[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.]