New Shop Floor Management Empowering People for Continuous Improvement

In this first comprehensive departure from the time-and-motion dictums of Frederick Taylor'sShop Managementthat have influenced management practices for most of this century, Kiyoshi Suzaki offers a framework for successfully conducting business at its most crucial point-the shop floor. Drawing on the principles of holistic management, where organizational boundaries are smashed and co-destiny is created, Suzaki demonstrates how modern shop floor management techniques -- focusing maximum energy on the front line -- can lead to dramatic improvements in productivity and valueadded-to-services.The role of management today, Suzaki argues, is to eliminate its own responsibilities by thinking of the organization from thegenba,or shop floor, point of view. In this challenge, Suzaki claims, organizations need to collect the wisdom of people by practicing "Glass Wall Management," where organizations become transparent, enabling employees to contribute maximum creativity as opposed to blocking their potential with what he calls "Brick Wall Management." Further, to empower individuals to selfmanage their work and satisfy their customers, Suzaki asserts that they all should learn to manage their own "mini-company," where everybody is considered president of his or her area of responsibility.Front-line supervisors, Suzaki shows, must develop a mission and goals and share them both up and downstream. He cites examples of the "shop floor point of view" -- McDonald's Corporation's legal staff learning how to sell hamburgers and fix milkshake machines; Honda's human resource staff training on the assembly line -- that narrow the gap between top management and the shop floor. By upgrading people's skills, focusing on empowerment, and streamlining processes, Suzaki illustrates that an organization will realize concrete improvements in quality, cost, delivery, safety, morale, and ultimately, its competitive position.

Kiyoshi Suzaki, president of Suzaki & Company, is an internationally recognized consultant and educator on manufacturing competitiveness, having worked with hundreds of companies in over 20 nations around the world. He is the author of The New Manufacturing Challenge (The Free Press, 1987).

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Revisiting Our Shop Floor

Beyond Taylorism

Making People Before Making Products

Addressing the Individual's Needs

Genba-Oriented Thinking (Three Reals)

Developing a Genba-Oriented Mind

Learning from the Genba Experience

Transforming an Organization

Using Everybody's Creative Power

Chapter 1. DEVELOPING A VISION OF SHOP FLOOR EXCELLENCE

Sailing in Today's Business Environment

Changing Environment -- Past vs. Future

Our Vision

Creating an Organization with Self-Managed People

Ownership at the Source

Looking at Ourselves Straight in the Mirror

Achieving Excellence in Shop Floor Management (SFM)

Controlling the Process

Traditional and Progressive Organizations

Developing a Progressive Organization

What We Should Work On

Where Do We Stand Now

The Change Process

Changing Our Destiny

Clarifying Our Vision and Mission

Summary

Chapter 2. DEVELOPING A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED ORGANIZATION

The Customer-Supplier Relationship in Our Society

Listening to the Voice of Customers

What Is a Customer-Oriented Organization?

Understanding the Customer-Supplier Relationship

Moving from Local Optimization to Total Optimization

Working on Our Mindset

Developing the Nervous System in Our Organization

Clarifying the Flow of Work

Customer Orientation in a Centrally Planned Economy

Understanding Customers' Minds -- Putting Ourselves in Their Shoes

Criteria for Customer Satisfaction

Addressing Customers' Needs

Developing Customer Orientation Throughout the Company

Expanding the Concept of the Customer-Supplier Relationship

Summary

Chapter 3. ESTABLISHING A COMPANY WITHIN A COMPANY

The Customer-Supplier Relationship Between Boss and Subordinates

The People-Oriented Organization: Making People Before Making Products

The Mini-Company Concept

Running Your Own Mini-Company

The Front Line Supervisor as President of a Mini-Company

Understanding the Framework of Mini-Companies

The Meaning of Mission

Developing a Mission for Mini-Companies

Benefits of Mini-Companies

Glass Wall Management

Even a Stranger Should Understand Our Shop Floor Activities: A Stranger Theory

Changing Roles and Responsibilities

Summary

Chapter 4. INVOLVING EVERYBODY IN THE PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Survival of the Fittest

Addressing the Organization's Needs

Key Points for Organizational Innovation

Setting up a Scoreboard: Defining the Games We Play

Diagnostic Tools for Monitoring the Organization's Health

Signs of Shop Floor Excellence

Process of Continuous Improvement

Improvement and Standardization

Practicing Standards

Standards Represent an Organization's Capabilities

Use of Standard Operating Procedure to Control the Point of Action

Developing Standard Operating Procedures

Maintaining Standards with Everybody Involved: A Wooden Pail Theory

Guiding Improvement Activity from the Top

Communicating the Basics of the Mini-Company

Summary

Chapter 5. UPGRADING EVERYBODY'S SKILLS

Matching Skills to the Needs of the Organization

Skills for Self-Management

Upgrading Our Skills

Growing with the Organization

Putting Intelligence on the Shop Floor

The Role of Managers and Support People

Working on Important Jobs One Step at a Time

Instructing People to Conduct the Job -- Job Training

Encouraging People to Upgrade Their Skills

Keeping Our Minds Open

Mental Attitude Toward Continuous Improvement

A Case of an Operator's Idea

Challenging People to Overcome Hurdles

Summary

Chapter 6. ACQUIRING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

Acquiring Willpower for Self-Improvement

Using Everybody's Creativity

Having Fun with "Show and Tell"

