Agile Manufacturing Update

Meetings at the Lean Company: Part Two

George Bohan — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:08:19 GMT

I was saying that meetings in lean companies get better over time. What do they get better at? Well, here are some of the "bad things" I've seen.

We all know the problem of "no agenda". And the problem of "agenda that's ignored from the opening moments".
Then there's the "no discussion is too trivial or diverts from the agenda too far to fully undertake". There's also "every discussion has to be lengthy". There's the dreaded "lengthy discussions that involve just two or three people in the meeting while everyone else checks their smart phone". Finally, there's "I talk, you listen".

How does all this get better when an organization implements lean? In my experience, it's not because the problems listed above are specifically focused upon. Rather, it's because of visual factory.

Let me explain: I tell my clients that an important objective of visual factory is to be able to tell, at a glance, if processes are in control or not. Yes or no. Green or red. On schedule or not. If the answer is yes/green/on schedule, you move on to the next variable. If the answer is no/red/off schedule, then you seek a corrective action. If it can be determined in a few minutes of discussion, great. If it's apparent the problem will take more analysis, that's moved to another meeting that involves those closest to or most knowledgeable about the issue.

Meetings get more efficient and more effective as the client takes this approach to heart. One client reviews progress on all its managers' goals at a monthly meeting (among other things). There are ten managers, each with seven to ten goals. In the old days, such an effort would have taken several two hour meetings as the entire group discussed and reviewed (or tried to) each of the seventy or so goals. Nowadays, they project a spreadsheet that has a quick update of each goal. Here's the twist... each update is in colored text: green, yellow, or red.

Green means, "I'm on schedule in meeting this goal," or "This goal has been achieved." Yellow means, "I've run into some barriers with this goal and might need some help, but not right yet." Red mean, "I'm drowning. Help." So the management team goes right to all the progress statements in red. Even then, the discussion focuses on getting the right people together at another meeting rather than trying to solve the issue right then and there.

These managers also review the activities of six strategic teams in a like manner.

A similar approach helped the Steering Committee at another client shorten their meetings and get more done. They had a habit of sitting down, with no agenda, and discussing at length whatever topic anyone brought up. We took the obvious step of making sure an agenda was put up before the SC met. In this case, we also established designated time for each agenda items. In this way, we communicated the import of each item. If we designated 5 minutes or so, it was understood that we just needed to make a decision or schedule a time for the folks who would make a decision to get together. If we designated 30 minutes, it was understood that the issue needed more discussion by the group. This assured that long discussion over less important issues didn't push back discussions over more important ones. We also used the "red/yellow/green" approach to updating ongoing activities.

You might be thinking, "It would be easy enough to implement these simple ideas without implementing lean." I agree. But it seems that the "simple ideas" take hold better in a lean environment.

Meetings at the Lean Company

George Bohan — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:04:36 GMT

I notice that meetings in companies I work with get better over time. Now, "effective meetings" isn't something I focus on, in particular, so there's no specific reason why they should improve. But they do.

When I say "management meetings", I'm talking about any meeting among salaried folks. They might be regular meetings or ad hoc meetings. I'm not talking about "get the troops together" meetings intended to pass info along to line employees.

What tends to be wrong with the typical management meeting? I'll tell the story of the weekly department head meetings that were held at one of my former employers, Stouffer Hotels. (As I'm relating this story, remember that this meeting took place weekly.) The meeting included all the top department heads at a downtown hotel, about ten or eleven people. It started at about 4:30pm. We'd order supper and keep going. We'd eat supper, still discussing. We'd still be meeting as dessert would be offered. The dishes would be cleared and we'd still be meeting. And we'd keep going...and going...and going. The first of these meetings I attended was over at...are you ready?....12:30AM! After several more meetings, I found that this wasn't atypical at all; the meetings regularly went past 11pm. Each week!

What could such an august group possibly have been discussing at such length each week? Well, the question is better put...what didn't they discuss? At great length! There was no issue too small for the group to discuss and consider and analyze and discuss some more and think about and talk about....before moving on to the next item, which would get the same treatment. And this would go on for six to eight hours.

