Ethics Again

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

What is a standard?

A picture of what should be happening.

Why are standards important?

Because they make problems visible, so we can fix them. And because a clear picture of Okay/Not Okay, or of right and wrong, allow us to relax and focus on the task at hand.

Standards free us up and enable creativity.

This is true in every industry from design to manufacturing, to business services, and to health care. And it’s also true with respect to personal behavior.

A recent coaching engagement reinforced these fundamentals truths once again.

The organization is faith-based and tries to live the Great Virtues that inform every great religion. These include Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage, Faith, Hope and Charity. (A ‘virtue’ is a standard, no?)

Working with these fine people is enjoyable and motivating. Their fundamental goodness and humility allow you to relax and focus on the work.

Their mission, a genuinely ‘Noble Goal’, motivates you to do your very best. It’s no surprise the organization has been around for a long time.

Young, immature organizations and industries often lack bedrock standards. Unscrupulous leaders think they can ‘get away with stuff’. To often, they mistreat their employees, suppliers and customers.

Those that survive come to realize the centrality of Ethics. People won’t follow swine, at least not for long.

You can see this process being played out in the newer industries of our day – software design, social media, telecommunications, contract electronics and the like.

The best companies in each industry are beginning to discover Ethics and beginning to lay a foundation for long-term success.

I can imagine my above coaching partners asking, “What took you so long?”

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Lean/TPS in the Public Service – Part 3 – Obstacles & Countermeasures?
Lean/TPS in the Public Service – Part 2 – What are the Obstacles?
Is Lean/TPS Possible in the Public Service? – Part 1
Henry & Edsel Ford – the Pride & the Sorrow

Lean Production Simplified – 3rd Edition by Pascal Dennis

by Pascal Dennis

The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.
Socrates

I wrote the first edition of Lean Production Simplified hoping to share what I’d learned at Toyota. It had been my blind luck to work with patient senseis. I felt that if I could explain things simply, then perhaps I had gained a certain level of understanding.

The past twenty years, I’ve been the sensei, helping companies apply the Toyota system or ‘Lean’. My practice has taken me far from the Toyota shop floor – into hospitals, power plants, container terminals, and research laboratories.

I’m certain that I learn as much as I teach. And the more I learn, the more I think of Socrates.

Why did I write the 3rd edition?

We need to learn the Toyota system – and not just in manufacturing. Hospitals, banks, universities, software developers, government agencies and other service providers are also hungry for Lean thinking and methods. Customers will no longer accept substandard safety, quality, delivery or cost performance.

Who is the book written for?

Leaders and learners at all levels in manufacturing, and in the ‘undiscovered country’ – health-care, financial services, the process industries, software development, construction, universities and the public service.

What’s different about the 3rd edition?

I’ve added many more examples from outside the factory (e.g. design, engineering, administration etc.) and from the industry sectors mentioned above.

I’ve also included study questions at the end of each chapter. My hope is that Lean Simplified 3rd Edition will be a working book and that I’ll continue to find in the gemba, filled with highlights and notes in the margin.

My study of aikido had prepared me for the Toyota “way”. I understood that it was a ‘do’ or path, and that the Toyota shop floor was a dojo, a place where you practiced a profound art, working on your technique, and on yourself. Indeed, before stepping on to the shop floor, I felt like bowing, a sign of respect for my team, organization, and the art of management.

I still feel that way.

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Ethics Again

By Pascal Dennis

What is a standard?

A picture of what should be happening.

Why are standards important?

Because they make problems visible, so we can fix them. And because a clear picture of Okay/Not Okay, or of right and wrong, allow us to relax and focus on the task at hand.

Standards free us up and enable creativity.

This is true in every industry from design to manufacturing, to business services, and to health care. And it’s also true with respect to personal behavior.

A recent coaching engagement reinforced these fundamentals truths once again.

The organization is faith-based and tries to live the Great Virtues that inform every great religion. These include Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage, Faith, Hope and Charity. (A ‘virtue’ is a standard, no?)

Working with these fine people is enjoyable and motivating. Their fundamental goodness and humility allow you to relax and focus on the work.

Their mission, a genuinely ‘Noble Goal’, motivates you to do your very best. It’s no surprise the organization has been around for a long time.

Young, immature organizations and industries often lack bedrock standards. Unscrupulous leaders think they can ‘get away with stuff’. To often, they mistreat their employees, suppliers and customers.

Those that survive come to realize the centrality of Ethics. People won’t follow swine, at least not for long.

You can see this process being played out in the newer industries of our day – software design, social media, telecommunications, contract electronics and the like.

The best companies in each industry are beginning to discover Ethics and beginning to lay a foundation for long-term success.

I can imagine my above coaching partners asking, “What took you so long?”

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Manufacturing & Democracy

By Pascal dennis

Over the past twenty years, an array of pundits has preached the virtues of off-shoring.

Company after company moved their machines & factories to low cost, off-shore regions.

