p.62 "The greatest pleasure in human life is to do something even better
than what was done before"
p.70-75 Valuing Improvement in Management over Economic Results I think
this is a big part of TQ and LO not working/happening in the US. Because
we are so results-oriented/profit-oriented in the short-term, we miss the
big gains in profit, quality, morale, etc. by not valuing improvement in
small terms daily in our daily job by looking at everything as cross-
functional and from process improvement view.
"American suggestion systems stress economic benefits. Ford also made
this its highest priority when its suggestion system was in effect. As a
result, the employees who made suggestions also thought only of their own
"economic benefit." That is, they were not satisfied with the amount of
prize money. When employees who submitted suggestions began to demand
cash awards equal to half the actual value of the economic benefits
gained, management lost all interest in continuing the suggestion system."
" The results of a 1984 survey by the JHRA comparing Japanese and
American suggestion systems clearly reveal that U.S. suggestion system in
general and not just the original Ford suggestion system, place priority
on economic efficiency. The survey showed the number of suggestions per
person per month as 24 for Japan and 0.16 for the US; the U.S. rate was
1/123 that of Japan's. And, for participation rate, for Japan it was 60
percent and for the US it was 13 percent. Furthermore, the rate of
suggestions adopted was 82 percent for Japan and 22 percent for the US.
(In 1986 at Toyota 47 suggestions per person, participation rate 95%, and
adoption rate 96%).
On the other hand, in terms of economic benefits yielded per suggestion
adopted, it was ($100) for Japan and ($5500) for the US. Looking at the
average award money paid for suggestions adopted, it was per suggestion
($4.40) for Japan and per suggestion ($550) for the US. In the US, the
award therefore represented approximately 1/10 the economic savings
resulting from the adoption of a suggestion.
The JHRA analyzed the results of the survey in the following way:
In the American suggestion system, the company buys the idea from the
individual. The company evaluates whether the idea will yield a definite
monetary value. In a word, it is result oriented.
In Japanese suggestion activities, employees make even very modest
improvements in the work they are in charge of, continually creating in a
quick and easy manner an environment where the work can be done with
confidence. Each person who is in charge of a worksite also best knows
the work and makes small improvements based on his or her familiarity with
things. This situation is multiplied many times by all the individuals
there. Because of this, employees have a problem consciousness and keep a
close check on the tendency to carelessly overlook problems."
If we would only see the great gains by focusing on the right things:
small improvements, process improvements, listening to our people's ideas
all the great profits and results would take care of themselves. When
will we ever "learn"?????
--Cqithinks@aol.com Boyd Martin
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