Wisdom of Shambhala

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Connie Tolman

The introduction of such wisdom into North American culture is an historical landmark – the wisdom of Shambhala.

from Great Eastern Sun:  The Wisdom of Shambhala by Chogyam Trungpa

I ask myself why this quote caught my attention.  Back in the 70′s when I went to college at Berkeley, it sure caught my attention and has held on all this time.

I wrote in my last blog about movements in the manufacturing community that have caught my eye and not let go – Japanese Manufacturing Techniques like one piece flow, just in time, etc. and  now the Toyota Kata as it is put forth by Mike Rother.

Most would say that I’m approaching the end of my career, but I feel that I just reaching a level where I have something substantive to contribute because I know enough to be confident and am still curious and excited about learning.

But I guess it does bring up a point about new things that are always coming up in every field.  Every field has it’s aha moments and I just happened to wind up in manufacturing.  It has always been a mystery how I wound up here.  I don’t think it is destiny or anything like that.  I guess wherever I could have wound up, I would have approached it in the same  open minded and curious way to find out the way to make it authentic and not just go through the motions.

But what about the Shambhala – what is it?  I must say at this point, I can’t even put a finger on it.  I thought it was important enough to make it the central focus of my life but it has been a silent focus, not shared with a group, a community or another person except in this blog.

The reason that the Kata shook me as it did, is because it brought together my personal secret life with my public professional life.  The idea is to look at the work that is being done and then take a step back and open yourself, be present.  This little step is the whole difference.  It isn’t religious. It isn’t intellectual.  It isn’t mental.  It is in the whole body.  Then after that moment, go forward and take another step and then do it all over again.

It is taking the dichotomy of our western approach of “either/or” and turning it on it’s head.  Now we are looking at the present, we aren’t making power plays to see who will “win”.  We are looking at the situation and doing scientific experiments in real time and then stepping back and asking what happened? and then doing it again and again.

The process is what is important, not the goal.  It isn’t goal oriented, it is process oriented.  It is living. Maybe that is what I see in the Shambhala that I hadn’t been exposed to in my Western upbringing.

Up until the time I was exposed to the Shambhala in college, life was a popularity contest where you were rewarded for achieving goals.

I found out that living in poverty wasn’t such a thrill.  But now living on the edge of disaster with too much debt in America is a little too much of a thrill.  But still the teaching is the same.  Be in the present, breathe,  be compassionate to yourself and others.  And the main teaching that really turns things on their heads is that when you care for others, you get happy.  And of course there is Buddhist logic that explains that whole thing but it is the next law of nature.  If you serves others, you stop suffering.

If you’re interested in what’s behind this, you can look at the Four Noble Truths and I especially like the way that David Whyte has translated it into western thought in his book The Three Marriages and Pema Chödrön’s Start Where you Are.  Chödrön frames her teachings around fifty-nine traditional Tibetan Buddhist slogans (called lojong in Tibetan), such as: “Always apply only a joyful state of mind” and “Don’t seek others’ pain as the limbs of your own happiness.” .  There is so much now that we have at our disposal translated not only into our language but also with metaphors and examples that we can relate to. 

 

Posted in Lean and Toyota Kata, Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Predicting the Future

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Connie Tolman

Part of wondering what is next either for ourselves or for the country or for the human race, one starts to look at how to see into the future.

When I look back at how things have evolved in my career,  every time I’ve done gone into a new area of accomplshment, I start working on it and then get the certification after I’m finished.  I think it will help with something new but it is usually done once I get the final certification. 

I have three certifications:  Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean and Project Management Professional.  I started doing lean by reading Japanese Manufacturing Techniques by Richard Schonberger in 1982.  I loved it.  It set me on fire, it was so right.  But it wasn’t until I moved to a new company and had the opportunity in 1985-86 timeframe that I was able to implement it on a new  program where it was a great success – attaining 46% gross profit margin and exceeding all expectations for the customer and the company.  That whole process took at least 4 years.  And then it wasn’t until 2010 when I became aware of a lean certification through Association of Manufacturing Excellence that I received certification for my work. 

