Featured Article - March 2005

The Fear of Change

By Norman Bodek | printable version

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, thirty-second U.S. President
(U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933)

I first met Dr. Shigeo Shingo in 1982 at a conference in Tokyo at the New Otani Hotel.  He gave a marvelous speech and afterwards was sitting in a wheelchair near the entrance doors to the conference hall.  I walked over to him, looked at him and introduced myself by saying,” I am Norman Bodek.”  He didn’t even look up.  My name did not at that moment mean anything to him.  But, a few seconds later, he did look up at me with a smile and said, “Ah, Bodek-san.”  We had never met before but we had corresponded and I had earlier bought from him 500 copies of his book The Study of The Toyota Production System from and Engineering Viewpoint.  The book became a classic as the first book in English that explained in detail the Toyota system.  Shortly thereafter I sold thousands of his books throughout the world.

At that first meeting in Japan, I asked if would come to America to speak at my Productivity conference, run a seminar on Just-in-Time and also consult for a few American companies.  He reluctantly agreed.  Reluctantly, because he was in a wheelchair and he didn’t relish the idea of traveling over 8,000 miles to come to us.  He had enough consulting days allocated in Japan and didn’t need to travel anywhere else to make a nice living.  But, he was possessed.  He was possessed with the idea of teaching Americans how to improve their quality and productivity.  He felt that Japan had an obligation to repay America for the help given to rebuild Japanese industry. 

When I returned from Japan, I contacted hundreds of companies to entice them to bring Dr. Shingo into to their company to learn more about what had made Toyota and other Japanese companies so successful.  It wasn’t easy.  I had to twist a lot of arms to get people to take him.   Imagine having to twist the arms of senior managers to bring in someone who could save their company millions of dollars.  For example, I was told just a little over a month ago that Kodak took out $350,000,000 worth of inventory applying the knowledge derived from Dr. Shingo’s work.

I still, even to this day, am in a quandary to figure out the enormous resistance to change that senior managers have to learn from others, especially the Japanese. 

I have been working tediously on Hiroyuki Hirano’s new book on Just-in-Time.  It is a very difficult task for me.  The translation is exceptionally difficult to understand, edit and re-write.  Earlier this year I submitted Hirano’s 10 Commandments of Kaikaku on this website.  They are a brilliant summary of the concepts of JIT.  I would think that Superfactory.com with 47,000 readers would stimulate someone out there to pick up the telephone and call me and say, “Norman, how can I get Hirano to come to my company to teach us.”  I am still waiting for the call.  [Editor's Note: Contact Mr. Bodek here!]

Well, I am not dismayed, nor will I give up on you.  To show you my persistence and faith in American industry I will share another part of his book with you.

Flexible production and improving productivity.

In order to respond flexibly to the change of orders from customers, it is required to make all aspects of making things in a factory very flexible. This is called in general "flexible production."

But, what should be made flexible?

The answer is all the elements constituting the production such as people, things, machinery, operating method and control.

People --- multi skill operators are more flexible than single skill operators.

 (With our smokestack industry of large lot sizes, often a worker would stand in front of a machine either loading or unloading or just watching the machine.  When the machine stops often the worker just stands there waiting for maintenance.  I have visited 250 plants in Japan and never recall seeing someone standing and just waiting.  I have been to numerous American plants and always see the reverse.  Some union plants have hundreds of job classifications protecting worker’s salaries but limiting flexibility to move people to where they are needed when they are needed.)

Things --- common specifications are more flexible than special specifications.

(When we have less variety of parts, more interchangeable parts, more commonality of processes, systems and material, less specific procedures, the plant becomes more flexible.  In years past in the automobile industry every car model had its own unique series of parts creating a purchasing and manufacturing nightmare.  Today, the outside of the automobile might look different and unique to the customer but under the hood there is enormous commonality of parts between models, reducing costs all along the design, production and repair process.)

Machinery --- movable machinery are more flexible than immovable machinery.

 (Remember all of the machines bolted to the floor making is so difficult to clean, rearrange processes, or to repair.  Today, we recognize that in setting up our one-piece flow cellular manufacturing systems the ability to easily move machines around simplifies our tasks.)

                        --- small machinery is more flexible than large machinery.

(Nakao, one of Ohno’s assistants once told me that the machine should be only four ties the size of the part.  This simple statement gives us a whole new perspective. With this new perspective you can look around the plant and wonder and question why it was necessary to build such large machines in the first place.   Small machines are easier to clean, repair and move around.)

                        --- Inexpensive machinery is more flexible than expensive machinery.

(When you spend less on machines you can more easily change them or bring in new ones.  With less capital investment in machines you have more money to bring in new innovation.)

                        ---Exclusive use machinery made thoroughly small and inexpensive is more flexible than seemingly versatile general purpose machinery. 

(I was once told that Toyota builds around 90% of their own machines.  If built in-house or purchased the machines were made for specific purposes.  The old idea when buying machinery with all the new “bells and whistles,” just-in-case those features might be necessary in the future is gone.  Waste comes in many forms.)

Operating method --- the "one-piece flow" production is more flexible than the lot production.

(It is amazing how the human mind just gets stuck and accepts the limitations around us. 

