This year’s October’s KAIZEN & Lean Japan benchmarking tour ran from 19th-24th October. The tour began with the group assembling at the Castle Plaza hotel in Nagoya. Nagoya is the heartland of Toyota, with the majority of the motor plants, subsiduaries and trucks and industrial division within an hour of the bustling city centre.
The group were, as usual a United Nations of people from different cultures and continents, including members from Portugal, India, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Czech Republic and of course New Zealand!
On the first day we visited the Toyota Tsutsumi plant where 80% of production is building the Prius Hybrid plus a handful of other models such as the Camry and Previa.
We spent just over an hour on the Assembly and Welding floors where we saw some great examples of the Toyota Production System in action. We observed Standard Work, Andon and also spent 5 minutes observing a busy supermarket with Mizusumashi’s coming and going, just like Tokyo station! The second stop was at the automated welding shop which reminded me of Star Wars; there are over 1,000 robots!
The group ended the tour by having a go at asssembly “fundamental skills” and seeing some recent KAIZEN ideas.We got back on the bus and headed to the Toyota Kaikan museum.
The Toyota “Kaikan” Museum features a history of the Toyota Production System, and is well worth a couple of hours walk around. Toyota also showcased their latest models and technology, including their indisputable skills in robotics. The star attraction every hour is a trumpet playing robot, playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” absoloutely pitch perfect!
The evening of day one was a chance for everyone to relax a little and get to know one another. The first day was over and, as customary with our tour there was an informal welcome reception and some delicious Japanese cuisine.
One of the New Zealand participants was celebrating his birthday, and having caught wind of this, we celebrated with a cake and an impromptu rendition of Happy Birthday!
Day two’s itinerary included two company visits to Toyota Industries Corporation, where around 5000 people are engaged in the manufacture of forklifts and industrial equipment.
The drive out from Nagoya centre to the industrial zone was fascinating as we saw a fleet of “milk-run” trucks collecting components from suppliers and heading into Toyota Industries.
These trucks are characterised by their gull wing construction, allowing rapid load and unload with specially designed pallets and stillages used to ship the components in standardised containers, each with their controlling Kanban at every stage.
One of the amazing sights at Toyota Industries is watching these delivery trucks arrive in a central logistics area sited at the very centre of the assembly line, and observing the logistics system in action, as the components are moved to the supermarkets ready for consumption. There is no inwards good warehouse; everything is unloaded and taken straight to the production area ready for consumption. On questioning our host, we learnt that typically the local suppliers are shipping components every 2 hours, direct from their manufacturing lines.
Our tour began with a short lecture on the company and its products, this is customary at each host site as they have enormous pride in what they do and of course it’s good marketing too!
The ability to walk the Gemba at Toyota Industries sets this plant visit apart from the rest. We started the tour at the sub assembly area, which was punctuated with manufacturing cells supplying components that were then taken to the main assembly line. The main area of interest was the internal logistics system, including Mizusumashi, Kanban and AGV’s all these lean concepts are the life blood of the Toyota Production System.
The main assembly line looked exactly the same as the car production we had seen the previous day .The walk took us past the assembly stations where forklifts were being assembled according to takt time, with operators focused on their standardised work and we saw a few Mizusumashi delivering components and picking up empty containers with their Kanban from the border of the line. This is the real Toyota in action, I could have spent a few hours here, but the tour moves on. Next stop was the international spare parts Distribution Centre, located adjacent to the assembly halls.
The DC was well organised and very tidy, with strict 5S standards applied; the parts were stored by size, velocity and storage medium/container. We saw where the orders were printed and picked by zone and then delivered in a variety of picking carts to the consolidation area adjacent to Shipping & Despatch.
TPS principles are also applied in the Distribution areas, with Lean Warehousing principles developed, reflecting the core principles of flow, synchronisation and workload levelling.
We ended the tour with a few minutes to look at some of their products in their show room, and a history of the company and its founder Aichi Toyoda.
