Did the Reporter or GM Blow it on a Definition of TPS?

September 21, 2009

Calif. to get dose of auto anguish | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Here’s a recent story about the demise of NUMMI, in which, the reporter wrote:

“On the manufacturing side, GM did sustain much of what it learned from Toyota in its Global Manufacturing System, a standardized set of practices that literally choreograph workers’ jobs to maximize efficiency, minimize physical movement and focus on using inventory only as needed.”

That sounds like the old complaint of “turning workers into robots.” That doesn’t sound like Lean to me. Did the reporter get it wrong or did GM tell the reporter a skewed view of Lean?

The Toyota Production System is all about standardized work but (probably more importantly) it’s also focused on engaging every worker in continuously improving their own work. Did GM not learn that from Toyota at NUMMI?

The article sort of implies that geniuses like GM’s Mark Hogan were able to figure it all out for those dumb workers, who needed to be choreographed. My old GM plant manager who learned at NUMMI didn’t expect to come up with all of the answers. His job was to teach and to ask the right questions.

TPS isn’t just a new form of Taylorism where the employees are expected to unthinkingly execute the choreography of the educated class. The article gives a different, and wrong, impression.

Kevin Meyer, at Evolving Excellence, coincidentally blogged about this recently, too.

Posted by Mark Graban on September 21, 2009 | Comments (2)

September 22, 2009

In response to: Did the Reporter or GM Blow it on a Definition of TPS?
current Toyota employee commented:

Sorry no Brian Z. Jones at Toyota.
But, I share his view. Does anyone really care in the end? GM went after profit and with the Big SUV's to pay for their bonuses and the fat union contracts. Toyota chose a different path, but it's not as easy as that. Toyota is going through change as we speak and the culture is changing, it's hard to be on top. We have a saying that the most value you can get is from going to the floor "genchi genbustu", I hope Toyota continues to value that as it goes forward. I'm not so sure anymore.

September 21, 2009

In response to: Did the Reporter or GM Blow it on a Definition of TPS?
Brian Z Jones commented:

In the same way that a choreographer develops a dance routine, TPS does in fact choreograph team member jobs. Variables introduced by not following this standard method are frowned upon. They are encouraged to bring new, more efficient, ideas to the table, and some alowance may be made for TMs of different size, for example. But this story is 100% correct on the implementation.
I work for Toyota, extremely closely with Japanese coordinators. I visit NUMMI regularly. Whether it was the reporter or not, this is a correct assertion. Just remember: "Lean" is not "TPS." They are related, but not equal.
-brianZjones

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