We buffer the inevitable variation with capacity, inventory & lead time.

Scores of engineers & specialists fly business class, month after month the fix thorny, expensive & chronic problems.

Now the pull of low-wage countries is weakening. According to The Economist, nearly two-fifths of major US firms interviewed said they were either planning to move or thinking about moving production facilities back home.

Jeff Immelt, GE CEO, calls outsourcing “yesterday’s model” & has returned production of fridges, washing machines and heaters back to Kentucky.

An encouraging trend.

When you offshore your plant & equipment, you forget how to make things.

You lose the ability to design, cut, shape & assemble metal - (or plastic, or composites, or silicon or electrons).

Or the ability to put engineers, designers, sales & manufacturing people in the same room, so they can monkey around with prototypes, brainstorm & come up with something splendid & unexpected.

Worst of all, you begin to lose the middle class jobs upon which democracy depends.

Making stuff is fun, good for the soul, and pays well.

It's also a cornerstone of democracy.

Best,

Pascal

Can Knowledge Workers Learn from Manufacturing?

By Pascal Dennis

Splendid piece in HBR recently.

Jordan Cohen, a knowledge worker, reflects on his dad's clothing factory, where he learned visual management, standardized work, flow & pull.

He reflects that all the lessons apply in knowledge work.

Reminds me of The Imperial Grill, my dad's joint on Queen Street East in Toronto, where I learned the fundamentals.

The Imperial Grill & crew -- Dad, Mama, Uncles Angie & Louie et al -- live on in my heart & books.

I believe in apprenticeship in all its forms. Coop placements, for example, are a splendid way to teach kids the fundamentals.

(Only a few of us are lucky enough to grow up in a business.)

I used to complain when I was a kid. "Why do I have to work in the restaurant?"

I now realize it was one of my best schools. It gave me rich stories & experiences.

I apply its lessons every day in Design, Engineering, HR, Finance and the like.

The basics are the basics. We just have to translate them.

Jordan Cohen's piece does a fine job doing so.

Best,

Pascal

Manufacturing in a High Cost Environment

By Pascal Dennis

Aussie & Kiwi Adventures, Part 4

Last blog, I was having a fine dinner in Perth, Australia, with the great Dr. Goran Roos, noted business guru, and "Thinker in Residence" at Australia's Adelaide University.

We were in strong agreement that manufacturing is the cornerstone of any economy, and especially a high-cost economy like America, Canada or Australia.

"So what are key enablers of manufacturing excellence, in a high-cost economy?" I asked.

Dr. Roos elaborated on the following list:

1. Close to the customer - deep understanding of Value
2. Capable management - and Lean is a core capability
3. Strategic focus
4. Global perspective
5. Decentralization - we invest in our people & trust them to make good decisions
6. Profound knowledge of our field & work
7. Loyal, capable, low turn-over employees
8. Innovation through market partnerships & hassle-free innovation management systems

Seems a little bit like the Toyota Business System, no?

I was especially interested in element 8. Perhaps I can take up the topic in an upcoming blog.

Dr. Roos was especially gracious with respect to my talk on Getting the Right Things Done, which connected many of these points.

"This is an extremely PRACTICAL system," he said.

Thanks Goran.

Best regards,

Pascal

Why Manufacturing Matters

By Pascal Dennis

Aussie & Kiwi Adventures, Part 3

It was my distinct pleasure to meet Dr. Goran Roos in Australia.

Goran is a noted international business guru, and "Thinker in Residence" at Australia's Adelaide University. (I recommend his work warmly.)

We had a pleasant dinner in Perth, looking over the Indian Ocean and freely shooting the breeze.

Goran and I are kindred spirits on the importance of manufacturing.

In my experience, gained working in North America's 'rust belts', healthy societies cannot subsist entirely on service work.

"If service work is so great," I reflected, "why are towns that have lost manufacturing plants still barren, years later?"

"Your instincts are right," Goran replied. "There has to be a reliable net inflow of cash."

He then expanded his argument and backed it up with data. Here's why manufacturing matters:

1. Biggest spender of applied research & innovation -- with spill-over effects into the rest of the economy


2. Key driver of productivity improvement, with yet more spill-over effects


3. Makes up the biggest share of world trade and hence is critical for export earnings that pays cost of importing things


4. Largest driver of high value services so is critical for the high end of the service economy


5. Each job in manufacturing generates on average 2 to 5 jobs in the rest of the economy


6. Each $ of turnover in the manufacturing sector generates $1.74 turnover in the rest of the economy


7. Underpins construction & the resource sector


8. Integral part of business services sector


9. Underpins public sector

Thankfully, many countries, including America & Canada are waking up from the long nightmare of thoughtless outsourcing.

(Hearing the so-called pundits extol outsourcing's inevitability, I used to wonder, "While you're at it, why not outsource thinking too?")

Goran's thoughts on key enablers for manufacturing success?

Tune in next time!

Best regards,

Pascal