Lean Tour Blog - Day 2

Day two started off with a visit to the Toyota Logistics and Forklift site. The simplicity of the improvements seem so obvious, and yet it's clear that even the smallest improvements to racking systems and picking systems is carefully thought out, implemented and then continuously improved.

One thing that stood out at both Nissan and Toyota is the amount of time spent training staff and ensuring employee readiness before team members are sent out for their roles on the shop floor. At Toyota F&L, employees are taught skills and then the practice, practice and practice some more. They only take on the role that they have been assigned on the shop floor once they are able to show that they can capably complete the task with few or no mistakes. This process usually takes 2 months. Can your organization boast that they send employees out to the shop floor fully proficient in their new roles? Or do you rush the training and just accept that you will have to correct errors as they come up, hoping that this will take less time then investing in the proper training? The later may satisfy the immediate need, but is definitely more wasteful in the long term.