丹纳赫精益管理经典著作《精益的转变》《精益转型行动指南》作者谈为什么有一位精益老师很有必要?

Lean veteran Art Byrne explains how having a lean sensei helps leaders and organizations succeed in their lean transformation.

    经验丰富的精益专家亚特伯恩解释一位精益老师是如何能够帮助领导者和组织成功进行精益转型。

Lean management is the polar opposite of the traditional approach, which is why traditional managers rarely understand why the necessary lean changes make any sense at all.

    精益管理与传统方法截然相反，这就是为什么传统管理者很少认为必需要做的精益变革是有任何的意义。

Converting from traditionally run batch-and-queue type operations to lean flow-and-pull processes requires an entirely different way of thinking.

    从传统的大批量处理和排队类型运营转型为精益流程和拉动流程需要一种完全不同的思维方式。

Traditional managers, for example, have been trained to believe that producing in large batches results in the lowest cost per item. They also think that organizing by functional departments is the most efficient approach. 

    例如，传统管理人员接受过培训，认为大批量生产会使得每件产品的成本最低。他们还认为，由各职能部门进行组织工作是最有效的方法。

But, of course, organizing by function exacerbates the batching and forces companies to produce according to a forecast.

    但是，当然，按职能部门组织会加剧批量处理，并迫使公司根据预测进行生产。

Then along comes a lean leader who says, “get rid of the functional departments, stop producing in big batches, and only build to the customers’ orders” — which makes no sense to a traditional manager. 

    然而一位精益的领导者说，“取消职能部门，停止大批量生产，只按客户的订单生产——这对传统管理者来说毫无道理。

And even if they could grasp the theory behind lean thinking, they would have no idea how to make the operational changes required in finance and accounting, sales tactics and terms, product development, IT, strategic planning, and human resources.

    即使他们能够掌握精益思想背后的理论，他们也不知道如何在财务和会计、销售策略和条款、产品开发、IT、战略规划和人力资源等方面进行所需的运营变革。

The lean sensei answers these questions and provides essential help by bringing the knowledge and experience to show how to transition from traditional management to lean management. Without this help, you cannot successfully transform to lean.

 精益老师来回答这些问题，并通过老师的知识和经验对企业如何从传统管理转型到精益管理提供必要的帮助。如果没有这些帮助，你就不能成功地进行精益转型。

You have many options for obtaining the required lean knowledge. You can engage a lean consultant to bring it to your organization. You could also hire someone who has implemented lean in a couple of other companies to lead your lean conversion. 

    你有许多选择来获得所需的精益知识。你可以聘请一位精益顾问到组织中，也可以招聘一位在其他几家公司实施过精益的人来领导企业的精益转型。

 Or you could train some of your existing employees by sending them to lean seminars and boot camps and having them form a Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO).

    或者，也可以培训企业现有的员工，派他们参加精益研讨会和精益新人训练营，并让他们成立一个改善推进办公室（KPO）。

In my experience, the approach that works best is to hire a great lean consultant and plan to have their guidance for the next ten-plus years. The key is to pick the right one. 

    根据我的经验，最好的方法是招聘一位优秀的精益顾问，并计划获得他们未来十几年的指导，关键是要选择正确的精益顾问。

There are many available candidates but few worthy ones. Avoid the large traditional consulting firms that focus on strategy and have a “lean team.” They will charge you a lot of money in return for many fancy PowerPoint presentations and the advice of bright young associates with little hands-on lean experience. 

    有很多精益顾问候选人，但真正有价值的（值得选择的）精益顾问却很少。避免使用那些专注于战略并拥有“精益团队”的大型传统咨询公司，他们会向你收取很多咨询费，换来的只是许多花哨的PowerPoint演示和没有什么精益经验的年轻顾问给出的建议。

Focus instead on finding a firm with direct experience in the Toyota Production System. Ensure that their bona fides include working for Toyota or being trained by ex-Toyota experts. Select only the teachers with hands-on experience helping companies convert to lean and achieve demonstrated financial and organizational benefits.