"One day in the late 1960’s Taiichi Ohno came over to Shigeo Shingo and said,  “I want you to see if you can reduce the changeover time on this punch press from four hours to two hours.  It is the only way that we can reduce our lot sizes.”  Again, this was a magical moment.  Imagine if your client or your boss came over to you and asked that question of you and you knew that it had always taken close to four hours to do that changeover.  What would you think?  Probably that the client or boss was a little bit crazy. 

But, Shingo said, “Okay!”  And then he sat, watched and studied various changeovers in the plant. 

A few days later Ohno came over again and said to Shingo, “Two hours is not good enough we need to lower it to 10 minutes.”

And Shingo said, “Okay.”   Dr. Shingo above all taught us to overcome our natural resistance to change.    

Dr. Shingo then sat for days and watched changeovers taking place within the plant.  And slowly the ‘mist’ lifted and he over time was able to accomplish Mr. Ohno’s wishes and reduce the changeovers to less than ten minutes.”   From Kaikaku The Power and Magic of Lean, page 79. ) 

                        --- the multi process operation is more flexible than the multi machine operation.

(When I first visited an Oldsmobile plant in Tarrytown, New York in the fall of 1980 I only saw one model automobile on one line surrounded by mountains of inventory, on the floor was 500 engines, 500 fenders, thousands of doors, etc.  A few months later in February 1981 on my first study mission to Japan visiting Toyota I saw many different models on a Toyota final assembly line within only 18 engines on the floor.  Impressed yes, but it took quite a while for me to understand what Toyota was doing differently.)               

                        --- unfixed number of operator system is more flexible than fixed number of operator system.

(Instead of dedicating people to single processes through job development and skill building workers can shift to where they are needed when needed.)  

                        --- the cooperative operation is more flexible than the designated operation.

(Teams can function with great flexibility when barriers are broken down.)

                        --- the standard operation is more flexible than the perceptional operation.

(There are workers with great skills and wonderful intuition on how to do the job but when we can standardize these talents so that everyone can do the job our plants become much more flexible.)

                        --- The pull system production is more flexible than the push system production.

(The dynamic shift in thinking came about when we allowed the customer to drive the production system not the production planners.  Earlier we though the customer would buy whatever we produced.  Today, we see that success comes in offering the customer greater variety with shorter lead times.)

l        Control --- visual control is more flexible than the numerical control.

(Computers are great but information must be easily shared.  I remember on one of my early visits to Dr. Ryuji Fukuda’s Meidensha plant above the middle of the floor was a large production chart.  Meidensha was a job shop, making electrical power systems.  Twice a day at the beginning of each shift all of the managers and supervisors would gather around the chart and plan the production details.  They could allocate people and resources based on needs for the day.

With 5S and visual control systems we bring the plant facility into the 21st century. 

Hirano is a great genius so do give me a call and oh, yes please read my books.

Norman Bodek

_________________________

Author of The Idea Generator - Quick and Easy Kaizen, Kaikaku The Power and Magic of Lean and his latest book co-authored with Chuck Yorke All You Gotta Do Is Ask.   

The Idea Generator" brings continuous improvement down to Earth--and raises up to the heavens the importance of everybody documenting every implemented idea, however small.  It's a message too few understand.
- Richard J. Schonberger,  President Schonberger & Associates, Inc. and author of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques: Nine Hidden Lessons in Simplicity

All You Gotta Do Is Ask explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from your employees, something most organizations do very poorly, if at all. The people who manage such organizations are either unaware of the power of employee ideas, or they don’t know how to tap it. This easy-to-read book will show you why it is important to have a good idea system, how to set one up, and what it can do for you, your employees, and your organization.  You will become a much more effective manager as a result. Your people will be happier, you (the manager) will be less stressed, and your unit’s performance will rise to levels you could not have come close to in any other way.
- Alan G. Robinson, professor University of Massachusetts and author of Ideas Are Free

Once getting the fascinating stereogram on the front cover of Kaikaku, we find that the book  marvelously documents a history of Lean concepts and techniques many of us have only just begun to understand. The stereogram by the way, personifies what I found to be one of the book's basic tenants: things are not always as they seem. One often gains a deeper understanding of the concept when understood in the context of its origin. Kaikaku brings this historical perspective to Lean. With humor, irony and just plain good writing,  Norman's  book mixes it all together to bring us a unique view of the origins of the American perspective of Lean today.

Interestingly, we learn that Norman's personal vision and inquisitiveness are responsible in no small part for revealing and documenting the body of knowledge known as Lean. Without Norman's risk taking and personal commitment to finding better ways to do things I'm not sure where American manufacturing would be today. For sure, if it wasn't Norman it would have been someone else. However for the roll Norman played, for his speed, insight, foresight and tenacity in bringing the teaching's of the Japanese Masters of Lean to our attention. we owe him a debt of gratitude.  Kaikaku, a wonderful book, I recommend to everyone involved with Lean, or with interest in its origins. Thanks Norman.
- David Rivers, Staff Engineer, Operations Systems
DePuy Orthopaedics, a Johnson &Johnson Company

It is wonderful and a super story of how you discovered and published the writings of Ohno and Shingo, for which all of us are indebted to you. I enjoyed the book a lot and found several new ideas for my own Lean implementation.  I also have a chance to implement in a new setting "Quick and Easy Kaizen" here at Cook Biotech.  Many, many opportunities await us. -  I'll keep in touch...thanks for all you have done.