introduction to toyota kata: how to solve problems on a daily basis

Introduction to Toyota Kata: How to solve problems on a daily basis

Sylvain Landry, Ph.D., CFPIM Professor, Department of Logistics and Operations Management

Associate Director, Healthcare Management Center

© Copyright Sylvain Landry, HEC Montréal, 2015

WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE IS THEN NOT AN ACT, BUT A HABIT.


Seminar Outline

§  Introduction to Lean and the 7 wastes §  Introduction to Toyota Kata §  Improvement kata §  Coaching kata §  Kata and neuroscience


Toast Kaizen


1)  Identify things that are not working properly; wastes…

2)  How can you improve the process?


Toast Kaizen


1)  Identify things that are not working properly; wastes…

2)  How can you improve the process?


Value-added activity and Wastes or Non-value-added activity §  Value-added activity (VAA)

§  An activity that actually increases the value of a product or service in a customer’s eyes.

§  Wastes Non-value-added activity (NVAA) §  An activity that uses time, resources or space without adding value to a

product or a service. These activities have no impact on the function or utilization of the product or service.

§  A non-value-added activity (NVAA) is considered as wasteful and increases costs. In Japan, it is called muda.

Source: http://www.improvementandinnovation.com/features/articles/process-improvement-how-guide and others


Seven sources of waste (Muda in Japanese)

§  Overproduction §  Doing more than needed or producing unnecessary materials:

batching; performing unnecessary tests; entering redundant information on forms, etc.

§  Waiting §  Waiting for a supply item, tests results, a doctor, an

authorization, etc.

§  Transportation §  Moving patients or supplies unnecessarily

§  Over-processing §  Adding unnecessary steps to a process; fielding the same

question from multiple providers; recording the same data multiple times, etc.

Sources: Adapted from Black and Miler, The Toyota Way to Healthcare Excellence, 2008, and Graban, Lean Hospitals, 2009


Seven sources of waste

§  Inventory §  Dealing with excess inventory, expired products, wrong

locations, etc.

§  Motion §  Unnecessary employee movements: looking for missing or

misplaced items; walking long distances due to poor layout, etc.

§  Defective products §  Correcting erroneous information, etc.

Source: Adapted from Black and Miler, The Toyota Way to Healthcare Excellence, 2008, and Graban, Lean Hospitals, 2009


What is the problem?


Lean healthcare: definition

§  A quality and process improvement management system based on the Toyota Production System that emphasizes customer needs, improving quality, and reducing time delays and costs, all through continuous improvement and employee involvement

Adapté Nelson, M. (2011), Sustaining Lean in Healthcare: Developing and Engaging Physician Leadership, CRC Press.


Toyota Production System House

Safety, Quality, Time, Morale, and Cost

Employee involvement Visual management

Just-in-time (JIT)

Jidoka Quality at the source

§ Right product at the right time in the right quantity § Continuous flow

§ Error-proofing §  Alert-based systems § Automatic stops

Elimination of waste

Continuous improvement process Standardized processes

Adapted from Graban, Lean Hospitals, 2009, and other sources


www.leanmaps.com


Mura, muri, muda


Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System

Spear et Bowen, HBR, 1999


The challenge of complexity

§  Medecine has become the art of managing extreme complexity. There are over 13,000 different diseases, syndromes and types of injury. Clinicians now have 6,000 drugs and 4,000 medical and surgical procedures. It’s a lot to get right.

Atul Gawande in Jay Arthur, Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals, McGraw Hill, 2011, p. 99


The complexity of the hospital sector and the DNA of the Toyota Production System

§  The complexity of the healthcare system can bring a great deal of ambiguity to everyday tasks

Source: Spear and Bowen, 1999,; Spear, 2005; and Anita Tucker and colleagues, 2002; 2003 and 2006

§  People often handle these ambiguities by attacking the immediate problem without looking at the bigger picture. The “system” expects the professionals to find a lasting solution to the problem

§  However, the professionals do not have the time to examine the source of the problem if no continuous improvement process exists (e.g. active involvement by a unit head or a formal improvement process) – second-order problem solving


Second order problem solving process

Second-order problem solving

First-order

problem solving

Problem

Problem resolution process where an attempt is made to not only find an immediate

solution to the problem, but to also apply corrective measures to prevent a

recurrence of the problem.

Problem resolution process where an attempt is made to find an immediate solution to the problem without going back to its source in order to find a permanent solution.

« I have 25 years of service, but only one year of experience »


PDCA – Problem solving cycle


PDCA – Problem solving cycle

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision a nightmare

Japanese proverbe

Be 100% better not 100% perfect! Jean-Marc Legentil, Bell Nordic Consulting


PDCA and standardization

Standards


Standardisation

What is the best way to do a thing? It is the sum of all the good ways we have discovered up to the present… Today’s best, which superseded yesterday’s, will be superseded by tomorrow’s best…. Today’s standardization … is the necessary foundation on which tomorrow’s improvement will be based.

Ford, Today and Tomorrow, [1926] 1988; p. 82.


Seminar Outline



Tools … the visible part of Lean

Plan

Do

Act

Check

Leadership, management practices and problem solving


Toyota Kata

Managing People for Improvement,

Adaptiveness and Superior Results


« We have been trying to add Toyota Production System practices and principles on top of our existing management thinking and practice without adjusting that thinking and practice. Toyota’s techniques will not work properly, will not generate continuous improvement and adaptation, without Toyota’s underlying logic, which lies beyond our view. »

Rother (2010), p. 5


Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System

Spear et Bowen, HBR, 1999


Research Questions Leading to TK

§  What unseen managerial routines and thinking lie behind Toyota's success with continuous improvement and adaptation?

