Jim Womack in India
‘Most Indian managers don’t know what is possible’
Jim Womack was recently in India, as this article in the Business
Standard publication. It’s kind of unfortunate for them that they
abbreviate the publication’s name as “BS”…. such as their “BS
Poll.” But let’s look past that….
Outside of Toyota City, the best manufacturing
operation is in Chennai, says James P Womack, the
founder-chairman of Lean Enterprise Institute, a non-profit
educational and research organisation. That is evidence that Indian
companies can implement and sustain “lean” systems.
Unfortunately, he says, not many Indian managers know
this.
One of the most provocative and interesting Q&A segment was
about the excuse of India’s infrastructure:
One of the major issues with the Toyota Way is
that it depends on an optimum infrastructure delivery environment,
like in Japan, Europe or the US and, therefore, has less relevance
for India. Do you agree? I always find this argument very
curious. I can’t help but suspect that some Indian managers
are hoping it is true so they can say, “Thank goodness! Now
we don’t have to change the way we manage!” All I would
ask any Indian manager to do is to think through the Toyota/lean
principle of supplying small amounts frequently to customers at
every point along a value stream.
I know I have a lot of readers from India — what are your thoughts
on this? Is infrastructure and transportation a “barrier” or an
“excuse”?
Womack also talks about the Chennai plant that he was so
impressed with:
What impressed you at the TVS
plant?
The team at WABCO-TVS (manufacturer of vehicle control systems) has
done a brilliant job of scanning for lean knowledge, bringing a few
experts for a short period and learning everything they knew, and
then incorporating it into their business system, from policy
deployment to factory operations to supplier development — an
extremely impressive achievement.
For more, check out the link at the top of the post. And, Indian
readers, please do let us know what you think of the article and
about the state of Lean in India.
Muthuvelan ST commented:
I know for sure, TVS plants (almost all the plants) are great
examples of lean implementation in India. But, what I fail to
understand is, why their manufacturing excellence is not reflecting
on TVS balance sheets. In fact, TVS is struggling in the market
place - in the two-wheelers market, Hero Honda & Bajaj are
beating them by a mile!
shyam commented:
True, infrastructure issues might mean that the efficiency of an
enterprise in India might be lower than one in a place where its
better. But that doesnt prevent organisations in applying Lean to
squeeze the existing systems for efficiency. As Jim Womack rightly
says in the article, its about finding the level of "standard
inventory" that suits your operation eventhough it might not be as
lean as in more advanced organisations. The "It wont work here"
syndrome needs to be eradicated before we can see more successful
implementations