It is more like an afterthought to get the certification.  As a matter of fact, you need so many years of experience doing the work in order to get the certification anyway, so I guess that’s the way it works.

It seems backward because going to school, you get a degree first before doing the work and then are expected to be prepared to accomplish something.

So, my thought is – how do you know what is coming next and how to prepare for it?  I have a feeling that the next thing I’ll be doing isn’t any of the things I’ve done before (lean, six sigma or project management), but the system in place only wants to select people for jobs or projects who are already proficient in that area.  They even expect them to have the exact experience in the industry, product and skills required. 

This is the classic for young people – “you need experience to get your first job, but you need a job to get experience”.  Somehow it all works out.  They get a break and have the opportunity to prove themselves and that first job happens and then they usually stay in it without moving into something that may be more appropriate, interesting or rewarding because of that roadblock at the beginning.

I’ve got a feeling that I will be doing something completely different than what I’m doing now.  My experience makes me feel very comfortable because, I’ve seen it before and know the geography where I’m treading.  To get into a new area, you have to be a beginner.  You have to be “stupid” and feel comfortable with that.

This is what the Kata prepares you for – the process for treading into new ground.  It can be applied to manufacturing, business processes or your life. 

To go back to the first example, I was exposed to it in 1981, implemented it in 1985 and certified in 2010.  I had the first class in Kata 2011, I am hoping to start using it now in 2012 and hopefully it will lead me in the direction that is leading me.  At any rate, it will teach me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

A funny aside – I have seen three applications of the Rosie the Riveter icon (see below for the original) We Can Do It :  posted at a bulletin board at the Santa Ysabela liquor store on a Christian poster refering to Phil 4:13″I can do all this through him who gives me strength”, Pema Chodron – a Tibetan Buddhist nun (see below) and on one of Mike Rother’s posts referring to the Toyota Kata..

 

They are very diverse and not related but it indicates the emotional state we are in is similar to when we were in the middle of WWII when this image first came out.  The young won’t remember that and I don’t either but my mom was a WWAC in WWII and my dad was a soldier in WWI who almost died on the death fields of France during the gas attacks, so I guess these symbols resonate with me.

What is the same between then and now?  We are in a war but this one isn’t between bad and good.   This one is within ourselves.  We have to give up our individual “I” and become familiar with the big “I” because of the global world that is now in our awareness.  I relate it the Buddhism because I see this as the most applicable, detailed description of this process.  It is a scientific analysis of how to discard the little “I” which causes so much suffering (WWII as an example).  In over 2,000 years Buddhism has detailed the process by which we become identified with the larger self.  It seems to be that we are doing this.

It cause different levels of discomfort to all of us.  Everything from the “end of the world” predictions to people spending more time meditating or doing yoga. 

Some quotes from the Dharma from Chogyam Trungpa:

You sretch your arms and begin to develop dignity in your posture.  The environment is friendly.  It is called “Planet Earth”.  Or it is called “Boston” or “New York City”.  It is  your world.

and

You need to relate with earth, the physical situations of life.

We have to face the eventual truth — not even the eventual truth but the real truth of our lives. We are here;  therefore, we have to learn to go forward with our lives.

 

Posted in Articles, Personal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Production As a Means Not an End

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Connie Tolman

He had forgotten the simple emotions of childhood, and perhaps never encountered the delights of youth.  He believed in production, that useful figment of economy, as if it had been real like laughter;   Page 67

..ploughs and butter-churns were but means and mechanisms to give men the necessary food and leisure before they start upon the search for pleasure.  Page 69

 from Robert Louis Stevenson The Amateur Emigrant

 

This topic has accosted me of late – the idea that we have become so obsessed with the process of production and forgot why we earn money in the first place.  There are many articles on TV and the internet about people who were making $100K+ and when they got laid off they went to a simpler lifestyle.   Who needs all the stress and pressure – we’ve forgotten that we work to live not the other way around.