After a great lunch with a fantastic view over the estuary, we headed to the Morei Seki Machine Tool Company’s Chiba campus, near Funabashi City.
On the way out of the hotel where we had our lunch, one of our group noticed a “Japanese Bentley”. For those of you who didn’t watch a recent Top Gear episode, apparently there is a small manufacturer producing a Bentley look alike which is about a two thirds scale version!
The Morei Serki campus is immaculate; it is home to their manufacturing campus and training centre whichincludes its own hotel for customers attending courses on how to use their equipment. We were greeted in the reception area and taken past their showroom area into the lecture theatre for an hour’s worth of presentations.
As ever the highlight was the tour of the shop floor. We began the 90 minute tour by visiting the showroom, where we were able to see the finished products, precision machining centres which display their products and examples of what they are used for.
The pieces of equipment are incredibly complicated and finely balanced, ranging from CNC lathes through to highly sophisticated machining centres used in aviation and aerospace industries.
We headed out onto the factory floor, through large automatic doors, and the Gemba walk was now underway!
The feeling at the end of the tour was that it was difficult to distinguish between the showroom and the assembly hall! The level of workplace organisation and cleanliness was truly amazing, and it is evident that they take 5S very seriously with excellent examples throughout the plant.
Kaizen suggestions and problem solving was also a feature of their workplace philosophy, as we reviewed some examples, and were also shown an area where cameras were used to trace operator movements in a standardization and training project.
Standard Work is one of the key concepts in place, and the training and multi skilling of employees is paramount to ensure they are able to meet the demands of the customer, and produce a consistently high quality product.
The overwhelming impression of Morei Seki was the way they had applied 5S, Kaizen Suggestions and Problem Solving. Coupled with this, the skill level and training of their employees and their customers alike show their long term commitment to a Quality product.
Wednesday morning already? We are half way through our Japan Lean Kaizen Tour, and today we have a factory tour, Nabeya Bi-tech Kaisha (NBK). After lunch we return to the Castle Plaza Hotel ready for an afternoon of informative lectures on Lean Kaizen topics and philosophies.
NBK’s campus is noted for its immaculate setting amongst a forest and well manicured gardens (just outside Seki, in the Gifu province). The factory has acquired the name “The Garden Factory” due to its beautiful surroundings and excellent on site staff facilities.
NBK has a long corporate history, with its foundations dating back to 1540, when they manufactured die cast lanterns for the imperial palace. Needless to say this organisation has been around for a long time (450 years) and has seen pretty much everything.
Their main products were precision die cast components that could be customised to individual needs and also a range of high quality fixtures and fittings.
The initial presentation highlighted the key philosophies of the company. The most notable were the importance of teamwork, ensuring complete employee involvement and the emphasis on training for a multi skilled workforce, Kaizen thinking to solve problems and employee suggestions.
NBK had an amazing distribution centre; it was extremely clean, tidy and well organized, showing excellent examples of 5S and Visual Management.
The Gemba walk took us through the entire production process, starting at the distribution centre, which was integrated with the sales and customer services centre. On the upper floors of the warehouse, the international customer services teams were actually nestled within the warehouse space, where the dispatch team were picking and packing orders. This apparently provided greater understanding of the whole process and allowed the distribution team to liaise directly when a query or problem arose relating to a shipment.
The production areas were also incredibly well organized, and the machine shop, and paint lines again demonstrated excellent 5S, Visual Management and TPM.
This factory was very different to those of Toyota. They pride themselves on being able to respond to each and every customer request, and customize their products to meet the specific requirements of their customers. They have named this their “Sushi bar Production System” the analogy being that it is akin to going to a high class Sushi bar where the highly skilled chef can prepare your meal precisely to your specifications.
The other impressive aspect of this company is the way that they have used in some cases second hand equipment, and over 80% of their machinery has been customised to allow small lot, customised production. The second important aspect of their thinking is the multi skilling of their operators this ensures their flexibility and ability to respond to their customers’ needs.
We have an early start on Thursday morning. The tour bus has to be on its way by 7.30 to beat the traffic en route to the Panasonic Electric Works at Kadoma-shi, Osaka.
This is my second trip to Panasonic (former Matsushita Electric Works) the company can trace its roots back to 1918 when it was founded by Konosuke Matsushita. The campus is home to a workforce of approximately 3,000 employees; producing a range of home and industrial circuit switch gear and components for home automation systems.
The initial part of this tour is to observe the daily routine of group exercises, followed by a 5 minute mass team briefing session where the entire workforce to hear the latest company news and updates on team performance. As it was a fine sunny day, the office and production staff came outside to enjoy some fresh air!
Panasonic’s Gemba walk was very interesting as they had two distinct operations within the same campus. The 1st part of the factory was dedicated to the mass production of long runs of the same circuit breakers which they produce in large volumes to ship around the world. The plant and equipment was highly automated, and the major focus was Total Productive Management (TPM) activities of which 5S is of course one of the pillars. Each machine cell had key productivity statistics displayed showing the key data in relation to overall performance.
The electronic display showed actual output versus that planned for the day and month. It also had the Mean Time Between Failures (MTTF) and the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) and the running OEE percentages.
This was real, at a glance management, with each and every machine being measured and reported on a minute by minute basis. When problems occurred there was evidence of problem solving activities using teams, or Kobetsu Kaizen Teams.
The second factory was dedicated to smaller lot sized production, with a wider product range and more “make to order” pull production. The cells were highly flexible, and some recent Kaizen activities were centred on levelling out production to meet a 24-48 hour turnaround.
Another major initiative we noted at Panasonic was the effort to manage their operating costs. With an average 30% down turn in sales, they had not laid any staff off, but instead were dedicating around 20 people to a centralized team looking for and implementing cost reduction initiatives.
We saw literally millions of dollars worth of savings relating to energy consumption, waste disposal, and packaging. My favourite was a poster sighted next to the lift recommending that you would save energy and therefore cost by using the stairs!
After another great lunch at the Gozarase restaurant we travelled on the tour bus for about an hour to Ena-shi Gifuken, the home of Tokai-Shin-ei Electronics
This was my second trip to Tokai-Shin-ei, my first visit having had left a lasting impression on me. Tokai-Shin-ei design and manufacture printed circuit boards their factory is located in a small town in the foothills of the central ranges around Nagoya. Tokai-Shin-ei ‘s long standing President, Yoshihito Takanaka, gave the initial presentation; he informed us of his corporate philosophy, based on self discipline, employee involvement through Kaizen and a focus on Total Quality.
Tokai-Shin-ei is also one of the case studies featured in Masaaki Imai’s second book, Gemba Kaizen.
During the Gemba tour it was fascinating, to see the high levels of workplace organisation and cleanliness. The 5S program was adopted in the early nineties, as part of Takanaka’s unique philosophy of developing self discipline across the entire work force which encouraged and sustained a highly clean and organized workplace.
TSK’smarket is extremely competitive, and due to its remote location, they had focused on minimizing operating costs, by carefully maintaining and even improving the plant and equipment, to maximize the investment. The adoption of Autonomous Maintenance (TPM) has enabled machinery to last well beyond the normal expectations, hence maximizing the assets and return on capital.
One particular example highlighted during the tour was of a 19 year old machine, which has a normal life expectancy of 5 years!
The overwhelming impression of TSK is that of a dedication to Kaizen, they truly believe that everyone has a part to play in improving the operation for their customers on a daily basis. It is also important to remember that employing just over 100 people in this small town is a significant factor, they seemed proud of being able to withstand the years of fierce competition with one of the best reputations for quality and reliability.
5S is certainly a major contributing factor, and without doubt some of the best examples that you will ever see. This must see factory is an absolute highlight, and has featured in every single tour for nearly 30 years!
It’s our last day of tours, and everyone’s looking forward to the final two visits, and of course the farewell party planned for this evening. Today the whole tour party checks out, as tonight we are staying in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, giving us two nights to explore a different part of Japan.
