How to implement Lean Mannufacturing

How to Implement

Lean Manufacturing

About the Author

LONNIE WILSON has been teaching and implementing

Lean techniques for more than 39 years. His experience

spans 20 years with an international oil company

where he held a number of management positions. In

1990 he founded Quality Consultants which teaches

and applies Lean techniques to small entrepreneurs

and Fortune 500 firms, principally in the United States,

Mexico, and Canada.

How to Implement

Lean Manufacturing

Lonnie Wilson

New York Chicago San Francisco

Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City

Milan New Delhi San Juan

Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto

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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

1 What Is the Perspective of This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

From a Practical Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

From an Engineering Viewpoint without Much Cultural Advice . . . 1

This Book Has a “How to” Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

And to Those in Manufacturing Who Seek Huge Gains . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System . . . . . . . . . 9

The Popular Defi nition of Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

What Is Lean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

What Did Ohno Say about the Toyota Production System? . . . . . . . . 10

The TPS and Lean Manufacturing Defi ned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Who Developed the TPS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Two Pillars of the TPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

What Is Really Different about the TPS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Behavioral Defi nition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Business Defi nition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Several Revolutionary Concepts in the TPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The TPS Is Not a Complete Manufacturing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Various Philosophies . . . . . . 28

Where Lean Will Not Work… or Not Work Quite so Well . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

3 Inventory and Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Just Why Do I Have and Why Do I Need the Inventory? . . . . . . . . . . 42

What Is So Bad about Inventory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

About Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Kanban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Kanban Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Finished Goods Inventory Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Kanban Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Make-to-Stock versus Make-to-Order Production Systems . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4 Lean Manufacturing Simplifi ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Philosophy and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

v

vi Contents

The Foundation of Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Quantity Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5 The Signifi cance of Lead Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Some History of Lead Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Benefi ts of Lead-Time Reductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Excalibur Machine Shop, Lead-Time Reductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Techniques to Reduce Lead Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

6 How to Do Lean—Cultural Change Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Three Fundamental Issues of Cultural Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Some Cultural Aspects of a Lean Implementation Worthy of

Further Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Appendix A—Problem Solving and Standardization: How Are

They Similar? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

7 How to Do Lean—The Four Strategies to Becoming Lean . . . . . . . . 111

Overview of the Lean Implementation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Implementing Lean Strategies on the Production Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Appendix A—The Takt Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Appendix B—The Basic Time Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Appendix C—The Balancing Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Appendix D—The Spaghetti Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Appendix E—Value Stream Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

8 How to Implement Lean—The Prescription for the Lean Project . . . 135

An Overview on How to Implement Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

A Key Question to the Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Step 1: Assess the Three Fundamental Issues to Cultural Change . . . 138

Step 2: Complete a Systemwide Evaluation of the Present State . . . . 139

Step 3: Perform an Educational Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Step 4: Document the Current Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Step 5: Redesign to Reduce Wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Step 6: Evaluate and Determine the Goals for This Line . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Step 7: Implement the Kaizen Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Step 8: Evaluate the Newly Formed Present State, Stress the System,

Then Return to Step 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Lean Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

What to Do with the Plan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Appendix A—The Second Commitment Evaluation of

Management Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

9 Planning and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Some Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Contents vii

Hoshin–Kanri Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Why Are Goals and Goal Deployment So Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Policy Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Leadership in Goal Development, Deployment, and Determining

What “Should Be” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

10 Sustaining the Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Why Is It So Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

How Do We Know There Is a Loss? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

What Is Process Gain? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

11 Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Background Information on Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

The Toyota Production System and Its Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

What Should We Do with Our Lean Culture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

12 Constraint Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Bottleneck Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13 Cellular Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Cellular Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

The Gamma Line Redesign to Cellular Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

14 The Story of the Alpha Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

How I Got Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Initial Efforts to Implement Cultural Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Some of the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Continuous Improvement, as It Should Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

The Cool Story of SPC: SPC Done Right! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

How Did the Alpha Line Management Team Handle the

Fundamentals of Cultural Change? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

15 The Story of the Bravo Line: A Tale of Reduced Lead Times

and Lots of Early Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Background Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Implementing the Prescription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

The Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

16 Using the Prescription—Three Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Why These Case Studies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Lean Preparation Done Well: The Story of Larana Manufacturing . . . 236

viii Contents

The Zeta Cell: A Great Example of Applying the Four Strategies

to Reduce Waste and Achieve Huge Early Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

The Case of the QED Motors Company: Another Great Example

of Huge Early Gains on an Entire Value Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Applying the Second Prescription at QED Motors—How to

Implement Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

17 The Precursors to Lean Not Handled Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Background to the ABC Widgets Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

We Analyze the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Summary of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

How Did the Management Team from ABC Widgets Handle

the Fundamentals of Cultural Change? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

The Real Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

18 An Experiment in Variation, Dependent Events, and Inventory . . . 285

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

The Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

19 Assessment Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

The Five Tests of Management Commitment to

Lean Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

The Ten Most Common Reasons Lean Initiatives Fail

(in Part or Totally) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

The Five Precursors to Implementing a Lean Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Process Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

20 A House of Lean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Preface

Why I Am Writing This Book

I am writing this book for several reasons.

First, I have been asked to. On numerous occasions, clients have asked me to write

a book. The first time was on the subject of measurement system analysis (MSA); the

second on statistical process control (SPC); the third time on statistical problem

solving—and in the past five years I have been asked on no less than three occasions to

condense my thoughts on Lean Manufacturing into book form. Writing a book is also

something I have wanted to do, but just never had the time to do so. However, in the

end, it was other reasons (which I later list in this chapter) that drove me to the effort.

Second, I am very tired of seeing managers

everywhere looking for this “silver bullet” called Lean

Manufacturing. They see it as a catch-all for attacking

all their business woes—including poor profitability

and low levels of competitiveness—and transforming

their business into the pinnacle of profitability. I want

to stand up and yell at the top of my lungs and make

it very clear that there is no silver bullet. In this regard,

I now offer up three quotes here.

Third, as a consultant I frequently find myself

quite frustrated in being unable to sell Lean

Manufacturing to a facility that desperately needs it.

Maybe this book can put my thoughts into a clear

and convincing format that I am unable to otherwise

convey.

Perhaps I get particularly frustrated because I

embody a tough combination of characteristics. For

instance, I am reasonably talented in what I do, which

sadly helps me less than you would think when it

comes to selling the concept of Lean Manufacturing.

In addition, I am burdened with a high degree of

frankness. And finally, I am one of the world’s worst

salesmen. I laughingly tell people I could not sell free

water to millionaires dying of thirst in the desert.

Maybe I’m not that bad—but when it comes to selling

things, both physical and ideological, I have a lot of

“In the choice between

changing one’s mind and prov￾ing there’s no reason to do so,

most people get busy on the

proof.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

“Men stumble over the

truth from time to time, but

most pick themselves up and

hurry off as if nothing hap￾pened.”

Sir Winston Churchill

“Opportunity is missed

by most people because it is

dressed in overalls and looks

like work.”

Thomas Edison

ix

room for growth. Thus, this combination of skill, frankness, and lack of sales ability puts

me in the position of having to tell plant managers (PMs) and general managers (GMs)

that their plants are very sick, when, indeed, they are very sick. What they really would

like to hear is that their plant only needs a little tweaking, and that this tweaking can be

done in a few weeks. Furthermore, they often want to hear that I am the person who can

do it, do it after only a few visits to their plant, and that I can imbue a person on the

grounds with such fantastic skills that they will never have to hire another consultant

again. Unfortunately, to their dismay, I usually have to tell them what they don’t want

to hear. I tell them that their plant is really sick (meaning their present as well as future

business is in danger, and that the jobs of hundreds of their employees are also in danger);

that their problems are fixable (if they are fixable, and they usually are), but that it will

take months to fix them, not weeks; and finally I tell them that the specific skillset they

wish to bring to particular employees at their facility will not come in only a few weeks

either.

Thus, my approach is to tell them what can be done, as I see it. I have been in this

business for a long time and have developed the ability to quickly size up problems like

this and make reasonable value judgments about the effort and time it will take to reach

certain goals. However, when the typical manager hears this, he is disappointed and all

too frequently will politely say, “Thank you. Let’s keep in touch,” which translates to

“Adios amigo,” and so off I go.

