Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 10

Developing leaders at Toyota

Published: 29 August 2012 10:13am by Jeffrey Liker

Jeffrey Liker, Professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan, explains what lean leadership is and why it is needed, talking about the Japanese car-makers approach to forming leaders. Why lean leadership? These days organisations around the world have at least dabbled in the tools of lean and gotten enough positive results to keep going. Yet, so many are disappointed that the new, beautiful processes, so well documented in value stream maps, do not perform as envisioned. People lack the discipline to follow the

new procedures, sustain the newly embossed standardised work, call for help using the andon system, and solve problems as they occur. Why? Because they lack the discipline and focus. Why? Because they do not see what is in it for them to do this new, extra work. Why? Because they do not really understand where these specific changes are headed and what they can do for them and the company. Why? Because they have not learned deeply enough to believe in all this lean stuff. Why? Because nobody they respect and trust has been teaching and coaching as they have gone through the change. Conclusion: leadership is weak, uncommitted to lean, and lacks skill and deep understanding. A dramatic change must take place to support and sustain lean transformation that starts with a diligent and disciplined focus on self development. Ask enough whys, sometimes more than five are necessary, and more often than not you will find your way to inadequate leadership. By definition, leaders lead. That means they have people who willingly follow them. Virtually every modern book on leadership concludes leaders must paint a picture of the future state and purpose of todays activities. Leaders must passionately believe in the purpose and process. Leaders must inspire others. And in lean we know that leaders must show the way through the methods to make forward progress. Those methods stable processes, visual management, standardised work, problem solving, clear pictures of the target versus actual are powerful tools if used properly by leaders. This leads us to the definition of lean leadership. Why is it any different from any other type of leadership? One could certainly argue it is not different from the theoretical ideal of a leader, but it is also radically different from what passes for leadership in so many organisations around the world. We know the lean leader must possess the general characteristics and skills that we expect of effective leaders painting a vision, getting to know what drives the people they lead, active listening, empathetic questioning, the ability

to help people find a way to satisfy their needs, and you can add to the list. So what are the peculiar lean things? The real essence of lean according to Toyota is embodied in two seemingly simple, but powerful concepts respect for people and continuous improvement. Respect for people in Toyota means viewing them as long-term partners in the business that appreciate in value over time and then mining that value by challenging people to stretch themselves and grow. People who are unchallenged and stagnant, even if treated nicely, are disrespected in the Toyota view. The way people can grow their capabilities is through participating in continuous improvement. Continuous improvement literally means making things better every day, sometimes taking big steps and more often taking small steps. Continuous improvement sounds like a great idea always getting better but there are clear skill sets needed and a variety of supporting tools. That is where lean comes in. Lets consider some of the characteristics of lean leaders and what they do that is quite a bit different from typical leaders these days. WHAT DO LEAN LEADERS DO AND WHAT DO THEY NEED TO KNOW? The starting point for a lean leader is managing from the gemba. This has become almost a truism, but few know what it really means. Obviously it means the leader has to be where the thing of importance is happening. That could be where the customers are (e.g., using the product, waiting in a hospital), where the finances are being done, where the product is being built, where the product is being tested, where components are stored in inventory, and more. In the Woody Allen joke most of success is just showing up. Is it enough just to show up? The answer is absolutely not.

There is a growing popularity of standardised work for leaders. Basically this consists of an organised pattern of walking and observing the gemba, perhaps with a different focus area every day. This satisfies the first requirement of going to the gemba, but it can also be just showing up. As Taiichi Ohno said: If you are out there at the gemba, do something for them (the workers). If you do the workers will think, Hes watching us, but he comes up with some good ideas. That way when the workers see you they will look forward to your help again, and as a result they will begin telling you what makes the work hard to do and ask you to think of ways to make it better. Learning how to add value at the gemba is a totally different skill set to learning to walk a set pattern. It may be standardised walking and looking, but not standardised value adding. To add value requires skills that include many abilities:

To understand the process and see waste; To ask the right questions and understand the problems; To generate some ideas, but more importantly to draw out the ideas of those at the gemba; To be a role model for good problem solving; To have the skills in problems solving to be a role model and coach. DEVELOPING LEAN LEADERS This is simply hard, but it is not unnaturally hard. The truth is that it is hard to learn any new skills, particularly for adults. Try to train someone who has little experience to play a musical instrument, or to play golf, or to cook a great meal, or countless other complex

skills. Lean leadership requires a complex skill set that unfortunately few managers have developed. At Toyota there is tremendous respect for on-the-job development (OJD) guided by a sensei (master trainer). Perhaps it is related to the long tradition within the company, and within Japan, of the master-apprentice relationship. We know how to teach. We can tell the difference between a good music teacher and a poor one. We would never let our children go to a short course to learn an instrument and expect them to come back in a week as experts. We know it takes dedication, practice, feedback from a good teacher, and years of intensive study. Why do we think we can develop a leader in an offsite or at a university short-course on leadership? It cannot be done. It has to happen at the gemba, with deliberate practice, with a coach, spread over years. Toyota does this. In The Toyota Way, Gary Convis, a Toyota veteran, estimated it would take 10 years of OJD before he could really trust someone to be a Toyota leader. The process is simple. You are thrown into a challenging situation and as you work your way through it the coach shows up to check on your progress and provide advice, ask questions, and make sure you are not in over your head. But you must have the drive to solve the problems and to win the trust of the people. Through repeated practice doing this the leader will advance. Those who learn the most and demonstrate it at the gemba get promoted to higher levels of challenge. As Toyota has grown so there are not enough sensei to individually coach leaders they developed more formal training and OJD. This has been a three step process: 1. Toyota Way 2001 Teaching the principles of the Toyota Way and then senior leaders did projects; 2. Toyota Business Practices (TBP) This is Toyotas eight-step problem solving process. Senior leaders got a small amount of training, did eight month projects documented on A3s, and

presented to the top executives. They then became teachers and part of the review process for the next level; 3. On-the-Job Development (OJD) The latest training is OJD. Leaders being taught to be coaches select one person they will develop. After two days of training on the basics of OJD, they work with that person to select a project that person will do using TBP, then coach that person through the process, while that person is leading a team to solve the problem. All three of these waves have been primarily based on doing with a coach. They all started top down and the senior leaders became trainers with the help of a small number of coaches. Each took years TBP took eight years to get down to the work groups. And senior leaders were repeatedly learning as they coached wave after wave of subordinates and evaluated their problem solving process. This is noticeably different from the usual corporate training programme, and consistent with the fundamentals of teaching a complex skill. YOUR SELF DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY I do not know of any other company that has been willing to make such a serious long-term commitment as we see at Toyota to developing leaders. I view the Toyota story as a kind of True North. Directionally this is what you want to do. How close can you get? In the meantime, at the end of the day, we are all responsible for our own development. Self development should follow the model we all know works for training. We must identify a goal for our future state. We must break this down into smaller chunks that we will practice. We should find a coach or seek out feedback 360 degrees around us. Most importantly, we must become learners. The PDCA process applies as well to self development as it does to solving a problem: we must have some sort of plan, do it, check what happened, and

make adjustments based on what happened. Every activity, every interaction, is an opportunity for self-reflection and learning. Often failures, for example the inability to win over a subordinate, are more instructive than successes. Working to control what we can control ourselves is a lifetime journey. Becoming better people will always pay off, regardless of the particular organisation we are part of, to better our lives, those we love, and ultimately our communities and society. Further Reading Jeffrey Liker and Gary Convis, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence, New York, McGraw Hill, 2011. Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus, Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way, New York, McGraw-Hill, 2008. Mike Rother, Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results, New York, McGraw-Hill, 2008. John Shook and James Womack, Managing to Learn, Using the A3 Management Process to Solve Problems, Gain Agreement, Mentor and Learn, Cambridge, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2008.
- See more at: http://www.leanmj.com/2012/08/developing-leaders-at-toyota/#sthash.OIfAbFHq.dpuf

Samsung: supply chain-driven leadership


Posted June 1, 2012 Filed under: Consumer & Industrial Goods Industry, Growth Strategy, Supply Chain & Operations | Tags: Best Practices, CPFR, Samsung, Six Sigma, Smartphones, supply chain |

