Managers usually do not admit they have PROBLEMS  - call it opportunities for improvement.

Warusa-kagen , a Japanese TQC term, = things not really problems but are somehow not quite right. May eventually develop into serious problems if unattended.

J workers are trained to be attentive to w-k.

Labor- Management relationship

West – strong trade unions. Unions usually resist change in the workplace => deprive works of a chance to work better and more efficiently.

Matsushita Comm. Participated in an Electronics show in Chicago.

Products on display arrived in crates. Carpenters’ union came to remove the nails from the crates. But they would not remove the nuts and bolts, because it was not their job. After the nuts and bolts were removed, the work stopped because the rest had to be done by a worker from another union.

Pamphlets from Japan arrived. But there was nobody from the right union to unload the packages. Waited for 2 hours, no one showed up. Finally, the truck driver gave up and went back, with the pamphlets still in his truck.

The Jap manager asked: ‘ In baseball, I have never seen the first basemen’s and second basemen’s unions discussing who should field the ball after the batter hits it. ‘ In Japan, people try to achieve the same type of teamwork as on a baseball team.

= = =

Joint commitment in NUMMI – a joint venture of Toyota and GM in CA. The Union agreed in an agreement to worker involvement in KAIZEN.  Multiple job assignments – fewer job cat, encourage workers to engage in multiple jobs

Key: Ensure cooperation and commitment of workers in improving productivity

Case: JNR – productivity campaign introduced by mgmt. was withdrawn because the works (and union) oppsed it intensely. “Down with the Productivity movement” LL: start with workers, made some progress, plus management commitment , and planning

Key: Top management commitment, since it will take years (3) for the effect / benefits to show up.

Kenzo Sasaoka, from Yokogawa HP, is Mr TQC. Started TQC program in 1977; Deming Application Prize in 1982:

Corp culture

The customer: the ultimate judge of Quality

Example (p.208) : about how to sell to a dept store in Japan

Kaizen 20120215

Measurement:

Productivity is just a description of the current state and past efforts. Productivity is just a measure (of Result). What counts is the effort to improve the situation. E.g. PDCA

Same for QC – it is a post-mortem inspection. No matter how hard one work at inspecting the products, this does not necessarily lead to improvement in the product quality.

Improve quality is by improving the production process; toying with the figures is not going to improve the situation.

In Japan, QC started from the inspection phase, moved back to the phase of building quality in the production processes, and finally mean building quality into the product at the time of its development.

Manager’s job: manage both processes and results. Hence, measurement for both:

Result-oriented index (R criterion) e.g. productivity,  AND

Process-oriented indices (P criteria) when we deal with improvement

= = =

Western manager – towards result – oriented indices  e.g. monthly sales, expenses

Balance: also uses process oriented measures to look into the efforts for improvement

Managers should also have rapport with the workers. (rare in Western mgmt?)

In general , support level of Eastern (Sing, Jap, HK, Taiwan) managers are much higher than American managers.

Kaizen: Leadership based on PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, CONVICTION,

Not AUTHORITY, RANK, or AGE

QC circle leaders are keen to share their experiences in meetings because

Identifying problems, thinking, solving difficult tasks => achievements