Losing a good job is bad enough, but my frustration comes from a deeper part of me

that wants to make their facility a better money-making machine and a securer work

environment for their employees. So I am doubly frustrated. Therefore, in this book, I

will offer up numerous examples of these kinds of situations, with which I’m sure you

will be utterly amazed. You may even mutter, “This can’t possibly be true.” But au

contraire… true it is.

I have often thought about this problem—that is, the one about the plant manager

who wants to solve his problem without taking the bull by the horns. I have discussed

it with others, including my wife, psychiatrists, psychologists, my pastor, as well as

dozens of top-level managers. As might be expected, the root cause of this problem has

myriad descriptions—some call it denial, others laziness, and still others say it results

from a “quick-fix mentality.” But the one I keep coming back to is simplistic thinking.

So just what is simplistic thinking? I like to say that there are two groups of people

who can solve any problem—those who know nothing about the problem but its name,

and those who clearly know what is happening.

• For those who know nothing, everything is simple. If you have teenagers, all too

often they fall into this category. Unfortunately, many managers also reside

there. Fueled by success stories that are simplified by TV and literature in

which—in a world of instant gratification—television detectives can solve any

problem in under an hour, and despite facing persistent problems in meeting

ever-tougher business objectives, executives continually want to believe that life

is simple. Well, it is not. Life is not only complicated, it is difficult. It’s easy to

focus on the success stories, simplify them, and ignore many of the bumps and

bruises so inherent in any change initiative. Unfortunately, many believe lock,

stock, and barrel in these fairy tale stories. Even worse, they believe that such

stories detail all the effort involved. This is never the case. Any journey always

involves complications, confrontations, disagreements, and wrong-paths-taken.

To ignore such things makes a story simpler and more publishable, but it does

not make it any more true.

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• On the other hand, a select few who have been blessed with both clarity of

thought and the ability to take seemingly complicated situations and reduce

them to a simplicity that is not only amazing in its clarity but also revealing in

its truth. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is credited with the saying, “I don’t

give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would die for the

simplicity on the other side.” I find his statement extremely profound.

Really, It’s Not That Complicated, so Let’s Get Started

Now for the fourth reason I’m writing this book. Once understood, Lean Manufacturing—

its technical engineering aspects and basic concepts—is really quite simple. However,

in my dealings with clients, most do not really understand Lean and many try to make

it much more complicated than it is. Consequently, throughout this book two concepts

shall appear.

• First, “Points of Clarity” will be scattered through the pages, where seemingly

complicated concepts will be reduced to their simplest form—usually just one

pithy sentence. After all, if things truly are simple, they can typically be

expressed in only a few words.

• Second, the application of Lean concepts has been reduced to a simple

prescription—a prescription that, once the concepts are understood, can be

readily applied to a wide variety of situations.

Huge Gains Can Be Made

Fifth, I have found from experience that if Lean Manufacturing is implemented, it is

highly possible to derive huge early gains from the effort. I will give several examples

of this throughout the book. These large early gains, which I call “low-hanging fruit,”

are sometimes the fuel used to catalyze a truly deep and profound plunge into the heart

of Lean, including the cultural change that is both so necessary and so beneficial. Only

when the cultural change is completed will the benefits be realized and fully exploited.

Unfortunately, harvesting this low-hanging fruit frequently feeds the bias of

management, since they now have living proof that there really are “quick fixes,” and so

while the Lean implementation is really in its infancy the focus is sometimes changed to

something else causing the Lean implementation, and its benefits, to predictably regress.

The message is this: Often there are huge early gains to be made, but if these benefits

are to be sustained, a cultural change must occur. This change does not come easily,

nor quickly. All too often, in manufacturing as in life, things that come very easily often

disappear just as quickly. This can also be true of gains made from the implementation

of Lean.

Separating Out the Intimidating Cultural Aspects

Sixth, many of those who seek to begin a journey into Lean start by reading a book or

two on the topic. Unfortunately, some find the literature too complicated, inapplicable,

or its cultural aspects too intimidating. They become discouraged by the published

materials and do not proceed. Many find the answer to “What is Lean Manufacturing?”—

indeed, some books are very good in describing the “what is” aspect. However, very

few address the issue of “How can I implement Lean Manufacturing in my facilities?”