My thoughts on this are that it doesn’t have to be either/or.  As my new acquaintance from San Diego State Philosophy department says, “the difference between eastern and western thought is that eastern is and/and and western is either/or”.  We have to make a living, albeit not at the level it has risen to but we can be present in that process just as we can in taking a walk in the forest.

It may be our path to work on the ability to stay focused while we are in a stressful situation and that is our practice.  If we were sitting in a cave or having all the day to ourselves we may be off our path.

Another thought – in our busy lives of work, how much of the day is wasted with not being focused?   If we stop running around looking busy, going down deadend roads, trying to accomplish something that isn’t on the critical path or trying to get credit for being brilliant – how much time is left in the day to accomplish the things that need to be done.  How many times do we get sidetracked with an emotional e-mail attack or even a negative response from somebody?  Then the whirlwind starts.

And how many meetings are spent filling up the hour because that’s how long it scheduled.  Do you end meetings when the topic is finished or find someething to fill the time?

My new colleague said at his previous company they had a rule that no meeting would exceeed 20 minutes.  “21″ was the catchphrase.  If you didn’t solve it in 20 minutes, then stop and start again some other time.  People who didn’t come prepared were reprimanded.

And here is a good thought to end on, again from Robert Louis Stevenson, who I have found to be have brilliant reflections of our western culture:

 Can it be that the Puritan school, by divorcing a man from nature, by thinning out his instincts, and setting a stamp of its disapproval on whole fields of human activity and interest, leads at last directly to material greed?

 

 

 

Posted in Articles | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What Do You Love to Do?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Connie Tolman

These days everybody from the car dealer to self help books give advice that you should do what you love to do.  In finishing  Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, I was struck by the theme throughout the book of the importance of having hope that you will find happiness in life.  When you give up, you become old and ugly.  And a phrase that sticks with me is “the rust of repetition” from Gabriel Garcia Marquez memoir  Living to Tell the Tale.  This isn’t something I want to become – rusty, old or ugly.

A few conversations yesterday touched on these themes.  One was talking to a recruiter about his craft and the importance of making your resume interesting enough that they want to talk to you.  My point was that whatever you’re hired to do – unless it is a very strict job description, like creating software code – you will come into the company with the teaser that got  you there and then contribute in a way that you aren’t able to articulate.  This applies to management type positions.  That is why it is so hard to describe yourself and why they say chemistry is so important and now behavior style interviewing is a way to tease the real person out.

Another conversation was with a colleague talking about a book his wife is reading (a VP at a large, successful local company) The 2020 Workplace:  How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tommorrow’s Employees by Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd.  We spoke of the new classifications that are being created for different generations – in chronological order (amongst many others) :

  1. Traditionalists
  2. Baby boomers
  3. Generation X
  4. Milleniamists
  5. 20/20

The idea is that each group has something in common that distinguishes them from each other and that you could use these cues to find the best way to communicate or motivate them. 

Of course, we don’t fit into little boxes which is why the job descriptions don’t work well for anything that falls out of the narrow task oriented jobs. 

Also, on a personal note, in evaluating what I’m good at -  I tend to come into a company and do the things that others don’t want to do – not because I’m the janitor but because I like the challenge of tackling the hard problems. Also, they happen to be long standing problems that have been hanging around. I think it started because as a woman in a man’s profession, I couldn’t go head to head with the men, so I took up the things that nobody wanted to do.  But after awhile I realized that I like the challenge of taking something so complicated (whether it is people problems, how to get departments to work together or solving a technical problem like finding equipment to repair scratches on conductive surfaces) that nobody else wants to do it.

For example, at one company they wanted to build their own printed circuit boards for a decade and nobody could get it done, but I did. I bought used inexpensive equipment and set it up, trained and got it going. Then I moved on. In another situation, I came into a dysfunctional team (a few times this has happened). This isn’t one of my favorites but it falls into the same category. I had to evaluate the people, their skills and how they fit with the needs of the company, and then manage to change the staff (some left, got fired, etc.) and bring in new talent and build a good relationship to go forward.