That's a worst case scenario, of course, But the meetings at most of the organizations I work with have similarly unproductive practices. The outcome is that managers hate meetings and that makes my life harder because there isn't much of a way to get an agile initiative going without getting managers together.

In my next post, I'll talk about what sorts of bad things happen at meetings and how it can get better.

Basic Blocking and Tackling

George Bohan — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:17:49 GMT

[Editor note: Below is the message in my latest email newsletter. If, perchance, you'd like to get this more-or-less quarterly newsletter, let me know.]

I've written many times about the importance of operational excellence. If you can't complete a setup and carry out a run in a consistent time, every time, you can't really get lean or agile.

I've been working with some client teams that are focused on specific operational problems. We define the problem, then we create a good ol' fishbone. A cause that nearly always makes the final cut is "Lack of or not following documented standard procedures". (I guess that's actually two causes but you get my drift.)

I have to admit, I wonder why this would be an issue. After all, what could be simpler than getting the folks who do the work to write out the steps to important tasks then getting them to agree to do what they just wrote down? It's obviously harder than it seems, because too many small companies don't get it done. It's labor intensive. It's tedious. Task steps change. It can be tough to get everybody agree on how tasks should be done. Like losing weight and getting regular dental checkups, we all know it's the right thing to do but it's tough to find the time (and the energy) to do it.

Here's what you need to remember: Variability in operations is costing you a ton of money. Most of that variability is caused by the fact that people aren't carrying out tasks in a consistent way. Getting some of your set up people, operators, team leaders, maintenance techs, etc. to sit down for an hour a week and start writing out task instructions is one of the two least expensive things you can do to reduce scrap, setup times, and downtime. (The other "least expensive thing" you can do is 5S.)

The Importance of Measurement

George Bohan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:52:24 GMT

Let's take a break from Progressive Lean.

I know that if I talk about the importance of having good shop floor performance measures that are as close to real time as possible and are communicated quickly to the folks carrying out and supervising the work being done, I'm preaching to the choir.

Still, it's always good to have some quasi-scientific backing for the position. In scouring some of the other lean blogs (a task I don't undertake often enough), I found this study.. (Actually, it's just a 17-page summary of the study.) It's a bit of a slog to read and the findings won't be much of a surprise to anyone: companies that have operations performance metrics that are communicated as close to real time as possible to the shop floor do better financially than companies that don't do this.

The study is consistent with my own experience: better metrics, in and of themselves, are associated with operations performance improvement.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See: Intermission

George Bohan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:52:10 GMT

We've "finished' Sort and Shine and are better than half-way through with Straighten and See. It's all been pretty straightforward, right? Educate, plan, implement...what could be easier?

If you've gotten this far in an actual implementation, you're probably asking yourself, "What the heck are we doing wrong? Agile Views made it all sound so easy but we're all bogged down and hardly anything is getting done!"

It's true...I have made it all sound easier than it really is. The tools and methods ARE easy but implementing them can be difficult because life...and the organization's culture...gets in the way.

Here's what happens: team leaders don't make up their maps, schedules, and materials lists. Or they make half-hearted attempts to make them. Or they make them but don't do anything with them. Or they get started doing something with them, then lose steam. Or they make them up, get them implemented...then let it all fall apart again.

Why does all this bad stuff happen? There is a number of reasons. Team leaders aren't accustomed to doing this sort of planning. Supervisors aren't accustomed to following up with supervisors with respect to this sort of work. No process is put in place for followup...or for supporting the team leaders. No one is made accountable for seeing that all this gets done. Or the someone that is "made accountable"...isn't actually held accountable because it's all new and no one really knows how to go about holding anyone accountable.

Mind you, it's not my intention to point fingers here. Organizations are just this way...new programs and methods aren't easily administered.

How do you prevent all this bad stuff from happening? Well, there's no way to guarantee nothing will go wrong, ever, but there are some things you can do to help things along.

