None of the contributors – either bloggers or commenters – to Evolving Excellence, and no serious lean student anywhere would condone an organization that rationalizes its defects, explains them away, kills the messenger who reports the defect, or otherwise seeks to avoid responsibility for error.
The Shingo folks should take their own medicine, walk their own talk, and acknowledge that something is wrong with a process that grants recognition to Calloway. Kevin accurately pointed out that they are just another direct labor cost driven, old school manufacturer, and somehow they were able to mask that clearly proven reality from the Shingo examiners. The correct response based on the Shingo Prize' own criteria is to accept that feedback and thank Kevin for it, look to the root cause in their process, identify where it failed, and take corrective action.
Excusing Shingo for such an obvious hole in their prize evaluation process does not facilitate their continuous improvement.
Bob G. says
From Shingo Prize model and guideline criteria: “A culture must be developed where every person in the organization demonstrates a high level of respect for every other person. Developing mutual respect and humility takes consistent commitment and time” – I guess it’s fair to say that “consistent commitment” and “a culture of respect” only applies during the examination period and certainly doesn’t conflict with layoffs associated chasing low cost labor.
Anon Reader says
I get tired of the out-of-control sanctimony that’s often displayed on this blog, about this topic, China, and the Ivy League. I’m just saying.
Bill Waddell says
Anon – I’ll let you in on a secret if you promise to keep it to yourself. Kevin and I know we are extreme and over-the-top. I don’t know about sanctimonious, but our intent is to be provocative. We want to take the extreme position to challenge people to think and jump into the debate. It doesn’t matter whether we are right or not – it only matters that we create a settting in which people are compelled to think through their current approach to lean. If we challenge everything it makes the reader think about everything.
It doesn’t matter whether they agree with us, or whether they disagree and reconfirm their pre-existing opinions. Everyone wins no matter how it turns out. By taking this approach we succeed in drawing more readers and eliciting more comments and more and better discussion than the other lean forums that take a less challenging, less extreme and less provocative approach.
Case in point – look at the comments and discussion Kevin elicited when he challenged the Shingo Prize. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with him or not, or whether you think his approach was sanctimonious. If you read his posts and the comments chain you will get a great education from all angles from some of the very best lean thinkers on the nature of the Shingo prize. Where else are you going to get that kind of information?
Anon Reader says
Bill – OK, you can say you’re just being provocative, but much of what I read here seems to cross the “respect for people” line. I’m always reminded of the phrase “be hard on the process, not the people” and the tone here often comes across as “argh, people are stupid” and that’s a big turnoff. I’m a long-time reader, but I read less often nowadays.
You’re being just as defensive as you accused the Shingo people of being.
To use your own words, you should simply thank me for the feedback and evaluate where (and if) your process has gone wrong.
Steven Bonacorsi says
Perhaps i am missing some of the story here Bill, but where is the data on Calloway’s not walking there talk? Also, there is nothing wrong with having to reduce labor costs or having direct labor, that is a normal part of business.
You also asked where else you can get a well diversity exchange of ideas as if these blogs were it – let me remind you that the Lean Six Sigma Group on LinkedIn has over 50,000 members having hundreds of new topic discussions every week. Additionally members are allowed to challenge ideas but not be dis-respectful to others. Topics can be flagged by members and will be auto blocked if flagged by enough members (10), but ususally never makes it that far as we have a number of monitors that keep an eye on the discussions. I am not saying that line was crossed here, Anon may know better, as they are more familiar with the posts here, but it is a requirement on the Lean Six Sigma group site to watch tone.
Expressing a wide variety of views does not have to add a tone of hostility to any person, company, or idea – simply back up your idea with facts and let others decide, it it has legs it will continue to stand.
Bill Waddell says
Steven,
There are certainly a number of very popular forums collegially discussing the use of lean tools in support of traditional management thinking, engaging lots of people who agree with your belief that “there’s nothing wrong with having to reduce labor costs”.
Direct labor makes up no more than 4-8% of typical manufacturing costs. I believe laying off employees, moving to Mexico in search of cheap labor, outsourcing logistics to third parties, and extending supply chains by thousands of miles in order to reduce a fraction of that relatively insignificant portion of costs makes no economic or business sense, and it flies directly in the face of fundamental lean principles. I believe there is quite a bit wrong with it.
The United States has lost some 6 million manufacturing jobs over the last ten years – 1,600+ jobs per day – due to unwillingness on the part of managers driven by short-term financial goals to understand the core principles of the lean business model, and the driving principles that led to the origins of Six Sigma. One cannot understand those core principles and believe there is” nothing wrong with having to reduce labor costs”, and moving plants to Mexico in order to do so.
My writing makes clear my conviction that putting a stop to the destruction of jobs, communities and the US economy is an urgent matter. The 1,600 people who will lose their jobs tomorrow for no good reason whatsoever don’t have time for “hail, good fellows, well-met” to respectfully chat about the merits of kaizen events versus Six Sigma projects.
But that’s just my opinion. And blogs are for expressing the bloggers opinions – as opposed to the discussion forum you cited which is a different vehicle all together.
Bill
Paul Todd says
One thing I think the Shingo Prize will continue to struggle with is the difficulty of awarding a plant-level award while asessing corporate-level culture.