Toyota has been successful at what they do for several years. Many have tried to imitate them only to be limited by their understanding of the “know why”. One of the main philosophical difference between Toyota and many others trying to follow their methods is that Toyota truly manages by mean and not by results. I just started to read “Toyota Kata” by Mike Rother. It was the interesting conclusion of the foreword written by H. Thomas Johnson which inspired me to write this post.

Lean Philosophy is less discussed topic for the practitioners who merely want to get on the “me too” boat. The blame partly goes to our existing management system which is too focused on end results than on the means to get there.

What are the means and why are they important?

Adopting the continuous improvement of process is the means for financial success and long term growth of the company. But if you focus on the financial results only and not worry about the means your people use it will harm the long term growth and success of the company. The means come before the profits. This wisdom is captured in the verse of “Bagvath Gita”:

Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,

Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani

It simply means “Do your duty, without the being obsessed about the results.” Our duty here is continuous improvement the process that delivers value to the customer.

Here are some of examples where ends become important than the means for short term gain, but ultimately causing long term harm:

• When you ask to ship all orders o same day. It could lead to bad practices like having excess inventory or working overtime
•  When you want better utilization of labor without considering the demand, it will lead to practice of over production

We see similar examples in our day to day life yet we fail to understand the subtle difference it makes when you put the right means ahead of the profit. What are your thoughts? Are you truly focused on the means or just the end?

I got some good feedback on my post about Mission Statement from the Lean Community (Link to Discussion). After considering the inputs and some thinking I have slightly changed the statement to the following:

“Right the first time on time by optimizing all resources in safe environment via engaging people towards the goals of our Organization”

Writing a good mission statement is just the tip of the ice-berg. Best Mission Statement could be useless if we don’t have a mechanism to convert it in to a language that is easily understood by everyone in the organization. To achieve the Mission we should be able to know what the objectives that enable to reach our goal are. Consider the manufacturing operation, how does the above Mission Statement relate to key objectives of a manufacturing operation:

Key Performance Objectives
1. Quality: Right the first time
2. Delivery: On time
3. Productivity: Optimizing all Resources
4. Cost: Optimizing resources
5. Safety: In Safe environment
6. People: engaging people
7. Alignment: towards the goals of our Organization

Breaking the Mission into “key performance objectives” help you to understand how to affect various processes. The next step would be to figure out how to measure this performance and ensure we are on right track.

How often you have spent time and effort to hire talented people for your organization and lost them after you have invested significant amount of time training them. The fact is , however hard to believe, they leave because we lack the training….. the right kind of training. Most industrial training is about how to do the mundane tasks of a particular job. This does not improve the talent of the person nor does it create a spark of interest in a person who is inclined to be knowledge driven. For this type individuals who are creative problems solvers and strive to develop and improve themselves by taking up new challenges, learning something new is a big motivation and a stimulant for happiness. Continuous learning helps people to feel the sense of achievement which may be even harder to achieve by increase in salary.

A good organization hires the right people, a great organization trains and develops their people continually building stronger long term relationship with their employees. Training and learning is not only the means to retain the right talent but also attracts similar minded people to join the organization.