No end for continuous improvement

The key principles drive the techniques and tools of the Toyota Production System and the management of Toyota in general are well known, described in manufacturing literature and analyzed many times in last decades. Just to summarize them, how they were described by Jeffrey K. Liker in his book “The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer” the Toyota’s 14 principles are divided into four sections:

Long-Term Philosophy. Toyota is serious about long-term thinking. The focus from the very top of the company is to add value to customers and society. This drives a long-term approach to building a learning organization, one that can adapt to changes in the environment and survive as a productive organization. Without this foundation, none of the investments Toyota makes in continuous improvement and learning would be possible.

The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results. Toyota is a process-oriented company. They have learned through experience what processes work, beginning with the ideal of one-piece flow. Flow is the key to achieving best quality at the lowest cost with high safety and morale. At Toyota this process focus is built into the company’s DNA, and managers believe in their hearts that using the right process will lead to the results they desire.

Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People and Partners. The Toyota Way includes a set of tools that are designed to support people continuously improving and continuously developing. For example, one-piece flow is a very demanding process that quickly surfaces problems that demand fast solutions or production will stop. This suits Toyota’s employee development goals perfectly because it gives people the sense of urgency needed to confront business problems. The view of management at Toyota is that they build people, not just cars.

Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning. The highest level of the Toyota Way is continuously organizational learning. Identifying root causes of problems and preventing them from occurring is the focus of Toyota’s continuous learning system. Tough analysis, reflection and communication of lessons learned are central to improvement as is the discipline to standardize the best-known practices.

Now, when a summary of the Toyota’s principles was done I will share one personal experience. A few years ago I was talking with the MD of one manufacturing units about Lean management. I asked him his view about?establishing a culture of continuous improvement?in his business.?His answer blew me away; he said “We completed that project last year!” Also the same MD he was used to say about some of his previous experiences as MD “during my time, everything was just fine”. Since that time I have constantly asked myself, “Do business leaders really know what it means to be Lean? Do they know their responsibility for companies working for? Are they clear in their demands to their subordinates if they definitely haven't understood lean way?”

More and more, in many companies, Lean it become a brand stamp, sometimes a diploma on the wall. There is an understanding of the benefits of many tools but there is less understanding about the enormous business benefits gained from fostering the talent and creativity of employees, empowering them to make continuous improvements.?Continuous improvement?can have an enormous positive impact on any business, but there must first be an established culture of respect and trust. Continuous improvement is a critical aspect of a Lean business that has no chance to survive and sustain unless it exists within a culture of respect for the ideas of all employees.

Empower your employees?to make positive change through continuous improvement. Foster and promote creative thought - “how can we do this better?”, “how can we improve?”, “how do way stay ahead of the competition?”. If this culture of empowerment it is created, it will create a culture of improvement. New ideas will flow, innovations will materialize and change will ensue. The role of leadership should be to ensure that this heartbeat of creativity sustains by consistently supporting empowerment and continuous improvement through consistent words and actions. The role of leadership is to create the environment people to contribute and perform.

Continuous improvement is not a project that was completed last year :-) , it doesn’t have a starting and ending date, a project team members. It is the result of continuous and consistent leadership culture that promotes empowerment of every employee. The employees will create the improvement, leadership must create and sustain a culture where it will survive and grow.

This is what it means to be Lean, in my eyes, the eyes of “forever student” in Lean Thinking. Lean is more than tools…more than a project… Lean is a journey…never stop seeking improvements…today better than yesterday…tomorrow better than today. ?