Make sure that the expectations, directions and instructions given to team leaders, supervisors and managers are very, very clear. Anything at all left to the imagination will cause poor follow through. I know...it's sounds kind of autocratic but clarity is essential.
Meet regularly with the team leaders. Keep track of what they are and aren't getting done. Make sure that you are giving them ample opportunity to ask questions, express concerns, ask for support.
Walk around to see how they are doing. Talk with them, in situ, about what they are doing well and where they are falling short.
Give supervisors and managers a clear idea (hand them a list, if you need to) of what they should look for and see when they walk out onto the shop floor vis a vis Progressive Lean. Again, the more you leave to their imagination, the less likely follow through.
Keep your Steering Committee up to date. Tell them what's going well...and what isn't. Make sure to be clear when and how you need its support.

This list isn't all inclusive but it's a good start.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See: Part 5 - Moving Stuff Around

George Bohan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:51:40 GMT

Up to now, we've assumed that everything is going to stay pretty much where it is...except for the small things like tools and supplies. What if you need to move some big stuff around....equipment, machines, large storage, staging areas, that sort of thing? When do you take care of that?

First, you show all the new locations on your map, right? And you've gotten buy-in to the new map from anybody who needs to have buy-in, correct? And you actually walked through the flow of product and material in your new layout so as to give it a reality check, haven't you? OK, good.

So...schedule the time and get everything moved. You'll probably need some larger blocks of time than you scheduled for putting documents and supplies where they're supposed to go, I imagine. Maybe even a few days. You might also need some special equipment. (A present client had to schedule a rigger to come in to move some large presses around.) But, overall, it's mostly a matter of scheduling the time and getting it done.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See : Part 4 - Everything In Its Place

George Bohan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:58:55 GMT

Up to now, we haven't done much actuall Straightening. Such labeling as you've done has mostly been of operating equipment. When do you put stuff where it's supposed to go and give it a home address?

Well....how about now? You remember I mentioned that each team leader needs to put together a map? That map should show where everything...tools, supplies, materials, documents, WIP, raw materials, finished goods, parts and pieces....will go. And you remember that materials list I talked about? That materials list should include any new shelves, cabinets, work desks, work benches, shadowboards, tool boxes, bins, buckets, baskets, racks, etc., etc. that will be needed in each area for storage. And remember that schedule you were supposed to put together? That's when you're supposed to actually put things where the map says they're supposed to go, then mark and label their home addresses.

Those items for which you have a location already...put them there and mark and label.

Those items for which you are getting a new storage place...order it, get it in, mark and label it and put there what needs to go there.

Take it a bit at a time. Make sure the other shifts know what you're up to. (That's where the map will help; everyone can look at and make adjustments to the map. Then any shift can go about the locating and labeling.)

There...that's not so hard is it?

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See: Part 3 - Labeling

George Bohan — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:05:43 GMT

OK, you've gotten all the preliminaries in place. Now it's time for some action.

The action the team leaders will undertake depends on what sort of plans they've put together. Did their "Straighten and See maps" show that significant moves of equipment and storage needs to take place? If so, that probably needs to happen first. And that, of course, could be a large undertaking of it's own, involving maintenance and even outside contractors.

For our purposes here, let's assume that little or no substantial movement of equipment will be needed. The first thing to do is to label all the equipment. (You do have some labelers, don't you? Well get a few ordered because you'll be needing them.)

First, you'll probably need some signs to identify the different lines, work areas, or machinery. Then, you'll want to label all the major components of each piece of equipment. You'll also need to make certain that every control is labeled as to function. ("What does this button do? What does this knob do? Which direction do I need to turn it to get the action I want?)

You'll need to label all gages, sight glasses, fluid level indicators, indexes, etc. Further, you'll want to indicate operating ranges on gages and indicators.

After this, you'll want to label all storage locations that you won't be changing as you implement your map. In other words, maybe you have a work desk within the area that will remain. Locations of supplies and documents that will be stored on the work desk should be labeled. Or maybe you have a cabinet or set of shelves that will remain. Decide how and where everything will be located in the cabinet or on the shelves and label them.

