Toast Kaizen 1

[Music]

The video that you're

about to see is being created to

demonstrate some of the basic philosophy

and principles of the Toyota Production

System, or as we call it today,

lean thinking. Lean manufacturing.

Or lean administrative.

The ideas apply equally to any segment

of the business.

But we take them into the kitchen to try

to get them out of all of those areas,

so that people can watch without being

encumbered by predispositions that they

have about their current jobs.

It is a go-see video, where we ask people

to watch and become engaged, which is also

a critical part of being lean.

So join us and enjoy.

It's amazing what we can learn

from our own intuition if we will only

watch and see, what's going on

in the process.

Two of the most important points of

what we call lean manufacturing

involve direct observation of the process.

And then, once we understand what we see,

effective use of countermeasures to remove

the problems that we see.

And in particular,

the use of what we call Kaizen.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means

"small change for the better."

Many small changes for the better,

and in particular, it means small changes

that are created from the intuition,

experience and common sense of the people

who do the work.

Too often, we overlook these opportunities

and as Mr. Ono and Mr. Shingo

at the Toyota Motor Works discovered,

almost 9/10 of the time

between paying and getting paid,

in our business, involves waste --

which can be identified through

direct observation if we will only watch.

So today we have a process

for everyone to watch.

Every shop floor, of course, is different.

And we need to choose a shop floor which

is easy to bring to many people

and one in which you all can

provide some intuition, because you have

done the process yourself.

So we pick a very simple process

and that process is making toast.

Now it is a simple process.

Uh, but it does involve a machine,

a toaster. And tools. A knife.

Conveyance equipment. A plate.

It involves a customer.

In this case, it's -- my wife --

is the customer.

And it involves a person who is doing

the work and that will be me.

So I invite you to come to my shop floor

where we can watch the process

very carefully and watch with an eye

for improvement to try to understand what

can be made better in this process.

Watch the video and then we'll get your

thinking before we continue with

an improvement.

I'm making some toast for my wife.

[Rustling noises]

[Toaster pops]

Geez.

[Muttering to himself]

[Sighs.]

Honey, I made you some toast!

Is it raisin toast?

OK. I hope you enjoyed watching

the before condition, and I'll bet

since you were watching with

an eye for improvement, you saw lots of

things that could be improved.

This, in fact, is what happens when we

truly have direct observation.

You know, we're all so much creatures

of habit that we come to work, all of us,

trying to do a good day's work,

and we work around the problems.

You know, the common expression is,

whatever it takes to get the job done.

We're not focused on improvement when

we're trying to get our jobs done.

We're just focused on trying to get

things done in spite of all the problems

that crop up.

But this time you came and watched

the process with an eye for improvement.

And what are the things that you saw?

I'll bet you saw, for example,

that I did an awful lot of walking around.

We call that waste of motion.

You saw me walk back and forth,

perhaps four times.

You say, well, did that add any value

to the function of making toast?

So we look for that sort of thing

and we try to reduce it. We look for

ways to reduce steps and motion.

And in fact, if we were able to move

the toaster closer to the bread,

that would reduce that particular

motion altogether. This is what we call

Kaizen: a simple improvement that can

have a very big effect.

One possibility, course,

would have been that I could have had a

motorized tract to move me back and forth.

Mr. Shingo would have called that

a superficial improvement,

because that would only be automating

the waste of motion.

He said, we need to find ways

to truly reduce the kinds of waste

that we see; not cover them up.

Here's another example of motion.

Motion is one of those wastes that's

truly a people waste.

Things that we must do in our jobs

all require motion.

But the question is, how much motion.

Because we would like to have

as little as possible.

Uh, when I was searching for the butter,

in the refrigerator,

how much time should I spend looking?

I had to dig through the refrigerator on

several shelves until I found the butter.

Now that would be one of those things

that we would say is necessary

to get the job done.

And that's true, but it is waste.

The customer does not pay when

we are searching for things.

And almost every job has this condition.

Could be a pen, could be a calculator.

Could be a crescent wrench.

You may be breaking a sweat

looking for this part.

You may spend a very long time.

But it's not work.

And the customer doesn't pay for it.

You know, motion is often very tiring.

Stressful. Sometimes even dangerous.

But we're used to it.

It's just something that

we're accustomed to.

So we do it all the time.

Mr. Shingo pointed out

on a number of occasions that

eliminating waste is not the problem.

It's identifying it.

It's actually being able to see it.

And sometimes we are so familiar with

things that aren't working,

that we've forgotten about them.

So we need to go back and observe directly

Observe our own work.

Just like when we watch toast.

In order to understand where

those wastes are.

When you eliminate motion from your work,

you're making the job easier.

You're making the day better.

Because you're making problems

that you've had disappear.

And when that happens,

you can do more work.

It won't be more tiring,

but it will be more work.

And so that's just one of the seven wastes

which Mr. Shingo identified.

Here's another one.

Did you get a little nervous and antsy

watching me wait for that toast?

Well, he said, you know, waiting is

a big part of the process.

The customer doesn't pay for waiting.

There are times when waiting is part

of the process. Where it's important.

