He was working for Toyota in 1992 where he had one year training on lean methodologies.

Greg also has written few articles for engineering journals, spoken at manufacturing and engineering conferences worldwide, and also teaches for technical masters degree programs at universities in Spain. What is Lean? The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. Lean for Production and Services A popular misconception is that lean is suited only for manufacturing. Not true. Lean applies in every business and every process. Its not a cost reduction program, but a way of thinking and acting for an entire organization. Businesses in all industries and services, including healthcare and governments, are using lean principles as the way they think and do. Principles of Lean The 5 key principles of Lean 1. Identify Value Identify and create products or services that add value to a client's objectives, ensuring full customer satisfaction and beyond. 2. Map the Value Stream Identify the vital steps that improve production or service workflow by eliminating the non-value added steps and create a value stream. 3. Create Flow Eliminate steps in the workflow that potentially causes interruption, backflow, delay or destruction. Create efficient steps without these negative effects to form a value flow. 4. Establish Pull Supply only upon demand. Produce only when the customer pulls, so that no resources are wasted. (Just-in-Time)

5. Seek Perfection Strive for perfection by continually removing successive layers of waste as they are uncovered.

As per the article, by following above principles, the company doubled sales while increasing the profit margin.

How Toyota methods used to transform the company? What is OSKKK methodology? O Observe deeply (Manager often jump to solutions after short observation periods) S Standardized K Kaizen of flow and processes K Kaizen of equipment K Kaizen of layout Kaizen means continuous improvement Kaizen steps are in the order of effectiveness and sorted from least to most costly to implement. Human has a tendency/desire to work in reversed order. I.e. Human desire to work with more tangible and exciting layout first then to address equipment and finally to tackle process and flow issues. Implementing OSKKK methodology Take time to Learn Hands-on Learning period (Working way up from Machine operator to Managing the business) o Observing deeply and learning o Prioritize changes o Earned respect* and buy-in of the employees

o Sell the reason for modifications and communicate effectively Standardization Establish the company standards o Documentation of company standards o Base for improvements o Help to train new team members Tasks to Target Prioritize improvements to the overall business strategy (outcome was improved quality and customer satisfaction. In turn, improved profitability and margins) True indicators (metrics) instead of numerous disjointed projects Identified Bottleneck o Estimation Process Hired experienced estimator/Programmer Introduced measurement system (weekly review) o Two key performance indicators (KPIs) Hit Rate on quotations (Why we lost important ones?) Measuring actual labor and materials against Quotations estimate of labor and materials. o Monitored the Improvement in Indicators Profit Margin/Order and overall sales

*Respect really means wanting to see everyone in the organization excel, take on more responsibility and ultimately see their lives improve.

References

http://www.lean.org/ http://www.nevilleclarke.com/