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Tell-We Ask Questions. We Don't Command-We Engage. Our People Are
Tell-We Ask Questions. We Don't Command-We Engage. Our People Are
The past six years, I have been the sensei,2 teaching the system outside
Toyota, to both automotive and nonautomotive manufacturers, and to
the process, service, and construction industries. Each implementation
has deepened my understanding. What have I learned? Each company
and sector is different, and most companies are not Toyota. We must
tailor the planning and execution system to fit the business as it is,
warts and all.
But why should you care? Well, strategy deployment will focus and
align your activities, and allow you to respond quickly to threats and
opportunities. Moreover, its a human system. People respond because
it acknowledges their individuality. With strategy deployment, we dont
tellwe ask questions. We dont commandwe engage. Our people are
not human resourcestheyre human resources. Most important, we try
not to bore with meaningless datawe try to tell interesting stories.
Strategy deployment can also keep lean practitioners focused on the prize
creating value for the customer. Sometimes we forget that the elegant
lean toolsvalue-stream mapping, standardized work, pull systems, and
so onare means to this end, and not ends in themselves.
Introduction xi
Our improvement paradigm remains:
Stabilize,
Flow,
Pull, and
This book is intended for leaders at all levels and across all industries
from CEOs to frontline team leadersand will help answer the following
questions about deployment:
What are the underlying mental models and how are they different?
Getting Started : 1
Chapter 1
Getting Started
It was early Monday morning. John Karras, president and chief operating
officer of Atlas Industries, was watching a changeover at the new Shultz
stacking machine when his cell phone began buzzing. It was Bill Harman,
Atlas owner and CEO. Bill was semiretired; his main interests were
philanthropy, racehorses, and his seven grandchildren. Karras ran the
business; Harman checked in weekly. But Harman was always looking
for opportunities. He had the business in his blood. Karras! Guess who
I played golf with this weekend?
Tiger Woods?
Thats great, Bill, said Karras. Does Jack understand were not in the
commodity business anymore?
Yes, he does, said Harman. He says hes impressed with what weve
achieved. He wants to collaborate on UV air treatment systems and
whole-house humidifiers. That means a long-term partnership and
decent margins.
3
Absolutely, Harman added. Indoor air quality has been a big problem
for themthe mold-spore issue, kids allergies, and so on. Its cost them a
bundlerework, lost business, and a few lawsuits, too. Low-cost suppliers
can make basic coils and condensers, but can they work with you to
provide healthier air? Can they help improve the entire system? Doesnt
sound like it.
Harman was proud of all that Atlas had achieved over the past five years.
They enjoyed double-digit growth in revenue and EBIT1. They were no
longer a supplier of commodities like evaporator coils and condensers.
Now they worked with customers to improve the entire HVAC system,
giving people the gift of healthy and comfortable air.
Losing the Henderson account years ago had triggered a personal crisis
for Harman. Hed almost sold the company. Who am I? What do I
believe in? he had asked himself. In Karras he recognized a kindred spirit,
someone who had asked those same questions, and an exceptionally
capable leader. Harman still remembered how he offered Karras the job
of president and COO. Had it really been five years?
Getting Started : 1 5
The HVAC market was hungry for innovation. Mold spores and other
bioallergens were degrading indoor air quality and, in some cases, property
values and human health. Efficiency was another important market driver.
Innovative coil geometries could both improve heat-transfer efficiency
and reduce the condensation that encouraged mold growth. But Atlas
Industries had difficulty launching interesting and profitable new products;
the sales force had little to get excited about.
5. A diagram or map for identifying every step involved in the material and information flows needed
to bring a product from order to delivery. For a detailed description of value-stream mapping, see:
Mike Rother and John Shook, Learning to See (Cambridge, MA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 1999).
6. 5S is a system of workplace organization and standardization. The five components
of 5S are sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.
7. Producing or moving one item at a time (or a small batch of items) through a series
of processing steps as continuously as possible. See: Mike Rother and Rick Harris, Creating
Continuous Flow (Cambridge, MA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2001).
But the lean tools had been hard to sustain: Instability crept in. Machines
broke down. There were part shortages. Team members did workarounds.
Inventory mushroomed. Atlas was meeting customer delivery targetsbut
only by running continuous Saturday overtime and expediting shipments.
Were getting things done, thought Harman. But are we getting the
right things done?
