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We’re waxing the floor in the front office together. Another JKE traveler, Kurt A, is next to me, chanting “wax on – wax off,” quietly, so Mr. M can’t hear. "Shut up, Kurt," I whisper, "this is lean manufacturing." That's me in the middle. Don't tell my wife. This company builds printed circuit boards for many Japanese electronics manufacturers, Toshiba and Mitsubishi among them. They firmly believes that a clean plant is a their best salesman - there are posters everywhere that say so. Every morning at 8:20 the 3S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso = classify, tidy up, cleaning) session begins. Each member of our 17 person JKE group was paired up with one of the employees and put to work - sweeping the parking lot, wiping down the machinery, washing the windows, everything. Gemba's Office Manager, Marcie MacRae, cleaned the reception area; Scott G. swept the walkways of the factory. Brad Schmidt and Naoko Orgurma offered translation assistance when needed - but really, when a guy hands you a cloth and bottle of floor wax, what are you going to do? Pretend you don't understand? From the floor you begin to notice things - Mr. M sets a pretty brisk pace for a man his age (I found out later he competes in 100k marathons) and absolutely everything in this office, with the exception of a large safe, is on wheels. Fire extinguisher stands on wheels. Potted plants, trash cans, First Aid kits, all on wheels. Lots of visual control boards in here too - tracking sales activities, hot prospects, upcoming visits, tax deadlines. After rolling the Reception area couches back into place, Mr. M indicated that Kurt and I had done a fine job waxing the floor and we could go out onto the shop floor now. For a moment I wondered if he wanted us to wax the shop floor too, but then he took away our rags and the bottle of floor wax. Whew. Out on the production floor, the party is in full swing - 100 or so employees and the rest of our team, sweeping, wiping down equipment, dusting the tops of light fixtures, washing windows. One young man was wiping down a solder flow oven with the attention I paid to my first car. What's amazing here is not that the plant is spotless; it's the effect of this work on the crew. They're happy, they're engaged, they're taking pictures of the crazy Americans who came all this way to help them 3S the place. And this goes on every day - makes you wonder what the rest of the day is like here. Then the music started. An up-tempo piano piece that sounded kind of like something from "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" came over the PA system. The Japanese workers quickly put away their tools and, right on the beat, began exercising - bending, reaching, jogging in place. We Americans stopped and stared for a moment, then joined in. I learned later that the music is titled "For Morning Exercise" and is well known to every Japanese student - it's played at school. As the piano piece and the exercises finished, someone shouted Kyo mo minna de gambaruzo!, the workers shouted it back ("Let's give it our best shot today also!") and, after receiving many bows and repetitions of 'domo arrigato gozaimus' from the workers, we visitors were split into two smaller groups and escorted around the plant. Everyone else went to work. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen in a factory. I had to look hard to find an aspect of lean manufacturing this place didn't do. It was all there - the U-shaped lines, stand up desks, Engineers no more than a few feet from the Assembly area, stocktaking at any time. Simple kanban for dispensing commonly used items. The other weird thing? They've been in business since the early 80s, but the commitment to lean did not begin until 1998. This company went lean for the oldest reasons - they were losing money, losing market share, they were desperate and had to do something drastic to stay in the game. So they took down the walls, sold off or donated the stuff they didn't need, cleaned up and painted the place and began engaging the workers as key players in the company's survival. You're probably reading this at work right now. If so, look around the room and remember - on the island of Kyushu there's a very successful electronics firm that starts with basics, every day. Kyo mo minna de gambaruzo! The Lean Ranger Rides Again, Episode Seven: The Charm Offensive Comments Post a Comment Name: Email: URL: Comments:	Curious Cat DailyKaizen Evolving Excellence Fashion-Incubator Got Boondoggle? 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Kaizen thoughts and articles: Gemba Panta Rei

Top 10 Improvement Tools Named After Lean Sensei

Intuition, Information and the Toyota Production System

Nine Rules for Fighting Endless Meetings

The Lean Ranger Rides Again, Episode Six: 3S as Lifestyle

By Luke - February 3, 2006 5:06 AM

Wednesday, January 25th, 2006

It’s a few minutes after eight o’clock in the morning and I’m in a meeting with the President, discussing kaizen with Mr. M. We’re waxing the floor in the front office together. Another JKE traveler, Kurt A, is next to me, chanting “wax on – wax off,” quietly, so Mr. M can’t hear. "Shut up, Kurt," I whisper, "this is lean manufacturing."