This morning we visited Mirai Industries, based on the outskirts of Nagoya. Mirai design and manufacture electrical wiring and plumbing materials. It is also involved in manufacturing and selling drainage equipment machine parts and gas installation equipment.
Mirai Industries have a unique approach regarding getting the best Kaizen ideas from employees. Each and every suggestion receives a small cash reward, regardless of whether it’s used. However, if the idea is a product innovation or improvement there can be significant bonuses paid to the team or individual. Furthermore there is a league table for the total number of Kaizen suggestions made per person, with incentives given for attaining certain milestones during the calendar year.
Mirai also demonstrated high levels of 5S, workplace organisation and cleanliness. We expected this in the manufacturing areas it was expected, however we also saw their distribution centre and dispatch which was equally impressive.
The owner of Mirai is very passionate about creating a working environment where everyone’s ideas are valued, and Kaizen thinking is practiced. As employees are actively encouraged to make and implement suggestions hence creating value for their customers.
One amazing employee scheme is that the owner takes all company employees on holiday every 5 years! This story seemed farfetched to me, but when some of the benefits were revealed during the presentation, it all made sense! You will have to hear the details for yourself of course, I won’t spoil the story.
So, all in all Mirai is another great visit. On reflection, their total employee involvement in Kaizen, 5S, focus on innovation and emphasis on customer satisfaction has set them apart from their competitors. There is a real sense that this would be a great place to work, with a holiday on the company every 5 years!
Our final visit was a very special one. The afternoons visit was to a hospital this was the first time Lean healthcare has featured on what is traditionally a Kaizen lean manufacturing tour. Seki-Chuo General is a small privately run, government funded hospital of 150 beds, situated in Gifu, between Nagoya and Kyoto.
The visit began with a series of presentations detailing the Kaizen Lean activities implemented since its introduction in 2004. The General Manager of the hospital (a doctor) had initiated a Total Quality Management (TQM) program in 2004, and approached Professor Hideo Kunisawa from Asahi University in 2008 to help understand and implement the Toyota Production System (TPS) in the hospital. Professor Kunisawa has worked extensively with the Toyota Motor Corporation over the past few years.
The General Manager’s initial presentation gave an overview of Japanese healthcare, which is a combination of privately run and government funded services. Interestingly, the statistics show that Japanese doctors were amongst some of the busiest compared to global standards and are facing similar pressures to the western world.
The second presentation was by Professor Kunisawa, it detailed a recent project whereby TPS flow techniques had been implemented in the medicine distribution process. The presentation explained how Toyota’s internal logistics systems had been successfully introduced, resulting in dramatic reductions in Inventory and process times for the Pharmacy and nursing staff.
Our Gemba walk took us on a tour of the examples presented, and gave us an opportunity to see how a Japanese hospital ran compared to what we have experienced at home. We at the Kaizen Institute NZ have run a number of Lean healthcare workshops, so I was eager to make comparisons, and see how their Lean thinking compared.
The first part of our tour took us to the Central Pharmacy, whereby our hosts explained Professor Kunisawa’s project which reorganised the internal logistics around Medicine Distribution.
We saw great examples of 5S and visual management, and the Mizusumashi system dedicated to medicines delivery to the 4 floors of the hospital.
The second part of our tour took us up to the ward areas, where we saw the clean utility rooms where the Kaizen PDCA team had implemented their improvements in the medications delivery process. The results were the virtual elimination of patient errors and a 50% reduction in processing time which released around 2 hours per day which was available for patient care.
It was wonderful to hear the story from the nurses themselves and to be able to see how they had grasped the lean thinking and Kaizen philosophies for themselves!
Overall my impression of the Japanese healthcare system was positive. They are very focused on patient outcomes, and understand that in today’s environment, they need to focus on delivering quality care with efficiency. The general feedback is that the clinician are a little resistant and suspicious of adopting “manufacturing” techniques, but this is pretty much the same the world over!
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