.A.: Tim Andree
Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan): Fujio Cho, Kiyotaka Nakayama
Toyota Motor Manufacturing U.K., Ltd.: Yukihisa Hirano, Osamu Komori
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A.: Tom Zawacki
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.: Richard Gallio, Bob Bennett, Bob Arndt
Toyota Supplier Support Center: Hajime Ohba, Mark Reich, Lesa Nichols
TRW Steering Systems Ltd.: Bob Morga n
Unipart Group of Companies, Ltd.: John Neill, Tony Butcher, Mike Carver, Ian Campbell, Frank Burns, Frank Hemsworth, Doug Henderson, Graham Jackson, Keith Jones, Andy Lee, David Nicholas, Mike Pybus, Corinne Richman, Peter Taylor, Sue Topham, David Whale, Val White
United Electric: Bruce Hamilton
United Technologies: George David
Wiremold: Art Byrne, Steve Maynard, Orrie Fiume, Judy Seyler, Frank Giannattasio
Yamatake-Honeywell: Ichiro Ido
And our consulting clients during the writing of this book, who shall remain nameless but who taught us much.
Individuals
Martin L. Anderson (who has shared our lean thinking for more than fifteen years)
Dominick Anfuso, senior editor, Simon & Schuster (who would probably rather be shot than hear one more lecture on how lean thinking applies to publishing)
Graham Baere, president, Managerial Design International (who shared thoughts on creating organizations to support lean thinking)
John Carlisle (who shared his thoughts on managing relationships in a value stream)
Don Clausing, Xerox Research Fellow in Comparative Product Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (who taught us much of what we know about product development)
Alain de Dommartin, Renault Institute for Quality Management (who gave us a window on French reactions to lean thinking)
Stephane Doblin (who gave us an important leg up many years ago through introductions to senior executives of European companies and who continues to provide help along the way)
Friedrich Glasl, Trigon Consulting, Salzburg (who shared his insights into organizational development and who led Dan Jones on many missionary excursions in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria)
Jan Helling (who shared his insights from lean missionary work in Sweden)
Bruce Henderson, president, Robertshaw Controls (who carefully reviewed the final drafts and made many suggestions for improvements)
Gwyn Jones, founder, Merlin Metalworks (who cheerfully took on a theoretician [Womack] for an investment partner)
George Koenigsaecker, president, Hon Industries (who freely shared a decade’s experience in transforming mass producers)
Joel Kurtzman, former editor, Harvard Business Review (who with Steve Prokesch suggested we write “From Lean Production to the Lean Enterprise” for HBR )
Yasuhiro Monden (who shared his insights into lean accounting and the Toyota Production System)
Toshio Niwa, director, International Exchange, Institute for International Economic Studies, Tokyo (who aided our research in Japan)
Professor Eiji Ogawa, Chukyo University (who helped us understand the origins of lean thinking)
Guy Parsons, president, Merlin Metalworks (who has helped Jim Womack turn theory into practice)
Tom Poynter, president, The Transitions Group (who provided Jim Womack an invaluable education in strategic thinking and implementation)
Steve Prokesch, associate editor, Harvard Business Review (who solicited our 1994 article and provided perspective on lean thinking)
Rafe Sagalyn, Sagalyn Literary Agency (our agent, who tried to make us perfect)
John Shook (formerly deputy general manager of the Toyota Supplier Support Center; now director of the Japan Technology Management Program and lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Michigan, who introduced us to many aspects of lean practice and who saved us from a number of errors in the final draft)
Eberhard Stotko (whose tireless enthusiasm for lean thinking encouraged us)
Brian Swain, Rubicon Associates (who shared his experiences in trying to use our ideas in the U.K.)
Michael Tansey, professor of economics, Rockhurst College (who pointed out a major flaw in the structure we first considered for this book)
Betty Thayer, Andersen Consulting (who supported Dan Jones’s work on benchmarking)
Professor Kazuo Wada, University of Tokyo (who revealed unknown origins of lean thinking and “group” structures in Japan)
John Womack (who has been a vital sounding board for his brother’s ideas)
Special Acknowledgments
Dan Jones would like to thank research colleagues at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School, especially Peter Hines, Nick Rich, and John Kiff, and Professor Roger Mansfield, director of the Cardiff Business School for their support and encouragement. He would also like to thank sponsors and participants in a series of activities coordinated by the Centre: The Lean Enterprise Benchmarking Project (auto parts manufacturing performance benchmarking), the Supply Chain Development Programme (value stream mapping and supply chain responsiveness), the BRITE EURAM Future Working Structures Project (engine manufacturing benchmarking and team working), and the International Car Distribution Programme (analysis and simulation of the car distribution system).