As you might imagine, this is a labor intensive step. And we haven't even gotten to painting lines on the floor and putting up shadowboards yet? But you'll start to notice the improvement right away.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See: Part 2 - Map, List, Schedule

George Bohan — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:06:12 GMT

In my last post, I mentioned that the team leaders would need to:

Develop a map,
Develop a list of what's needed in the area, and
Develop an implementation schedule for implementing Straighten and See in their area.

We'll look into each of these but, first, let's say a word or two about why we're having the team leaders do all this work. In the simplest terms...because they work there and we don't. I'll be frank with you, it's more "labor intensive" to do things this way. And you'll feel like you have less control over the progress of the initiative. But, remember, you're not simply implementing the tools...heck, anybody can do that. You're changing how team leaders and supervisors go about their roles within the organization. This only happens when they make the changes.

OK, lets look at each of the activities above in more detail.

Develop a Map

Each team leader needs to draw up a rough "future state" map of the area that shows, in a fair amount of detail, where everything will go. By "everything"....I mean everything: machinery, tables, cabinets, shelves, desks, tools, supplies, documents, inventory, dunnage and packaging, pencils and paperclips. Everything. It doesn't need to be to scale and it doesn't need to be pretty but it needs to be comprehensive and complete.

As such, you might need to have the team leaders map out one location at a time if the area they cover is large. And that's OK.

Develop a List of Materials

The team leaders may need new cabinets, shelves, pegboards, desks, tables, bins, dry erase boards, document holders, cubby holes, tool boxes, shadowboards, etc., etc.. Have them make a list of everything they'll need. Don't have them simply add "table" to their list. How big? What kind? For what purpose? Made of what material? Will the shadowboards be for a few tools or a whole set of tools? All this detail needs to be included. Provide them the catalogs they'll need to be specific.

Develop a Schedule

Just as the team leaders needed a schedule to complete the Sort and Shine phase, they'll need a schedule for carrying out Straighten and See as well. In fact, this phase is even less likely to get carried out without a schedule than was Sort and Shine because it's a bit more involved. There's labeling to be done. There are shadowboards to be installed. There might be machinery that needs to be moved around with all that implies for changing electric, air, and other lines and outlets. The schedule will certainly need to be flexible but "We'll get to it when we can," is a sure recipe for disaster (as we stated in our posts describing the Sort and Shine phase).

I've found that it takes a bit of time for team leaders to develop these three plans. You will want to meet with them regularly as they work on these. I like to hold a short team leader meeting weekly to review their work and provide coaching.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See: Part 1 - Training

George Bohan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:13:27 GMT

You'll remember that you held a short training session for supervisors and team leaders back at the start of the Sort and Shine phase. Well you're going to conduct a similar session to start this phase.

Here is a set of slides that I use in the training. (It includes pictures I found on the internet so it's a pretty big file.)

Straighten and See Presentation Slides

(As always you're free to use these any way you want but I'd ask that you leave my company name on them and give credit where credit is due.)

As with most training most of the necessary learning is going to take place outside the classroom. You want the team leaders to understand the basics of what's expected of them:

Develop a map of what will go where from major equipment and inventory down to individual tools and documents.
Develop a list of what's needed (shelves cabinets shadowboards tables etc.) to get the area in order
Develop a schedule for implementing Straighten and See. The schedule needs to include labeling existing machinery and storage moving what needs to be moved and implementing hourly production charts.

This phase will also provide a good time to implement regular and frequent shop floor walks and meetings to make sure everything is proceeding well. More about all that later.

If the team leaders have large areas or several operating machines or locations within their areas you'll probably want to have them attack one piece at a time i.e. develop a map and schedule for one location that can serve as a model for other locations until the entire area is complete. As an example at a present client one team leader is oversees three roll forming lines. Each line is about 30 yards long and has its own tools quality desk etc. The team leader is tackling one line at a time rather than developing maps and schedules for all three at once.