What problem is waiting for me to solve now?

If you’ve read my blog at all, you see that eventually I bring the analysis to some kind of spiritual orientation, so I tend to look at things from a cosmic perspective. 

Is this because I’m a babyboomer or because I was born to a religious family or because of my ethnic background or the month and year I was born in?

We will never know but it’s all about expanding how we look at things and not trying to have “one size fits all” and not to reject people who don’t fit into the box.  They might be the one who makes it all fit together.

Posted in Articles, Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Kata and Me

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Connie Tolman

I haven’t had the chance to apply the kata to my work yet – still looking for a current condition that is stable enough and a person who I can work with.  I think I’ve found both – 1.  A new hire who is a very open and advanced person in the ways of lean and six sigma and 2.  A process that has too much data and is tied into many of the processes in the company.

Since I can’t find a product that is stable and repeatable enough, it looks like the Material Review Board (MRB) process will lend itself to the kata.  There is lots of data about how long it takes to process each reject and it has a standard process and it touches on every other process in manufacturing regarding how product moves through the floor. 

 

On another note, I’ve noticed how the kata has seeped into my personal life or maybe it’s the other way around – I’m seeping into the kata.

Lately I’ve noticed that I have been saying “I don’t know” more than usual.  I used to always try to guess at the answer.  I felt it was important to come up with an answer no matter how “off” it was.  It was related to that “need for approval” thing.  Also, I recall some busines advice long ago that said “saying I don’t know is the worst thing you can do for your credibility”.  This was part of the “how to live in a man’s world” advice book, I think.  But now that I’ve decided to split off from that book and write my own, “I don’t know” seems like the best answer and it is very satisfying to say.  It has the same satisfaction as saying “no”.  I don’t know the answer to everything and I can’t do everything.  I will pick the things to do that are going to have a payoff and I will focus on those. 

Two other things I’ve noticed is that I will sit quietly and wait for the inspiration for what to do next insted of just running off in a direction “keeping busy”.  I remember this recommendation from the book The Machine That Changed the World by James Womack where he said that one of the most successful people he knew would sit in his office with his feet up for long periods of time, not just doing something.  I never thought I’d have enough confidence or work in a place that accepted this behavior but here I am. 

Second is that I’ve stopped “batching” so much and taking things a little at a time.  For example, carrying the groceries up the stairs, I used to try to see how much I could carry in one load but now I take a little at a time.  Instead of trying to gather all of my tasks into one trip, I do one at a time.  I remember starting the gathering process when I started to learn about industrial engineering and learned about time standards. 

This sounds kind of ridiculous but when I started doing time standards at work, I started counting my steps from the car to the house.  I guess my work and my life are pretty interconnected but that’s another story for another blog based on David Whyte’s Three Marriages which says there is no such think as “work/life balance” – they are interconnected to such a degree that we can’t separate them in order to balance them.

Posted in Lean and Toyota Kata, Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New Years Observations

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Connie Tolman

I haven’t posted for awhile but I have 6 drafts awaiting review and publishing.

I am a person who likes the new year to review past assumptions and to make any corrections from last year. 

I started seeing a pattern of getting more personal with the blog with more specific names and historical remembrances.  I was using the blog to think through my personal dynamics.  I even found a new word for the subject “performance management”.  For me this covered everything from dealing with bullies to how to encourage my employees, etc.

But was this why I started the blog and met my original intention 1 1/2 years ago?  Of course, it evolves but what now was my intention?

Something hit me while listening to The Three Marriages by David Whyte.  He said that we have a deep need to be recognized by our work.  We need to have our work influence others and make a difference.  I was talking to a friend at lunch last week trying to dissect the reason that blogging give me such satisfaction and this is one of the reasons.  I could be writing this on a Word document to my hard drive but having it be public makes it available to others in a way that makes me more critical of what I write.  It gives me the objectivity of a witness and a guide.  As I write I feel that I am being guided to the resolution of my thought process. I may start somewhere and end up somewhere completely different.  This is a part of the creative process – listening to what needs to be said.  However, being public even if nobody is reading it, raises the bar.

