ASQ Tulsa Section 1409’s Post

Original posted by ASQ: Progress is not just a journey; it's a commitment to quality that guides every step. In the search for excellence, quality is the silent architect. This Wall Street Journal article, featuring ASQ’s Chair-elect, Daniella Picciotti, examines how organizations are looking to achieve zero defects and the pursuit of quality in American manufacturing today. “The risk of failure is inherent,” Picciotti said, something quality professional excel at reducing. Quality is not just a measure, it's a philosophy that echoes through the fabric of our lives, shaping the world we live in, and ASQ is there, empowering individuals and communities of the world to achieve excellence through quality. Read the full article at: https://lnkd.in/gTj-j_SB

The most vital, core, and critical part of implementing Toyota's lean system is what can cause the entire process to collapse if it is not respected as the pillar that holds up the roof of the quality management system. A lean system only works when employees feel safe and empowered to speak up. At toyota, it is a core, strictly-held corporate policy that employees cannot be reprimanded for speaking up about defects, or blamed for finding the defects and speaking up. As Boeing gradually lost sight of this, despite spending so many years, so much money, time and effort re-designing and building entire assembly lines around Toyota's lean system, the management pressured the employees. They introduced the hostile reprimanding culture that caused the andon system to no longer be pulled. Workers understandably began to increasingly hide the defects found for reasonable fear of reprimand. The "Respect for People" column of TPS in Boeing's version was begining to crack and gradually crumble. Once the pillar finally went, the entire house of quality came crumbling down. When Boeing, and its complacent suppliers do not respect the most important facet of Lean- Respect for people, Lean will not work. Quality control will fall apart. It is not a matter of if, but when the lean system will collapse and drag the company down with it. Boeing spent decades building a world class reputation. And because they overlooked Lean's most vital aspect, their reputation may never be the same. https://lnkd.in/esJtVemZ

Progress is not just a journey; it's a commitment to quality that guides every step. In the search for excellence, quality is the silent architect.    The Wall Street Journal article, featuring ASQ’s Chair-elect, Daniella Picciotti, examines how organizations are looking to achieve zero defects and the pursuit of quality in American manufacturing today.     “The risk of failure is inherent,” Picciotti said, something quality professionals excel at reducing.     Quality is not just a measure, it's a philosophy that echoes through the fabric of our lives, shaping the world we live in, and ASQ is there, empowering individuals and communities of the world to achieve excellence through quality.     https://lnkd.in/geSFxZjT  

"Boeing and the Dark Age of American Manufacturing" What does this piece in "The Atlantic" magazine tell us about the portending revival of American manufacturing? The publication of "The Machine That Changed the World" (Womack, Jones & Roos, 1991) and "Lean Thinking" (Womack & Jones, 1996) sparked a world wind of Lean interest including domestic and global conferences, panels, papers and discussion. Executives from GE and Boeing attended many if not most of them. Both GE and Boeing launched their own Lean initiatives (yes, leading Lean consultants of that day were eager to assist), and became highly active participants in the Lean community during those early days of Lean in America. Both companies also hired seasoned Lean leaders from other organizations in order to massively jump-start their Lean efforts. Why have we forgotten this? And what really happened despite the best intentions and significant investment of time, effort and treasure? In light of the above, I found this quote below from the article to be particularly interesting and significant. Too little too late, or are we coming back to the future? "As for the rest of corporate America, one of the strongest signals may be coming from the company Boeing has striven so hard to emulate: GE. Under operations-minded boss Larry Culp, the company is finally—only 40 or so years late—pushing itself through a crash course in lean manufacturing. It is belatedly yielding to the reality that workers on the gemba are far better at figuring out more efficient ways of making things than remote bureaucrats with spreadsheet abstractions." https://lnkd.in/etYKqDxa

Puzzle me this - when did 'Going to the Gemba' need to become a thing? In my view, there is no better start to a day at the plant/factory/workplace than to walk the floor, where the real work happens. Saying hello. Seeing how things are going. Asking genuine questions with genuine interest, having genuine concern for people. You don't or shouldn't need a Gemba team, or Gemba principles, or a methodology, or PowerPoint presentations to explain what Genchi Genbutsu means. And visiting the hour-by-hour production board to see how many widgets were made between 9am & 10am is a poor substitute for just asking the simple question - "Are we on schedule?" And if the answer is "No", then "What can we do to help?" Maybe the answer is in the article about Boeing, below, that explores how the detachment between the C-Suite & the Shop-Floor came about in US manufacturing. Fortunately, I don't think the same detachment occurred in Australia. I'm glad that we are welcome on the Shop-Floor in Australia, and it's the best place to spend time helping the organisation lift & sustain performance. Plus it's fun, interesting and an endless source of fascination, learning new ways we can help people do what they do best.

Good read on the importance of in-house manufacturing and quality control in the wake of Boeing's downfall. The article highlights the negative impact of outsourcing and moving leadership away from the manufacturing floor. It emphasizes the significance of Kaizen in maintaining high standards. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eTrvCRPZ

A must read for Manufacturing Leaders! "The sight of Bill Boeing was a familiar one on the factory floor." Walk your factory floor(s)! Know the product, processes and people more than dollars! Positive dollars will follow! #product #process #people #strategy #operations #manufacturing #production #industrialengineer #lean #GEMBA

https://lnkd.in/ekMcRFbU "Being an engineering-led business does not mean the chief executive has to be an engineer – after all, Boeing has only been led by someone with an engineering background for less than half its history. But what matters is that engineers are listened to, trusted and have retribution-free ways to provide feedback as issues emerge. Maybe it is time for Boeing to make a proper attempt at mastering Jidoka."

Interesting article. As someone who lived through much of this and worked to change the path and warn of the risks, this is quite sad. What we are seeing here is what has become an all too familiar pattern. The Executive class buys into the concept of “Lean” results, but does not invest in and nurture a culture with daily foundation principles like those underlying a system and culture that makes a company like Toyota successful. You can’t manage the numbers or the results, you have to manage the people and things that create the results (that’s why they are called results). In the mid 90s and 2000s we were making strong progress in developing a strong system and culture based on the foundations of the Toyota system. This was especially true at Boeing Wichita (now Spirit Aerosystems) where we were leading the company in this effort. We all need to remember that when we see catastrophic events or systems failures, they are not stand alone events. Sometimes numerous small problems will interact in a chain of events leading to these events. I guarantee that there were many opportunities to solve small issues immediately and at the source and prevent events like the door plug from ever occurring. The right culture and behavior breaks the chain. I truly hope recent events lead to Boeing and other companies making the necessary changes and investments be strong and healthy. https://lnkd.in/g7vYJVE7

Extracting yourself from manufacturing might be capital light, but you're adding complexity that cause issues with information and product flow to your business's value stream. Those information and product flow issues will end up ballooning costs in other areas of the business, such as supply management, product design, etc. as L. J. Hart-Smith at Boeing called out. Overall the transition away from the gemba where value is added, is costly for all businesses. https://lnkd.in/e3egN5Md