In my next post I'll start going into the three points above in more detail.

Progressive Lean: Straighten and See Overview

George Bohan — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:23:21 GMT

Sort and Shine should be completed (or nearly so) across the plant before you start Straighten and See. ("Completed" means that all areas have self-reviewed four's and five's for all items and that the self-reviews have been calibrated by you.)

Here's what's going to happen in Straighten and See:

Education for all team leaders and supervisors as to what they're to do and why (a two-hour session ought to do it)
Team leaders will develop a Sort and Shine map of their areas, a list of materials they need, and a schedule for making the needed changes,
Team leaders will start by labeling the equipment in their areas and its controls(assuming it's not going to change or be moved. If equipment is being moved or changed, do that first.).
Then, following the schedule they've set for themselves, they'll make all the changes laid out on their maps.
They'll self-review as they go.

We'll go over each step in detail in subsequent posts.

Progressive Lean: Sort and Shine: Wrap Up

George Bohan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:09:10 GMT

Well, I've given you all the pieces you need to get this phase of Progressive Lean done. What now? Well, like it says on the shampoo bottle: "Rinse and Repeat".

What I mean by that is that, even with all the pieces in place and working well, you'll find that you have to be persistent and patient. You'll need to walk the shop floor daily to see how things are going. You'll need to meet at least weekly with the team leaders and supervisors. You'll need to keep the Steering Committee updated week by week. You'll need to have lots of conversations with everyone to make sure they understand what's going on and what their own roles are.

It's tempting to think, "Why do we need to do all this? It's sorting and shining for gosh sakes! Just give them the basics and they'll do it." And, in many cases, you'll be correct. But there will be barriers aplenty and ignoring them will just cause the initiative to fail. Here are some of the barriers your attentiveness and perseverance will overcome:

Not understanding what has to be done,
Not having time to do what needs to be done,
Conflicting demands ("You say I have to sort and shine but the production manager says I gotta run parts!"),
Apathy or "Laying low until it all blows over" syndrome,
Lack of follow through and reinforcement on management's part,
Loss of early energy, onset of ennui

With all this in mind, it's best to give Sort and Shine some time to take hold. Don't move too quickly to Straighten and See.

Oops....here's the audit form

George Bohan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:01:40 GMT

Progressive Lean Phase 2 Self Review

You ever send an e-mail that was supposed to have an attachment...but you forgot the attachment?

Well, that's what I did with my last post. Seems I promised an self-review form but didn't deliver. (And thanks to the two commenters that reminded me. I'm glad to find out somebody is actually reading my posts. Sorry I didn't "approve" them in a timely way. I don't get back here everyday.)

You'll see it's a pretty humble Excel spreadsheet. It does print out pretty well, though. The scoring legend is in the footer.

Feel free to use as is or change as you see fit but I would appreciate it if you add something that tells folks where you got this. You know what they say about presenting other folks' work as if it were your own...it's called "cheating".

Progressive Lean Sort and Shine: Part 6

George Bohan — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:38:14 GMT

Today, I'm going to cover the Sort and Shine self-review.

A common approach to assessing 5S progress is the good old 5S audit. I've posted an audit form myself on this very blog. Heck, it's been one of my most popular posts. It seems a lot of folks have searched the internet for 5S audit forms and a few of them stumbled on my humble blog. I don't imagine that many are actually using the form I posted; it's not very good to tell the truth. Like most 5S audits it tries too hard to pack the whole thing into too small a poke. And it's difficult to design a "one size fits all" audit.

Aside from all that, I've just moved away from the idea that an audit, conducted by the 5S police, is the best approach. 5S becomes something else that supervisors can catch hell for rather than a true change in culture. Audits are fine...if you want to teach people how to pass audits. Something more engaging is needed if you want people to really learn the benefits of keeping their areas organized. The self-review puts the responsibility for regularly assessing the progress and status of the Progressive Lean initiative into the hands of the teams and their leaders.

