Toyota Kata Journey La-Z-Boy Tennessee, Dayton, TN

Maryland World Class Consortia

Hank Czarnecki – LeanHank@Auburn.edu

October 2014

Facts of La-Z-Boy - Dayton TN

The majority of the product is made and assembled by hand, assisted by powered tools

The plant uses 45,000 to 50,000 board feet of wood each day, 10 million board feet annually

The plant uses 100,000 lbs of steel /day, 24 million lbs/year, enough to make 360 Sherman tanks

The plant produces approximately 700 miles of units each year, if lined up single file, they would stretch to Canada

The plant uses approximately 168,000 gallons of wood glue/yr,enough to fill an Olympic size swimming pool

This facility produces approximately 3,500 units/day,(16,500 units/wk or 810,000 units/yr) across 2 manufacturing shifts

Incentive Pay System – Approx. 1,200 Team Members

Industry Week Best Plant Winner - 2012

Overview

What is Toyota Kata?

The Dayton Journey

The Step(s)

Vision & Tools

Passion

Results

LessonsLearned www-personal.umich.edu/

~mrother/Homepage.html

Toyota Kata in 16 Languages

What is a KATA?

A kata is a pattern you practice to learn a skill

The research that led to the book Toyota Kata looked

into Toyota's management methods.

The word 'kata' perfectly described the routines we

found being practiced there:

the Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata.

The suffix kata means way of doing. It refers to a form or

pattern that can be practiced to develop particular skills and

mindset.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook

Begin by practicing it this way for a while

What is Toyota Kata?

It's a systematic approach to:

A. Generate Continuous Improvement &

B. Develop Strong Problem Solvers

Combines a scientific pattern with techniques of

deliberate practice

Doing small things on a daily basis to improve a

process toward a next 'target condition'

Working toward the target condition by overcoming

the next obstacle in front of you

Kata is a continuous journey that never ends

• Ongoing Daily Management Process for Continual Improvement

– No beginning or end

– Not project management

– Not Kaizen Event

– Not Kata Event

– Not Kata Project

Improvement Implementation

Escalator video

House of Lean

Balanced??

The Dayton Journey - Milestones

Aug. 2011: Initial Training Conducted - U of M

Dec. 2011: Training held in Dayton - Mike Rother

Corporate and Plant CI Managers

Dec. 2011: Dayton Advance Team Formed

May 2012: 3 sent to Siloam Springs for MEP Training

July 2012: 4 sent to Siloam Springs for MEP Training

Sept. 2012: 21 trained by MEP at Dayton (Advance Team Trained)

Dec. 2012: Second MEP class at Dayton 24 trained

Advance Team trained in Vision/Challenge Development

June 2013: Third MEP class at Dayton 17 trained

Nov. 2013: Fourth MEP/AME class at Dayton 24 trained with 11

outside companies participating on-site

La-Z-Boy Coaching Development

Awareness AdvanceTeam

1st WaveDo

2nd Wave 3rd WaveTeach

4th Wave w/ AME

2nd Coach MEPTrained Coach

MEPDirection

Established

Advance Team

Advance Team

Evolve

1st Coach MEPTrained Coach

Advance Team

2nd Wave 3rd Wave

Learner Aug & Dec 2011

May & July 2012

Sept 2012Advance

Team

Dec 2012 June 2013

Nov 2013

Kata the Kata Implementation

Current Condition

Advance Team trained

62 Learners trained

34 Active Learners

Daily Coaching Kata avg 27%

Leadership Engagement 20%

Avg Learner Proficiency = 2.5

Target Condition (By 12/1/15)

