Will Sampson talks about how he was introduced to lean manufacturing and speculates why it has taken so long to take hold in the woodworking industry. Then he does an interview with lean manufacturing expert Brad Cairns recorded live at Wood Pro Expo California.
This episode of the Woodworking Network podcast was sponsored by the Executive Briefing Conference. It’s really easy for woodworkers to stay stuck inside, focused on their shops and production. But over the last couple of years, the pandemic has forced them be even more isolated than usual. And it’s even harder if what you want is to network with the top-level executives in the industry. Where and how can you do that? The answer is the Executive Briefing Conference coming this September at the spectacular Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. This is an unparalleled opportunity to boost your business with intelligence on techniques, tools, and technology and to feed on inspiration from real leaders in the industry. Not to mention take in all the high-altitude hospitality, beauty and recreation offered by the Broadmoor. Learn more at ExecutiveBriefingConference.com. See you there.
Woodworking Network is a home for professional woodworkers, presenting technology, supplies, education, inspiration, and community, from small business entrepreneurs to corporate managers at large automated plants.
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Intro music courtesy of Anthony Monson.
Intro:
Welcome to this episode of the Woodworking Network Podcast. Join us as we explore the business of woodworking big and small and what it takes to succeed. I’m Will Sampson.
Today’s episode is sponsored by the Executive Briefing Conference. We’ll be talking with lean manufacturing expert Brad Cairns. But first I want to talk about:
Not a gimmick
Considering how long lean manufacturing has been around, it constantly amazes me how few in the woodworking industry have embraced it and still treat it as some kind of wacky fad.
Lean manufacturing as we know it today, is a manufacturing and business philosophy that promotes continuous improvement. It has its roots in the Toyota Production System developed primarily by Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo in Japan between 1948 and 1984. It really wasn’t on the mass business radar in the United States until James Womack, a researcher at MIT, coined the phrase “lean manufacturing” and wrote about it in his book, “The Machine that Changed the World.”
But the roots of what we call lean today go farther back than that.
I had a life-changing experience in 1984 when I had the privilege of spending a day with Shigeo Shingo at a factory in Oroville, California. I was a young newspaper reporter covering the visit by this supposedly amazing production consultant who I had never heard of. People from the factory were all excited and supplied me with a bunch of dense literature to prepare for the tour and my interview with Mr. Shingo. The printed extracts were full of jargon about SMED and JIT and Kaizen, as well as tales of production experiments at Toyota in Japan. I knew a little about business and manufacturing because I had put myself through college with a small manufacturing business I started, but I still felt way over my head.
But when I got to the factory, met Mr. Shingo and interviewed him mostly through interpretation by his adult granddaughter, I immediately became a fan. The humble Mr. Shingo confessed that most of his ideas had their roots in early 20th century American efficiency experts like Fredrick Winslow Taylor and Frank Bunker Gilbreth.
Back at my newspaper, my editor and colleagues all thought I’d lost my mind as I raved about how great this Shingo guy was and how his production efficiency principles could revolutionize manufacturing, and this factory in our town was on the cutting edge. My editor indulged me and gave me a huge amount of space starting on the front page to tell the story, but I suspect the story was dismissed by most readers.
Today, nearly 40 years later, I think the same jargon that put me off before my day with Mr. Shingo has kept many people from exploring lean manufacturing. All the Japanese terms and acronyms are like some secret code that only consultants can decipher. And some consultants have made it even more inaccessible with programs like Six Sigma that layer more jargon and certifications on top. I guess that’s good for the consultant business, but a few folks like Brad Cairns and Paul Akers have worked to demystify it.
As Mr. Shingo explained to me back in 1984, it really boils down to continuously improving everything you do so you don’t make bad parts and you make them as efficiently as possible. To the factory foreman that day he explained how a process taking eight or 10 minutes could be changed into seconds while not making any shortcuts in quality. The principles are simple and apply not just to manufacturing but to everything you do in and out of work. Why wouldn’t everyone want to take advantage of that?
Before we get to our chat with Brad Cairns, let’s pause for a word from our sponsor.
It’s really easy for woodworkers to stay stuck inside, focused on their shops and production. But over the last couple of years, the pandemic has forced them be even more isolated than usual. And it’s even harder if what you want is to network with the top-level executives in the industry. Where and how can you do that? The answer is the Executive Briefing Conference coming this September at the spectacular Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. This is an unparalleled opportunity to boost your business with intelligence on techniques, tools, and technology and to feed on inspiration from real leaders in the industry. Not to mention take in all the high-altitude hospitality, beauty and recreation offered by the Broadmoor. Learn more at ExecutiveBriefingConference.com. See you there.
Now, let’s talk about lean manufacturing with Brad Cairns.