Now I can imagine some will read this and misinterpret the approach, thinking that self-review is the equivalent of "do whatever the heck you like and set the standards wherever you like and it'll be OK". Team leaders and teams have to learn how to conduct a self-review and that will require some coaching. Further, they'll be required to carry out the self-audits both to "pass off' their area initially to show that they've completed the Sort and Shine schedule. Then, they'll be required to continue the self-reviews to show that they are sustaining the Sort and Shine benefits. Supervisors and lean champions will be expected to review the self-reviews and match them to what they see on their own gemba walks. This pretty much always leads to further feedback and coaching. So, if anything, self-reviews require more systemic rigor and discipline than does an occasional audit by the 5S police.

Here are the basics for carrying out self-reviews:

Hand out the form to team leaders. (You can use the one I've attached to this post...I hope.) Tell them that they are to conduct a self-review of the area that they've sorted and shined when they feel that the team has tackled the area effectively.
When they have completed the self-review, have them bring it back to you. Walk through the same area with the team leader (and, ideally, the team) having them talk about each item and the score they gave themselves. (If you're experience is like mine, you'll find that they grade themselves too rigorously. They forget that the goal is sort and shine, not hospital clean...unless it's a hospital, of course.) Once they've calibrated the self-review like this with you, they don't have to do it again unless you see later evidence in your gemba walks that they are slipping.
When they get a four on every item, they pass. Not an average of four for the entire review; four or better on each item.
Once they pass, have them continue to do the self-reviews at least monthly.

Progressive Lean Sort and Shine: Part 4

George Bohan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:15:25 GMT

OK, you have team leaders and they've been trained. It's time to get started with the actual sorting and shining.

Here's the basic approach: The manufacturing operations is going to be "divided up" in to areas. Each area should have a team leader. (Areas might further be divided into several locations .) A "Sort and Shine Schedule" is developed. The Sort and Shine Schedule indicates the days and times when operators will devote themselves to sorting and shining. You keep at the schedule until all areas are sorted and shined.

Now, let's go into a bit of detail.

Areas and Locations
In general, an area is the territory a team leader is responsible for. A location is a logical smaller space within an area. A present client has areas that each include several manufacturing lines. Each area is coordinated by a team leader. Within those areas, each line is considered a location. In another operation at the same client, there are manufacturing cells, each with a team leader. In this case, each cell is considered an area and each machine within a cell is considered a location. At that same client, the tool room as a whole is an area. It's divided into about ten locations; each of those locations has one or two machines, or a group of storage units. The idea is that sort and shine is carried out at each location until the entire area is completed.

Schedule
You must have a schedule. If you simply tell team leaders to go sort and shine as they and their teams get time...it simply won't happen. You must have a definitive, clear, posted schedule that shows the specific days and times when teams will stop what they are doing...let me repeat that: STOP WHAT THEY ARE DOING...to sort and shine. You can have a central schedule that applies to all areas or different schedules for each area. The schedule can provide for frequent short periods of time (e.g., every Monday and Wednesday from 2pm to 3pm) or longer periods of time less frequently (e.g., first and third Tuesday of the month from 6am to 12pm). But the schedule must have days and times and it must be posted. Then you have to keep track of the teams' performance against their schedules.

You can't overestimate the importance of the schedule. Sort and shine simply won't happen without it. (You'll find it's difficult enough to get it completed with a schedule.)

Progressive Sort and Shine: Part 3

George Bohan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:57:39 GMT

OK, you've selected your team leaders...now they'll need some training in the foundations of agile manufacturing, and 5S and its purposes. They'll also need a bit of instruction as to how to go about leading and facilitating Sort and Shine.

I use a half day session to cover all this material. About two hours is devoted to agile concepts and another two hours to carrying out Sort and Shine. During the two hours devoted to Sort and Shine, I go over the purpose of 5S in general and its role in the larger agile initiative. Then we dig into how to get Sort and Shine done.

