Understand how the history of Lean is founded in Respect for People. Learn how three organizations developed a Lean journey strategy centered on Respect for People. Identify common Respect-related mistakes firms make in their Lean transformation efforts. Be aware of a few Lean tools for enhancing Respect in any organization.
Most of us know Lean, and the emphasis on removing waste to deliver higher value. What’s been largely missing from the advancement of Lean from Japan to the US is the idea of respect for people as a foundation for that work. That will be our focus for today.
Note that this is going to be rapid-fire and is intended to just introduce some thoughts and concepts – if they want to go deeper, they can reach out to any one of us!
Let’s dig right in. Respect has a
Two twin pillars: Respect for people and continuous improvement
Script:
In large part, Toyota Motor Company is viewed as the founders of Lean as a production system. What fewer people know is that Lean thinking originated with a desire to be respectful of people in the Toyoda Automatic Loom works, which was founded in the 1920s.
Sakicchi Toyoda, the founder of Toyoda Loom Works, was frustrated. He thought that the looms were disrespectful to workers because they required people to stand and watch – if a thread broke they had to stop the machine manually and re-thread it to prevent defective cloth product. He wanted to give his workers higher-value jobs and pay them more money.
So, with his engineer and his people, they devised a way to stop the loom automatically. This was a great advance which was patented, licensed to Europe, and provided the funding for the Toyota Motor Manufacturing organization that we know today.
A Lean management system is based in part on tools and quality improvement methods made famous by Toyota in the manufacturing world, such as just-in-time, kaizen, one-piece flow, etc. These techniques helped spawn the “lean manufacturing” revolution.
But tools and techniques are not secret weapon for transforming a business. Toyota’s continued success at implementing these tools stems from a deeper business philosophy based on it’s understanding of people and human motivation. Its success is ultimately based on its ability to cultivate leadership, teams, and culture, to devise strategy, to build supplier relationships, and to maintain a learning organization.
Most attempts to implement lean have been fairly superficial. The reason is that most companies have focused too heavily on tools such as 5S and just-in-time, without understanding lean as an entire system that must permeate an organization’s culture.
Respect for people means different things to different people when we use that word in every day life. It has a very definitive meaning when we’re thinking about Lean.
Engage and empower the people closest to the work to see the current condition and find solutions to problems and standardize what’s working.
Focus on developing leaders & problem solvers.
This all sounds sort of soft, right?
But it’s not just kumbaya – Respect for people also means:
Challenge people. Set high expectations. You will tell people what you think of them when you ask of them something that’s very demanding; you are showing respect.
Hold people accountable. By doing that, you’re respecting their ability to get things done and telling them that you’re giving them work that is respected. The work is worth holding them accountable.
Demand discipline. You are expected to make problems visible. When you have standardized work, you are expected to use it. When you’re tackling a problem, you are expected to involve others and deeply understand the causes before jumping to solution.
Respecting people doesn't necessarily mean you must like them – but you must provide them value and demand the same!