Rules for Successful Kaizen Management

1. Work Smarter, not harder
2. Use wisdom, not money
3. Use data supported by theories
4. Be happy with even with small changes. Act like a tortoise.
5. Be creative, innovate to meet requirements
6. Be positive about the benefits of change
7. Correct failures immediately
8. Lead by example if you are a kaizen leader
9. Identify the root cause for every failure
10. A team is more productive. Solve problems in teams

http://www.slideshare.net/FaryaahIqbal/kaizen-8303480



1. Leave all titles and ranks at the door.
2. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
3. Improvement requires change. Do not waste time
justifying the current situation.
4. Keep an open mind.
5. Maintain a positive attitude.
6. Deal from data, not perception or emotion.
7. Create a blameless environment.
8. There is no substitute for hard work (serious work).
9. Plans are useful only if they can be applied and if the
gains are sustainable.
10. Just do it…now!



Hamel, M.R. (2010). Kaizen Event Field Book: Foundation, Framework and Standard Work for
Effective Events. Michigan: Society of Manufacturing Engineers, pp. 159-160. 

Training within Industry Program Materials - A Toyota System Foundation

Manufacturing leaders in Toyota were trained using Training within Industry Program Materials developed by USA people.

Want to have a look at some of them.

Download Training within Industry Program Materials

http://www.trainingwithinindustry.net/TWI%20-%20Bulletin%20Series.pdf 

Five Requirements of a Manufacturing Team Leader in Toyota

Toyota production organization structure is composed of small teams of workers. They are multiskilled and can produce full assembly or subassemblies at reduced numbers if one or two of them are absent. They on their own can decide to work overtime if the full day's production was not completed.

The leaders of these teams have to following role.

1. Knowledge of work - A team leader must have knowledge of all the tasks.

2. Knowledge of responsibilities

3. Skill in instructing - He must be able to educate and train his team members in the production activities.

4. Skill in improving methods - This is a very important addition to the role. Taylor hypothesized that a foreman will be burdened with too many tasks and may not be able to take up the role of improving methods. But at Toyota, the problem was solved by creating small teams and giving the responsibility of improving the methods to the team leader and team.

5. Skill in working with people

Toyota trained its team leaders through Training Within Industry (TWI) courses initially.

JI - Job instruction course

JM - Job methods course

JR - Job relations course

Smalley mentions that these five roles were specified by TWI courses.

Yes. They are mentioned in TWI Bulletins

Development  of SUPERVISORS through careful selection, assignment, of supervisory duties of increasing responsibility, and provision for related organized help through discussions and conferences, under both plant and outside auspices, dealing with methods of instruction, methods of developing better ways of doing a job, methods of improving working relationships, and knowledge of  responsibilities.
(The paragraph is from the bulletin - Management and Skilled Supervision issued by Bureau of Training War Manpower Commission in June 1944)


Preview the book Isao Kato and Art Smalley
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=RS4nsJGsgmEC

Art Smalley on Lean Leadership
http://theleanedge.org/?p=1132

Lean Enterprise and Lean Systems

Lean enterprises deliver maximum performance and minimum resource consumption. A win win situation for the consumer, producer and therefore the society (economy).

The lean enterprise concept was developed by Toyota through a trial and error method to produce automobiles at low volume with high productivity. In Japan, other copies slowly learned about the system and implemented its practices. As Japanese companies started producing in various other countries, the practices started diffusing.

IMVP, a research study on automobile industry, codified the Japanese production and enterprise system into the concept of Lean Production System and Enterprise.