In summary, lean tools and serial kaizen events had resulted in spot
improvements but no sustained breakthrough. The most important
value streams hadnt really changed. Something was missing: a way of
focusing and aligning the efforts of good people, and a delivery system,
something that would direct the tools to the right places.
Atlas had a new president and COO in Karras, formerly general manager
of a Toyota supplier. Function heads, called directors at Atlas, were
accustomed to Harmans hands-off approach. For a month or so, it was
business as usual. Karras sat in on management meetings in each functional
area, and spent a lot of time on the shop floor. Then he called a management
team meeting, saying, Please show me this years strategies and your
current condition.
Almost all the directors were smart, hard-working, and ambitious. But
they were neither aligned nor focused; they were good people working
in silos. The Atlas strategic planning process was, in effect, a budget
development process. Directors understood this and jockeyed for funds
whether or not they needed them. Atlas Industries annual strategy was,
8. A method of production control in which downstream activities signal their needs to upstream
activities. For detailed descriptions of pull systems, see: Art Smalley, Creating Level Pull
(Cambridge, MA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2004), and Rick Harris et al, Making Materials Flow
(Cambridge, MA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2003).
Getting Started : 1 7
in effect, whatever they spent money on. The management team was
acutely aware of the companys problems. Nobody, except for Harman
and Karras, knew about the holding companys offer to buy.
Atlas Industries
Functions
Departments
So there they all sat in the boardroom: oak paneling, fruit, pastries,
and coffee. Karras sat up front with Harman and watched as Deb
Kramer, director of New Product Development (NPD) got up and
made her presentation: PowerPoint slides and plenty of them. She
went on about their new process and how it would improve lead time
and manufacturability.
And thats when Karras got up, walked over to the projector, and turned
it off. Lets just talk about our business, he said.
PowerPoint Fluff
1. 2. 3.
Getting Started : 1 9
SilenceWhats this guy up to? The directors looked
over at Harmannothing. Karras spoke plainly. Low-
cost global producers are eating our lunchand the
bag it came in. Weve just lost Henderson Controls, our
Less Is More biggest account. Weve become a commodity supplier,
which means more losses are in the pipeline. And yet,
This simple aphorism,
we have no focus, and we are not aligned.
attributed to Robert
Browning, applies in The directors looked at one another. This guy didnt
manufacturing, sports, waste any time.
and the arts. The fewer
moving parts, the better Were also plagued by unstable processes. We make a lot
the engineor golf of junk; our machines keep breaking down. We meet
swing. Clear, simple our delivery schedules only by running continuous
sentences are the overtime and expediting shipments. Our factory and
best ones. supply chain are swimming in inventoryyet we keep
running out of parts. Process instability may be an
Complexity reflects a
even bigger problem outside of manufacturing. Why
primitive state; simplicity
does it take so long to get a new product to market?
marks the end of a
How capable is our training and development process?
process of refining.
Why the turnover, especially in critical positions?
Winston Churchill
None of the dots are connected, Karras continued.
said that to deliver a
NPD, HR, and QA are inextricably linked, yet theres
two-hour speech he
needed 10 minutes of no mention of shared goals and activities. I dont mean to
preparation, but to pick on anyone. Im sure the problems span all functions.
speak for 10 minutes Another thing: No more PowerPoint fluff. Your
he needed two hours strategies should be clear, simple stories on one page.
of preparation. If you cant tell your story on one page, you probably
dont understand it. Less is more.
10
just call it strategy deployment. It saved my last company. Were going
to focus and align our activities around our business need. Were going
to extend lean thinking across the enterprise.
The body language around the room was mixed. Some directors seemed
relaxed. Maybe this guy would turn out all right. Others sat poker-faced,
with their arms crossed.
Harman had the final word. As you may have gathered, Mr. Karras is
a straight shooter. Weve been kidding ourselves for too long. Im sick
of it, and Im sick of losing. Lets get going.
Getting Started : 1 11
Atlas Industries Manufacturing Processes
and Structure
Atlas Industries manufacturing processes comprise:9
12
both critical to quality. The wrong label can mean a suction hose on
the left sidewhen you need it on the right side. Packaging protects
aluminum fins from damage and prevents this common quality
problem. Other quality problems in final assembly include leaks and
wrong or missing parts and labels.
Atlas
1c. IndustriesManufacturing
Atlas Industries Manufacturing
Functions
Departments
Getting Started : 1 13
The Big Questions