Can you do it like the likes of Suzuki and Toyota?

What is common between Maruti-Suzuki and your workplace?

A car every 12.5 seconds!
That’s what Maruti-Suzuki did in the year 2010!
There are plants around the world who may be making one every 1-second!!

What is important is answering the question, whether the corresponding plant are agile and flexible enough to adjust to the change in the rate of the demand from the market.

Yes companies like Suzuki and Toyota do it.
In their parlance this is called as running the plant by adjusting it to the tact time.

TACT is about ‘Time Allocated (by the customer) to Complete the Task’. During the process of fulfilling the customer demand, produce just-in-time (JIT) i.e. nothing more, nor less than what is desired by the customer. While doing so, their employees look for day-to-day problems as opportunities to improve and uproot the causes thereof to prevent their recurrence elsewhere as well.

In fact, not only Suzuki but many other excellent companies run their business learning from the TOYOTA (Kaizen Management) Way!

You can do it too!
You can create similar benefits specific to your business, customers and in fact for all the stakeholders as done by Suzuki and Toyota!!

The Kaizen way¹ of running an organisation is implemented there in a structured way.

Like in Maruti-Suzuki, Kaizen has improved quality and productivity in many organisations like Mahindra, TATA, etc. Kaizen made their processes leaner and faster to deliver in response to the ever-changing and pressing customer demands. It improved efficiency of (man, machine, material and space) resources, pruned  their costs besides achieving near-zero break-down, near-zero defectives and thereby near-zero customer complaint levels. All this is achieved at improved safety levels, reduced pollution and improved employee morale, motivation & involvement.

The journey (be it in manufacturing or service industries, from pin-making to air-lines or from hospitals to hotels) involves three stages.

First, the companies have to benchmark themselves against their past performance.
Then, they have to benchmark themselves against the best practices and companies in the world.
Third, the companies themselves have to become benchmarks worthy of emulation by others.
To achieve such a transformation, what is needed is making a beginning by transforming thoughts that you too can!

Also read a few relevant¹ blog-posts² hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Footnote-¹
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
When Safety Becomes Sorry
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis

Make checklists your friends 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it 
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Footnote-² ... Other relevant blogposts
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Does recognition really matter 
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
ABCD of India Shining 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

That's How Morons Work

Calendar showed bank-holiday for Mohharrum marked on Thursday 14th.
Last minute it was changed to Friday 15th.
So Sachin Tendulkar got more spectators on idiot-boxes for his career's last cricket test-match.
Wankhede stadium housed-full for the match that had begun on 14th.

No doubt I am his fan but had many other priorities.
My schedule of submitting a renewal application for instance on Friday 15th had anyway got upset due to last minute announcement of change in holiday.

That was generation of a waste due to 'waste in planning' as above!

Their website was working with interruptions so somehow the least I could do was to download the form. While Sachin stepped on field, early in the morning I rushed to the authority's office to 'field' them. Luckily there was no queue perhaps because public had queued to watch Sachin bat.

Without even looking at the form, expression-less staff on counter repelled me saying: "We don't accept renewal forms on Saturdays".

He didn't bother about my request to "at least verify the application form for mistakes and inadequacy in attachments, if any."

That was a 'waste in manpower and energy' of the office facilities!

So I had to schedule a leave from work on Monday additionally with a provision for revisit again in case of any inadvertent gaps in the form.

That was a 'waste in mandays and fuel'!

Some questions arose in my mind... Likely in yours too!  

Why was it not possible for the authority to declare on their website 'what activities they perform (or don't) on what day of the week'?

That was a 'waste by not using technology' although installed!

In absence of transparency of such information for customer, why was it not possible for them to verify and accept the form on Saturday itself. It was just a matter of filing it overnight until Monday for onward processing. Their staff was sitting on the counter anyway.

Why should the customer be made to suffer!

'Waste in manpower' due to inadequate methods as above!

What's the learning?

Rather than any new learning, the episode reconfirms the way morons work and the way they run their business processes. 

That's how 'man' (ab)uses 'power' in inefficient and ineffective sectors and makes customer powerless.

I know the situation is too small an experience than large scale disgusting experiences most of us might have had.

The purpose of bringing it up here is to draw parallels from among such experiences, be it in private or public sector, manufacturing or services industry. The real value-adding time in most of the processes is hardly five percent. For instance, the 'renewal' in above case doesn't involve more than a few seconds for 'a check' of past records on the computer (provided it's working) and then signature by the verifier and his boss. But in reality it takes much more, just as it takes twenty minutes at times on a fuel pump while filling operation itself doesn't take more than a minute.

