Hidden in Plain Sight
This story comes from my friend, Jeff Veyera*, my co-host on the ASQ podcast “The Fearless Workplace”. He tells it in his book “Culture is Everything”**.
Jeff was working for a large logistics company that handled auto parts among other materials. One day he got an opportunity to visit a Toyota warehouse that had a function similar to one of their own.
When he got to the Toyota warehouse, he discovered some amazing facts! The Toyota warehouse:
- Was smaller
- Had a higher throughput
- Was less automated
- Had fewer employees
How could this be?? And furthermore, why would Toyota let a competitor in to see all their secrets? Here’s what Jeff says:
“I visited a Toyota automotive parts warehouse a few years ago and was impressed that every bay in their large warehouse had been individually customized for the type of material stored within it. Particularly impressive were hinged wooden racks allowing for the vertical storage of exhaust assemblies, which are quite cumbersome and bulky. The manager told me that that was the initiative of one worker who was also a skilled carpenter. He was tired of having to scrap or rework assemblies that were dented due to passing material handling equipment (when laid horizontally, they often stuck outside the bay into the aisle.) It had gone through several iterations until the right design had been discovered. “Sometimes the team comes up with some ridiculous ideas,” he told me, “But we celebrate them anyway because we know we’ll get it right eventually.”
What was Toyota’s secret sauce? Well, obviously it wasn’t capital intensive facilities and robots. Nor was it masses of low-wage employees. It wasn’t anything that any typical competitor would even recognize.
It took someone who was attuned to the way that people work with one-another to notice the exhaust manifold racks and ask a question. Toyota’s secret was so embedded in the molecular structure of the culture of that warehouse, that most visitors would look right past it.
Toyota was able to harness the creative power of ALL their employees because:
- Toyota showed the employees that it valued their creativity and,
- Toyota had committed to the employees that there would be no lay-offs
So, the workers kept improving processes to make their work lives easier.
*Jeff Veyera is a career-long quality professional, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Quality Manager, and Lean Leader with over 25 years of experience in healthcare, military, manufacturing, consulting, and supply chain management. He is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality. He lives with his wife, four children, two cats, and one dog. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and is proud to be ’93.
** Culture Is Everything
How to Become a True Culture Warrior and Lead Your Organization to Victory
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