In addition, he would like to thank Professor Denis Towill of the Logistics Systems Dynamics Group, School of Engineering at Cardiff, research collaborators at the University of Bath, especially Professors Richard Lamming and Andrew Graves, and Malcolm Harbour, Philip Wade, Derek Whittaker, and Professor Jonathan Brown of the central office of the International Car Distribution Programme. Finally, he would like to thank students at the Universities of Eindhoven and Groningen who wrote cases applying lean thinking to diverse manufacturing and service organizations for the master classes given by Dan during 1993 and 1994.
Jim Womack would like to thank colleagues in the MIT Japan Program, especially Managing Director Pat Gercik, Professor Richard Samuels, and Dori DeGenti, for providing a continuing “home base” within the university world.
Finally, we must thank Carrie and Katherine Copeland Womack and Mike, Kate, and Simon Jones for tolerating their fathers’ distraction and absences during the four years of this project. Shigeo Shingo once remarked that the Toyota Production System (and, by extension, lean thinking) should be implemented everywhere except at home. We’re not so sure about this—indeed, our wives often ask why we can’t apply our lean knowledge to become more efficient with our chores around the house! However, we do know that devoting years of nights and weekends to writing about lean thinking, plus weeks cumulating to months away from home on research trips, imposes a burden on the next generation. We hope that Katherine and Carrie and Kate, Simon, and Mike will someday feel that this completed effort compensates in a small way for their sacrifices.
Glossary
(For a more thorough listing of lean terms, with examples and illustrations, please consult The Lean Lexicon: A Graphical Glossary for Lean Thinkers. Brookline, Mass.: The Lean Enterprise Institute, 2003.)
activity-based costing —A management accounting system that assigns costs to products based on the amount of resources used (including floor space, raw materials, machine hours, and human effort) in order to design, order, or make a product. Contrast with standard costing.
and on board —A visual control device in a production area, typically a lighted overhead display, giving the current status of the production system and alerting team members to emerging problems.
autonomation —Transferring human intelligence to automated machinery so machines are able to detect the production of a single defective part and immediately stop themselves while asking for help. This concept, also known as jidoka, was pioneered by Sakichi Toyoda at the turn of the twentieth century when he invented automatic looms that stopped instantly when any thread broke. This permitted one operator to oversee many mach
ines with no risk of producing vast amounts of defective cloth.
batch-and-queue —The mass-production practice of making large lots of a part and then sending the batch to wait in the queue before the next operation in the production process. Contrast with single-piece flow.
brownfield —An established design or production facility operating with mass-production methods and systems of social organization. Contrast with greenfield.
cells —The layout of machines of different types performing different operations in a tight sequence, typically in a U-shape, to permit single-piece flow and flexible deployment of human effort by means of multi-machine working. Contrast with process villages.
chaku-chaku —A method of conducting single-piece flow in which the operator proceeds from machine to machine, taking a part from the previous operation and loading it in the next machine, then taking the part just removed from that machine and loading it in the following machine, etcetera. Literally means “load-load” in Japanese.
changeover —The installation of a new type of tool in a metal working machine, a different paint in a painting system, a new plastic resin and a new mold in an injection molding machine, new software in a computer, and so on. The term applies whenever a production device is assigned to perform a different operation.
cycle time —The time required to complete one cycle of an operation. If cycle time for every operation in a complete process can be reduced to equal takt time, products can be made in single-piece flow.
five Ss —Five terms beginning with S utilized to create a workplace suited for visual control and lean production. Seiri means to separate needed tools, parts, and instructions from unneeded materials and to remove the latter. Seiton means to neatly arrange and identify parts and tools for ease of use. Seiso means to conduct a cleanup campaign. Seiketsu means to conduct seiri, seiton, and seiso at frequent, indeed daily, intervals to maintain a workplace in perfect condition. Shitsuke means to form the habit of always following the first four Ss.