    而应该专注于寻找一家在TPS（丰田生产系统）方面有直接经验的公司，确保他们的诚意包括为丰田工作或接受前丰田专家的培训，只选择那些有过帮助公司进行精益转型且取得被证实的财务和组织收益的实践经验的精益顾问。

I say this from personal experience. As a group executive at The Danaher Corporation, I and one of my group presidents, George Koenigsaecker, decided to turn around Jacobs Vehicle Equipment (Jake Brake) using the Toyota Production System, known at the time as “just-in-time.” 

    我是基于我的个人经历这样讲的。作为丹纳赫公司的一名集团高管，我和我的集团总裁之一乔治·科尼塞克（George Koenigsaecker）决定使用TPS对捷可勃斯汽车设备（捷可刹车）进行精益转型，当时称为“准时化”（JIT）。

We started out using Arthur Andersen’s consulting arm. Lots of PowerPoint presentations, lots of young associates, and lots of money. It was slow going, but they did help some. 

    我们一开始选择了安达信的咨询部门( Arthur Andersen)，他们有很多PowerPoint演示，很多年轻同事，还收了很多咨询费。虽然进展缓慢，但他们确实给予了我们一些帮助。

Unfortunately, while they helped us create a couple of cells and made some progress, most of that came from aggressive behavior from George and me.

    不幸的是，虽然他们帮助我们建立了一些单元生产线并取得了一些进展，但其中大部分都来自于乔治和我的突破性行动。

Then we came across the Shingijutsu consultants. They were from Nagoya, Japan, and had all had spent their careers at Toyota — the last ten years or so working directly with Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System. 

    然后我们遇到了来自日本名古屋的新技术咨询顾问，他们都是在丰田度过了自己的职业生涯——在过去的十年里都直接与TPS之父大野耐一先生一起工作。

They spoke only Japanese and never gave us a PowerPoint or even a written report. Instead, they taught us how to organize and run a kaizen event and always guided people hands-on on the shop floor. 

    他们只说日语，从来没有给过我们一页ppt，亦或甚至是一个书面报告。相反，他们教我们如何组织和开展一个改善周活动，并总是在车间里亲自手把手地教授员工动手。

Most importantly, they taught us how to see — and learn how to eliminate — waste. They were very rough and called themselves “Insultants.”

    最重要的是，他们教会了我们如何观察浪费和学习如何消除浪费。他们非常粗暴，自称为“绝缘体”。

But, boy, did we learn fast. We did whatever they told us to do even when we thought it was the stupidest thing we ever heard (which was about 50% of the time). 

    但是，我们学得非常快。我们做了老师们告诉我们要做的任何事情，即使我们认为这是我们听过的最愚蠢的事情（大约有50%的时间都是这样子的）。

And if their suggestion did not work the first time, which occurred most of the time, we would never let it go back to the way it was. We just stuck with the change and fixed it.

    如果他们的建议第一次不奏效（而大多数时候都是这样），我们也不会让它退回到原来的样子，我们只要坚持这种改变并固化它即可。

We learned — as you will too — that the consultants can’t always be with you. We had them for one week per month. 

    我们知道（你也会知道），顾问不可能一直和你在一起。顾问每个月辅导我们一个星期。

We needed to do kaizen every day, so we created a Kaizen Promotion Office staffed with some of our brightest talent. 

    而我们需要每天都做改善，所以我们成立了一个改善推进办公室（KPO），配备了一些我们最能干的人才。

To prepare, we had them stick to the Shingijutsu consultants while they were in town to learn from them. 

    为改善做准备，当老师们在辅导这一周时，我们让KPO的人员坚持跟着老师们学习。

They spent the other three weeks of the month running and following up on kaizen work — an essential step that must be part of your plan. 

    让他们在另外的三周时间来跟进改善工作——这是工作计划的重要步骤。

We had to train the KPO in-house, as there was no other lean expertise out there back in 1987. 

    在1987年没有其他精益专业知识，所以我们必须内部培训KPO。

 Today you have the luxury of being able to hire outside lean expertise to start your own KPO as well as train your in-house talent.

    今天，你可以聘请外部精益专家来成立自己的KPO，并培训内部人才。

For example, Shingijutsu pushed us hard and showed us how to create one-piece-flow cells and standard work. 

    例如，新技术老师极力地推动我们，并教授我们如何创建单件流单元生产线和标准工作。

They could merely look at something, say, “this is all no good,” and then quickly show us a much better way. Without their challenges, not much would have happened.