Hopefully an awareness on the wastage as follows and inefficiencies thereby that such practices breed might help begin reducing them to make processes leaner.

Waste in planning, design, etc.! 

Waste in methods! 

Wasted manpower and energy of the office facilities!

Wasted mandays and fuel!

Wasted technology!

Wasted resources in general (material, space, machines, etc.)!

Gravity of such inefficient and ineffective work-culture can be judged by estimating the costs (direct, indirect, tangible as well as intangible) that the corresponding stakeholders have to bear as a result of such wastes. 

An eye opener for their leadership to begin their journey towards a Zero-waste Leaner company!

I think title of this post should have been: That's How Morons Generate Waste! 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Just after finishing my session in a seminar at NOVOTEL Juhu, I went for a stroll at the adjacent beach.
                                  
Like a maverick, I wished to take picture of a tea-vendor there. I was impressed by his entrepreneurship, his eye-contact with prospective customers, his smile and particularly impressed by the technique (see the tea-kettle covered by a reused-tin-box) he had used in order to keep his tea-service hot-n-fresh in line with his jingled-promise, 'Gar...r... ma...a-Garam-Cha....a...a....aay' (Hottest-tea)!

My colleague laughed at me just like the colleague of the vendor who also objected me sarcastically for wishing to take their photograph. You can see all of them standing around (see picture).

Ignoring all of them, I explained to the vendor that the picture may appear in a blog for whatever worth it may be to it's readers. Not only was he most obliged to grant permission to me but also made 'other-legs' in the picture to 'disappear' at once. See the 'broad-smiley' in next picture.    

After a couple of hours I was back to the hotel in order to attend some other function. I noticed that 'hot-n-fresh' snacks were being served there using a similar-but-sophisticated technique.

Immediately I grabbed the opportunity to click that picture too. Some people looked at me wondering foolish-me 'clicking' instead of 'digging' into the snacks. For them I was a novice to the 'starters'.

I am a firm believer that opportunities can be discovered as well as created. Opportunities hardly knock with intimations. That's why one needs to be prepared. When both, the preparation and opportunities, meet progress is inevitable. 

The tea-vendor at Juhu-beach didn't appear before me 'by-telling'. His technique may not be unique though. 

No one told me to notice it, nor to click it. I did it by 'being-aware' myself. I didn't know that a similar technique was going to appear before me after a couple of hours. I also didn't know that this subject was going to emerge in this blog post.

While taking the picture I only knew that there is some learning there that was worth capturing.

Just as there is nothing useless nor worthless in this universe, there is nothing or no-one from whom one can't learn from. Even a tiny sand-particle finds its use as raw material for Aluminum or as a worthy aggregate in construction industry. An innocent 'what is this' or 'why-this-way' question (even by a child) may lead to solution of a chronic problem that otherwise stays unsolved for decades.

Apart from an opportunity my curiosity gave me to cover the tea-vendor's matured-technique in this blog post, I could also reinforce my-thoughts on how 'value' can either get created or destroyed.

Vendor at the beach kept his business purely 'functional'. That's why he was able to offer spiced-tea at Rs 10/per serving as against Rs 500 in the Star-hotel. And I am sure he was able to do it with better profitability than the hotel barring the scale of operations. One may doubt quality of his tea as well as process of making it though. However it's worth comparing the both academically. Value provided by Rs 10 tea definitely mattered to those customers who mattered. And when-what-matters-to-whom depends on time-n-place that matters.

In the hotel one bears higher charges for so-called better or for, may I say, at times desire or want-based affluent practices. One pays extra for getting her ego polished, the hand-gloves, the uniform, the style of serving, etc. and even the smile that the maker-&-bearer is supposed to wear.

Study the investment made in the paraphernalia in the third picture: the stainless steel equipment used, polished suit the boy is wearing, etc. It may be difficult to know, though, how much of all that including the 'smile' of the bearer is genuinely better or worse than that of the beach-fellow. The beach vendor had primarily invested 'himself' more in the business rather than the (conventional) financial investment.

I have seen so-called 'clean-bearers' in so-called star-hotels arranging cups with their bare-fingers dipped into it when no one is there to watch. On the other hand, final serving is in style with hand-gloves on. 

One activity happens behind the screen while the other in front of it. Because that's the way quality and value gets perceived differentially. Actually it's relative. It's as good as in the hands-mind-and-spirit of the persons involved in executing-managing-leading-and-delivering it.
                                                      
Purpose of this blog post is actually to bring out more learning than the bonus-tips learnt as above.