But without an editor or a human being doing any feedback or critiqueing it is easy to fall into the trap of journal writing, like nobody is reading it so what the heck, hit the publish button.  At first, I was very critical and would wait and wait until I felt that it was ready for public consumption but slowly drifted away from that higher standard.

The other thing is what is the vision of the blog.  What am I trying to do?  The title is Manufacturing in the Next Century but I go through lots of topics that deviate from that title for sure.  Then I thought it was about combining arts and science – bringing a liberal arts perspective to corporate culture (kind of like the work of David Whyte).  That didn’t really hold up.

Lately the one that holds my attention is observations of how the mood of the culture is being reflected in the day to day business of work.  Since my interest and background is social sciences, this makes sense.  I am a social scientist working in a technical environment.  My business is to make change and see how the interpersonal and the technical meet to accept changes to the system and the way business is done.  The environment of our world is changing rapidly and our biggest challenge is to incorporate those changes into our everyday lives.

What are the tensions, rejections, acceptances and defenses against the change that is raining down on us?  When will we flex and where will we break?

Lately, in networking with others in the world of work, I’m getting a wide variety of reactions.  Since I’m plugged into the biotech, medical device, pharma, aerospace and defense industries, I get a pretty good cross section of industries.

Of course, there is an underlying panic of living in the unknown.  Medical device, biotech and pharma have been at a standstill since the new adminstration has been learning the ropes – putting in new restrictions and in general stopping things from moving forward.  They are at their limits now.  They tend to be polite and rational, so they don’t get too emotional but they are stretched to their limits.  They don’t know where to turn and how long they can last.

Aerospace and defense seem to be positive – against all indications on the news and the overwhelming debt of the government. They seem to think that the money will keep coming even though there have been some cutbacks.  They think and maybe rightly so, that the cuts can only go so deep but not to nothing.  So, if you’re in the right relationship with the defense leaders who aren’t elected, then you’re probably OK.

Recruiters are being hit hard and they are bouncing around to different sales positions and then back to recruiting.  How they are making it, is a mystery.  Last night I was exposed to a very dark place from a recruiter about the end of the world.  It is good to know what is being exposed.  To hear the details of the “end of the world” explanation gets your attention.  Basically people with lots of degrees and intelligence have used their knowledge and intellect to go to extremes. 

I’m back to the basics, breath it in and breath it out.  See what is in front of you and don’t let thoughts get your sidetracked.  That’s all we can do is take one step at a time.

So, as I reflect on the path that has been taken and look at my drafts, I am going to  delete them all and start all over again.  One of my rules is if I haven’t felt moved to publish it yet, it must have been a musing and not a piece to be released onto the innocent world so full of other peoples trash. 

So, it shall be.  This year is to see trends, moods, ideas that stand the test of exposure. The other subject that embraces me is the multi-cultural nature of work.  I am exposed to many different cultures working in manufacturing and that is one of the reasons I love it so much.  Many different people come together to work towards one goal.  Maybe that is why manufacturing is so important to a culture, because we are making something not just talking about it or designing it.  We have to go all the way with it and see the results of our thoughts and desires.  So, I want to see things from all of those different viewpoints whether they are cultural, industry, age, sex or anything else. 

 

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Tir Na Nog

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Connie Tolman

Another proof of Tir Na Nog – things come to you when you need them – taken from David Whyte’s interpretation of Tir Na Nog as the land of the young, as the Irish would say that what we need is so close to us. 

The post today on the Ocean of Dharma was called “Panoramic Vision” and it said “Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means “society” or “group”.  Once you stand in the middle of the mandala or the situation, you can see the panoramic view of all the directions.”

