Toyota Industry

PEOPLE SELECTION PROCESS FOR IMPLEMENTING LEAN

People Selection Process for Implementing

Lean Manufacturing

LEADERSHIP FOR LEAN

During the 2000 Lean Manufacturing Conference in Dearborn, MI John Shook told us about

“Leadership for Lean Systems” based on his experience at Toyota. John shared with us his

observations on differences between, Toyota style Leadership and American style Leadership.

One of the most powerful slides in his presentation that stands up in my mind, is the one

describing a “Lean People System Model”:

A Lean

Lean

People Systems Model

People

Empowerment Programs

Involvement

Programs

Human

Resources

Management

Work Systems

QC Circles

Suggestion Programs

Rewards and Recognition

Employee Development

Employees as Citizens

Standardized Work/Kaizen

JIT

JIDOKA

Responsibility cascaded down

Examples

Very little has been said about what kind of people it takes to implement Lean, how do I select

people to hire, what skills are needed, what type of a training is required, what progression of

learning is required and how do we reinforce the learning so it not forgotten. What

organizational structure I need to sustain Lean.

PEOPLE SELECTION

All Toyota’s North American manufacturing facilities started as a Greenfield operation, where

the company had an opportunity to select and hire brand new employees.

The first Toyota manufacturing facility was NUMMI – a joint venture with General Motors

Corporation in Freemont, California. In March 1984 applications for employment were sent to

Marek Piatkowski - F.S.P. Consulting Inc.

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PEOPLE SELECTION PROCESS FOR IMPLEMENTING LEAN

approximately 5,000 former GM-Freemont employees. The applications also noted that past

mistakes such as, high absenteeism and poor quality would not be tolerated by the new

company. Approximately 3,000 applications were completed and returned. Once applications

were returned over 80% of the original newly hired employees were...