The learning:

Being proactive or reactive itself is relative!

If some activity done 'then' (at a given point in time in past) is proved useful and preventive in future, in the hindsight it's considered as proactive. Until then more often it's laughed at as being idiosyncratic. For people around me on the beach, I might have appeared as an idiosyncratic taking pictures 'reactively-n-randomly'.

Why bother about others particularly if you have chosen to perform an act with a clear aim and calculated risk in mind! In that case why should that activity not be considered as proactive and worth moving ahead with although for others it might appear as useless!

While behaving in such a maverick-way, you may find, not one-or-two but many distractors around. It's worth ignoring them.

It's worth sticking to your stand if you have clarity. One must have humility though to make corrections to one's aim as well as modus-operendi by picking up threads from critics and distractors. It's surely advantageous to do so.

Albert Einstein did it.
Thomas Alva Edison did it the maverick-way.

Mahatma Gandhi did it. 

Nelson Mandela did it. 

Conventionally Sir Issac Newton should have eaten 'the apple that fell down'. He didn't. That's why he could do what he did.

They all seemed unreasonable 'then' for the world around.
Now in the hindsight what do those critics say about Einstein-Edison-Newton.

By-the-way, I do see a Mini-Edison in the person who first conceived a reused-tin-box in order to cover the tea-kettle. Purpose: to protect fire below it from getting extinguished. His technique is already standardized by his fraternity.

I am looking forward to some improvements over this itself. May be there are some already**. If not, my suggestion is to have one more tin-box outside the current one covering the kettle also. And between the two tin-boxes a thermocoal inserted as an insulator so that the tea-kettle stays hot for a longer time. Imagine, even if 20% re-heats are eliminated it's a saving of 20% fuel in addition to what is already saved so far.

But meanwhile for whatever is done, he is an incremental-innovator for me. He has innovated in his own context. He's empowered himself to exercise his own authority to conserve energy. Imagine the miracle if everyone saves so with a little more consciousness. Imagine overcoming difficulties creatively (without fear of 'failure' in conventional sense of the world) instead of crying about them.

For me the behavior of refusing to stay stuck in the 'fix-it' kind of 'Jugaadi-Indian' approach, behavior of making a 'sincere-attempt-to-try' to make-it-better on-goingly is a success. This is the Kaizen-approach invented by Toyota where everyone picks-up a 'cry' in order to make an improvement upon although there may not be 'anyone-to-cry'.

For me the"3-Idiots" (from Hindi-Movie) kind of ingenious ones who experiment their unconventional-thoughts are successful Kaizenees rather than so-called genius-preachers, the poison-ees who adhere to conventions. The latter lock themselves in status-quo(s), conventional-thoughts and 'cries' prevailing around.

So what's the take-home?

It may be other's job to consider you a Big-Fool, a Big-Idiot, and what-not. It may be their job not-once but each-day to kill your motivation, enthusiasm, and with that kill your original ideas or even incremental ones built on others.

But it's your own (job) to consider yourself above such foolishness particularly if you know your aim and purpose of being: The self-actualization! It's your own duty to see yourself in the ranks of 'Gandhiji-Edison-Einstein-Newton-to-be' without being foolishly over-confident though and with 1000xTimes 'their-humility' if not more. That's a way to make some mark on your name.

It may take longer-than-you-think though for your-own-small-world around you to say: Progress in this particular domain is because of 'unreasonableness' of This-Man!

In any case, no one would dare to deny the fact as someone has rightly said that "All the progress in this world is because of unreasonable people"!!

(** You may share such stories in the comment-box here-below.)

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands 

Technology in-place, security dis-placed

The picture here-below tells a story.

Beautiful technology: the metal-detector!

People fight for it if it's not there.
"How can you improve if you don't invest", they complain.

No one around it to use it if it's (installed) there.

Can you imagine the magnitude of Cost of Poor Quality (CoPQ)? 

And the resulting cost of probable crisis that might erupt from potential failures hidden in the picture?

Yes, you may complete the story by answering questions that come to your mind on situations such as at the railway station in picture: 

The security guard was missing resulting in under use of the technology.

The detector itself was non-functional.

To elaborate on the CoPQ concept, you may read Kaizen on Crisis Situations - World Of Kaizen.

Boom-Barrier Boomed, Country-Doomed http://care-is-cure.blogspot.com/2013/12/boom-barrier-boomed-country-doomed.html