“Flying” in the Toyota Way
Posted by Colin Hensley on August 07, 2009 in Uncategorized
On our recent vacation I had a lot of fun on the flying trapeze. This involves flinging yourself into space hanging on to a bar, then after executing some physical contortions to get into a specific position, letting go and being caught by the brave catcher at the other side.
As I prepared to leap, I thought about the teamwork and coordination that was required to be able to welcome a complete novice to the trapeze and an hour later have them being caught. There are four people in the team. The first is on the ground checking belts, teaching new positions and keeping things in good order. The second is at the top of the ladder; they fasten on the safety rope, and get the flyer into position, before sending them off into the void. The third is the catcher, who swings upside down waiting for the flyer to head directly at them. The fourth is basically in-charge, and controls the safety rope, and the overall timing of the activity.
Each one of the team takes responsibility for the flyer at their point in the process, and ensures that no problems are passed on to the next person. It’s a demonstration of great teamwork, combining synchronisation with complete trust in each other. Furthermore, giving the flyer the chance to repeat their position a number of times allows them to continuously improve their skill. I realised this is very like the Toyota’s “Total Quality Control” system in many ways, where you always depend on the person before you to deliver you what’s needed, and importantly take responsibility for delivering to your customer, the next person in the process. This way you can build-in quality from the start. Like so many things in our company, it’s a very logical approach to take. For me what is special is that it is formalised and spread through people’s day-to-day thinking through on-the-job training.
Thanks Andrea, Nathalie, Guillaume and Florent, it was a great experience, and a great lesson.
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Comments(0)How to use less water, and influence people!
Posted by Colin Hensley on January 30, 2009 in Green Technologies
Last week I was in the United Kingdom, at meetings with my colleagues from the operations there, including some from TMUK, our UK manufacturing operation. During lunch we were talking about the various activities that they have been busy with as part of their Sustainable Plant institutive.
One of the ones I found most interesting was to do with the reduction in water use at the plant. Over the past few years they have done a number of different things to use less, and re-use more. What impressed me is the way of thinking, it’s not just aiming for big wins, but consistently and continuously looking for every possible improvement. That’s the real kaizen mind, that is at its best in the plant.
There are some ‘big’ activities, one of which is the reverse osmosis plant, which takes the wastewater from the painting process and cleans it up to allow it to be used as feed water for steam boilers and cooling for compressors. This in itself represents a saving of 50000 tonnes per year!
As a result TMUK has reduced water consumption by 72% compared with 1993 levels.
Perhaps the icing on the cake is that this activity has been recognised by the community, with TMUK receiving a Big Tick Eco-efficiency Award from the NGO Business In The Community in 2007 and 2008.
Please have a look at our TV commercial if you are interested in seeing many of the Sustainable Plant activities in one 60 second spot.
