Re: Survey:Toyota loses luster with suppliers-Ford has made strides in supplier relat
It appears Japan, Inc. learned some bad lessons from the US Big Three.
Regardless of the industry, an OEM that treats its suppliers as adversaries or slaves instead of partners is creating a deep pool of resentment. The same, of course, holds true for employers who treat their employees as adversaries or slaves instead of partners.
Many economic commentators pointed to blatant disregard for employees and suppliers as well as hubris toward customers (ignoring the fact customers vote with their dollars) as the downfall for companies and entire industries throughout history.
Best guess:
My friend, Akio Miura, a long-time Quality consultant headquartered in Tokyo, has been railing against the mindset of executives in the big Japanese companies because they pay lip service to Deming and his theories, but completely ignore them in practice.
In Deming's 14 points, Akio particuarly points to the ones I emphasize in
bold face as very common lapses in the Japan operations of the big companies, especially including Toyota, a long-time client of Akio's.
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The 14 points.[/FONT]
- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Institute training on the job.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company (see Ch. 3).
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership. [/FONT]
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective (see Ch. 3).
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
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- [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.[/FONT]
Akio claims that the concept of Kaizen has been perverted in Japan to the point employees and low level managers run around like decapitated chickens, implementing change for change's sake, without regard to the net value of that change to the organization as a whole. Akio has cited many instances of "silos" where a change which shows benefit for one department actually causes a net loss to the organization because of a greater detriment to another department.
[reminds me of Neutron Jack's implementation of 6 Sigma at GE where he claimed billions in savings from 6 S, but none of the billions showed up in GE's net profit.]
Akio particularly scoffs at the practice of assembling the entire workforce each morning to chant slogans and sing the company song, pretending to be one happy family. The long time practice of finding work for employees for life has give way to wholesale layoffs with very little in the way of welfare programs to ease the pain for unemployed folk.
The idea Toyota and others had of grouping suppliers close to the main OEM to better enable communication and savings in shipping to enable JIT efforts has actually had the effect of making those suppliers slaves instead of partners, with the main OEM punishing suppliers for delays or nonconformances instead of working with them as partners to correct the root causes behind the delays and nonconformances.
When I said to Akio, "Hey! The Toyota and Honda plants in the US are getting high marks for the very things you say are being perverted back in Japan."
His response was just one word, "Wait!"
