In creating "flow manufacturing" or just in time manufacturing the idea at Toyota was to make sure the flow was hardly ever broken or interrupted. After all the idea was to maximize on production and the way to do this was to keep an assembly line moving.

For this reason a worker's main responsibility appears to be to work and not to think when they are supposed to be keeping production moving.

However a worker on the plant floor has another much more significant role to play other than just “do the work”. They are also expected to be problem solvers and performance improvers.

What this means is that when there is a problem on the assembly line, rather than just keep on working for the sake of keeping the assembly line moving, a worker has the power to stop the line. They are then supposed to think of a solution, implement it and then get the line moving again. This greatly limits waste from units being rejected by quality control later and eliminates the need to keep extra material on site to use for the manufacturing of replacement products. This is usually to replace those units that did not pass quality control or were obviously seen to be defective long before they even arrived at quality control.

In other words, in lean manufacturing or flow manufacturing the issue of leaving all the thinking to management does not arise. Thinking is in fact considered to be too important a task to be left only to a handful of managers.

The results of this kind of thinking speak for itself. It’s applicable in all situations, not just manufacturing.

Copyright © 2006 Chuck Yorke - All Rights Reserved

Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. He is the author of “All You Gotta Do Is Ask,” a book which explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees. Chuck may be reached at [email protected]. http://www.peoplekaizen.com

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