It's pretty straightforward, as you might imagine. Sort and Shine is...well, sorting and shining. I explain the terms, talk about the red tag area, and go through a quick mock "sort and shine" out on the plant floor. I also explain the self-review format and process (which I'll cover in a different post). That's about it.

If it seems simple...it is. If it seems too simple, not to worry. There's more training coming. Besides, most of the knowledge exchange isn't going to take place in the classroom, it's going to occur as you coach the team leaders as they actually implement the various phases.

Book Review: Car Guys vs. Bean Counters

George Bohan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:05:57 GMT

Bob Lutz, former big kahuna design guy at all three of the Big Three plus BMW, wrote the book and it reflects his ego. Mind you, it's a good read and I recommend it but it's apparent that Bob sees himself as the best thing since sliced bread vis a vis Detroit and car making. The upside of this is he doesn't pull many punches and we get a good bit of information as to the inner workings of auto companies, culture and strategy-wise. The downside is that sometimes he just spouts off without direction or an apparent need to get his facts straight. At one point, he tries to pass off the lame rightwing canard about the Communities Reinvestment Act being the foundation of the economic crisis. That's just Tea Party baloney that's easily and often refuted but he repeats it any way.

In another case, he speaks of the time he spent communicating his particular vision to one and all. Good stuff, right? Well, he can't just leave well enough alone. He goes on to say (and I paraphrase here), "That might be counter to what an 'organizational theorist' would propose that I should have been doing..." First, I'm not sure exactly what an "organizational theorist" is but, for the sake of argument, let's say there are such. I'll go on record with a promise to pay Bob Lutz $100 for every "organizational theorist" he can find who will say that it's better to spend time in one's office poring over spreadsheets than it is communicating the vision to the troops.

Finally, Bob does a lot of whining about the media and Japanese car companies and how Japanese car companies are treated by the media. OK, it's his book...he's allowed some leeway here. But over and over? C'mon.

All that said, reading Bob's book is like sitting with him over beers listening to lots of interesting stories. Usually the stories flow and hang together well, sometimes they don't, but they're pretty interesting on the whole.

It's clear that Bob has great regard for intuition, creativity, playing hunches, experimenting, and bold decisions. He has far less regard for numbers, over-much process, over-much analysis, over-much discussion. He's not altogether wrong in these positions, of course, but I think it would be easy for a design guy to assume that the intuition and gut level decision making appropriate in his field would be applicable to all aspects of the enterprise. There's no question that non-value-added admin processes are waste and that any organization can suffer from "paralysis by analysis". But you can't run the whole place based on hunches and gut feel.

One thing that does come through in Bob's book (and it's not the only good thing but maybe the biggest good thing): Good strategy and a culture that supports good strategy is impossible (or, at least, really difficult) to the extent that you don't love the product. Even if you're selling plain stamped disks, you have to feel that those stamped disks are vital to the well being of society. As soon as you see your own product as a mere commodity in competition with other commodities, you're on the road to ruin. And I'm not talking about blind acceptance of the shortcomings and faults of one's own product. I'm saying that a company has to be vitally interested in the product and the customers' relationship with it if one is going to have an equally vital strategy.

Bob does a good job of relating the manner in which "brand management" (think: toothpaste) and beancounting hurt the auto companies. I'd argue that both approaches come from a false "We just make a commodity" view of the product.

Books Reviews: Crash Course and Once Upon A Car

George Bohan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:19:46 GMT

I've read two books that, IMHO, are "must reads" for anyone interested in the auto industry, strategy, general industry and manufacturing or business in these United States. Once Upon a Car by Bill Vlasic covers the buildup to the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. Crash Course covers much of the same ground but starts way back in the early days of the industry. It's clear both authors talked to a lot of the same people. Both authors even have the same line about Mulally when he signed the contract with Ford and it being the first time in four decades he didn't add a cartoon plane next to his name.

Both books are balanced. Both are very readable. (I have recommended the Vlasic book to my wife.) Both books would serve as good reading for any MBA strategy class.

