Lean For Everyone

Lean Lessons from This American Life: The NUMMI Story

With the closing of NUMMI on April 1st, 2010, radio program "This American Life" gives us a one hour history of the Toyota/GM automotive plant that should have changed the car industry in the US and why it didn't.

For those of you not familiar with "This American Life" and it's host Ira Glass, you are in for a treat.  The rest of you will be as enraptured with his narrative as usual.

NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.) was a joint venture between Toyota and GM to build cars together in Fremont, CA.

Toyota wanted to learn how to build cars in the US utilizing US workers, US management and get a better understanding of how US suppliers operated.  GM wanted to learn how to build small compact cars and how Toyota's TPS (Toyota Production System) worked.  TPS is the reason Toyota became such a dominate force in the industry so quickly and GM wanted to gain knowledge from their partnership.

I believe listening to this radio program is very important for anyone interested in understanding change from the workers point of view at NUMMI.

The GM- Fremont facility was originally closed in 1982 because it was deemed the worst plant that GM had.  It was filled with workers who would gamble, drink, have sex and do drugs while they were working in the plant.

How did this plant, when it reopened as NUMMI in 1984 with 85% of the same workforce, turn out some of the highest quality cars in the US?   And why did it close down recently?

You'll just have to listen to find out.

Click HERE:  The NUMMI Story *This is a radio program...no video will be running

Should Lean training be required for entrepreneurial programs?

Are we setting ourselves up for another recession 30 years from now by focusing on "job creation" as opposed to "business management training"?

 

While shooting the breeze with friends, we discussed what we would have done differently over the past 15 years if we knew then what we know now.  I realized that companies should require Lean training (or some other type of process excellence training) for new businesses. Something that none of us had when we started out.

I see many advertisements about how to start your own company and be an entrepreneur in these tough times.  The Kaufman Foundation is an excellent example of a great organization dedicated to entrepreneurship and education. However, if you search their site for "Lean" it gets 5 hits, but only to draw attention to the phrase "lean and mean" within the text.

The Kaufman Foundation does have an entrepreneurial program called FastTrac. The FastTrac search tool also didn't return any hits for "Lean". Although, it didn't return any hits for "FastTrac" either so I don't think it's searching as well as they would like.

I do know that some of the companies associated with FastTrac are lean organizations.  I strongly feel that learning this type of business methodology should be a "requirement" for participation in these types of programs and not and option.

I don't want anyone to think I'm pointing a finger at the Kaufman Foundation. They provide a wonderful program but as I've learned from Lean, there is always room for improvement.  

I feel that this is something that not just the Kaufman Foundation can improve upon but any organization that offers this type of assistance.

Thirty years from now I want the United States to be a powerhouse in area of process excellence as opposed to what it is today.   I believe giving entrepreneurs the training they need early is one way to ensure this.