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).”
Innovations come in waves. Each time a new wave of innovation
comes roaring in, the environment must be flexible
enough to adapt to it. People are innately tough customers
when it comes to buying ideas that threaten the status quo.
And in factories, the word “change” is virtually taboo.
Nevertheless, JIT improvement requires that all fixed ideas
be cast aside so a new consciousness suitable for the new
environment may be cultivated. Achieving this task takes much
longer than merely improving operations or equipment. It
demands that the very same things be done again and again.
From the company president down to the factory workers,
the subject of improvement has to be openly discussed.
During such discussions, we are bound to run into negative
comments, such as, “There’s no way that JIT stuff is going to
work in our factory.”
There is also the idea that the people responsible for JIT
improvement are not qualified for the job. In such cases,
they can prove their point by asking the disgruntled factory
people a few pointed questions, such as:
“Look at your factory. Defects are out of control, shipments
are always late, and warehouse inventory seems to have no
limit. What are you going to do about it? What specific plans
do you have to solve these problems?”
The response to that is usually dead silence. Sometimes,
you have to challenge fixed ideas directly.
People are not going to unleash themselves from their
gut feelings of resistance and their fixed ideas unless they
are instilled with the basic spirit of improvement. Figure 2.4
shows a policy statement illustrating this basic spirit at a
kitchenware company. Figure 2.5 shows a manifestation of
this spirit at a fishing equipment manufacturer.
These signboards usually measure about one square meter
and are made of vellum. They can be either hung from ceilings
or posted on walls. It is a good idea to display these
signboards not only in management meeting rooms, but also