The New Shop Floor Management : Empowering People for Continuous Improvement

In this first comprehensive departure from the time-and-motion dictums of Frederick Taylor’s Shop Management that have influenced management practices for most of this century, Kiyoshi Suzaki offers a framework for successfully conducting business at its most crucial point-the shop floor. Drawing on the principles of holistic management, where organizational boundaries are smashed and co-destiny is created, Suzaki demonstrates how modern shop floor management techniques — focusing maximum energy on the front line — can lead to dramatic improvements in productivity and valueadded-to-services.

The role of management today, Suzaki argues, is to eliminate its own responsibilities by thinking of the organization from the genba, or shop floor, point of view. In this challenge, Suzaki claims, organizations need to collect the wisdom of people by practicing “Glass Wall Management,” where organizations become transparent, enabling employees to contribute maximum creativity as opposed to blocking their potential with what he calls “Brick Wall Management.” Further, to empower individuals to selfmanage their work and satisfy their customers, Suzaki asserts that they all should learn to manage their own “mini-company,” where everybody is considered president of his or her area of responsibility.

Front-line supervisors, Suzaki shows, must develop a mission and goals and share them both up and downstream. He cites examples of the “shop floor point of view” — McDonald’s Corporation’s legal staff learning how to sell hamburgers and fix milkshake machines; Honda’s human resource staff training on the assembly line — that narrow the gap between top management and the shop floor. By upgrading people’s skills, focusing on empowerment, and streamlining processes, Suzaki illustrates that an organization will realize concrete improvements in quality, cost, delivery, safety, morale, and ultimately, its competitive position.

Preface
Introduction
Revisiting Our Shop Floor
Beyond Taylorism
Making People Before Making Products
Addressing the Individual’s Needs
Genba-Oriented Thinking (Three Reals)
Developing a Genba-Oriented Mind
Learning from the Genba Experience
Transforming an Organization
Using Everybody’s Creative Power

Chapter 1 : DEVELOPING A VISION OF SHOP FLOOR EXCELLENCE
Sailing in Today’s Business Environment
Changing Environment — Past vs. Future
Our Vision
Creating an Organization with Self-Managed People
Ownership at the Source
Looking at Ourselves Straight in the Mirror
Achieving Excellence in Shop Floor Management (SFM)
Controlling the Process
Traditional and Progressive Organizations
Developing a Progressive Organization
What We Should Work On
Where Do We Stand Now
The Change Process
Changing Our Destiny
Clarifying Our Vision and Mission
Summary

Chapter 2 : DEVELOPING A CUSTOMER-ORIENTED ORGANIZATION
The Customer-Supplier Relationship in Our Society
Listening to the Voice of Customers
What Is a Customer-Oriented Organization?
Understanding the Customer-Supplier Relationship
Moving from Local Optimization to Total Optimization
Working on Our Mindset
Developing the Nervous System in Our Organization
Clarifying the Flow of Work
Customer Orientation in a Centrally Planned Economy
Understanding Customers’ Minds — Putting Ourselves in Their Shoes
Criteria for Customer Satisfaction
Addressing Customers’ Needs
Developing Customer Orientation Throughout the Company
Expanding the Concept of the Customer-Supplier Relationship
Summary

Chapter 3 : ESTABLISHING A COMPANY WITHIN A COMPANY
The Customer-Supplier Relationship Between Boss and Subordinates
The People-Oriented Organization: Making People Before Making Products
The Mini-Company Concept
Running Your Own Mini-Company
The Front Line Supervisor as President of a Mini-Company
Understanding the Framework of Mini-Companies
The Meaning of Mission
Developing a Mission for Mini-Companies
Benefits of Mini-Companies
Glass Wall Management
Even a Stranger Should Understand Our Shop Floor Activities: A Stranger Theory
Changing Roles and Responsibilities
Summary

Chapter 4 : INVOLVING EVERYBODY IN THE PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Survival of the Fittest
Addressing the Organization’s Needs
Key Points for Organizational Innovation
Setting up a Scoreboard: Defining the Games We Play
Diagnostic Tools for Monitoring the Organization’s Health
Signs of Shop Floor Excellence
Process of Continuous Improvement
Improvement and Standardization
Practicing Standards
Standards Represent an Organization’s Capabilities
Use of Standard Operating Procedure to Control the Point of Action
Developing Standard Operating Procedures
Maintaining Standards with Everybody Involved: A Wooden Pail Theory
Guiding Improvement Activity from the Top
Communicating the Basics of the Mini-Company
Summary

