Toyota Gains Lead in Overproduction?

Toyota beats GM in global production; GM No. 1 in global sales

So it turns out that GM *sold* more cars than Toyota in 2007, but it's basically rounding error and a virtual tie (as pointed out well by the Lean Thinker blog). He's right, who cares who sold more? It's profit (and long-term profitability) that matters.

I wasn't going to comment until I saw the headline that Toyota *produced* more than GM. How odd -- Toyota produced 213,000 more vehicles than GM.... so they produced more cars than they sold.

In the latest neck-and-neck numbers race between the world's top two automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it had made a record 9,497,754 vehicles worldwide in 2007, up 5.3 percent from the previous year.

That's about 213,000 more automobiles than the 9.284 million that GM made last year.

Now, I'm somewhat "tongue in cheek" saying that it's the "waste of overproduction." If Toyota's "heijunka" (or level loading of production) says it was more cost effective to slightly overproduce (to be made up for in a period where sales will be higher than production), then it's not necessarily the worst thing ever. Keeping production level brings many benefits to the stability of the supply chain and the supplier base. Constantly changing production to meet demand isn't necessarily the best business decision, nor is it "not Lean" to have a little bit of planned out inventory... am I explaining that well?

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Airport Heijunka

DFW Airport | pegasusnews.com

DFW International Airport will distribute more than $10,000 in "DFW Bucks" on December 20 and 21 to encourage families to check in during off-peak times to avoid the Christmas checkpoint crunch, offering children 12 and under a coupon to eat free at any of the restaurants in the Airport's five terminals.

The idea is to "level load" the airport security lines, by encouraging families to come between 12 and 2. It's easier for families to get through during non-peak times (plus it doesn't clog the lines up as bad for the rest of us). My wife and I are trying to help level load by traveling on Christmas Day afternoon (a day we assume isn't as busy as the next few will be).

The DFW example seems like a good case of "demand shaping," trying to level out demand for a product or service, rather than just taking it as it comes. In the Lean approach, "heijunka," or level loading, can apply to leveling demand (an ideal condition) or leveling production (which requires inventory).

Best wishes to everyone for the holidays!

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Heijunka for Airport Security?

TSA considers reservations for airport security - USATODAY.com

I'm not normally a fan of the TSA, but this proposal actually seems somewhat reasonable and reminds me of the Lean concept of "heijunka," or level loading of a process.

A steady stream of travelers at checkpoints throughout a day also would ease scheduling problems for security screeners caused by the large rushes of people followed by long lulls.

This is what we see in many workplaces -- really busy times where employees are overburdened and customers have to suffer through waits. Being really busy can impact quality, when employees feel pressured to cut corners to work down their backlog (and that can have really bad consequences if screeners aren't given time to be careful).

I travel a lot on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons -- peak travel times. Can you convince people to show up earlier (or later) if they can be guaranteed to fly through security?

Leveling the process should benefit everyone, but there's not total agreement on this:

Caleb Tiller of the National Business Travel Association said, "It's not entirely clear why we need a reservation system to deal with peak times rather than adding TSA staff and (checkpoint) lanes."

So money grows on trees? It's better to have a creative solution than spending money, right?

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