Recently I read a fascinating article in the SoL Journal on Knowledge, Learning and Change entitled “The Thinking Production System” coauthored by Dr. Michael Ballé, Godefroy Beauvallet, Art Smalley and Durward K. Sobek, which takes a look at why, although productivity gains have been made, so few
enterprises have managed to successfully implement “full lean”.

“Lean” is a work place philosophy and production practice that focuses on preserving value whilst eliminating waste. It is based on the Toyota Production System (TPS), which is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, comprising its management philosophy and practices.

A fundamental premise of learning is that other people’s experiences provide insight and perspective that can help us to achieve the results we are looking for. The managing director of SoL, C. Sherry Immediato, makes the point that we assume that we can improve our performance by imitating the behaviour that
produces the results that we desire, but that we need only look at the many frustrated attempts to replicate the TPS to know that, “while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it does not reliably produce either results or learning”.

The paper takes a look at why this is the case and how we redirect these well-intentioned efforts to make the gains that we are looking to achieve.

In South Africa, like in many Western societies, lean implementation tends to be tool and system focused, but it is important to understand that the philosophy plays a critical role. One practitioner describes the primary aim as â€œdrawing out people’s capability and motivation”, which is very different to driving out cost.

The authors of the article hope that by framing the change to be implemented as a â€œthinking system”, we will grow to understand that the work of management is about “frame control” and creating a conducive
environment for new tools and methods to be introduced.

Framing is a well-acknowledged concept in social science. The article states that “frames are the mental constructs through which we see, interpret and act on the world”. Framing can be described as “implicitly selecting some aspects of perceived reality as more salient than others, thus orienting problem definition,
causal interpretation, moral evaluation and eventually action recommendation”. Framing explains why the same events can be interpreted very differently by different people depending on a person’s framework. Framing can be thought of as, literally, looking at a picture and focusing on some aspects, while completely missing others.

The lean movement has been responsible for changing some frames in the industrial world like how large inventories are perceived. They were once thought to be healthy assets that could be accessed when needed, but they are now recognised as wasteful.

The authors attempt to show that the true benefits of lean can be realised through a shift in how managers “frame” the system. TPS masters continually talk about making sure that the tools are applied in the right perspective. TPS veteran, Teruyuki Minoura, says that the “T” in TPS stands for “thinking.” TPS is about creating the kind of place where people have to think which results in wisdom, and this wisdom brings continuous improvement (kaizen).  Nampachi Hayashi, a Toyota Executive Advisory Engineer argued that the essence of TPS is developing in each employee a “kaizen
consciousness”. In summary, TPS masters view lean transformation as changing the thought processes of every employee.

Going lean, then, is less about cutting out waste from every business process and more about improving organisational performance - seeing problems and solving them the “right” way, and in so doing, continually increasing the thinking ability and/or intellectual capacity and skill of all employees.

The authors explain that applying lean tools to every process frame is not the answer, because, although this can result in productivity gains, it often ignores the waste that is caused elsewhere in the system, and the gains invariably can’t be maintained when the responsible manager moves on, but that “tapping and evolving the creativity of every employee, if properly cultivated and directed, has unlimited potential”. As they so ably point out: “It enables the core principle of lean â€" kaizen â€" to take root at a genetic level so
that learning becomes an organic process of operations”, and the conclusion is that “realising the full promise of this thinking production system requires a shift to this learning frame”.

ceo@pcb.org.za