Looking Ahead to a Toyota Tour by Looking Back

2
2

I'm excited that I have a chance, on Wednesday, to tour the Toyota plant in San Antonio, TX. I'm going with a “Lean Austin” group that has a group tour (I'm flying down from DFW for the day, establishing some ties between our local “Lean DFW” efforts and the Austin group.

As I look ahead to the tour, I'm preparing by looking back and thinking back to my chance to tour the NUMMI plant back in 2005. It may seem like a repeat of material, but many of you weren't reading my blog back then, so I'm posting some links to my previous posts about NUMMI and adding fresh comments below…

I did a six-part series of posts at the time (click on the headers for the posts).

NUMMI Tour Tale #1: Why Fix the Escalator?

In this post, I wrote about how the NUMMI tour guide explained away the broken escalator, saying there were working stairs, it would be waste to fix it (they had inherited the escalator from the building's earlier days as the GM Fremont plant. See the post for the whole story. Was NUMMI being unnecessarily cheap or appropriately frugal?

The post has drawn many comments over time, including some people claiming to be employees or former employees who called them “cheap bastards.” Sheesh.

NUMMI Tour Tale #2: The Power of Reynolds Wrap

Here, I wrote about an example I saw where a little bit of aluminum foil saved a lot of cleanup time. Seemed like a great example of kaizen at work.

NUMMI Tour Tale #3: The Power of Why

This is one of my favorite stories that highlights the mindset of having “Respect for People” in a very concrete way. This was a huge light bulb moment for me. You don't just “ask why” you also “explain why” in a Lean culture. Very powerful stuff, I think.

NUMMI Tour Tale #4: The Pull Gift Shop

The NUMMI gift shop wasn't a physical display with inventory. It was a “pull system” with items delivered to you at the end of the tour.

NUMMI Tour Tale #5: Nobody is Perfect

Our tour guide (a NUMMI employee) owned up to how they had “gotten away from doing “standard work audits” over time. Discipline and consistency are very difficult to sustain, I guess that is a very human trait of ours. They said it was one of the GM people urging the Toyota NUMMI people to re-gain their discipline.

NUMMI Tour Tales #6: “You Get What You Inspect”

In the final post, I talk about the tour guide using a very powerful expression:

“You get what you inspect, not what you expect.”

After the tour, I will write about what I see in San Antonio.


What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn – and follow me or connect with me there.

Did you like this post? Make sure you don't miss a post or podcast — Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.


Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation:

Get New Posts Sent To You

Select list(s):
Previous articleReminder: Free Lean Leadership Webinar at 2 PM EDT Today, “On the Mend”
Next article3 Reasons the General Public Doesn’t Think Healthcare Can Improve
Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

2 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.