§  How can other companies develop similar routines and thinking in their organizations?

Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/KATA_Files/Research.pdf


Definition of Toyota Kata

§  The formalization of the implicit Toyota problem-solving process, to be induced promptly in organizations other than Toyota, as a step towards a culture of continuous improvement.

§  In short, this is not an explicit approach that just need to be translated; §  It is more like a way of thinking and management, with a need to

experiment in order to learn its workings. §  TK seeks to build the context within which lean tools are

applied.

Source: adapted from Mike Rother, Kata Summit, 2015 & Philippe Deslandes


Mike Rother (August 2015)

§  TK is not a method to implement but rather a practice methodology to utilize to help you change your culture to a culture of continuous improvement.


What is Kata? §  A kata is a routine that we practice in order to learn a skill. §  Through ongoing practice, the routine of kata becomes second

nature to the body – executed with little conscious attention – and is easily accessible.

§  Cycling, driving a car, and typing are a few examples. §  Experienced drivers do not consciously think about controlling the

vehicle, they simply focus on the road.


Source: Several slides taken from Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata Practice Guide

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Handbook/Practice_Guide.pdf


TK is more focused

Current Condition

Target Condition Challenge Vision Obstacles

2 4 3 1 1


Toyota Kata


Seminar Outline



Improvement Kata

Understand the

direction

Grasp The Current

Condition

Establish the next target

condition

Iterate toward the

target condition (PDCA) Learner

Improvement Kata

Current Condition


2 4 3 1


Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata

Understand the

direction

Grasp the current

condition

Establish the next target

condition

Iterate toward the

target condition (PDCA)

Planning coaching cycles Executing coaching

cycles

Learner

Coach

Coaching Kata

Improvement Kata

Source: Mike Rother

1

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Improvement Kata is more iterative and focused

Rather than providing the complete path, improvement kata encourages discovery and adaptation throughout the journey.

Actual condition Obstacles Target

condition

Vision

•  PDCA cycles using the 5 kata questions •  Short cycles of improvement •  One obstacle at a time based on a hypothesis •  Learning is as (if not more) important than the result


Improvement Kata: 4 steps

1.  Based on a vision or direction ... and a challenge; 2.  Grasp the current condition; 3.  Establish the next target condition; 4.  Progress to the next target condition through PDCA cycles, enable

the discovery of obstacles that require work.

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Vision (1st element)

1 Current

Condition Target

Condition Challenge Vision Obstacles

2 4 3 1 1


« This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning

him safely to Earth ». May 25th, 1961


Challenge (1st element)

§  The challenge is a step that the organization must pass through in order to achieve its vision

§  The challenge should not be too easy that it is overcome quickly, nor too utopian that it would become demotivating

1

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Current Condition (2nd element)

§  It is performance and the process characteristics at the time the coaching cycle takes place

§  It is the reality we now have to face and is our new starting point

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Target Condition (3rd element)

§  It is the next step that we are intend to improve §  It is the « challenge of the moment » §  It is a measurable performance that is easily recognizable, but cannot

be achieved without addressing one or more obstacles §  The Target Condition also describes the operating characteristics of

the target process

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Target vs. Target Condition

§  A target is a result to be attained §  A target condition is a description of how the process should operate

to achieve a result

Source: Rother (2010) p. 103


Obstacles (4th element)

§  An obstacle is something that prevents us from achieving the desired performance

§  It is a problem, a non-value added activity, a situation, and often a process parameter or process that escapes us in that we do not know how to master it

§  When the obstacle(s) are removed, we become able to reach the Target Condition

§  From there, set a new target condition to eventually reach our challenge … on the path to achieving our vision.

5

Current Condition


2 4 3 1 1


Example of Improvement Kata


Mastermind

§  Challenge: find the colour and location of 4 pegs by round 8.

§  Target condition: find 2 colours by round 3.

§  Round 1: Determine if there are red pegs in the combination.


Seminar Outline



Roles

Source: Mike Rother


Roles

§  Learner §  Uses Improvement Kata; capture the current condition, set the next target condition,

and work with the team to reach it through PDCA cycles under the coach’s supervision.

§  Is responsible for updating the storyboard.

§  Coach §  Ensures that the Learner uses Improvement Kata (scientific thinking) §  Performs (ideally on a daily basis) coaching cycles with the Learner using the 5

questions of Coaching Kata. §  Develops the Learner’s problem-solving skills; does not improve the process. §  Is responsible for the results of the Learner. §  Is often the supervisor of the Learner.

§  Second Coach §  Observes the coaching cycles (Coaching Kata) between the Learner and the Coach. §  Helps the Coach develop his/her coaching skills. §  Is often the supervisor of the Coach, can also be a peer or a specialist. §  Is not always present.

Kata is coach dependent!


Date, step & metric What happened What we learnedWhat do you expect?

Cond

uct t

he E

xper

imen

t

PDCA CYCLES RECORDProcess:Learner:

Obstacle:

Do a

Coa

chin

g Cy

cle

Coach:

(Each row = one experiment)

THE LEARNER'S PDCA CYCLES RECORD

This form is read left-to-right, one row at a time; each row = one experiment. Once you get started, the pattern of the form repeats with each experiment.

59

Write the obstacle here


Seminar Outline



Name the two play cards you will be presented next in a wink of an eye


« It’s easier to act your way to a new way of thinking than to think your way to a new way of acting »

John Shook


IN SUMMARY


21st Century Lean vs. 20th Century

Mike Rother


Scientific Thinking & Deliberate Practice (includes the presence of a Coach)

Don’t wait for THE perfect conditions, new systems, or new resources… Just do it!

introduction to toyota kata: how to solve problems on a daily basis

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