2011 Presentation on the The Next Challenges for Lean Thinking by Dan Jones. Dan Jones is coauthor of the book publihsed by IMVP in 1990
___________

___________


MIT Course on Integrating the Lean Enterprise

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-852j-integrating-the-lean-enterprise-fall-2005/lecture-notes/

Management Theory and Practice - Bulletin Board - September 2013

Engineering and Management News - A Daily Publication  - Management Principles and Propositions

September - Management Knowledge Revision


14
Good Training Enriches Employees, the Bottom Line…and Workforce Loyalty
Sander van 't Noordende - Group Chief Executive at Accenture

HR for Neophytes

Great leaders understand that rallying the troops is not about scaring employees into working harder with threats and blame but inspiring them to want to “do battle” together, unified in purpose and determined to succeed.
The Right Way to Rally Your Troops

Confused about Big 5 Things to Do
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/09/13/confused-about-big-data-here-are-5-things-you-need-to-do/

Digital is full of examples of the unthinkable becoming the inevitable

Five Mistakes to Avoid in Managing Digital Teams

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/five-mistakes-to-avoid-when-ma/

13

Replacement Decisons
Expected Values and Risk of Project Revenues and Costs


12

Engineering Economy or Engineering Economics: Economic Decision Making by Engineers
Introduction to Engineering Economics


8 September

Management Proposition
Follower companies do not challenge the market leader. But market followers have to know how to hold on current customers and win a fair share of customers in the growing market. The follower firms have a certain advantages for its target market in terms of location, services offered or financing offered.
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/12/competitive-strategies-for-followers.html

13 Simple Ways You Can Have More Meaningful Conversations
Millennials at Work: Gen Ys and Ambition

7 September

Management Proposition
Attack by a challenger has a greater probability of success when there customer dissatisfaction with the current leader. There is a gap in the market which the leader is not serving. Challengers have to identify the gap and then develop the product offering for it and then attack that target segment of the market.
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/12/marketing-strategies-for-challenger.html  (September 7, 2013)

Customer Intimacy - Needs to be supported Operations Excellence
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/09/customer_intimacy_meet_operati.html   

The backlash against running firms like progressive schools has begun
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21584947-backlash-against-running-firms-progressive-schools-has-begun-montessori-management

Revison articles
Cash Flow Estimation for Expenditure Proposals
Required Rate of Return - Cost of Capital


6 September

The Most Important Negotiation
Negotiating with yourself
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/09/the_most_important_negotiation.html

Strategic Management Theory - Research Propositions

The Strategic Management and Transaction Cost Nexus: Past Debates, Central Questions, and Future Research Possibilities

Nicolai J Foss
Forthcoming, Strategic Organization, 2003


Proposition 1: In industries where the probability that firms will exploit their market power (e.g., through predatory pricing) is high, buyers and sellers are more likely to enter into long-term supply agreements than in industries where the probability is smaller.
Proposition 2: In industries where the costs of contracting are high, firms will exploit their market power (e.g., through predatory pricing) to a larger extent than in industries where contracting costs are low.
Proposition 3: In industries in which consumers/users and firms can orchestrate their protection efforts at low cost (e.g., because they are few in number, are particularly well organized, have clearly defined shared interests, etc.), there will be more product upgrading, product differentiation, price discrimination, and
signaling on the part of would-be monopolizers than in industries where it is more costly to orchestrate protection. 

Environment Management Theory - Research Propositions

Environment and Globalization - Five Propositions

Adil Najam, David Runnalls and Mark Halle
2007, International Institute for Sustainable Development
http://www.unep.org/gc/gc24/docs/FivePropositions.pdf


PROPOSITION #1:
The rapid acceleration in global economic activity
and our dramatically increased demands for critical, finite natural resources undermine our pursuit of
continued economic prosperity.

PROPOSITION #2:
The linked processes of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security threats to an
already insecure world. They impact the vulnerability
of ecosystems and societies, and the least resilient
ecosystems. The livelihoods of the poorest communities
are most at risk.

PROPOSITION #3:
The newly prosperous and the established wealthy
will have to come to terms with the limitations of
the ecological space in which both must operate, and
also with the needs and rights of those who have not
been as lucky.

PROPOSITION #4:
Consumption—in both North and South—will
define the future of globalization as well as the
global environment.

PROPOSITION #5:
Concerns about the global market and global environment will become even more intertwined and
each will become increasingly dependent on the other.