The Japanese manufacturing sector has been making a positive contribution to Japan’s Covid-19 mass vaccination program. Find out how the sector applied its lean process management capabilities to help better manage the mass vaccination program to achieve a positive outcome in the public health sector.
Many companies include quality inspection as part of their quality control process. However, from a lean perspective, inspections add no value to the products being produced. Akinori Hyodo discusses the importance of quality assurance and delves deeper into the role of inspection within quality. He also explains why introducing inspection in your process should not be regarded as a countermeasure to your quality issues.
Assuring quality is essential in keeping customers satisfied and is an important component of business success. Yet, many companies struggle to control the quality of their products. Hyodo Sensei discusses how Toyota approaches quality and explains the importance of guaranteeing quality within each process.
Japan offers significant business opportunities. Having prior knowledge about the national and business culture can help improve your prospects for building successful long-term business relationships. Find out the two fundamental cultural concepts you should know before doing business with Japan.
When you find a problem, getting down to its true cause and addressing it at the root level are crucial to prevent the same issue from happening again. Akinori Hyodo explains how you can get down to the core of the issue and stresses the importance of taking this approach over and over when faced with a problem in order to increase the level of precision of your problem solving.
Following on from the previous #AskSensei webinar on the topic of visual management boards, we continue to discuss the importance of visualization and visualizing problems in your work place. Akinori Hyodo explains why this is important and draws some simple but effective examples from Japanese factory shop floors.
Visual management boards are a useful tool to have in your workplace. The tool allows you to grasp the necessary information at a glance and helps you to keep track of your operations against your set goals. However, if you have visual management boards in your workplace, are you using the tool correctly as it is truly intended? Akinori Hyodo discusses the idea of visual management boards and explains how you can best utilize this lean management tool.
Having the ability to read and look at a factory or workplace properly is one of the important skills for those in a management position. How should you go about observing your site and what are the important points for you to pay attention to? Akinori Hyodo shares his thoughts on the thinking and approach on this important topic.
During the final session of the five-part series on 5S, Akinori Hyodo discusses the importance of standardization and training that form the basis of the fifth S stage of shitsuke or sustain. Hyodo Sensei also reiterates the crucial role top management plays in driving good practices and creating a positive culture around 5S within an organization.
The word seiso which is often referred to as shine in 5S literally means “cleaning” in Japanese. As the word suggests, one goes through the process of cleaning in the shine or seiso stage of 5S. But, Akinori Hyodo emphasizes the importance of establishing a standard around the level of shine that you are going to achieve and visualizing the information amongst your organization. Hyodo Sensei explains the reasons as he discusses the fourth S process of shine.
