"Building a Vigorous Working Culture"

Robert W. Hall

Target

2005, Third Issue pp. 17-26 (available online at www.ame.org)

This article uses Toyota Motor Company and Webster Plastics (a small, specialty plastic molder located near Rochester, NY) to illustrate the importance of work culture in the success of lean manufacturing organizations. Four different working culture classifications (from a "lean" perspective) are identified in the article:

• "Business-as-usual"—defined as financially-directed project-by-project process change.
• "Proficient" (Structured Flow Operations)—Core operations are integrated. Improvement is directed. New Product Development is project-structured, with cross-functional collaboration on projects. There is "good" customer service, cost, quality, delivery, and corporate citizenship.
• "Vigorous" (Habitually Learning)—Autonomous improvement and process learning are embedded in the work culture. Everyone is involved in New Product Development and rigorously learns all base technology. The organization is very focused on customer needs, is attentive to the external environment, and balances all stakeholder needs.
• "Enduring" (Change Resilient)—Mastery of process improvement eliminates waste from all-new processes very quickly. The organization is able to adopt new business models or transform its industry. The unifying social mission serves all stakeholders well.

The author argues that it is a difficult cultural jump between "Proficient" organizations that are trying out the techniques of Lean and "Vigorous" organizations that have Lean as a part of their living work culture. The following comparisons are provided:

• "Proficient" Lean conversion has more explicit training and is staff-directed vs. more tacit learning by seeing, absorbing, and doing in "Vigorous" Lean conversion
• "Proficient" Lean organizations implement the techniques vs. "Vigorous" use the techniques to develop people
• "Proficient" develop a work culture to use techniques vs. "Vigorous" mentor people developing themselves and use the techniques to improve processes
• "Proficient" have sporadic process improvement, more as projects by empowered people vs. "Vigorous" have regular improvement through standardized work as a part of work
• "Proficient" have the staff write work instructions vs. "Vigorous" have work teams document work instructions as part of standardized work
• "Proficient" develop each process using the techniques vs. "Vigorous" develop people to see and overcome problems using the system

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