3 Votes

Founded in 1938, South Korean conglomerate Samsung has seen its revenue explode in recent years, with profits hitting record levels of more than $4 billion in the first quarter of 2012 on the strength of the companys smartphone products. The electronics giant spent most of 2011 in a neck-and-neck race with Apple for the top prize in smartphone sales before ending the year on top. Now Samsung is shifting its focus from consumer electronics to solar panels, light-emittingdiode (LED) lighting, biotech drugs and medical devices. The company has announced plans to supply medical equipment and drugs to poor countries, while moving industrialized nations toward power created without carbon emissions. Firms worldwide will be gauging Samsungs shift and likely will keep a close eye on the companys supply chain component, widely reported to be one of its biggest competitive advantages. Samsungs Supply Chain Philosophy Samsung initiated a collaborative plan to foster growth and stability among its key suppliers. According to Samsungs corporate sustainability report, the company is shifting its Mutual Growth program to smaller firms lower on itsgreen supply chain. The CEO is directly responsible for implementing seven key collaborative programs:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Win-win fund for partner companies Timely reflection of raw material price changes in parts purchasing prices Temporary registration scheme to promote e-transactions Support for indirect suppliers Joint technology development center Fostering global best companies

7. Support for recruiting activities of small and medium enterprises

In addition, Samsung offers support to its partner companies in human resources, innovation, communication and corporate social responsibility. This approach tosupply chain management has resulted in a strong and loyal network of partners. Samsung also has implemented a number of other methods to ensure sustainability in its supply chain Successful Supply Chain Management For Samsung, successful supply chain management (SCM) means tapping into the power of its global footprint. The companys SCM utilizes suppliers in the developing world and highly industrialized areas. This diversity helps buffer Samsung from economic, natural or political disruptions in the supply chain and also creates a wider customer base. Another idea Samsung has leveraged is that of being a fast follower. The company watches the market for new business ventures, purchasing small, leading-edge companies. Samsung becomes familiar with new technologies through these acquisitions, which deliver expertise, talent and customers. Once it finds an area primed for growth, it pours in cash, ramps up production and becomes a key customer for its suppliers, fostering positive relationships that give it a competitive advantage. CPFR Method: How Samsung Implemented It Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) focuses on improving supply chain management by combining the intelligence of a variety of partners in satisfying customer demand. CPFR uses a set of template-based standards for supply chain management and partner collaboration. Among the corporations to have used CPFR are Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble and Samsung. In 2004, Samsung signed a CPFR agreement with electronics retailer Best Buy for the North American market. The initiative improved efficiency by cutting costs for merchandising, inventory, logistics and transportation. In 2009, the two firms expanded the agreement to the Chinese market, agreeing to enhance each others supply chains by supporting and assisting in joint practices, including:

Monitoring market demands Sharing customer feedback Working together to reduce operating costs

Six Sigma at Samsung With a global supply chain as complex as Samsungs, advanced approaches to planning, scheduling and operations are necessary for stability and success. Since 2004, an innovative program combining supply chain management and Six Sigma has been a key driver of both. Samsung first researched how Six Sigma was being used at companies like General Electric, Honeywell and DuPont. Methods of matching customer requirements to products and services, while applying lean methodologies to manufacturing, were seen as particularly valuable. In the end, Samsung determined about 75% of its Six Sigma projects would involve redesigning processes and 25% would focus on process improvement. It then tailored Six Sigmas methodology to better support Samsungs supply chain management projects.

In addition, Samsungs team also created design principles to guide the SCM Six Sigma projects throughout each stage:

Global Optimum speaks to a global, rather than local alignment of improvement ideas Process KPI Mapping defines objectives and monitors the process towards management improvement plan goals Systemization a critical component of SCM Six Sigma at Samsung Five Design Parameters used to characterize the changes that need to be managed.

Samsungs Success Based on Sound SCM By beginning with a collaborative philosophy and adopting smart supply chain management processes, such as fast follower, CPFR and specialized Six Sigma, Samsung has maintained its position as a world leader in consumer electronics. As the company moves into a diversified business model, it is expected to continue utilizing those methods to remain competitive and profitable, while fostering similar benefits for its suppliers, retailers and other supply chain partners. This guest post was provided by Dean Vella who writes about supply chain managementand sustainability for University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco.
About these ads

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi