Comments for A3 Thinking http://a3thinking.com/blog Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:22:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on Recent Toyota QC Circle Example by Ajay Kumar Singh http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42&cpage=1#comment-2462 Ajay Kumar Singh Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:22:08 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42#comment-2462 Dear Sir, can i get a sample copy of the circle project! <strong>Actually we are no longer in possession of the original document. Each paged was copied and scanned in as a jpeg file. If you double click on the image it should appear as a reasonably sized item. Left click on the image and you should be able to download a file for each page. That is the only option I can suggest at this point.</strong> Dear Sir, can i get a sample copy of the circle project!

Actually we are no longer in possession of the original document. Each paged was copied and scanned in as a jpeg file. If you double click on the image it should appear as a reasonably sized item. Left click on the image and you should be able to download a file for each page. That is the only option I can suggest at this point.

]]> Comment on Recent Toyota QC Circle Example by Kailash N Anand http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42&cpage=1#comment-2093 Kailash N Anand Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:42:45 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42#comment-2093 i am interested in knowing about the present status of QC Circle activities in Japanese establishment -such as number of active circle industrywise and benefits reaped in previous years <strong>Your best bet is to contact the JUSE in Japan. They have several conferences per year that pertain to QC circles and related activities.</strong> <a href="http://www.juse.or.jp/e/qc/32/" rel="nofollow">Upcoming conferences in Japan</a> i am interested in knowing about the present status of QC Circle activities in Japanese establishment -such as number of active circle industrywise and benefits reaped in previous years

Your best bet is to contact the JUSE in Japan. They have several conferences per year that pertain to QC circles and related activities.

Upcoming conferences in Japan

]]> Comment on Recent Toyota QC Circle Example by Suriyany http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42&cpage=1#comment-1873 Suriyany Wed, 19 May 2010 02:26:42 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42#comment-1873 Dear Sir, may I know when is the above circle project being presented, as you only mention 'a couple of years ago'. Thanks. <strong>There is no date on the presentation. When I was given it a couple of years ago I was told it was a year or two old. Probably dates to around 2007 ish but I don't know for certain.</strong> Dear Sir, may I know when is the above circle project being presented, as you only mention ‘a couple of years ago’. Thanks.

There is no date on the presentation. When I was given it a couple of years ago I was told it was a year or two old. Probably dates to around 2007 ish but I don’t know for certain.

]]> Comment on Welcome to the A3 Thinking Blog by admin http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-298 admin Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:21:05 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7#comment-298 Hello, David, It's nice to hear from an organization that is trying to make system-wide improvements rather than compartmentalized application of lean tools. I wish you the best. One of things you're running up against in terms of acquiring current information is the lead-time needed to get something published. One to three years is typical. For our book, for example, from the date Art and I approached the publisher with a book proposal to the date the book was released was nearly two years. And the data that formed the basis for the book was collected even earlier. So I'm not surprised that you would have difficulty finding information in print about what Toyota is doing right now. Unfortunately, I have not personally had contact with Toyota insiders in recent years, so I am not able to answer your question as to whether A3's are still widely used. I can only speculate. Also, my window into the company was in product engineering, so it is limited. What I do know is that Toyota is still dedicated to application of continuous improvement daily. A3 reports are simply a tool to do CI effectively. It is well-known that structured problem-solving outperforms unstructured problem-solving, which it one of the reasons why A3's are useful; but I'm sure there are other tools/methods that are as effective. So it wouldn't surprise me to hear that they've evolved past A3's to some other tool/method they feel is more effective. Electronic media are not very conducive to the A3 format, so they may be using something else more pervasively in its place in order to appeal to the wired (and now wirelessly connected) generation. Continuous improvement, right? At the same time, the blank stares could be in how you ask the question. The terms we used in the book, such as "A3 process," are our terms, not Toyota's. So it could just be they aren't sure what you are asking simply by the terms you've used. Maybe you already did this, but if I were you, I would query your contacts about continuous improvement, how they go about it, what tools they use, what training they've received, what kind of mentoring they've received, and so forth. Starting from a more general topic of common ground may be more fruitful. I've heard second-hand that during their high-growth period over the last decade or so in pursuit of surpassing GM to be the largest car company in the world that some of the basics have slid, such as one-on-one mentoring. They grew faster than the labor intensive method of growing highly capable problem-solvers that they've used historically could keep up with. If your contacts are American managers, this may especially be true. Sorry I don't have hard data for you. I wish you the best as you move forward to improving operational effectiveness by getting every person to solve important problems every day. Sincerely, Durward Sobek Hello, David,

It’s nice to hear from an organization that is trying to make system-wide improvements rather than compartmentalized application of lean tools. I wish you the best.

One of things you’re running up against in terms of acquiring current information is the lead-time needed to get something published. One to three years is typical. For our book, for example, from the date Art and I approached the publisher with a book proposal to the date the book was released was nearly two years. And the data that formed the basis for the book was collected even earlier. So I’m not surprised that you would have difficulty finding information in print about what Toyota is doing right now. Unfortunately, I have not personally had contact with Toyota insiders in recent years, so I am not able to answer your question as to whether A3’s are still widely used. I can only speculate. Also, my window into the company was in product engineering, so it is limited.

What I do know is that Toyota is still dedicated to application of continuous improvement daily. A3 reports are simply a tool to do CI effectively. It is well-known that structured problem-solving outperforms unstructured problem-solving, which it one of the reasons why A3’s are useful; but I’m sure there are other tools/methods that are as effective. So it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that they’ve evolved past A3’s to some other tool/method they feel is more effective. Electronic media are not very conducive to the A3 format, so they may be using something else more pervasively in its place in order to appeal to the wired (and now wirelessly connected) generation. Continuous improvement, right?

At the same time, the blank stares could be in how you ask the question. The terms we used in the book, such as “A3 process,” are our terms, not Toyota’s. So it could just be they aren’t sure what you are asking simply by the terms you’ve used.

Maybe you already did this, but if I were you, I would query your contacts about continuous improvement, how they go about it, what tools they use, what training they’ve received, what kind of mentoring they’ve received, and so forth. Starting from a more general topic of common ground may be more fruitful. I’ve heard second-hand that during their high-growth period over the last decade or so in pursuit of surpassing GM to be the largest car company in the world that some of the basics have slid, such as one-on-one mentoring. They grew faster than the labor intensive method of growing highly capable problem-solvers that they’ve used historically could keep up with. If your contacts are American managers, this may especially be true.

Sorry I don’t have hard data for you. I wish you the best as you move forward to improving operational effectiveness by getting every person to solve important problems every day.

Sincerely,
Durward Sobek

]]> Comment on Recent Toyota QC Circle Example by David Kinne http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42&cpage=1#comment-288 David Kinne Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:46:15 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42#comment-288 Many thanks. You have confirmed what I thought had transpired. Planning a 2nd edition to provide some modern application? We're off and running on our methods and enjoying every step. Functioning as the "facilitator" has many chalenges since I have to facilitate the Sr. Managers just as much as the line Supervisors/employees. Thanks again. Many thanks. You have confirmed what I thought had transpired. Planning a 2nd edition to provide some modern application? We’re off and running on our methods and enjoying every step. Functioning as the “facilitator” has many chalenges since I have to facilitate the Sr. Managers just as much as the line Supervisors/employees. Thanks again.

]]> Comment on Welcome to the A3 Thinking Blog by David Kinne http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-278 David Kinne Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:05:43 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7#comment-278 Our Business Unit (Visual Simulation Systems) has begun the lean journey. We are not a strong mfg. site but deal with a visual software presentation and have computer/projector displays that we assemble then, place our software on. Our journey has progressed to the implementation of A3 Thinking. We use your book extensively (in conjunction with, "Managing to Learn" and "Getting the Right Things Done"). My question concerns what your observations are of the Toyota Production System today versus what is was when all these "books" were written or have based their context on. I have no contact with the internal workings of Toyota but have heard from some second hand sources that A3's are nonexistent. Not that problems are NOT being solved but since the TPS has matured after 40+ years it seems logical that the quantity of A3 applications would diminish (since variation is diminishing) and not be as widespread as at the beginning. Your observations would help. Thanks, Dave <strong>Dave, Thanks for the message and comments. Good luck on your implementation of A3 Thinking. Regarding Toyota's current usage I have a slightly different take on the situation. A3 reports in the traditional sense in Toyota (Hand drawn 1 page A3 paper type) are on the decline in Toyota and have been for quite a few years. The real reason though I think is the influx of information technology and computers into the work site. Most software packages are not geared towards formatting A3 (or U.S. sized 11x17 inch) type documents. Word is great for text, Excel is fairly good at data and charts, PowerPoint is reasonably good at single page slides and charts, etc. However they are not great at A3 reports and combining all three types into one document is a chore... The trend even in Toyota is to use e-mail and software packages for communication and presentation purposes. Does this mean that A3 reports are "dead"? I'd argue not really since the thinking pattern behind the reports and activities surrounding the A3 process are still in place. We title our book on A3 reports "A3 Thinking" for this reason. It is the thinking pattern that matters the most and not adherence to using a single sheet or piece of paper. I often advise clients that six or seven Powerpoints slides for example containing some form of Background, Current State, Root Cause, Goal, Action Items, Confirmation of Effect, and Follow Up, etc. are an acceptable A3 report to me these days...as long as the thinking pattern, logic structure, and quality of analysis is good. The downside is of course looking at 6-7 pages instead of one. An example of a problem solving report at the team level is the 20 slide presentation I posted on a recent QC circle activity from Toyota. It still contains the critical thinking pattern...it is just much much longer than reports in the past and uses a lot more computer generated images. </strong> <a href="http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=42" rel="nofollow"> QC Circle Example of Problem Solving & Elements of A3 Thinking</a> Our Business Unit (Visual Simulation Systems) has begun the lean journey. We are not a strong mfg. site but deal with a visual software presentation and have computer/projector displays that we assemble then, place our software on. Our journey has progressed to the implementation of A3 Thinking. We use your book extensively (in conjunction with, “Managing to Learn” and “Getting the Right Things Done”). My question concerns what your observations are of the Toyota Production System today versus what is was when all these “books” were written or have based their context on. I have no contact with the internal workings of Toyota but have heard from some second hand sources that A3’s are nonexistent. Not that problems are NOT being solved but since the TPS has matured after 40+ years it seems logical that the quantity of A3 applications would diminish (since variation is diminishing) and not be as widespread as at the beginning. Your observations would help.
Thanks,
Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the message and comments. Good luck on your implementation of A3 Thinking. Regarding Toyota’s current usage I have a slightly different take on the situation. A3 reports in the traditional sense in Toyota (Hand drawn 1 page A3 paper type) are on the decline in Toyota and have been for quite a few years. The real reason though I think is the influx of information technology and computers into the work site. Most software packages are not geared towards formatting A3 (or U.S. sized 11×17 inch) type documents. Word is great for text, Excel is fairly good at data and charts, PowerPoint is reasonably good at single page slides and charts, etc. However they are not great at A3 reports and combining all three types into one document is a chore…

The trend even in Toyota is to use e-mail and software packages for communication and presentation purposes. Does this mean that A3 reports are “dead”? I’d argue not really since the thinking pattern behind the reports and activities surrounding the A3 process are still in place. We title our book on A3 reports “A3 Thinking” for this reason. It is the thinking pattern that matters the most and not adherence to using a single sheet or piece of paper. I often advise clients that six or seven Powerpoints slides for example containing some form of Background, Current State, Root Cause, Goal, Action Items, Confirmation of Effect, and Follow Up, etc. are an acceptable A3 report to me these days…as long as the thinking pattern, logic structure, and quality of analysis is good. The downside is of course looking at 6-7 pages instead of one.

An example of a problem solving report at the team level is the 20 slide presentation I posted on a recent QC circle activity from Toyota. It still contains the critical thinking pattern…it is just much much longer than reports in the past and uses a lot more computer generated images.

QC Circle Example of Problem Solving & Elements of A3 Thinking

]]> Comment on Handbook for TQM & QC Circles by admin http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=31&cpage=1#comment-141 admin Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:52:27 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=31#comment-141 I don't know exactly how many are operating in Japan or Toyota currently. When I worked there roughly the QC handbook quoted a figure of 6,000 circles. The information above cites a figure of 4,800 circles in 2001. Each circle handles about 4 topics per year. Overall there are 70,00 employees in Japan for Toyota. Toyota has a TQC promotion office...I don't have a contact there but they would know the answer if you contact them. For all of Japan you'd have to try some organization such as JUSE or a national organization like it. <a href="http://www.juse.or.jp/e/" rel="nofollow">http://www.juse.or.jp/e/</a>. The JUSE site lists 29,527 QC Circles registered to the headquarters in JUSE for all over Japan in 2008.You might try e-mailing them for more details. I don’t know exactly how many are operating in Japan or Toyota currently. When I worked there roughly the QC handbook quoted a figure of 6,000 circles. The information above cites a figure of 4,800 circles in 2001. Each circle handles about 4 topics per year. Overall there are 70,00 employees in Japan for Toyota. Toyota has a TQC promotion office…I don’t have a contact there but they would know the answer if you contact them.

For all of Japan you’d have to try some organization such as JUSE or a national organization like it. http://www.juse.or.jp/e/. The JUSE site lists 29,527 QC Circles registered to the headquarters in JUSE for all over Japan in 2008.You might try e-mailing them for more details.

]]> Comment on Handbook for TQM & QC Circles by K N Anand http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=31&cpage=1#comment-140 K N Anand Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:38:08 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=31#comment-140 i want to know how many QC Circles are operating in Japan and also how many at Toyata currently i want to know how many QC Circles are operating in Japan and also how many at Toyata currently

]]> Comment on Welcome to the A3 Thinking Blog by Mark Graban http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-24 Mark Graban Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:12:45 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7#comment-24 Welcome to the blog world! I'll definitely add you to my blog roll and will be interested in what you have to say. Welcome to the blog world! I’ll definitely add you to my blog roll and will be interested in what you have to say.

]]> Comment on Welcome to the A3 Thinking Blog by admin http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7&cpage=1#comment-17 admin Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:18:08 +0000 http://a3thinking.com/blog/?p=7#comment-17 Greetings Jon, Jon, Thanks for the visit, feedback, and link to the site. I doubt we will ever be as prolific as <a href="http://www.gembapantarei.com/" rel="nofollow">gembapantarei</a> but we hope to answer some questions and provide some insights on A3 Thinking from time to time! Regards, Art Smalley / Durward Sobek Greetings Jon,

Jon,

Thanks for the visit, feedback, and link to the site. I doubt we will ever be as prolific as gembapantarei but we hope to answer some questions and provide some insights on A3 Thinking from time to time!

Regards,

Art Smalley / Durward Sobek

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