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I work with companies that are on a path they call the lean journey. Whatever you call it, it's based on the Toyota Production System. Some manufacturers embraced it and it became known as Lean Manufacturing, expanded into the Lean Office or Lean Enterprise. During this transformation the approach became focused on tools, but Toyota's approach is about people. The focus of Lean Manufacturing training has been on technical skills such as value stream mapping, 5S, and set-up reduction. People skills; also known as 'soft skills' or interpersonal skills haven't been much of a priority. Difficulty in moving from a traditional to a lean organization is usually blamed on the culture of the organization. If this is true than interpersonal skill training needs to be a higher priority. Communication often determines if the transition succeeds or not. Could the 'soft' stuff actually be more important than the 'hard' stuff? Somehow, many companies seem to believe that training managers to 'create a vision' and engineers to map the value stream, make work instructions visible and dictate how to clean and organize will magically transform the company. However, as we all know, it's the people who do the work, not maps or set-up calculations. In a Lean organization, it's the people who do the work that create the standardized work, not managers or engineers. In his book, The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker explains, 'it's the people who bring the system to life: working, communicating, resolving issues, and growing together.' Toyota, on its website, states that 'Improvements and suggestions by team members are the cornerstone of Toyota's success.' Managers act as coaches and develop their people. Once again, let's not forget, it's the people who do the work. Continuous improvement is part of the work. It's easy to see (but somehow difficult for some of us to embrace) that any organization can effectively follow Toyota's lead. Managers only need to coach and develop their people. Communication is the key. Interpersonal skills training, the 'soft' stuff is actually more important than the 'hard' stuff. Copyright © 2005 Chuck Yorke - All Rights Reserved Auto Submit To 3,000,000+ Websites. - Blast Your Ad to 3,000,000+ Classified Websites! Plus Huge Array of Marketing Tools. Affiliates Earn 60% Parenting Secrets By Mother Of Five. - Raising Kids With Life Skills makes both parenting and growing up easier to do. Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
More Articles:1. Innovation Management – Reducing Hierarchy By Kal Bishop Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development … 2. How To Decrease Downtime and Increase Productivity By Lawrence Bush All maintenance activities of the workforce must be documented, this includes breakdown repairs, callouts, preventive maintenance, replacement maintenance, overhauls, and Testing & Inspection work. Maintenance work by production line employees must be included, whether or not the employee is listed as in maintenance. These activities can then be mined for maintenance information "gold".List all repetitive workOne of the first things that a maintenance supervisor should be concerned with is rep… 3. Twitch Speed: Reaching Younger Workers Who Think Differently By Marc Prensky Every parent, educator, and manager knows that "Nintendo children"--those born after 1970 and raised on video and computer games, Walkmans, the Internet, etc.--are different. Unfortunately, the Gen-X discussion has focused mainly on the youths' supposedly short attention spans and attention-deficit disorders, ignoring or underemphasizing what is perhaps the most crucial factor--that this under-30 generation thinks, and sees the world, in ways entirely different from their parents.An example: T… 4. Why and How to Work with a Consultant By Bryan Wilson A good consultant provides specialist abilities and experience, innovative ideas, second opinions (reality checks), unbiased appraisals, and new approaches.A good consultant will leave you with tools, plans, and materials, and will transfer knowledge and resources to help you use them.Avoid making mistakes and wasting time and resources. A small investment and timely, professional advice can mean savings and increased revenues in the future.Adding the services of a consultant can make a diffe… |
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