For example,

if it's important for something

to age or glue to dry.

Or if it's important for us to take

a rest occasionally.

This causes a delay in the process,

but this is important,

because it's necessary,

it's part of the work.

But if you're waiting for a toaster

which is taking a very long time,

what else could we be doing during

that time?

You may think that it's easy

to find out what to do,

but in fact, the person's time

is very different from the machine's time.

And often we pay people to stand

and watch machines.

Sometimes we buy a big machine

and it's making defects for us.

So we pay somebody to stand

and be sure that it doesn't make a defect.

This doesn't value the employee and it

surely does not improve our productivity.

So there's another waste: waiting.

In fact, you know, there's a lot of

waiting that goes on. Not only for people.

In fact, most often in factories,

and in offices, we don't wait.

People don't wait. But material waits.

Information waits.

It waits in inboxes. It waits on pallets.

It waits even on trucks.

It looks like it's moving but actually

it's just sitting there. It's waiting.

And Mr. Shingo said, customers don't want

to pay for that.

That's increasing the time between paying

and getting paid. That's another waste.

Now occasionally we do have

to move that material.

We have to move it from

point A to point B.

And you can't make a part or you can't run

a business without some transportation.

You need to move things around.

But how far? Well, that has to do with

the distance between operations.

And in fact, there was some transportation

and another waste of storage.

Picking things up and putting them down.

How many times did I pick the toast up

and put it down in process of toasting?

The function here, of course,

is making toast, and that involves

picking it up once anyway,

but how many times did I pick it up?

And how many storage points were there?

Often when we think of storage,

we think only of the warehouse.

And some storage in a warehouse

may be legitimate.

But why everywhere else?

Are our factories and offices warehouses,

or are they workplaces?

So we need to be able to see those wastes

and identify them as waste, because

every time we are storing information

or material, we're not really

adding value to it.

The customer doesn't want to pay for that.

We can't put at the bottom of the invoice,

this product was stored many times.

So we're charging you extra for it.

So we call that value added.

From the customer standpoint.

What is the value that the customer

expects in the process?

Here's another waste. Defects.

Were there any defects here?

Well, in this case there was

a very big defect. There was scrap.

There were four pieces of scrap and why?

Because I wasn't making what

the customer needed.

Now obviously in this case it would be

easy for me to ask the customer,

but very often, a factory or an office is

set up working on things which are

not needed. Not needed today.

Maybe needed next week.

Maybe needed next month.

But they're not needed now.

And if we're not careful, we'll end up

producing something which

we'll have to scrap.

Now there's a couple of other wastes

that I haven't covered yet.

Let me just mention one now. Processing.

Sometimes in the processing itself,

there are things which don't make sense.

We do them because that's the way

the process is designed,

but maybe we need to look at the process

more closely to understand how

it could be improved.

The way I had to cut butter in

that first condition,

is an inadequate process.

Sure, the function of buttering toast

requires that we cut the butter.

But nobody says it should be

as hard as a rock. And of course,

who can identify that waste?

Now, of course,

there needs to be a condition

in your business when a waste like that

is identified that we can

make an improvement.

In the real world sometimes a person might

identify a waste like that,

speak to their boss,

and the boss might say, you know,

we have brought people who

solve those problems.

Why don't you just quit complaining

and get back to your job?

So simple things often are not fixed

because we don't observe directly.

The last waste -- the last waste and

the worst waste of all,

we call over-production.

Over-production is producing information

or material either too soon or in

too great a quantity.

Now in our traditional thinking,

over-production isn't even

a meaningful word.

How could it be a problem to produce more.

Because we'll sell it.

We'll sell it eventually.

Or if we're able to do it

sooner than later, why not?

Uh, but if you think about over-production

if we make something and we can't use it

right now,

we're gonna have to move it somewhere.

And that's transportation.

And then we're gonna have to store it.

That's storage.

And in fact if we're making something

right now, that isn't needed, well,

we're causing something behind to wait,

aren't we?

We don't think of it as waiting

because we're very busy.

But the customer is waiting.

The next job is waiting.

Why do you suppose I made four slices

of toast? Why would I do that?

Well, it's a four-slice toaster, right?

Now I don't even know what

the customer wants, but unfortunately,

this is often the case.

And if we don't know what

the customer wants,

and we may want to maximize the resource.

We may say, don't load that oven until

there are four slices.

Let's keep the customer waiting.

More efficient, isn't it?

Well, not if the customer is

not going to buy it.

We're gonna end up scrapping it.

So you see, this whole idea of

the seven wastes --

-- if you look at it from

an initiative standpoint, it makes

a lot of sense to look for these wastes.

But in our workplaces,

regardless of the jobs that we do,

we've very practiced at

not looking for these wastes.

The day is very long often.

Very rarely do I hear somebody say,

I had a great day.

Well, the reason for that

is all the headaches.

All the things that you

just observed in this process --

you can observe these same kinds

of wastes in any process.

Shigeo Shingo, who was the creator

of these seven wastes,

or at least the first person

to report them, said --

he said it doesn't matter whether you're

making automobiles or baking bread.

