Rob Curedale wrote:
> Chris wrote:
>
> "I don't think the Toyota model is particularly "collaborative".
>
> "The Toyota system is a challenge to the idea of geniuses or heroic
> innovators because it depends on communities of practice. The various
> elements that contribute to the system, particularly the Kanban approach
> to demand-driven manufacturing, the continuous improvement ethos,
> cellular manufacturing and the culture described by Nonaka and Takeuchi
> in "The Knowledge Creating Company" all depend on democratic efforts by
> groups of ordinary workers to shape and manage their contribution and a
> culture of consensus. Its success depends on the knowledge, skills and
> experience of those workers."
> Your two statements seem to be inconsistent. Can you expain further?
> Rob
Yes of course. I see the Toyota model as being heavy on consensus and
close attention to detail within groups. Of course there is
collaboration but I tend to read "collaboration" in the way that it was
being proposed in our discussion as an inter-disciplinary
inter-departmental focus - putting collaboration between different
groups at the forefront of the business as with concurrent engineering.
When Black and Decker introduced concurrent engineering in the 1980s one
of their key moves was communication skills training because everybody
had to be able to talk to everybody else. My reading of the Japanese
approach is that it is led by good communication and teamwork within
groups, quite a different problem and arguably more manageable.
My reading of the demand driven aspects of manufacturing logistics, as
pioneered by Japanese manufacturers, particularly cellular manufacturing
and the Kanban system, is that they emphasise the autonomy of small
units as individual businesses, serving their customer cells who pull
production down and pulling production down in turn from supplier cells.
It's a market model rather than a team one. That emphasis on the
autonomy of workers and cells, empowering any worker to stop the line is
a good example, actually lowers the pressure on teamwork - you only
collaborate when something goes wrong, as when rocks are revealed in the
River and Rocks model for inventory reduction. You don't have to
maintain a continuous collaboration just to keep things rolling.
Of course I could be wrong :o)
best wishes from Sheffield
Chris
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