New Shop Floor Management

Empowering People for Continuous Improvement

Kiyoshi Suzaki

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 1993
• ISBN:
  9781439107089
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Industrial Management
• Index: Business

In this first comprehensive departure from the time-and-motion dictums of Frederick Taylor's Shop Management that 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 the genba, 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.

Chapter One DEVELOPING A VISION OF SHOP
FLOOR EXCELLENCE

In this chapter, we will try to understand the characteristics of today’s business environment which have a significant impact on all of us. Then we will address the need to transform our organization to meet new challenges. And last, we will address the change processes we must each go through to prepare ourselves for the future.

SAILING IN TODAY’S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Today’s world is filled with change and uncertainty. As compared to even a decade ago, products or services become obsolete much more quickly. More and more new technologies and new companies emerge, and those that cannot cope with change often find their very existence threatened.

In spite of the fact that better products and services make our lives more convenient, a quickly changing business environment can threaten our companies and our jobs. This in turn may affect our relationships with co-workers, family, friends, and many others. In fact, changes happening in the business world may have a traumatic impact if they result in sudden layoffs or bankruptcy. If we are foresighted and prepared, however, these changes can provide increased opportunities for utilizing our potential. Instead of riding in stormy seas, we can alter our course and find a clear path through them.

To this point, someone once said, “Even if we cannot change the direction of wind, we can trim our sails to get where we want to go.” In keeping with this idea, the purpose of this book is to prepare ourselves for such turbulent times by developing skills to manage the situation better and explore a better work life.

Exhibit 1.1. “We cannot direct the wind … but we can adjust the sails”

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT—PAST VS. FUTURE

To begin with, let us study the environment in which we live. Exhibit 1.2 summarizes our changing environment, comparing the past to the future and listing major reasons for such changes. Of course, specific situations may differ from this table. Yet, if we look around us, we may find some interesting trends. Turning our eyes to the international scene, for example, as more countries join the Western world from the old Eastern bloc and developing nations, more and more people will participate in the free market, free trade, and free information exchange of our society. These people then become new members of our global society as suppliers of labor and brainpower as well as beneficiaries of goods, services, and knowledge.

Opening this gate is similar to conducting a brainstorming exercise on a global scale, with more people exchanging their ideas and values, and utilizing their collective wisdom. We may at times find this situation chaotic because of its massive impact on our political, social, and economic systems. As more people travel, watch TV, read, and exchange ideas, the process of change seems to take its own course.

So, even if the environment we live in seems chaotic, if we find more people contributing their talent as well as gaining benefits, such an environment is in fact, desirable. We should also note that this globalization of business activities follows the free market system of using everybody’s ideas and values.

Exhibit 1.2. Changes in Our Environment

Past	Future	Reason for Change
Predictability in business	Predictable	Unpredictable	Fast rate of innovation
Stability in people’s values	Stable	Changing	Fast pace of modern lives
Profile of customers	Mass	Diversified	Diversified individual tastes
Importance of employee skills	Low	High	More complex jobs
Pace of progress	Periodic	Continuous	Contributions from more people
Profile of managers	Directive	Leading Higher dependence on people
Management system	Results-oriented	Process- and results-oriented	Assurance is gained from managing the process well

If we understand this point, the strains caused by these changes may be better understood. Yet, as democracy requires everyone to contribute ideas and values to the whole, as opposed to blindly following someone who happens to be in a position of leadership, each of us should seek the answer for ourselves. In other words, collectively, we are the reason for the change. And at the same time, therefore, it is up to us to become either a beneficiary or a victim of such changes.

OUR VISION

History has shown us that many factors influence progress. Clearly, creativity in overcoming hurdles seems to be one major factor. Further, when creativity is tied with survival or prosperity, we find ourselves even more driven.

Now, if we look back on our personal experiences, we may find that our vision and actions have changed over time as well. By assessing these changes further, we may see if we are deepening our understanding as to what is important in our (work)life and how creative we have been to grow continuously. The organization as a whole may also go through a similar process. So, we might ask: (1) Is our organization growing to meet new challenges? and (2) Are we moving forward to create our own future?

In order to respond to these questions, we need to consider many factors, such as intensified competition, changes in management or unions, shifts in customers’ taste, changes in working relationships with peers, guidance from leaders, level of accomplishments, or new insights gained from newspapers, TV, and the like. Since vision is something individuals or groups of people within the organization create, each of us should examine how these factors might impact our collective vision.

Then we may further ask ourselves: (1) Is our vision changing in a positive direction or negative direction?, and (2) What can we do about it?

CREATING AN ORGANIZATION
WITH SELF-MANAGED PEOPLE

Of course, if we move to a remote mountaintop and live as hermits, we might find a different solution to our question. Yet, most of us find ourselves in an environment where change is the norm. Therefore, we need to develop self-management skills so that we can sit in the driver’s seat and chart our own course into the future.

To do this, however, each of us needs to:

Understand our business environment better

Be more alert to forthcoming changes

Share and utilize information effectively

Take initiative to continuously improve our skills and position

If we use sailing as an analogy again, this situation is similar to sailing in a stormy sea (Exhibit 1.3). Unpredictable waves, wind, and rain may make it most difficult to steer the boat and get to where we want to go. We must have good knowledge of our environment, read the forthcoming changes, share information well among our crew members, and continuously upgrade the skills of the crew. Like today’s business environment, there is not much room for misjudgment.

Exhibit 1.3. Sailing in a Stormy Sea To avoid hazards, we need a clearly established position, a competent crew, a shared vision, teamwork, and sound strategy.

If we consider that this sea of change in our society is the result of good intentions, such as a free exchange of information, a free market economy, better utilization of people’s talent, and so on, and we see that we ourselves are the cause of the changes as well as the ones impacted, then we should be able to find ways to steer the boat to get where we want to go, by practicing the same principles.

To do this well, however, we need to be self-motivated, self-thinking, and self-controlled. In other words, we need to be self-managed. Whether we work in an organization or not, and regardless of our title or rank, each of us should accomplish a certain mission as a part of our job.

OWNERSHIP AT THE SOURCE

In contrast to a military- or power-based society, what we see now when we look around is that people’s individual abilities are becoming the major driving force of these mass changes in society. As more information is made available, more people’s talents are utilized, and the free market economy provides greater opportunity for more people. This allows more people to excel than before. Within this self-induced chaos, we find an opportunity-filled world for those willing to test their potential.

While increased self-management skills will give individuals closer control over their destiny, they also provide major benefits for the company and the society, as summarized below:

Addressing problems at the source. Even if there are capable people who can solve our problems at the top of the organization, there would certainly be limits as to how much information could be absorbed by them as well as how fast it could be converted to action. If instead people can solve problems at the source, additional resources, such as support staff or extra layers of management will be unnecessary. Also, addressing problems at the source saves a precious resource—time.

Serving the customer better. As we solve problems, we can better control the process so that we can continuously serve our customers better. Here, the customer is the person in the next process, not only the end user of the product or service. Since each person on the shop floor is adding value to the process, total customer satisfaction, or total quality control of all company processes is only achieved when everyone in the organization is involved in addressing the problems at the source and maintaining good standards.

Developing highly motivated people. Self-management puts people’s destiny more in their own hands. It will give them increased responsibility and allow them to utilize higher-level skills. By applying creativity to solving problems, people will develop greater pride and...