    他们只是看了一下就说，“这些都不好”，然后迅速向教授我们一个更好的方法。如果没有老师们的挑战，我们就不会做出任何改变。

Take the simple example of setup reduction: If you need two to three hours to set up your equipment, you are forced to produce in batches, eliminating your ability to achieve flow.

    以减少换模时间作为一个简单案例：如果需要2到3个小时来换模，你将只好进行批量生产，从而消除了实现连续流的能力。

Unfortunately, most traditional managers take setup times for granted, saying, “Nothing we can do about that.” 

    不幸的是，大多数传统的管理者认为换模时间长是理所当然的，他们说：“我们对此无能为力。”

A lean sensei will stop you cold if you think that way. Prodded by these guides, I got involved in setup-reduction kaizen events that reduced:

    如果你这样想，精益老师会严厉地让你停止这种想法。在这些老师的指导下，我参与了减少换模时间的改善周：

• a rolling mill from 14 hours to 6 minutes

  一台轧机，换模时间从14小时减少到6分钟

• a 750-ton injection molding machine from 5 hours to 5 minutes

  一台750吨的注塑机，换模时间从5小时减少到5分钟

• a 150-ton punch press from 3 hours and 10 minutes to 1 minute

  一台150吨的冲压机，换模时间从3小时10分钟减少到1分钟

• a cold header stamping press from 2 hours to 1 minute

  一台冷镦冲压机，换模时间2小时减少至1分钟

• a complicated file folder assembly machine from 3 hours 45 minutes to 5 minutes

  一个复杂的文件夹组装机器，换模时间从3小时45分钟到5分钟

We achieved these improvements with only minimal capital spending. Machines we used to change three times per week at Wiremold, we started changing 20 to 30 times per day. Without the outside sensei, none of this would have happened.

    我们只用了最少的资金花费就实现了这些改善。过去我们在线模公司时，机器每周换模三次，现在改为每天换模20到30次。如果没有外面的顾问老师，这一切都不会发生。

When I was an operating partner in a private equity firm, I would serve as chairman of many of the companies we bought. 

    当我还是一家私募股权公司的运营合伙人时，我就会担任我们收购的许多公司的董事长。

One of the first things I did in each case was line up the company with a great outside lean consultant, either Shingijutsu or someone trained by them. 

    在每个收购的案例中，我做的第一件事就是让公司安排一位优秀的外部精益顾问，这些精益顾问要么是日本新技术公司的，要么是他们培训过的顾问。

Next, I would have the company create a Kaizen Promotion Office and staff it with some of their highest potential employees, so they could learn from the outside consultants. 

接下来，我会让公司成立一个改善推进办公室KPO，并配备一些最具潜力的员工，这样他们就可以向外部顾问学习。

This approach allowed us to do new kaizen events every week while following up on prior ones. 

    这种方法使得我们可以每周做新的改善周活动，同时跟进维持之前的改善周。

It built tremendous momentum in every company. Without introducing the lean expertise of the outside consultants, we would have made slow progress, if any at all.

    它在每家公司都形成了巨大的冲力。如果不引入外部顾问的精益专业知识，我们即使有进展也是非常缓慢的。

But don’t forget management’s role in adopting lean thinking and practices. Yes, you need the outside help to bring the lean expertise and “lean eyes” to bear on the waste within your company. But management must eventually become lean experts themselves. 

    但不要忘记管理层在采用精益思维和实践方面的作用。是的，你需要外部的帮助，带来精益的专业知识和“精益的眼睛”来处理公司内部的浪费。但管理层最终必须成为精益专家。

When we first started working with Shingijutsu, George and I spent as much time with them as possible, asking questions and getting their insights.

    当我们第一次开始与新技术公司合作时，乔治和我花了尽可能多的时间参与其中，问问题并获得老师的见解。

Not only were we with them on the shop floor, but we ate dinner with them every night and played golf with them on weekends so we could pump them for more information.

    我们不仅和老师们一起在车间，而且每晚都和老师一起吃晚餐，周末和他们一起打高尔夫球，这样我们就可以向他们了解更多信息。

Get yourself a sensei and give it a try.

找一位精益咨询老师，试一试！