PROMISE: Our kitties will never sit on top of content. Please turn off your ad blocker for our site.
puuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrr
Bruce Hamilton
Published: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - 09:34 Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the introduction of a moving assembly line at Henry Ford’s Highland assembly plant, an innovation that inaugurated mass production. Ford was not the first to build cars in an assembly line. Ransom Olds did that first in 1902, and Ford copied him. And, according to Ford himself, the idea to create a moving assembly line came to him while watching the moving dis-assembly line at a Chicago meatpacking plant. But Ford put these two ideas together to create “flow manufacturing,” a term he coined during the 1920s and that is still considered innovative a century later. Several weeks before Ford Motor Co. celebrated its centennial, another 100-year anniversary marked the passing of Eji Toyoda at age 100. Credited with championing the entry of Toyota into the United States, Eji Toyoda was instrumental in forging a collaboration between General Motors and Toyota to form New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) in Fremont, California. Later, under his leadership Toyota grew in size and stature to become the standard for product excellence and customer satisfaction. In an ironic centennial twist, Toyoda traveled to the United States in 1950 to study at Ford’s Rouge plant, considered then to be the world’s most productive auto plant. At that time, Ford employees could out-produce Toyoda workers by a 700-percent margin. Toyoda grasped the strength of the Ford system, particularly its emphasis on flow. But Toyoda also noted the production system’s inherent inflexibility and, more significantly, its top-down and compartmentalized decision making. Material flowed, but not ideas. Quality was not confirmed at the source. Shop-floor employees were only eyes and hands. The Ford technical approach may have been preeminent, but its social practices revealed a great weakness. Ford’s weakness became Toyota’s strength. Today, the “Toyota Way” developed under Eji Toyoda’s leadership is still mostly ignored by most business leaders. The buzz is all about investment in technical innovation (a code word for automation), but there is little discussion on the innovative development of people. How about in your organization? Are you building employees as well as products? Share a story. Quality Digest does not charge readers for its content. We believe that industry news is important for you to do your job, and Quality Digest supports businesses of all types. However, someone has to pay for this content. And that’s where advertising comes in. Most people consider ads a nuisance, but they do serve a useful function besides allowing media companies to stay afloat. They keep you aware of new products and services relevant to your industry. All ads in Quality Digest apply directly to products and services that most of our readers need. You won’t see automobile or health supplement ads. So please consider turning off your ad blocker for our site. Thanks, Bruce Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP), brings hands-on experience as a manager, teacher, and change agent. Prior to GBMP, Hamilton led efforts to transform United Electric Controls Co.’s production from a traditional batch factory to a single-piece-flow environment that has become an international showcase. Hamilton has spoken internationally on lean manufacturing, employee involvement, continuous improvement, and implementing change. Also, he has contributed to numerous texts ranging from visual control to variety reduction. Hamilton’s blog, Old Lean Dude, is an ongoing reflection on lean philosophy and practices, with an emphasis on keeping good jobs close to home.Innovation Centennial
Are you building employees as well as products?
Our PROMISE: Quality Digest only displays static ads that never overlay or cover up content. They never get in your way. They are there for you to read, or not.
Quality Digest Discuss
About The Author
Bruce Hamilton
© 2023 Quality Digest. Copyright on content held by Quality Digest or by individual authors. Contact Quality Digest for reprint information.
“Quality Digest" is a trademark owned by Quality Circle Institute, Inc.
Comments
ford's miracle
As any miracle, Ford's is a mystery. The japanese are said to identify themselves with the company they work for; and we are told of their self-sacrifices when they fail. We - in western Europe - don't think that way, that's a fact, it's simply so. "we" would never think of building an employee: our culture is such that we respect individuality more than products.