53 Active Learners

Daily Coaching Kata > 70%

Leadership Engagement 50%

Avg Learner Proficiency = 3.0

Kata Learner Proficiency

Learner Tracking/Proficiency

No. Learner Coach 2nd Coach Trained By Position Proficiency

3 Angel Shaver Scott Gross AMS Coach 1

4 Bill Hays Janet Earnhardt David Lambeth Rother Lead Team 5

12 Chris Baldassaro Joe Burgess Scott Gross AMS Coach 3

14 Chris Jordan Steve Miller Jason Smith Rother Coach 2

16 Chris Smith Jason Smith Bill Hays AMS Coach 2

17 Christy Davis Everett Steve Miller Jason Smith AMS Coach 2

21 David Robinson Bill Hays David Lambeth Rother Lead Team 5

25 Dewayne Keener Ronnie Angel Scott Gross AMS Coach 2

26 Dewey Gravett David Robinson Jason Smith Rother Manager 1

27 Dustin Henderson Ronnie Angel Scott Gross AMS Coach 3

28 Earl Shadden Ronnie Angel Scott Gross AMS Coach 2

30 Gary Miles Robert Swafford Jim Gentry AMS Hourly 3

33 Greg Wilkey Joe Burgess Jason Smith AMS Coach 2

36 Jason Boles Charlotte Swafford Bill Hays AMS Coach 1

37 Jason Grasham Steve Miller Jason Smith AMS Coach 3

The Step

As a Company, everyone from top executives to

the floor coaches sat in a conference room for

hours to establish the Vision inside La-Z-Boy.

Everyone working toward one common goal

“Changing the Culture at La-Z-Boy”

This was a huge step in La-Z-Boy making the

commitment to Kata. (Dec. 2012)

Understand

the Direction

Grasp the Current

Condition

PDCA Toward the

Target Condition

The 5Questions

1. What is the Vision?

2. Process to Improve?

3. What is the Challenge?

4. Understand the Current Condition

5. Determine the Target Condition

6. PDCA Towards Target

Condition –Then Repeat

Establishthe Next Target

Condition

La-Z-Boy – Implementation Steps

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook

Dayton Campus Vision – Dec. 2012

• EstablishingDirection is Part ofLeadership

• Vision is Vague –Very Far Away

• Path Not Known

ImprovementKata activityis here

TC

TC

Coaching the development ofIK skills ismanagementsjob

Zero Safety Incidents

1 x 1 Flow at Lowest

Possible Cost

Zero Defects

100% On-Time

Delivery with No

Splits

100% Value Added

Activities

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook

Assembly Cell Challenges (12/31/14)

1 Piece Standard WIP at all

Stations (1 x 1 Flow) with No

Double Handling

Zero DTF (Disruption To Flow)

Operate a balanced line at

200%

100% Cross Trained on All Cell

Operations

Tour Ready 24/7

Zero Safety Incidents

1 x 1 Flow at Lowest

Possible Cost

Zero Defects

100% On-Time Delivery

with No Splits

100% Value Added

Activities

Current Condition -Visual Report Out

Boards

Report Out Boards track: • Safety• Quality• Productivity

and • Kata

(Coaching Cycles)

Current & Target Condition

Balanced @ 200%

Report Out Boards - Kata

Report Out Board

5 Questions

Back of card - Reflection Section

Reflect on the Last Step Taken

Because you don't actually knowwhat the result of a step will be!

1) What was your Last Step?

2) What did you Expect?

3) What Actually Happened?

4) What did you Learn?

------------------------------>Return

The Five Questions1) What is the Target Condition?

2) What is the Actual Condition now?

--------(Turn Card Over)--------------------->

3) What Obstacles do you think are preventingyou from reaching the target condition?

Which *one* are you addressing now?

4) What is your Next Step? (next PDCA /experiment) What do you expect?

5) When can we go and see what weHave Learned from taking that step?