The authors don't go into the companies strategies as such but it's not hard to pull at the threads and tweak out the overall fabric of strategy for each of the companies...such as it was.

Auto companies present interesting cases in strategy, I've always thought. For one thing, auto companies are big...really, really big. For another, the difference between a good decision and a bad one can be lots of money.... as in billions and billions of dollars. Lastly, when you're at the top of a company that is so very large, it's probably impossible to have even, say, a quarter of the information you need to make good strategic decisions. I can imagine it gets very easy to maintain the status quo, certainly if most things are going well as they were for the auto industry during the nineties. Even when they aren't going so well, I can imagine it's easy to hang on and hope for better times to come around.

Well, in reading these books, it seems like that's about how strategy, or what passes for it, unfolds within the Big Three. (And, it's starting to appear, within Toyota as well.) Add to this a culture that seems as if were purposefully designed to hinder communications, innovation, team work, and high performance, and you've got about everything you need for a set of businesses that need to be bailed out of their own incompetence every twenty five years or so (in the case of one of them, at least.) So, strategy is difficult for auto companies...but all the players knew this going in. And still they make the same mistakes over and over.

Here are the lessons I learned or the truths that were verified for me via the books:
1.) As a quote that starts a chapter in one of the books says, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
2.) Most of the folks running these companies really are as dumb as it seems they are. They keep doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.
3.) Big is good until it's bad. Then it's very, very bad.
4.) If you don't love the product AND THEREFORE the folks who buy the product, you shouldn't be anywhere near the company much less running the damn thing. This is why CFO's and lawyers make bad strategists.
5.) The most important competency an organization can have is agility. The most important loss a company can suffer is it's agility.

The Importance of Culture

George Bohan — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:28:06 GMT

From an HBR article, "The Contradictions that Drive Toyota's Success":

"Toyota has a strict hierarchy but it gives employees freedom to push back. Voicing contrarian opinions, exposing problems, not blindly following bosses orders - these are all permissible behaviors."

From Once Upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America's Big Three Automakers:

[Mark] Fields learned quickly how Ford was ruled by pay grades, status, and titles. The first time he raised his hand in a big meeting, he was shot down by his boss... 'You never say anything until you tell your manager.'

Might be all we need to know about the difference between the two companies.

Progressive Lean: Sort and Shine: Part 2

George Bohan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:28:51 GMT

The first step is to identify and appoint team leaders if you don't already have them.

The role of the team leader is to lead and coordinate lean activities in his or her work area. You might also have the team leader lead and coordinate production activities in the work area.

If you don't already have team leaders, you'll need to take these steps:

Identify and document the responsibilities, duties, and activities that you want the team leaders to carry out.
Make a decision as to whether or not you'll adjust the compensation of team leaders.
Post the team leader position. Interview candidates. Make your selections.

Identify and Document Responsibilities
Essentially, you're writing up a job description here and I'm sure you (or someone in your organization) has done this before. Make sure the team leader description capture the following points:

Team leader will be the coordinator of planning, scheduling, and implementation of lean activities in his or her area.
Team leader, with the team, will track progress on lean activities using the methods provided by the organization.
Team leader will work with the operating team to get all this done. Team leader will assure that the team is participating in lean activities and is engaged in using lean methods and tools as they are deployed.

Team Leader Compensation
You'll probably want to consider additional compensation for team leaders, especially if team leaders have production coordination responsibilities in addition to their lean initiative duties. You'll find that they do add value to the organization above and beyond any additional compensation, assuming that you utilize and support them.

It's difficult to say just how much additional compensation is appropriate without knowledge of prevailing wages in your industry or region. Trade associations or local business agencies will probably be able to help with this.

Post, Interview, Select
Don't appoint team leaders if you can avoid it at all. Take the time to post the positions, interview, and make careful selections. If you find that you're selecting the leaders you would have appointed anyway, no harm done. Often, companies, find excellent candidates whom they hadn't considered. Even if they don't end up selecting these candidates as team leaders, they have identified "bench strength": associates who can be developed to positions of responsibility.