2. “It sounds like a good thing, but we still don’t want to
do it!” and
3. “Looks good on paper, but...”
Here we have agreement in general and disagreement on
all particulars.
4. “Costs are already as low as they can possibly get!” and
5. “We can’t lower costs any more without lowering quality!”
Here the obstacle is the fixed idea that costs are already at
their minimum.
6. “But we’ve already been doing things that way!”
7. “We don’t want people looking over our shoulders and
telling us what to do!” and
8. “Everything is going just fine now. Why change it?”
Here we have a general reluctance to change the status quo.
This is very common among workers in factories that are still
managing to turn some kind of profit.
9. “That’s a lousy ideal! We already tried that 20 years
ago!” and
10. “Look, we understand this stuff better than anybody (so
don’t tell us what to do).”
Finally, here we have the kind of resistance that is born out
of cockiness and defensiveness.
Alas, JIT means having to deal with all kinds of people
and their reluctance to change. JIT improvement has tended
to stir up the same old resistance that has arisen many times
in the past. Many years ago, General Electric ran into the
same kind of resistance when it was making big changes
with VA/VE programs.