Necessary Mental Attitudes for Active Problem Solving
Identifying Problems

Tools of Problem Solving

Learning Skills to Enrich Our Career

Developing the Habit of Mutual Learning

Tools to Expose Problems

Summary

Chapter 7. PRACTICING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

Relentless Pursuit of Improvement

Clarifying Approaches for Problem-Solving Activities

Basic Steps of Problem Solving

A Case of Continuous Improvement -- "My Fingers Hurt"

Effective Use of Suggestion Programs

Effective Use of Team Improvement Activities

Developing a Team-Oriented Environment

Practicing Problem Solving as a Team

Intercompany Exchange Program

Managing the Improvement Process with PDCA

Summary

Chapter 8. LEADING PEOPLE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Managers as Leaders: Employees as Customers

Leadership Is Situational

A Desire for Self-Improvement Makes Things Happen

Guiding Improvement Activities

Having Pride in Our Work

Sharing Successes

Improving Communication at the Shop Floor

Communication with Visual Aids

Recognition and Rewards

Letting People Grow with the Company

Phrases Managers Should Not Use

Qualification of Leaders

Providing Positive Reinforcement to Change Our Behavior

Summary

Chapter 9. MANAGING SHOP FLOOR IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

Goal Setting

Benchmarking

Management Cycle

Developing the Rhythm of PDCA

Managing Time on the Shop Floor

Managing Improvement Activities with Control Points

Organizing Our Mini-Company Meeting Area

Organizing Our Work Station

Learning to Use Control Points

Developing the Network of Control Points

Developing Documentation and Presentation Skills

Reviewing the Progress of Improvement Activities

Summary

Chapter 10. TYING SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT TO THE TOTAL COMPANY BUSINESS

Company-Wide Planning

Business Planning for Self-Management

Developing a Mini-Company Business Plan

Coordinating the Business Plan Development Process

Executing the Business Plan

Sharing the Progress

Summarizing the Progress in an Annual Report

Learning from the Business Planning Process

Tying Business Plan with the Budget

Policy Management (Management of the Company's Strategic Direction)

Cross-Functional Management

Coordinating Approaches for Continuous Improvement

Summary

Chapter 11. LOOKING AT OURSELVES IN THE MIRROR

Tying Things Together

Evaluating the Level of Shop Floor Management

The Presidential Audit

The Audit Process

Learning from a Presidential Audit

Learning to Conduct an Effective Presidential Audit

The External Audit

Award and Reward Systems

Finding the Treasures of the Company

Summary

Chapter 12. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

From a Fragile to a Robust System

Exposing Problems Before It's Too Late

Achieving a Critical Mass

Ideas for Implementation

Implementing Shop Floor Management Company-Wide

Making It Work

The Facilitator's Role

Mapping Out the Implementation Process

Questions and Answers on Implementation

Shop Floor Management in Perspective

Benefits of Shop Floor Management

Where Do We Go from Here?

Dew and Moon

Training Our Minds in a Turbulent World

Summary

APPENDICES

Appendix 1.1 Employee Survey

Appendix 2.1 Customer Survey

Appendix 3.1 Checklist for Supervisor's Roles and Responsibilities

Appendix 3.2 Developing a Misson Statement

Appendix 4.1 Checklist for Assuring the Basics of Just-In-Time Production

Appendix 4.2 Basics of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

Appendix 5.1 Job Training

Appendix 6.1 Eliminating Human Errors (Poka-Yoke)

Appendix 6.2 Problem-Solving Tools

Appendix 6.3 Checklist for Idea Generation
Appendix 7.1 Advice on Suggestion Program

Appendix 7.2 Building an Effective Team

Appendix 7.3 Checklist to Evaluate the Key Steps of Team-Oriented Problem-Solving Activities

Appendix 7.4 Continuous Improvement Study Group Activities

Appendix 8.1 Effective Use of Visual Aids

Appendix 9.1 Supervisor's Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly Activities

Appendix 11.1 Shop Floor Tour Checklist

Appendix 12.1 Voices of People Who Are Engaged in the New Shop Floor Management

Epilogue: Withstanding the Rain

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index