Lean Today, Rich Tomorrow: Succeeding in Today's Globalization Chaos

Content: Ten Years Later  June 1991   Setting the Challenge July 1991 An Analysis of the Situation  Economic Context of the Shoe Industry in Canada  State of Our Factory  The Solution: Toyota\'s Lean Production System and Kaizen  Where to Begin?  Our Way of Working   Rethinking the Factory\'s Layout and Production Philosophy  August 1992 The Module: A Production Nerve Center  The Design and Setup of the Pilot Module Choosing a U-Shaped Module  Traditional Organization and Manufacturing Methods  Experimenting with New Ways of Working  Comparison of the Results Obtained  Presenting an Expense Budget to Management  Chapt er 4 G etting the Employees Involved October 1992  Worries and Resistance among the Employees  Guarantees and Commitments from the Company  New Layout and Training  November 1992  Planning and Implementing the New Layout  Tailored Training Programs  Seamstresses  Human Relations and Communication  Management  Technical Training  Directed Practice  Cutters  Supervisors   Reviewing the Salary, Structure, and Bonus System  March 1993  A Complex Existing Situation  A Crucial Simplification Seeking Consensus   Organizing the Work  June 1993  Individual Work versus Teamwork  Carefully Considered Team Composition  Developing Autonomy  A Factory without Inspectors: Is It Possible?  Putting It to the Test  Kickoff Problems and Friction  Health Problems  Tensions within the Teams  Frustrations about the Removal of Privileges  A Concession to Benefit Workplace Atmosphere   Overcoming the Obstacles  November 1993 A Thunderclap Perfect Timing for a New Project  Preliminary Study to Pinpoint the Problems  Portrait of the Factory Population  First Investigation into Health Problems Second Investigation into Problems with Psychological Well-Being and Communication  Summary and a Concrete Plan of Action  The Facilitator: A Positive Agent for Change  From Supervisor to Coach: A Changing Position The Foreman: Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place  Moving from Supervisor to Coach: A Difficult Transition  Choosing Supervisors Who Have What It Takes to Coach  Establishing a Gain-Sharing System to Stimulate Productivity  April 1994  A Bonus System that Gets in the Way of the Objective  Need for a Gain-Sharing Model Sharing Plan Based on Productivity  An Employer/Employee Committee to Put the Plan into Action  After Two Years, a Mitigated Report on Shared Gains  Adjusting Our Aim  New Just-in-Time Training to Get Employees Involved  Spectacular but Fragile Results  Revision of the Productivity Gain-Sharing Plan Seeking a New, More Equitable Gain-Sharing System A Surprise from the Employees  Report that Inspires Vigilance   Carrying Out a First Assessment and Detecting Errors along the Way January 1999  Length of the Learning Curve  Effect of Bottlenecks  Scope of the Information Technology (IT) Adjustments Required  Length of Time to Implement Hand-to-Hand   Putting Kaizen into Practice in the Factory  January 2002  Examples of Small Kaizen  Adding a Velcro(R) Strip on the Sewing Machines  Installation of a Scrap-Catching Bag Designing Functional Packaging Tables Design of a Heel Reinforcement Container Creation of a Color Code for Bottom Injection and Transport Example of a Medium Kaizen  Installation of a Box Lifting System  Example of a Big Kaizen  Automation of Strap Cutting and Gluing Tasks  Example of Everyday Kaizen   Tour of a Chinese Supplier: A Wake-Up Call  Early 1998  More than a Company: A City!  Workers in Residence  Realm of Muda  Quality, but at the Expense of Productivity Difficult New Awareness  Unequal Struggle  End of an Era  2003  Increasingly Fierce Global Competition  Factory that Is Productive, but Underused  Changing Fashion  Conflation of Circumstance  Inescapable Situation  Hard Decision  Painful Delay  Closure Announcement  Final Weeks  After Contrecoeur: Lean at Work  Winning Conditions for a Successful JIT and Kaizen Implementation Project  March 1993  Unconditional Commitment from Senior Management  Attitude of Honesty and Openness toward the Workers  Full Commitment from All Employees  Choosing Hand-to-Hand or Pull Production: Simply Inevitable  Aspiration to Become a World-Class Company   Toyota\'s Lean Production System, Kaizen, and Related Concepts  Toyota Production System  Total Quality Management  Just in Time, Pull Production, One-Piece Flow, and Takt Time  Total Productive Maintenance, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, and Jidoka  Kaizen The 5S  Standardization  Elimination of Mudas Visual Management  Suggestion Program  Rules for the Smooth Operation of the Gemba  Toyota Production System and Kaizen in Brief   Tour of World-Class Japanese Factories  Toyoda Iron Works  Yamaha Motors  NGK Insulators, Chita Factory  Togo Seisakusho  Taiho Kogyo  Toyota, Takaoka Factory  Myths and Realities of Japanese Industry Workers  Japanese Workers Are Very Disciplined and Respect Authority Much More than Workers in Other Countries  Japanese Factories Offer Their Workers Lifelong Employment  In the Toyota System, Any Worker Can Halt the Production Chain  In Japan, Rejects Are Measured in Parts per Million Rather than by Percentage  Chapt er 18 Toyota\'s Troubles A Highly Publicized Accident  Mountain out of a Molehill  Lessons Learned  Rebuilding Trust Chapt er 19 North American Production Returns to the Fold  Offshoring: A Win-Win Situation?  Offshoring Also Comes at a Price  The Pendulum Swings Back  Appendix: Bonus Plans and Productivity Gain-Sharing Plans  Scanlon Plan  Rucker Plan  Improshare Plan  Glossary  References  Index