I like to say they are long on knowledge but short on applications.

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Regarding the books on Lean, I find the materials to be in two categories.

First, some literature is just way too complicated for many to deal with, at least

regarding the initial phases of implementation. Although there is a reasonable amount

of good literature on Lean, some of it does not really reach the audience I am trying to

reach, such as those starving for information on “Just how do I implement this thing

called Lean?” For example, the best source of Lean information, for me, is Ohno’s book

(Ohno, 1988). I find it rich in both information and insights. But his book is a hard read.

It’s sometimes difficult to follow Ohno’s train of thought. In addition, he has the ability

to say some very powerful things in very simple sentences. As a result, the depth of his

statements often goes unnoticed by those just beginning their study of Lean or the

Toyota Production System (TPS). Thus, Ohno is often misunderstood. Worse, some of

what he says goes completely unnoticed by the novice. I am not sure who Ohno

characterizes as his audience, but he takes many things for granted that the typical

reader does not fully comprehend, especially if they are just beginning to research Lean.

For example, Ohno’s explanation of how quality was under control when they first

launched the TPS∗

is not fleshed out fully enough for the novice. Such things make his

book, as well as Shingo’s, a bit ineffective with some readers (Shingo, 1989).

Still other books have been written by ex-Toyota personnel. Some of these books are

quite good yet many readers are unable to identify with them. I found this curious,

since usually books written by insiders are quite good. Nonetheless, I would get

comments from readers like, “Sounds good, but it’s not something we can do here,” or

other remarks about the ideas’ inapplicability, despite the fact that the system could

indeed be applied to their situation. Still, it prevented these people from using these

resources as they embarked on their own Lean journey—or worse yet, it prevented

them from even starting a Lean implementation. Hence, I have written this as a

simplified version of “How to Implement Lean,” complete with a methodology for

assessing a company’s needs, as well as a prescription for implementation.

The second intimidating factor about some of the literature has to do with the deep

cultural changes needed to fully implement Lean. For example, some people embarking

on a potential Lean journey will read about how the line operator is empowered—

actually required—to shut down production when problems occur. They then contrast

this to their facility where they see this outcome as a practical impossibility. The gap is

just too intimidating for them. Or perhaps they read about the belief that defects and

failures are seen as opportunities to improve production rather than as obstacles to

overcome, and they just cannot envision this idea as part of their culture. These are not

technical issues, they are cultural issues, and in some cases they will require huge

changes—changes larger than they can imagine. And so they become discouraged.

Make no mistake about it, these are powerful aspects of Lean, aspects that separate

it from other manufacturing philosophies, and aspects that should be sought after.

Again, make no mistake. Toyota, as well as others that developed these cultural

changes, spent a significant amount of effort and time on the process, and it came with

many bumps, bruises, and wrong-paths-taken. But these cultural changes were exactly

what was required—in fact, they are the reasons Ohno was so successful. He guided his

culture through the murky waters of change, and did so with skill.

These required cultural changes should be the reason people adopt, not avoid, a

Lean implementation effort.

∗

See the section “It Is Not a Complete Manufacturing System” in Chap. 2.

xii Preface

Later in this book, in Chap. 11, cultural change will be discussed. However, in this

book, as much as practical, we will separate the behavioral level skills from the deep

cultural changes required and try to highlight them when they appear. Ohno did not

develop the culture of the TPS, nor did he get it fully implemented in just a few years.

He spent over 30 years in this effort, and had built on what others accomplished before

him. So to expect that in a year or two you can achieve what Toyota and others now

have in place is not reasonable. The development of a culture is truly a journey, not an

event.

To Enhance Your Understanding

Finally, I hope this book will enhance your understanding of Lean and its many

applications, as well as its limitations. Lean, they say, is a journey without any

destination. T. S. Eliot expressed this idea quite elegantly: “We must not cease from

exploration. And the end of all exploration will be to arrive where we began and to

know the place for the first time.” My hope is that this book will enhance your own

exploration.

Lonnie Wilson

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