*You'll often work on the same obstacle for several PDCA cycles

Card is turned over toreflect on the last step

PDCA Cycles to Target Condition

1. PREDICTION SIDE:Before the first coaching cycle the Learner proposes the 1st step, what will be measured, and what s/he expects in the first two boxes of the form

3. Based on what was learned in the last experiment, the learner proposes the next step, what will be measured and what s/he expects

2. EVIDENCE SIDE:Once the step (experiment) is done, the Learner fills in data on What Happened, reflects by comparing that with the expectation, and records What We Learned

Improvement Kata Tracking

Learner 1st Coach Process

Challenge

Theme

Starting

Condition

Current

Condition

Starting

Date

Current

Date Learned Status

Days

Coaching

Total

CK's % CK"s

Scott Gross Katie Hall Cell 1

200% base

line 146% 170% 7/16/2013 8/1/2013

Working in Cell last week the cell

averaged 164% Active 12 8 67%

Katie Hall Scott Gross Cell 12

200% base

line 100% 110% 7/16/2013 8/16/2013

7 man team now banding machine

causing a lot of probllems Active 20 20 100%

Earl

Shadden Scott Gross Cell 14

200% base

line 141% 154% 3/25/2013 8/1/2013

Had to replace 2 people in cell

/Starting over with crosstraining Active 106 42 40%

Randall

Masengale Scott Gross cell 29

200% base

line

New

employee

starting over 161% 3/25/2013 6/10/2013

Cell won most improved cell 3 times

in the last 3 months Active 106 50 47%

Russell

Goins Scott Gross Cell 17

0%

controlable

DQC in

Cells

VOC

Complaints

14.14 8.36 3/4/2013 8/19/2013

Russell has lowered the complaint

rate in half and has hit his target

condition and will now set new

target Active 121 35 29%

Paul

Bowling Scott Gross Cell 7

0%

controlable

DQC in

Cells

VOC

Complaints

15.19 10 7/17/2013 8/1/2013

Paul has dicovered that the 306s are

the main thing driving the DQC in

Cell 7 Active 24 7 29%

Rick

Johnson Scott Gross Cell 18

0%

controlable

DQC in

Cells 8000 DPMO 8000 DPMO 5/21/2013 8/1/2013

DPMO went up last week /checking

to see whats driving the rise Active 65 21 32%

Learner

Learner going over her Coaching Cycle with her Team Members prior to the Coaching Cycle with her 1st Coach and 2nd Coach

Coaching

The 2nd Coach evaluates the 1st Coach to ensure that the 1st Coach is:• Following the process• Asking the right

questions• Understanding

Knowledge Threshold• Linking Data with next

PDCA experiment• Pulling Lessons Learned

from the Learner

The coach is responsible for teaching the improvement

kata, and for the resultsThe coach uses the coaching

kata, asking the 5 TK questions

2nd Coach Participatesperiodically Pays

particular attention to thecoach (coaches the coach)

The learner andteam use the

improvement kata

The team owns the target condition and works to achieve it.

Knowledge Threshold

2nd Coach Observation Form

Coaching Tracking Form

Having a Coaching Tracking Process for all active “Kata” lets anyone see who are the Coach and Learner. Easy way to track participation from our coaches and learners.

Scheduled Times - Daily

The Passion

Finding someone to fill a role of a lead person to

understand Kata and that can help coach Kata

This person has to have passion in what they do

They have to want to make a difference everyday

they walk in the door

Their passion and enthusiasm is what drives new

ways of learning

Passion is what helps change a culture

Production Coaches (Passion)

Kata Results Summary

Cell Efficiency Increases from 10% to28%

Defect Level Improvements of 20% to 50%

5S Scores Improved 20%

Supply Route Time Improved 30%

Cell Disruption to Flow’s Reduced 15%

Employee Involvement with Kata

Lessons Learned & Next Steps

Lessons Learned

Must start with Vision + Challenge

Don’t begin IK’s without this

Need alignment in Vision/Challenge/Target

The 2nd coach is critical to the process

Strong tendency to view Kata as Kaizens, as “Events” or “Projects”

Must focus on the Learner, not the process or “project”

Daily Coaching Kata are critical – this is a learning process

Next Steps

Increase Daily Coaching Cycles to embed in the culture

Increase top management engagement

Expand use to non-production areas

Continue to drive into the organization “DNA”

Questions?

Hank Czarnecki

LeanHank@Auburn.edu

Auburn Technical Assistance Center

www.AuburnWorks.org