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SME Toronto Chapter hosts Lean expert |
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Dr. Timothy D. Hill, Ph.D., Professor for Corporate Social Responsibility at King’s University College, London and an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist facilitated a seminar entitled “The Human Capital Foundations for Lean”, August 20 for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Toronto Chapter 26, Special Tech Group STG: The Human Side of Lean.
Dr. Hill spent years in Japan where he worked with Dr. Edwards Deming, Ishikawa, and Imai. He was selected by Toyota Canada to train its employees in the Toyota Production System, Problem Solving for Quality and Toyota Business Practices.
Dr. Hill provided significant insights into the way Toyota operates. Some of the burning questions were: Why is Toyota doing better than GM, Ford or Chrysler? Why aren’t there more Toyotas out there?
Dr. Hill managed to visualize and explain, supported by his detailed historic knowledge and long-time expertise, what the root causes for these significant differences between Toyota and other — especially western — automobile manufacturers are.
According to Dr. Hill, the main difficulty of western car manufacturers is mobilizing their workforce in a different and self-directing way, guided by best practice standardized operating procedures. It’s a matter of knowing how a best car form the customer perspective will look like and how to build the car in the best possible way.
One statement makes the difference between GM and Toyota very clear: “GM is a company with average processes run by brilliant people. Toyota is a company with brilliant processes run by average people.”
“Our people are the key essence for business excellence, but in a different way than most of us might think,” said Dr. Hill.
“The Lean philosophy can be counter-intuitive. Most Lean journeys often start without a clear understanding. For instance, most start by concentrating on “non-threatening” aspects of Lean (i.e. 5S, Visual Controls, etc). After months and years of spending time and money in Lean and getting little in return, most business abandon it (or if forced by the market, just pay lip service). This is death by 5S or death by kaizen.
“Lean was created as a tool to generate profits by increasing flow and reducing waste. If you do not start Lean with a clear results-focused mindset, you will most likely fail.
“As Dr. Edwards Deming always said: “In order to improve, you must understand the entire System. A system needs a purpose. If there is no purpose, there cannot be a system!”
For more information about the Special Tech Group STG: The Human Side of Lean and for upcoming events visit their website at http://chapters.sme.org/026/.
- Dr. Juergen Boenisch, Executive Management Consulting
Chair of SME Toronto Chapter 26
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