Wednesday we visited NEC and Change Vision, both located in Tokyo. At those visits we got the chance to see one of the major Japanese corporations in the IT industry, as well a small software company.



We started out the day by visiting Change Vision, a company founded by Japanese author Kenji Hiranabe. We got a presentation of the two products of the company, JUDE and TRICHORD. Both seemed to be built on the idea of "mieruka" (making visible), which is a concept used by Japanese organizations for sharing information by making it visible in an easily understandable form.

While noticing the extensive use of simple visuals for tasks, metrics, ideas, releases and retrospectives, I have to admit what personally struck me the most was the bug-tracking system of Change Vision. It was visualized using LEGO bricks in a constrained physical space. This provides kanban-like control of the "bugs in process", by showing not only the variation in complexity of bugs, but also making it easy for everyone to see when you are running out of "slots" for new bugs, and thus have to start fixing some. Personally I just can't wait to try this visualization idea back home.

Judging by the discussions that took place after the visit, I think we all got a lot of inspiration from visiting a truly agile environment.

Later the same day we visited NEC for a techical presentation as well as a presentation focused on their development process. During the visit we learned that NEC had experimented with using Toyota Production System (TPS) a.k.a. Lean in the development process, for instance with the use of a kanban system to control the workload between different parts of the organisaion. Most surprisingly the system was put into place for controlling hand-offs between design, code, and test-phases. I think that as a group of agile thinkers, we were a bit stunned by this implementation.

NEC had also experimented with the TPS "stop-the-line" practice, in their development process, but had abandoned it due to inefficiency. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to hear the reasons that led to this conclusion.

(BestBrains getting a demonstration of Japanese innovation. This is an NEC electronic whiteboard with a built-in printer!)

By Sune Gynthersen

Tuesday was Toyota day. Destination: Toyotas Tsutsumi plant in Toyota City just outside of Nagoya.

To get there we had to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station. Seeing  the  Shinkansen 700 series silverarrow slide into the station, be seated in the comfortable compartment and drive silently towards Nagoya with a speed of more than 300 km/t was an adventure in itself.

In the factory, we were guided through one of the assembly lines, and the automated welding process.  At the plant Toyota produces Camry,  Premio,  Allion, Prius, Wish and Scion tC.

These models are produced on two lines, in a mixed production each car on the line is a  different model and color from the previous one. Only that way Toyota can remove the waste of overproduction by not  producing cars, that has not yet been ordered.

The first operation we saw was the door assembly. Toyota uses door-less assembly where doors after painting the doors are removed from the body and they each follow their own route to later be united again in final assembly. The advantage of this is easier access to the inner parts of the car, and less damage to the doors.

The best analogy to what we saw is a ballet. Workers did their work with a choreographed set of movements, designed to be the minimal effort to do the work and ensure good ergonomic.  Nobody was running and nobody worked ahead of the line.  The spirit of Taiichi Ohno was strong and alive.

Surely the work of producing a lot of completely similar things can never be as varied as other kinds of work in the modern world. However our whole standard of living is based on the society’s ability to produce low-cost, high quality items. And Toyota is able to transform this into a system that protects the individual and gives everybody challenges,  by having everybody involved in improvement efforts – Kaizen.

We also saw several examples of Andon pulls and stop the line philosophy.  Here it was clear that while the Stop The Line philosophy is what creates quality and is making sure systemic problems is eliminated quickly; it is also the lubrication that keeps the line running smooth.  Most of the Andon pulls was just small problems, that was solved immediately by having the supervisor help getting things back on track.

Further into the factory we saw the supply lines to the door assembly. A clever worked out system allowed a worker to create “kits” for each set of doors coming along the line.  By having models be mixed on the individual level (I do not know if any other manufacturer does this?), a need for standardizing is also created.  Assembly will be easier, when the parts are the same in more models.

Finally in the end of the line new cars flowed into to final verification:  a Blue Prius followed by a Green Camry, Followed by a Scion. Impressive.

 

 

 

 

(we were not allowed to take photos - the picture about is a official photo from the plant)

We sometimes hear Lean be accused of being just a new cost savings philosophy.  Yet another clever trick from management! But Toyota shows it is possible to create a challenging, respectful workplace in what is normally considered the most de-humanized kind of work (think of Chaplins “Modern Times”) . So why shouldn’t we be able to do that to in other areas, It should be easier,  not more difficult to apply lean to healthcare, service,  and Software Development by the way.

(Some of the participants in the Toyota Museum)

By Bent Jensen

The first "work" day in Japan. We are slowly adjusting to timedifference, and all the other things that are different. Though fully adjusting probably takes more than the week we have at our disposal. This morning we tried Japanese breakfast - Miso soup, Fermented soy beans, fish and sea-weeds. Yummy, but very different.

The program started with a visit at Fujitsu at their new complex, solution square. A highly modern building, with a beautiful, very human friendly work-environment. We were received by Corporate VP Kazuo Miyata and President and CEO of Fujitsu applications Jun Watanabe. After a short trip in the building, where we got to see Fujitsu's implementation and experiments with TPS in practice, we were given a presentation and had an interesting exchange about agile and TPS in software development.

The day ended i a much more informal, but not less interesting way. We met with a group of members of XPJUG and spend a couple of hours with mutual presentations and exchanging ideas. After that we had a great Japanese dinner with lots of discussions and laughter in a cozy restaurant. Thanks to all the nice people from XPJUG to receive us so warmly.

Kampai! In the picture is Kenji Hiranabe, Author, Translator and much more and Tsutomy Yasui, who helped arrange the evening

By Bent Jensen

This main theme for the first day getting over the jetlag and get a little bit adjusted to Japan before going to the first real event(s) tomorrow.

Already in the airport it became clear that it is not an accident Visual Management is such an important thing in Toyotas bag of tricks.
At the bagage delivery clearly marked signs marked the area where baggage carts should be kept out in order to let people grab their luggage easily.
That trend continued with arrows and painted footsteps markin where to go on stairs and escalators and where to stand on moving footpaths.

The inventive japanese mind showed itself in the hotel bathroom, where the toilet has a heated seat and bidet built-in. The problem of water in the floor when forgetting to take the curtain inside the bath-tub has also been solved by a small effective invention.

Not everything is fantastic and effective here. The public transportation is not exactly easy manage, with ticket-prices depending on where you are going, and not being able to use the same ticket when transferring from one line to another. That caused some confusion it our jet-lagged brains yesterday.

To be continued...
By Bent Jensen

We are all busy preparing for our Japan-tour. Some are out buying business suits, so we can have the right look. Others are busy buying typical danish small things as presents for our hosts.  And I was practicing a typical Japanese thing: To have my photograph taken with my hero.

In the picture you see me with Jeffrey "Toyota Way" Liker. Jeffrey Liker is the person outside of Toyota that knows most about the company. He has written several books about Toyota, including the world famous: The Toyota Way, where he observes Toyota, and construct it's innner working in 14 principles.
Jeff gave a lean master-class today in Copenhagen. It was a highly interesting and inspiring day. Especially I learned interesting things about Lean Product Development
and the function of Toyotas Obeya, which I look forward to use.
 
By Bent Jensen