Learn TPS by Doing TPS
I tell all my clients that you learn the TPS by doing the TPS. All other efforts such as reading, studying and observing may be necessary, but they are not sufficient.
Let me give you one example. Jim Womack is a hero of mine. He has done more to advance lean thinking in the U.S. than anyone I can point to. However, I have always had concerns with some portions of Womack’s writings. Specifically he has never really spoken about the critical importance of process stability, and he is very soft on machinery issues of availability as well. These are two topics of major importance in many, many plants as they embark on a lean initiative -- yet Womack is virtually silent here.
When his last book, “Gemba Walks,” came out, I rushed to buy it and rushed to read it. In his chapter on Hansei, critical reflection, I was amazed, surprised and very pleased to read that he wrote:
“For 20 years I have had a T-shirt on the wall above my desk in my writer’s nook. On the front is a line drawing of Taichi Ohno starting down at me with the admonition, ‘Where there is no standard, there can be no kaizen.’ Yet somehow I kept thinking smooth flow and steady pull could be created first, with basic stability as an afterthought—or that maybe it would just emerge automatically. In retrospect, it’s like believing that a building can be built without first laying the foundation. I now see my error. I only wish I had realized this sooner.”
He wishes he’d realized it sooner. So do I.
This oversight, the failure to establish stable flow at takt as a basic condition, has contributed to many, many lean failures. Without stable flow, without predictable flow, without a process free of assignable causes, there simply is too much variation to make a lean conversion successful. Without stable flow, the lean implementation is doomed. With stable flow, it has a chance of success.
I do not attribute this flaw in our system of lean thinking and lean awareness to Womack or any other writer -- or any other academic -- for that matter. I attribute this weakness to the vast majority of lean practitioners and managers who are trying to implement a lean initiative and do not seriously question and analyze their own situations. Instead, they want to blindly and lazily copy the thoughts of someone else as though someone else has not only most of the answers, but all of the answers.