Just yesterday, I had decided in my tonglen practice to put myself in the middle when I was doing the first step of engaging boddhicitta.  I usually seemed to see it only off to my right side.  So I put myself in the middle of the vast ocean or the rolling waves of forest and felt the openness.

Becaused I did that, I opened up to more knowing.  And it goes on to say.”This is also connected with feeling unique or alone – loneliness.  Only you can see this vision, rather than somebody else.  If we are willing to centralize or stand in the center of what is, then we accept that “I am alone and my spiritual journey is my experience.”  This is the real experience of freedom and independence.  Then we begin to see that being alone is a very beautiful thing.  Nobody is obstructing our vision.  We have complete panoramic view.”

Quote from Chogyam Trungpa from “Secret Beyond Thoughts, The collected Works, Volume Six, page 522.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

5S Training – Part 8

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Connie Tolman

OK, we have made it to part 8.

What has transpired since the last briefing?

Another session was completed of 3 groups who went through 1 1/2 hours of classroom training, went out to complete a project and came back and showed off their projects. 

What was learned and what is new?

The executives showed up to the meeting for the first time.  This gave them a perspective they didn’t have.  They saw pictures of the shop floor and the number of ways that space could be freed up and how much material could be saved by making things more visible.

And the themes that are repeating are:

  1. Combining development and production in the same areas.
  2. Building and testing parts until you get good ones, and passing the failed ones to one side to deal with later.
  3. Having a pile of parts in the “debug” area.

This was an interesting high energy session because of the executive participation.  Some of the comments from them were that they see the value and don’t skimp on the rewards because even if you find one missing part, you’ve save so much more than you’ve spent.

In the end, each group is doing great work, but it is still on paper and nothing has happened physically.  That is when the true test will come.

Will management allow time to be set aside to do the work and will the enthusiasm continue once they have to start confronting resistance to change?

Posted in Lean and Toyota Kata | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Change Agent Must Be a Warrior – Sun Tzu The Art of War

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Connie Tolman

I recently described the manufacturing environment as controlled chaos to a candidate for an open position.  Then I just read an excerpt from The Art of War as follows:

Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision; concealing courage under a show of timidity presupposes a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions.

This is talking to me about how to be a change agent.  There is wisdom here on how to make changes with a resistant workforce. 

You don’t just make a frontal attack, making yourself a target for the counter attack that will invariably occur.

And what does this mean?

Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline, simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.

The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals.  Hence his ability to pick out the right men and utilize combined energy.

This is certainly talking to me about first selecting a team with common energies and talents and to act as a group with the strength of numbers.

But then, how to proceed with the changes.  Be prepared with the action you are going to take – examples… 

Thus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act.  He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at.

 By holding out baits, he keeps him on the march; then with a body of picked men he lies in wait for him.

 So, it is not wise to present your plan or solution right up front.  I was a fool and told them the strategy of my engineer, that he might do something on purpose to get a reaction.  That made them feel manipulated and why did I feel I could trust them?  What a fool I still am.  So trusting and guileless – going towards what is desirable and moving away from what is undesirable (another pithy Buddhist instruction).

The better choice would be to give them something but not the real thing and let them jump at that.  Don’t be put off that you will get heated emotional responses, this is what is needed to deplete their negative energies, to empty their vessel, so they are open for the next proposal which is the one that will be successful. 

Aren’t we looking for success that can be measured if we are lean and six sigma professionals?

So, in this case – changes are required in rework area – new processes – ovens to pre-bake, new tools, processes and training.  They won’t want to make any changes no matter what they are.  Don’t do the dumb brainstorming thing, thinking that we’re all professionals who want the same thing.  That isn’t true.  They want things to not change, they want to feel comfortable in their old homeland.  So, you make a suggestion which isn’t what you want.  For example, lets create separate benches so that we don’t cross contaminate materials.  When really what you want to do is set up a process that can be controlled on one bench and change the cleaning process and flux type and add a process for baking out moisture as needed form components and boards.