Waste is still the same.

Continuous improvement is not about

the things you do well.

That's work.

That's what your customer is paying for.

Continuous improvement is about

eliminating all of the things that get in

the way of your work every single day.

Regardless of the job you do.

The headaches. The problems.

The things that slow you down.

The things that cause you to say at

the end of the day, I'm very tired,

this has been a hard day.

That's what continuous

improvement is about.

So why don't we stop right here

and try to gather our thoughts

as to what we saw in that process,

that can be improved.

Simple things, is what we're looking for.

Kaizen. We're looking for the things that

can be improved through your experience

and common sense.

No big machines. No innovation.

These are improvements as well but this

is not what we're looking for with Kaizen.

We're looking for many small improvements.

So what are your ideas?

Pause the tape or DVD here to see if

you can identify and suggest ways

to remove the seven types of waste

Bruce defined including motion,

waiting, transportation, storage, defects,

processing, and over-production.

Okay, I'll bet by now,

you've had a lot of ideas as to

what can be improved in what

we call the current condition.

And of course, any process can be improved

if we watch and look for the improvements

that can be made.

Now let's take a look and see

what happened when my wife and I got

together to make a better process

for making toast.

What type of toast would you like?

Wheat.

Okay. How many slices?

Just one please.

Very good.

[Rustling noises.]

Hmmm.

[Whistling]

[Clears throat.]

That oughta do it.

[Running water sounds]

All set!

Thanks dear.

So now you see what we mean by Kaizen.

Simple improvements with big benefits.

And simple improvements which come from

direct observation and from the thinking

and knowledge of people that do the work.

For example,

moving the toaster closer to the bread.

How many times have you

experienced this condition?

The work you need to do is done on

a machine which is far away from you.

Why is the machine there?

Maybe that was the spot that --

there was space on the day that

the machine arrived.

Or maybe that's where

the telephone line is.

Or where the power is.

But does it make it easy for you to do

the work or is it causing you to walk long

distances back and forth between

the two processes?

So we focused on a simple improvement.

We moved the machine.

Another improvement that we made

was to the butter.

I know that it's necessary to butter toast

but nobody said that

the butter needs to be hard as a rock.

So we softened the butter and we put the

butter right at the point of use as well.

No more searching; since we don't

need it in the refrigerator,

we can put it right at the point of use.

While buttering the toast is real work

because the customer has asked for it,

we can eliminate the Muda,

or waste of over-processing.

That is, putting too much

butter on the bread.

And at the same time,

eliminate the strain or Muri,

of buttering by softening the butter.

Finally we can reduce the Mura,

or inconsistency of the buttering process

by making it easier to apply a standard

and even amount of butter to the toast.

We chose to keep the flatware where it was

Because that was a good location for it

for other things.

But notice that I picked the piece of

flatware up on the way to the process

while asking my wife what she needed.

I was very careful in the order of

the process because sometimes changing

the order of the process can make

a big difference.

In the first video,

I waited a long time to start the toaster.

In the second video, I started the toaster

as soon as I knew what the customer wanted

And very importantly,

I knew what the customer wanted.

I knew what she wanted and

I knew how many she wanted.

And therefore I was able to make

exactly what was needed.

No over-production.

In fact, I preheated the toaster

so there would be less waiting

for the customer.

Now the process was long,

it was still long, but I found a way

to make good, productive use of my time

that was balanced against

the machine time.

Too often we think that a person's time

is the same as the machine's.

But it's not.

A person can do other things.

And once I realized this,

I was able to load the toast,

get that toaster process going,

and then load the dishwasher and clean up.

And I had plenty of time.

In fact, I was still waiting.

I had extra time.

So these are simple improvements

that were made.

You probably thought of all these as well.

Here's an interesting aside.

At this point, it's important to realize

that Kaizen is small, stepwise improvement

We're not aiming for perfection

in the first try.

But for something better than we have.

And when we get there,

it's likely that we'll notice

something more we can do now to

make things even better.

In that sense, every target condition

immediately becomes our

new current condition.

As you viewed the improved condition,

your direct observation may have uncovered

further opportunities to reduce waste.

What did you see?

Did you notice a potential safety hazard

with the location of the toaster?

Or were you waiting for

Bruce to wash his hands?

Why were the dishes in the sink

in the first place, you might ask?

And did you observe that an operation

was missing in the target condition?

With Kaizen, we are always watching for

additional improvement

and the more eyes watching,

the more we'll see.

Now we've switched on that part of us

that is going to notice waste

and come up with small changes

for the better. Everybody every day.

And the most important part of this was

that the customer was happy.

I produced what the customer wanted.

I made the part move faster.

I made the job easier.

I reduced the time between paying

and getting paid. I reduced scrap.

I reduced the number of steps

that I had to take. I reduced searching.

I made it a good day for me.

And for the customer.

This is what continuous

improvement is all about.

So this is my challenge to you.

Yeah, toast is simple to make.

Go take a look at another process.

Go take a look at your job.

But this time, watch

with an eye for improvement.

And see how many of these wastes

you can identify and remove.

[Music.]