Jun 27 2015
Reflections about Lean/Reflexiones sobre Lean
My partners at Asenta, in Bilbao, Spain, translated a collection of posts from this blog into Spanish, and edited it into a book with a foreword by José Ignacio Erausquin, that they handed out to seminar participants last week. We are considering making it available as an eBook or in print, and would like your feedback on this idea.
The table below shows the posts that were selected for translation, and is followed by an inquiry form. Please fill it out if you are interested.
Table of Contents of the Book
English Title | Título en Castellano |
---|---|
Lean versus the Toyota Production System | Lean y El Sistema de Producción Toyota (TPS) |
Safety Stocks: Beware of Formulas | Los stocks de Seguridad:Cuidado con las Fórmulas |
Why "Smart" part numbers should be replaced with keys and property lists | Codificación inteligente |
Metrics in Lean - Part 5 - Lead times and inventory | Lead Times e Inventario |
What to look for on a gemba walk | Qué observar en un “Paseo Gemba” |
Deming's Point 4 of 14 - End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag.... | Relación con los Proveedores |
Deming's Point 9 of 14 - Break down barriers between departments | Trabajo en Equipo |
Deming's Point 10 of 14 - Eliminate slogans and exhortations | Difusión y promoción de actividades LEAN |
Metrics in Lean - Chart junk in performance boards and presentations | Métricas Lean e “información basura” |
The Lowdown on Lean Accounting | La realidad sobre el Lean Accounting |
Inquiry Form
Please let me know if you would interested in a copy of this book./Por favor, hágame saber si estaría interesado en un ejemplar de este libro.
Jul 4 2015
“Going to the Gemba” and “Going to the Customer” | Philip Marris
In the TPS Principles and Practice discussion group on LinkedIn, Philip Marris started a discussion on this topic three weeks ago with the following statement:
There have been 28 comments so far, many of them theoretical, about the value of customer feedback, or off-topic, about the foibles of MBAs, with a few accounts of personal experience. I picked out the following:
My own experience is consistent with Todd’s and José Ignacio’s. When I was consulting for Boeing Portland, a machine shop making structural components, one of their best practices was sending a small group to the assembly plant that used their products once a quarter, to meet with the assemblers and collect their feedback. They recorded the interaction on video, and played it back to the entire production team back home. Different people went every quarter, and I went along on one of of these visits.
It is relatively easy to organize such things for an in-house supplier, to a plant that is not too far away. It is more complicated when you are dealing with actual customers, especially when the customers are not end-users but dealers or distributors. If you are selling to dealers, you can, for example, place technicians for a few months at dealerships when you launch a new product, to gain first-hand knowledge of any problems end-user may report to the dealership about the product.
When GM created the dealership system to sell cars in the 1920s, the primary purpose was to shield the production plants from the fluctuations in the market. Dealer inventories acted as a buffer to allow production plants to proceed at a constant pace. As they quickly discovered, however, this system also shielded GM from information about market trends, and they didn’t realize the market had a downturn until the lots of their dealers were all full.
To keep a finger on the pulse of the market, Toyota in its early days sold cars door-to-door. Chatting with housewives, the sales rep learned that Mr. Yamada had been promoted, and paid him a visit in the evening to sell him a car to fit his new position. While it provided better market intelligence than dealerships, it was too expensive an approach and was abandoned.
Much later, about 2000, Toyota launched an internet portal in Japanese called gazoo.com, dedicated to “car life,” with information like used car values, games for kids during long rides, recommendations for pleasant road trips, etc. It is different from the brochureware websites of other car makers. They didn’t explain why they did this, but my guess is that it was to recover the direct contact with customers that door-to-door sales used to provide. Through their clicks, page views, and comments, gazoo visitors are telling Toyota about the market.
Another approach is to bring customers to the production plant. Until Honda of America closed their Marysville motorcycle plant in 2009, they held a yearly “homecoming” for bikers. All owners were invited to a big party, with a tour of the plant and meetings with the production teams. The idea was also adopted by Saturn, but every four years, and they stopped in 2004.
In a similar spirit, Porsche in Leipzig lets buyers pick up their Panameras and Cayennes at the assembly plant. The customers tour the spotless final assembly line, get an hour of coaching with a pro on the test track, eat at the fine-dining restaurant in the visitor center, and buy expensive souvenirs. And, for this privilege, they pay an extra 1,250 euros.
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By Michel Baudin • Management • 8 • Tags: Boeing, Customer visits, door-to-door sales, Internet portal, Lean, Toyota, Voice of the Customer