Let them take the bait and then their energy is dispersed and when the plan is complete, you can come in with the new plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Articles, Lean and Toyota Kata | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

5S Training – Part Seven

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Connie Tolman

Since the last posting, more training has been held with cross functional representatives.  As part of the training, smaller groups of 3 or 4 go out to an area and pretend that they are going to implement 5S. They come back together and show what they learned and the leader shares some forward thinking of what is coming next, etc.

Management attended the last meeting and said it was very good.  Slides of “before and after” moving the furniture around in one are were sent to executive team which they were very  impressed with.

Now, let’s go to the nonverbal.  Somebody important to me said, you can listen to the words but when you really find out what is going on, you have to turn off the sound and look at the body language.  Look at the eyes and see what they are saying.

In this case, look at the actions and feel the mood.  It is still stale.  It is lacking any enthusiasm or reality.  There is a tight grip on the movements in production that doesn’t reflect anything.  In other words, when a person “goes to the gemba”, it is impossible to get any information about the product – what it is, where it is moving or what is passing or failing.

What is training and why do we have it?  It is supposed to prepare us for “doing”.  But if doing is so far away from training, then what is it for?  It reminds me of so many companies where I have worked.  A new Operations Director comes in and the first thing he does is to move around the furniture.  This is repeated so often that I can’t ignore it.

At Sony, there was a big push to get cardboard off the floor.  At L3 most recently the new General Manager moved everybody around so that functional groups were together and when the new president came in, he got rid of offices and cubicles and put everyone in mosh pens saying that it was lean.  All of this when business was bad, no money was being made and nobody knew the root cause.  They didn’t want to admit they knew nothing, so they moved the furniture around, claimed victory and then usually they are moved on to another job, company or something else because it “didn’t get done”.

I  have always been addicted to getting things done, to making things happen, to taking on the hard jobs.  And it is no different here.  I am even more open to showing my ignorance and asking questions. I no longer need the cover of formality to hide my ignorance like when I was starting out as a new engineer with a non-technical degree as my friend described it the other day.

So, how to keep the morale up at least in my little team?

I’m going to tackle the two things that need to happen in order to move forward –

1.  Identify what products are built in the factory and put them into families.  Once this is done, there is a chance to be able to combine them into cells, to be able to come up with templates for process flows to input into the Manufacturing Execution System if that is approved.

2.  Create a Root Cause Analysis program so that the tools are available to get to some of the root causes of the main problems.  The first step is to allow the engineer with the passion for this to come up with a training program and try it out on the engineers.  Second step will be to use it in a controlled environment on one product and get one success.

Back to gut feels and intuition. 

But first a funny little story.   At a Halloween party for the BMW motorcycle club that we belong to, one of the women riders and I were talking over the loud music.  In these atmospheres with a little alcohol and hiding behind costumes and loud music, truth can be told. She says “Connie and I have connected” and we hug.  We were talking about the ability of the brain to redirect information when my husbands’ one eye had been damaged.  I said the brain is amazing. Then she said, “the heart controls the brain”.  I paused and was a little flumuxed.  Did she mean physically or symbolically?  Then she said “Intuitions, feelings control the brain and what the brain will do.  They have done research and it is all coming out that everything we always knew is true and is now being proven”.  I said “my frined said that the medical knowledge is expanding  twofold every year and the scientists and doctors can’t keep up.”. It was a moment of connecting, a moment of joing together where we didn’t feel so alone.  Then she quoted a song by somebody she loved that said “Everybody is connecting, like we always knew it was.”  Those aren’t the exact words but it was a sparkly moment in a surprise location.

How does this relate to business and 5S, you say?  Because instinctly, intuitively, I know that the problems are labels and bad drawings.  The rejects reflect this on the bar charts but nobody knows where to start.  It’s too overwhelming.  But because I’m out of the spotlight, I can do what is needed.  If I was required to perform and to show progress, I’d be doing exactly what the leader is doing, I guess. 

Because management doesn’t know yet that the heart rules the head.

Posted in Lean and Toyota Kata | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment