The Secret for Success

One day I followed Dr. Shingo and a small group of engineers around in a Dresser Industries plant.  We stopped at a punch press and watched a worker bend over and pick up from the left side of the press a large sheet of steel, place the steel sheet into the punch press, put his two hands onto the buttons to activate the press, watched the press come down to form the metal and saw the worker reach into the bed to pull out the formed steel and place it on the right side of the press.  Dr. Shingo took out his stopwatch and asked the engineers to watch the operation again and to determine the value adding time.

After the process was repeated, Dr. Shingo asked the engineers, “What was the value adding time?’  One engineer said, “100%, the worker is always working.”  Another said, “75%,” another said, “50%.  Dr. Shingo looked at his watch and said, “17% of the time is value adding.  Only when the press is forming the metal is value being added.”  Then he asked engineers, “What can you do to improve the ratio?

One engineer said, “You could put a leveler to automatically raise the raw steel.”  Another said, “You could put a spring in the back of the press to force the formed steel forward.” A third said, “You could put a table next to the press to place the formed pieces.”

Dr. Shingo knew that once the engineers looked at the actual operation and asked and challenged them to think on their own that they would come up with many improvement ideas.

Toyota’s uniqueness is to train people and to develop them at the work site from their own ideas and to challenge them to continuously improve their ideas.    Yes, the Lean tools are important but your success will only come from investing people to learn and grow endlessly on the job.