J… for Japan & Lean

“Lean is not for us. It's Japanese”. How many times have I heard that?

My first trip to Japan was in 2013. It was organised by a construction boss, who naturally wanted to visit companies in his field, as well as Toyota and its subcontractors. We went to all sorts of companies, and we saw a lot. But outside the Toyota circle, suppliers and former Toyota employees, very little about Lean.

I remember the boss telling us about his company's social benefits, about the company whose working conditions frankly didn't seem very good, about those who showed stock levels that were nothing impressive, and even about the one who, when we talked to him about Kaizen, said "that's the Toyota thing, isn't it? In short, lots of companies that we could have visited somewhere other than Japan.

I came to the conclusion that Lean, or more precisely TPS, is not Japanese. It's Toyota.

On the other hand, I'm often criticised for using Japanese words. Gemba, Kaizen, why not speak like everyone else in... poor English? Probably because it's a bit long to say The Place Where Things Happen, or because Continuous Improvement translates the word Kaizen so poorly that it's almost a contradiction in terms. And then I've often said that any technique that's a bit specialised creates its own vocabulary, so why not Lean? These days I try to avoid all technical words, Japanese or not, but I don't always succeed. However, I have to admit that ideograms seem to allow for a complexity and subtlety that is not easily accessible with Western words. A point for Japan in Lean!

I've also thought for a long time that Lean is not a philosophy, but a set of practices that require a certain mindset. However, it is possible to bring Lean closer to Taoism (which is not Japanese!) through the proposed balance of Yin and Yang, so important is this notion of balancing opposites in the TPS: there can be no Just in Time without Jidoka. No customer satisfaction without employee satisfaction. More generally, any situation of disagreement or opposition (whether technical or human) is an opportunity to confront points of view and organise creative discussions. Yin AND yang, not Yin against Yang.

I was lucky enough to work in an international company for a long time. This gave me the opportunity to observe the best and the worst of lean in the same country, from poorly disguised Taylorism to the well-established kaizen dynamic, all in the same field. The difference? The boss! Is there any country whose culture is better adapted to Lean? I don't think so. So many things are counterintuitive... Showing your mistakes, for example, to make progress: very hard everywhere! Continuing to make progress once the first steps have been taken: nobody really wants to do that. Agreeing to spend time to go faster by reducing defects and rework: not easy!

So, is Lean Japanese? I don't think so.

Cécile Roche