No Bypassing the Responsibility of Learning
They do not want to learn by doing. They want to learn by reading. They want to learn by copying. It is a form or intellectual laziness and a shortcut bound for failure. Quite frankly, unlike Womack and others, they want to bypass the responsibility of learning. There is no such luxury available.
They do not have the wisdom and the courage to venture into the unknown as Ohno did. They ignore how Ohno created his system.
Which was: Find a basic need, design a countermeasure, then you -- not a bunch of hired guns -- you implement it. Find its strengths. Find its soft spots. Build on its strengths. Learn from its failures. Read, study, analyze and reflect on the weaknesses. Modify it. Make it work. Refine it further. Understand why it worked. Understand why it did not work. Understand how you can use it elsewhere. Understand when and where you can do it again. Understand where it should not be used. Analyze it further; study it. Show others how it succeeded. Show others how it failed. Chart your progress. Then find the next need and repeat this arduous learning cycle once again. Learn your way to competency. It is not just PDCA, it is PDCA with you in the middle.
By living it, you will learn and make progress, as Ohno and Shingo did. And as you learn about your facility, you will -- as Ohno did -- learn that stable flow at takt is the basic operating condition that must be achieved if you wish to implement a successful lean initiative.
Also Read: Outward Signs of Unstable Process Flow
Lonnie Wilson has been teaching and implementing lean and other culture-changing techniques for more than 40 years. His book, “How To Implement Lean Manufacturing” was released in August 2009. His new book on “How to Lead and Manage a Lean Facility” is under construction. Wilson is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. In addition to IndustryWeek, he has published articles in Quality Digest and is a frequent contributor to iSixSigma magazine. His manufacturing experience spans 20 years with Chevron, where he held a number of management positions. In 1990 he founded Quality Consultants, www.qc-ep.com, which teaches and applies lean and other culture-changing techniques to small entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 firms, principally in the United States, Mexico and Canada. In particular, he specializes in “lean revitalizations,” assisting firms that have failed or failing lean implementations and want to”do it right.”
