A long time ago - around the middle 1990s-we worked for the Federal Government, Bob as a civil servant, Elsa as a government contractor. A new philosophy of managing teams and 
Production principles
measuring progress on projects was introduced and we, in our separate jobs, learned the principles in classes and by assigned reading and model projects. It began in Japan and would, our managers told us, result in faster, more efficient and better-designed products.
Last week, we visited the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas plant for one of their tours. It was an astonishing example of the practical applications of the classes we had taken almost twenty years before.
As we gathered for the tour, we browsed the displays at the Toyota visitor center, learning, among other things, that the honored ancestor's name was actually Sakichi TOYODA, and the company name was changed by one letter because in Japanese there are eight brush-strokes, and eight is a lucky number. We saw short videos and photographs of the processes involved in building the Toyota Tundra truck, and then climbed into a tram for a tour of the immense plant.
We like factory tours a lot. At the John Deere plant, for example, we saw customers who had just bought a tractor and had been invited to watch it being assembled. At the River Rouge Plant in Detroit several years ago we saw how attractive and efficient a well-designed facility can be. At the Toyota plant we were mesmerized by the many different activities, all organized into separate processes: dropping the engine into the chassis, assembling the doors, putting together the many elements of the dashboard, painting the vehicle, and more.
Eight strokes
Gradually we understood that the Kaizen principles of continual improvement were being put into practice just as we had been taught in class when it all seemed so abstract. Each assembly line was relatively short, with a small group of workers involved. Many times we passed a work group clustered around a chart or a board, discussing something. A cord strung along the side of the line could be pulled by anybody at that line if he or she (there were a lot of women working there) saw a possible problem: the idea is that a small problem solved at the beginning saves much time and effort later. We learned that such cords are pulled many times each day. The plant floor is speckled with white boards and charts, measuring just about everything-think of something about truck assembly that can be measured, and you'll probably find a chart for it.
Take hard hats, for example. There are three colors: white for workers, gray for quality assurance and testing, red for something we can't remember. Each person's hat has his/her name on the front and the back, plus an icon describing the tools that person is authorized to use. A team lead's hat has one blue stripe on the side; a group leader has two blue stripes.
The shift begins with ten minutes of exercise, then two hours of work, followed by a short break where any issues are discussed at team level. Then everybody changes to a different two-hour job. This minimizes problems caused by repetitive movements.
Truck order flowchart
Do you need to put special nuts or bolts into your door? An electric cart comes to your work station to resupply you, with Just-in-Time parts (keeps inventories small, reduces waste, reduces the need for storage).
The plant is filled with robots doing the heavy lifting and precise placement of large truck parts. There is movement everywhere, from the carts and the robots to the individual tools hanging from docks near the appropriate worker. But the impression is not one of quick movement; rather, everybody seems to know what they will be doing and are comfortable working along. In fact, as our little tram snaked across the floor, workers waved, smiled, acknowledged us as their guests.
We were amused that there was no uniformity along the assembly line; a red one-ton four door model might be next after a white half-ton two door job. That's because the trucks are manufactured to order (from the dealers) which eliminates big backlogs of unsold models. The chart shows how the order leads to trays and boxes of parts as the truck progresses through the line.
Of course, all factory tours are designed to impress the visitor with the excellence of the plant, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas is certainly no exception. We left with the realization that the dryly idealistic lectures we had heard so many years ago had matured into a workable system which could be extended to many other companies.