Chapter 5 : UPGRADING EVERYBODY’S SKILLS
Matching Skills to the Needs of the Organization
Skills for Self-Management
Upgrading Our Skills
Growing with the Organization
Putting Intelligence on the Shop Floor
The Role of Managers and Support People
Working on Important Jobs One Step at a Time
Instructing People to Conduct the Job — Job Training
Encouraging People to Upgrade Their Skills
Keeping Our Minds Open
Mental Attitude Toward Continuous Improvement
A Case of an Operator’s Idea
Challenging People to Overcome Hurdles
Summary

Chapter 6 : ACQUIRING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
Acquiring Willpower for Self-Improvement
Using Everybody’s Creativity
Having Fun with “Show and Tell”
Necessary Mental Attitudes for Active Problem Solving
Identifying Problems
Tools of Problem Solving
Learning Skills to Enrich Our Career
Developing the Habit of Mutual Learning
Tools to Expose Problems
Summary

Chapter 7 : PRACTICING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
Relentless Pursuit of Improvement
Clarifying Approaches for Problem-Solving Activities
Basic Steps of Problem Solving
A Case of Continuous Improvement — “My Fingers Hurt”
Effective Use of Suggestion Programs
Effective Use of Team Improvement Activities
Developing a Team-Oriented Environment
Practicing Problem Solving as a Team
Intercompany Exchange Program
Managing the Improvement Process with PDCA
Summary

Chapter 8 : LEADING PEOPLE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Managers as Leaders: Employees as Customers
Leadership Is Situational
A Desire for Self-Improvement Makes Things Happen
Guiding Improvement Activities
Having Pride in Our Work
Sharing Successes
Improving Communication at the Shop Floor
Communication with Visual Aids
Recognition and Rewards
Letting People Grow with the Company
Phrases Managers Should Not Use
Qualification of Leaders
Providing Positive Reinforcement to Change Our Behavior
Summary

Chapter 9 : MANAGING SHOP FLOOR IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES
Goal Setting
Benchmarking
Management Cycle
Developing the Rhythm of PDCA
Managing Time on the Shop Floor
Managing Improvement Activities with Control Points
Organizing Our Mini-Company Meeting Area
Organizing Our Work Station
Learning to Use Control Points
Developing the Network of Control Points
Developing Documentation and Presentation Skills
Reviewing the Progress of Improvement Activities
Summary

Chapter 10 : TYING SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT TO THE TOTAL COMPANY BUSINESS
Company-Wide Planning
Business Planning for Self-Management
Developing a Mini-Company Business Plan
Coordinating the Business Plan Development Process
Executing the Business Plan
Sharing the Progress
Summarizing the Progress in an Annual Report
Learning from the Business Planning Process
Tying Business Plan with the Budget
Policy Management (Management of the Company’s Strategic Direction)
Cross-Functional Management
Coordinating Approaches for Continuous Improvement
Summary

Chapter 11 : LOOKING AT OURSELVES IN THE MIRROR
Tying Things Together
Evaluating the Level of Shop Floor Management
The Presidential Audit
The Audit Process
Learning from a Presidential Audit
Learning to Conduct an Effective Presidential Audit
The External Audit
Award and Reward Systems
Finding the Treasures of the Company
Summary

Chapter 12 : WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
From a Fragile to a Robust System
Exposing Problems Before It’s Too Late
Achieving a Critical Mass
Ideas for Implementation
Implementing Shop Floor Management Company-Wide
Making It Work
The Facilitator’s Role
Mapping Out the Implementation Process
Questions and Answers on Implementation
Shop Floor Management in Perspective
Benefits of Shop Floor Management
Where Do We Go from Here?
Dew and Moon
Training Our Minds in a Turbulent World
Summary

APPENDICES
Appendix 1.1 Employee Survey
Appendix 2.1 Customer Survey
Appendix 3.1 Checklist for Supervisor’s Roles and Responsibilities
Appendix 3.2 Developing a Misson Statement
Appendix 4.1 Checklist for Assuring the Basics of Just-In-Time Production
Appendix 4.2 Basics of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
Appendix 5.1 Job Training
Appendix 6.1 Eliminating Human Errors (Poka-Yoke)
Appendix 6.2 Problem-Solving Tools
Appendix 6.3 Checklist for Idea Generation Appendix 7.1 Advice on Suggestion Program
Appendix 7.2 Building an Effective Team
Appendix 7.3 Checklist to Evaluate the Key Steps of Team-Oriented Problem-Solving Activities
Appendix 7.4 Continuous Improvement Study Group Activities
Appendix 8.1 Effective Use of Visual Aids
Appendix 9.1 Supervisor’s Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly Activities
Appendix 11.1 Shop Floor Tour Checklist
Appendix 12.1 Voices of People Who Are Engaged in the New Shop Floor Management
Epilogue: Withstanding the Rain
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

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