That's me in the middle. Don't tell my wife.

This company builds printed circuit boards for many Japanese electronics manufacturers, Toshiba and Mitsubishi among them. They firmly believes that a clean plant is a their best salesman - there are posters everywhere that say so. Every morning at 8:20 the 3S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso = classify, tidy up, cleaning) session begins.

Each member of our 17 person JKE group was paired up with one of the employees and put to work - sweeping the parking lot, wiping down the machinery, washing the windows, everything.

Gemba's Office Manager, Marcie MacRae, cleaned the reception area; Scott G. swept the walkways of the factory. Brad Schmidt and Naoko Orgurma offered translation assistance when needed - but really, when a guy hands you a cloth and bottle of floor wax, what are you going to do? Pretend you don't understand?

From the floor you begin to notice things - Mr. M sets a pretty brisk pace for a man his age (I found out later he competes in 100k marathons) and absolutely everything in this office, with the exception of a large safe, is on wheels. Fire extinguisher stands on wheels. Potted plants, trash cans, First Aid kits, all on wheels.

Lots of visual control boards in here too - tracking sales activities, hot prospects, upcoming visits, tax deadlines. After rolling the Reception area couches back into place, Mr. M indicated that Kurt and I had done a fine job waxing the floor and we could go out onto the shop floor now. For a moment I wondered if he wanted us to wax the shop floor too, but then he took away our rags and the bottle of floor wax. Whew.

Out on the production floor, the party is in full swing - 100 or so employees and the rest of our team, sweeping, wiping down equipment, dusting the tops of light fixtures, washing windows. One young man was wiping down a solder flow oven with the attention I paid to my first car.

What's amazing here is not that the plant is spotless; it's the effect of this work on the crew. They're happy, they're engaged, they're taking pictures of the crazy Americans who came all this way to help them 3S the place. And this goes on every day - makes you wonder what the rest of the day is like here.

Then the music started.

An up-tempo piano piece that sounded kind of like something from "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" came over the PA system. The Japanese workers quickly put away their tools and, right on the beat, began exercising - bending, reaching, jogging in place. We Americans stopped and stared for a moment, then joined in. I learned later that the music is titled "For Morning Exercise" and is well known to every Japanese student - it's played at school.

As the piano piece and the exercises finished, someone shouted Kyo mo minna de gambaruzo!, the workers shouted it back ("Let's give it our best shot today also!") and, after receiving many bows and repetitions of 'domo arrigato gozaimus' from the workers, we visitors were split into two smaller groups and escorted around the plant. Everyone else went to work.

It was the coolest thing I've ever seen in a factory.

I had to look hard to find an aspect of lean manufacturing this place didn't do. It was all there - the U-shaped lines, stand up desks, Engineers no more than a few feet from the Assembly area, stocktaking at any time. Simple kanban for dispensing commonly used items.

The other weird thing? They've been in business since the early 80s, but the commitment to lean did not begin until 1998. This company went lean for the oldest reasons - they were losing money, losing market share, they were desperate and had to do something drastic to stay in the game. So they took down the walls, sold off or donated the stuff they didn't need, cleaned up and painted the place and began engaging the workers as key players in the company's survival.

You're probably reading this at work right now. If so, look around the room and remember - on the island of Kyushu there's a very successful electronics firm that starts with basics, every day.

Kyo mo minna de gambaruzo!

The Lean Ranger Rides Again, Episode Seven: The Charm Offensive

The Lean Ranger Rides Again, Episode Six: 3S as Lifestyle

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