Building and Sustaining a Lean Culture - The People Value Stream (EX)
12/15/2008
A company's product and profits come through its people. At Toyota North America, that means leadership starts with the values that must be instilled in its workforce. People hired should share the same values, so they know they have the authority to make decisions based on those values – at every level of the company. A successful effort must concentrate on the profile of the people hired and promoted. It should map out how to engage them in daily improvement and daily problem solving. At the lowest level, train people in problem solving. Visual control and standardization help establish an army of problem solvers not just at one level, but at all levels, for the whole value stream. Different tools in the process rely on the same terminology and the same system, even though they address different applications. That approach builds the culture. It gets everyone thinking the same way and talking the same language. Then the whole organization can move forward.
Keywords: Lean Culture, People Value Stream, Toyota Way, Waste Reduction, Standardization, hiring process, Kaizen, consensus, mutual prosperity, continuous improvement, respect & trust, servant leadership, problem solving