Lean Blog

Walton Kentucky Automotive seating components and ...

2009-07-11T10:49:25.084-04:00

Walton Kentucky
Automotive seating components and subassemblies
Manufacturing Engineer
1 year.
1) company has pushed toward lean however the philosophy is not understood to be embraced effectively which causes more problems (e.g., radical inventory reductions without pulling suppliers in to plans)

GM has no choice (if it is to survive) but to do t...

2009-07-11T10:36:56.347-04:00

GM has no choice (if it is to survive) but to do two things. Get the in line with cultural requirements (go green, give to the community very publicly, etc.) and bring the unions in line with the company mission. Auto unions have positioned themselves in a manner that is discustingly costly and inefficient. I do believe they will pull out of this and successfully survive however, they will never be the giant they once were.

With your focus on healthcare, I didn't think I'd ...

2009-07-11T06:35:11.418-04:00

With your focus on healthcare, I didn't think I'd see you posting on GM anymore but I guess announcements like this are too good to pass up. Here's my take, trying hard not to default to the "gm=bad" natural reaction.

Fritz's message is "customers, cars, and culture." I don't know if that's in order or just 3 things. However, if culture is important, then you must do some SYMBOLIC things to signal the change to the employees. You don't have time to go around and give people new experiences and new conversations one at a time, so you must select some things that are an experience for everyone. Changing something considered sacred is perhaps the best way to get people's attention.

Changing the logo certainly fits in that category. It's dramatic, more expensive that we like to think it is, and reversed decades of tradition. I like the choice of trying to be dramatic, and it does send a signal.

HOWEVER...What is the message? That is less clear. Obviously, the message is to be green (I assume the environmental way and not the nauseous way). But Fritz's message is "customers, cars, and culture." It's hard to say that green is about customers, because quite frankly customers are still not buying with a predominately green bent. Fuel efficiency still only matters when it costs money. Yes, the Prius has sold well but only to the lead-users and status-seekers, not to the masses. So green can't be about customers. Is it about cars? I guess so. But the message isn't very clear, and certainly isn't well connected to the theme of "customers, cars, and culture."

So for boldness and decisiveness, I give Fritz an A. Bold and visible. For leveraging the chance to send a clear message, however, I give him a D. Not a total failure, but certainly a miss. Let's hope the next steps really start building that "culture" around "customers and cars."

I'm also skeptical of their desire to be more cust...

2009-07-11T06:06:38.846-04:00

I'm also skeptical of their desire to be more customer focused, when their new Chairman, Ed Whitacre comes from AT&T. Is that a customer focused and customer friendly company?

This op-ed from a former AT&T person says it all:

LINK

Here is a picture of what ESPN tried in 2004. htt...

2009-07-10T19:24:55.160-04:00

Here is a picture of what ESPN tried in 2004.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/85742

LINK

Raqsd - I said in the post I would have the number...

2009-07-10T19:22:10.580-04:00

Raqsd - I said in the post I would have the numbers right side up, they would not have to turn their head to see the score.

I think breaking the score up would be worse, since tennis scoring always requires you to see both numbers in comparison to each other.

ESPN apparently tried a vertical scorebox that didn't go over well in 2004 (numbers too small?).

LINK

the only problem with your way is the viewer has t...

2009-07-10T11:35:02.720-04:00

the only problem with your way is the viewer has to turn their heads to see the score.

Instead i suggest break the score box into two section.

One for roddick at upper left away from the main court.

The other for federer at lower left again.. away from the main court.

The main reason, people are watching to see the tennis match, not viewers not spectators. in that case spectators can be blocked out without harm.

At the risk of being overly controversial on a Fri...

2009-07-10T11:26:45.054-04:00

At the risk of being overly controversial on a Friday, we should NEVER be "stuck with these types of problems." That is exactly why GM is where they are.

I battle that idealism daily in my facility, yet, if I push hard enough, we can ALWAYS find little improvements that may lead to a larger improvement in the proverbial "someday".

Just food for thought...

Moving the score off to the side would be fine for...

2009-07-10T11:09:51.321-04:00

Moving the score off to the side would be fine for the 16:9 aspect ratio TV's, but for those who have 4:3 aspect ratio, this would be cut off.

You see this in a lot of different sports on TV, and until everyone adopts the new 16:9 aspect ratio as standard, I think we are stuck with these types of problems.

Oh jeez, I used to LOVE batting practice. Loved t...

2009-07-10T10:53:36.890-04:00

Oh jeez, I used to LOVE batting practice. Loved to hit. I could have stayed in the cage for 30 - 40cuts instead of the 10 we were usually allotted, but back to the task at hand...

One suggestion might to be to move the scorebox way off to the upper right, which is also wasted space and would not obscure the action. With it posted vertically people won't like to read it - too engrained in the left to right reading paradigm.

"not the most profound Lean thought ever," But Ma...

2009-07-10T06:41:25.498-04:00

"not the most profound Lean thought ever,"

But Mark, it is profound! Why? Because you are thinking about an improvement! Now, can we imagine if everyone was thinking about little improvements to move an organization towards a better tomorrow? This is a major element that is missing in lean organizations today: the humility that is required by our managers and leaders to embrace small, sometimes insignificant, improvements as a pathway to develop people.

Nobody gets excited about batting practice, but everyone knows that it is vital to the success of a baseball team. We would be better if we think of these mediocre improvements as batting practice.

Some Lean people seems to be fan of Starbucks. We ...

2009-07-09T07:36:20.406-04:00

Some Lean people seems to be fan of Starbucks. We have some here in France, and I feel like they're just the opposite of Lean.
1- Wait in Queue to arrive at the desk. Benefit: plenty of time (!) to read the offerings on the wall in small letters, with non standard coffee sizes. Have difficulty choosing from the list and what you're allowed to ask for, or not
2- tell what you want
3- move to cash register
4- answer to someone else at the questions "what did you order?" then "do you want something else".
5- move again to the desk where you a) wait for your order, then b) answer a third person about "what did you order?", sometimes to get served the cup of the people next to you.

In this process, I, the customer, had to move myself, tell 3 times in arow what I wanted (need to remeber of the specific details of my command which where written on thecup, btw), all for, sometimes, being served the wrong cup.

What's Lean in this ?!

Ok the coffee's not bad, but what about the experience ?!

Mark - this was a very though provoking one, I hav...

2009-07-08T23:06:31.437-04:00

Mark - this was a very though provoking one, I have moved away from the workaround of deleting or clicking the spam button to fixing the root cause now. Thanks for sharing the thought!

Interesting comments about the radio. I drove a...

2009-07-08T17:52:01.578-04:00

Interesting comments about the radio.

I drove a Camry for work while traveling last year. I hated that they didn't have a permanent "hot" plug to charge my cell phone.

When I contacted Toyota, they claimed it was a safety issue to have permanent hot plugs. I responded with my dissatisfaction and challenged them to either think more of their customer in the future or identify past history with "hot plug-caused car fires".

I never heard a response from that, but it has made me wonder about the rumors (I, too heard) about customer/quality sacrificed for cost/sales dollars...

Mark: Sitting here waiting for a family member to...

2009-07-08T15:56:10.814-04:00

Mark:

Sitting here waiting for a family member to come back from the operating room (minor surgery = surgery on somebody else!) your topic of the day naturally led me to try to divine where this particular hospital stands. It is not easy at the "HealthGrades" website! Not only do they require you to chase down one rabbit trail at a time, by procedure and region, to see how an individual hospital is rated, but the ratings are for complications and other outcomes - NOT explicitly "errors" - so they are only really useful as relative measures. You can't really expect a "zero complication" environment - this (hospital care) is rework, after all, fixing problems! A complication in (or after) the O.R. is not necessarily an error - some people are really very sick! It would be great to see comprehensive error reporting. Maybe I just missed it.

Any how, that said, the "BEST" results (relative or not) I found on "HealthGrades" web site for this hospital in almost all the categories I tracked down reflected my observations in the gemba here: visual cues, standardized communications at the pre-op level (with patients and with family), and flexible scheduling as opportunities for accelerated movement arose. Checklists in use! White boards (that weren't here last time I passed through) with obviously prototyped labelings, speak of an environment of continuous improvment (and reminded me of what I see and strive for in my own plant).

So, my shallow investigation into a totally unscientific sample of ONE, says: This stuff works. Who is surprised? It is said that when you walk into a lean plant, you can tell - you can see what is supposed to be happening, and where the problems are even if you don't know the business or the industry. My experience in health care gemba is the same.

-Anonymouse today, due to reference to family member in hospital!

The same principles apply in Healthcare, Tim, only...

2009-07-08T15:40:51.156-04:00

The same principles apply in Healthcare, Tim, only they are often a little more difficult to see, but with training and experience there is no reason improvement shouldn't happen. Marks's article, with reference to John Shook, illustrates the cultural issues very clearly, and this only supports the notion that using only lean tools without cultural change will fail (the "counting" is just level 2 error-proofing at best). So they know they are supposed to count... This is effective inasmuch as they know why, what is at stake, and to the extent the Director audits the process, reinforces it, and removes barriers to it being omitted.

I'm afraid that to the average front-line employee...

2009-07-08T15:39:49.535-04:00

I'm afraid that to the average front-line employee, the computer systems he uses feel like an unalterable fact of reality--that he has no more feeling of being empowered to suggest changes to these systems than a medieval peasant felt empowered to suggest changes to the policies of Church or King.

I am not too familiar with this subject (healthcar...

2009-07-08T13:13:07.630-04:00

I am not too familiar with this subject (healthcare errors) but in manufacutring this would be related to compliants and risk management. The obvious risk of death being signficant. Wouldn't FMEA be a tool you would use to evaluate proces or euqipment design potential opportunities for mistakes, errors, failures and the associates risk. Then I guess the harder part of improving those weakneses to reduce the risk.

Where humans are involved you can not elminate human error but improvements can and certainly have been made. The hardest part in lean or continuous improvement is learning to "see" the waste. I guess I wonder if the can and what tools are they using to do that.

Dale - drive in Boston?? I haven't driven any car ...

2009-07-08T02:56:57.324-04:00

Dale - drive in Boston?? I haven't driven any car in over a month... didn't bring a car with us, we're walking and taking the T.

We are a two Prius family. I drive a 2002 (1st ge...

2009-07-07T23:48:06.403-04:00

We are a two Prius family. I drive a 2002 (1st gen) with 185,000 miles. My wife drives a 2007 (2nd gen) which now has about 50,000 miles on it. We love them.

I consider the Prius a great VALUE. To wit: My wife and I encouraged her sister to buy a Prius. Her sister traded in a Lexus. Upon experiencing the Prius she noted wryly, "it's not a Lexus." No it is not, but it is a terrific value (and good for the environment if that is a decision factor for you). By the way, the sister now owns three Prii / Priuses.

We had to replace the catalytic converter on the 2002--big expense--but otherwise only normal maintenance. The 2007 has been trouble free.

Oh, and Mark, sounds like your driving style will be well suited to Boston. When my wife drives, she gets about 41 mpg. When I drive, I get 48 mpg. 2002 or 2007 doesn't matter--driving style does!

Mark, My Matrix has the same hole in the driver's ...

2009-07-07T21:23:52.280-04:00

Mark,
My Matrix has the same hole in the driver's side floor mat.
It's not a Prius specific cost reduction.
I must confess, I considered this a result of my habits more than Toyota quality, but the car is only ~3 years old, and I tend to switch out for rubber floor mats in the winter, so it's not a good sign.
-Andy

I have rubber mats, so holes are not a problem. Bu...

2009-07-07T09:43:30.095-04:00

I have rubber mats, so holes are not a problem. But the upper backside of the rear seats have ugly marks after I laid them down and loaded long things.

However, the worst thing is the user experience of the car stereo. There is a folder list for CD's or mp3 CD's, however that feature is locked and dimmed out while the car is moving.

I don't know of Toyota or the general driver, but I usually want to operate the stereo while I am driving. I certainly don't want to stop everytime I'd like to browse the folder list.

The ironic part is that all feedback I have got, via forums or Toyota, is that this feature is by design. It's designed that way for security reasons.

How strange that I can browse / navigate my radio stations in exactly the same fashion while driving.

And that the workarounds I have to apply to change songs take longer time and require more consentation and efforts.

My next car will also be a hybrid, unless my needs have changed. I hope that stereo thing has been fixed by then.

I drive a Prius since three years (and bought it w...

2009-07-07T08:29:28.954-04:00

I drive a Prius since three years (and bought it when it was two years old) with now 115.00km (about 70.000 miles) on the meter. I have the opposite experience: excellent quality, much less problems then my former car.

For the few problems that were there, most of theme I wouldn't have noticed (part of the breaks needed to be replaced and a part of the cooling system), but the dealer noticed them before I did and fixed them under warranty.

For the rest, I like the interior feel and touch.

I do live in the Netherlands, but I was told that al Prius (Prii?) come from Japan, so it should be the same quality, right?

Marc

I think this is exactly the reason Toyota made ser...

2009-07-07T07:56:59.039-04:00

I think this is exactly the reason Toyota made serious changes in top management. The Toyota leadership have very publicly acknowledged the company has recently lost it's vision and pursued sales at the expense of quality.

Ha, good point Chuck. I edited the post slightly.....

2009-07-07T07:08:54.467-04:00

Ha, good point Chuck. I edited the post slightly... I did mean Point of Sale.