The A3 Lean Management and Leadership Thought Process

Abstract

This research paper will review the Plan-DoCheck-Act (PDCA) cycle of process improvement and how the PDCA cycle is integrated into the Toyota Motor Company’s business practices. The paper will also examine the A3 problem-solving tool and how that tool is embedded in the Toyota culture to promote further learning and continuous improvement. This continuous improvement methodology is an employee-driven, fact-based culture assisted by the appropriate training and mentoring in PDCA, Toyota Business Practices (TBP), and A3. The Toyota Motor Company has consistently rated well in production efficiency, design, and sales over the last several decades; much of the success has been attributed to the company’s culture. Many years of in-plant research, subsequent books, seminars, and other educational resources about Toyota’s methods have assisted companies, but have not yielded the same level of success found at Toyota. It’s become ever more evident that it’s not just about the lean tools such as 5S, Value-Stream Mapping (VSM), Kaizen, and Kanban, but also company culture, the people, how they are taught, and how they learn. These factors lead to behavior patterns which are unique, yet seemingly unattainable and not explained in company documents. The way Toyota leads and manages its people is at the heart of Toyota’s success. There is a management tool that helps all employees learn how to learn for optimum benefit. The PDCA-based tool aligned with the TBP called the A3 problem solving process instills continuous improvement. This is accomplished through a variety of lean methods and by establishing employee and organizational habits which become an inherent process of continuous improvement. It creates a culture of employee engagement, empowerment, and embedded PDCA thinking among employees. This is something Toyota has developed and mastered over several decades, and continues to do in their never-ending pursuit of continuous improvement. INTRODUCTION Toyota Motor Corporation’s production system and its lean activities of manufacturing has received much attention for several decades. However, there is a paucity of information regarding how the company manages people to achieve operational learning. Henry Ford, with his early 1900’s continuous assembly line, flow concepts and implementations provided the roots that led to the eventual development of Toyota’s Production System (TPS), or what Americans today call lean manufacturing (Sobek & Smalley, 2008). The Japanese and Toyota took the basic ideas of Ford and other American quality and manufacturing genius in Deming, Shewhart, and Juran and expanded it to what exists today (“Lean Mfg. Strategy,” n.d.). Toyota improved upon these original American strategies and methodologies. In contrast, other companies, although applying lean strategies have, not had the same success in manufacturing efficiency. In 1990, Toyota was one-half the size of General Motors (GM) and two-thirds the size of Ford. In 2007, Toyota easily grew larger than Ford and began to surge past GM to become the largest and most successful industrial enterprise in the world (Womack, Jones & Roos, 2007). It’s relatively common knowledge that Toyota’s success is pulled from a management philosophy and culture that is grounded in what was originally developed by American Walter Shewhart, called Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) which is aligned with the Toyota Business Practices (TBP) and an A3 report template (Wescott, 2005). The TBP pyramid of 4 P’s consists of philosophy, people, process, and the culminating piece to Toyota’s success; problem solving. Toyota’s practice of PDCA is the driving force of the use of lean manufacturing and can be captured in an A3 proposal. The A3 proposal is a problem solving tool with a solid structure to implement PDCA management. PDCA is a system for continuously improving and managing an organization. Many PDCA loops are going on at any one time, each aligned to achieve Toyota’s overall goals (Sobek and Smalley, 2008). However, widespread use of the A3 in organizations has allowed additional benefits through this standard methodology for innovating, planning, problem-solving, and building foundational structures integrating larger, more in-depth thinking, which in turn produces organizational learning deeply rooted in the actual work (Shook, 2010). This approach leads to successful behavioral patterns which have a significant impact on lean company management and leadership of employees (Rother, 2010). This occurs as their thinking reframes any activity as a learning activity at all levels of the organization, whether it’s standardized work and 5S at the employee level, system kaizen at a manager’s level, or strategic decisions at the executive level. This research paper will review Toyota’s cultural use of the PDCA cycle and A3 problem Dr. Jeffrey M. Ul-

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