Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Cart (0)
  • Account
  • Search
Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Explore Lean
        • What is Lean?
        • The Lean Transformation Framework
        • A Brief History of Lean
        • Lexicon Terms
        • Topics to explore
          • Operations
          • Lean Product & Process Development
          • Administration & Support
          • Problem-Solving
          • Coaching
          • Executive Leadership
          • Line Management
  • The Lean Post
        • Subscribe to see exclusive content
          • Subscribe
        • Featured posts
          Twi cards on a cork board

          Understanding the True Value of the TWI...

          office sign that says - Kaizen Promotion Office

          Ask Art: Why Do I Need a...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Leadership Coaching and Custom Training
        • What is a Co-Learning Partnership (CLP)?
        • Forms and Templates
        • Featured learning
          • Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

            April 10, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

            April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Hoshin Kanri Remotely: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

            April 21, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

            April 24, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • See all Events
  • Store
        • Shopping Cart
        • Featured books
          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Learning to See

          Learning to See

          • See all Books
  • About Us
        • Our people
          • Senior Advisors and Staff
          • Faculty
          • Board of Directors
        • Contact Us
        • Lean Global Network
        • Press Releases
        • In the News
        • Careers
        • About us

The Lean Post / Articles / You Can’t Manage a Secret

You Can’t Manage a Secret

Product & Process Development

You Can’t Manage a Secret

By Jim Morgan, PhD

December 7, 2016

How did the obeya management system come to be at Toyota? How has it been refined since its beginning as a means of organizing research for the Toyota engineers developing the Prius? And how can we get the most out of our own obeyas? Jim Morgan answers these questions and more in his latest LPPD eletter.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Takeshi Uchiyamada had a problem. He had just been named Chief Engineer for arguably the most revolutionary product in Toyota’s history. The goal for this program, initially identified as G21, was to achieve nothing less than 1.5 times the fuel economy of Toyota’s best small cars and develop it on an extremely compressed timeline. To make matters worse, Mr. Uchiyamada lacked the technical depth required to develop and commercialize the advanced hybrid technology that would be required. In fact, no single person at Toyota did. He quickly realized that he would need an unprecedented level of collaboration, transparency and speed of decision making to make this program a success.

Consequently his first pathbreaking innovation had nothing to do with engine technology. Recognizing that his job would be to effectively integrate the efforts of diverse experts and keep the project on track to achieve no compromise targets for performance cost and schedule, he created the “obeya management system.” In this system he met every two to three days with all required technical experts in a room in which all pertinent information was posted on the walls. This information was available to everyone on the team at any time. The G21, which the world has come to know as the Prius, went on to revolutionize the auto industry, dramatically raising the bar for fuel economy and leaving competitors years behind. And the obeya system, credited with making a major contribution to the Prius success, became a development staple at Toyota.

I first heard this story nearly 18 years ago while meeting with Mr. Uchiyamada during my research at the University of Michigan. At the time he was working with a team of Toyota engineers who were tasked with standardizing and teaching obeya throughout the Toyota development community. Obeya, of course, is a Japanese word for big room referring to the large open room required to house the functional technical experts required on the Prius program. Obeya, of course, is a Japanese word for big room referring to the large open room required to house the functional technical experts required on the Prius program.

The challenge to the Toyota team was to capture this powerful system for collaboration and transparency without the ability to co-locate all program teams. They described the system basics as:

  1. Engineers are not co-located. The Functional Engineering Staff Leaders meet with the CE on a varying cadence.
  2. Paper-based visual management is the key to effective communication. The walls are plastered with important program information including information on design alternatives, test results, status to attribute performance targets, cost status, status to schedule, and supplier readiness levels. The team walks the walls at regular meetings and sub-teams meet there often between meetings.
  3. The obeya location moves with the program. Starting in Engineering, moving to prototype and finally to the plant for launch, the cadence of meetings also change as the program progresses. Typically increasing in frequency to daily meetings as the program moves to launch. For a fuller treatment of both the Prius program and obeya history you can reference the Toyota Product Development System.

During my visits to Toyota City earlier this year I saw that obeya at Toyota has continued to evolve through careful PDCA. There were innovations such as adding CAD and simulation capability in order to facilitate real-time design discussions. But the heart of the system remains visual management and the intent to improve communication, transparency and cross-functional integration in order to quickly identify and solve problems.

Transparency and collaboration were also the essence of Alan Mulally’s message at Ford when he said, “You can’t manage a secret” (and I would add, “…and you can’t solve a problem you’re not aware of.”) He challenged us to increase honest, fact-based communication and improve cross-functional collaboration across the enterprise. One of the ways our team responded was with an “obeya system.” Obeya was not only used to manage program performance, but also to integrate cross-functional teams, as well as to help manage the global functional engineering business, in the creation of the global product development system (GPDS).

I was reminded of these experiences when our LPPD Learning Partner companies came together to learn and share their outstanding work in Davis, California last month. While experience levels and specific practices varied across companies, each company was experimenting with obeya and all reported performance improvement. Several teams reported “best-ever” results. In our subsequent discussions we learned many nuances of how they were each leveraging the power of obeya. However, all of them found that the real benefits of obeya were in transparency, speed of problem resolution and team engagement.

So the next time you are tempted to get drawn into circular arguments about what metrics or graphs to share, where they should be placed in the room, or even if obeya should be spelled with one O or two (yes, I have actually heard that), think about Takeshi Uchiyamada, Alan Mulally, our learning partner companies and the real purpose and power of obeya. Consider: how can you best leverage obeya to better engage your entire team and dramatically improve your performance?

PS:

We had a fabulous day at the University of Michigan Hospitals last week. Together we identified many opportunities to apply LPPD to improve patient-centered care and deliver ever-better value. This promises to be an exciting frontier for LPPD.

It was great to see the teamwork developing across our partner companies at our most recent learning event. Each company was sharing openly and supporting the progress of the others. Topics included our Chief Engineer concept paper, enterprise transformation, obeya and A3 for developing people. Our LPPD learning partner model continues to evolve and become more powerful. LPPD senior coach Matt Zayko will be writing up and sharing the event more fully on our site leanpd.org.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

Join us for a five-day course (three hours per day) to learn how to accelerate the design and delivery of innovative products or services your customers will love.

Written by:

Jim Morgan, PhD

About Jim Morgan, PhD

Jim is recognized globally for his expertise in product and process development. His know-how comes from a unique combination of industry experience as a senior executive and rigorous scholarship. His most recent industry role was as the chief operating officer during a critical transition period for Rivian, an electric vehicle…

Read more about Jim Morgan, PhD

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Agile vs Lean Product and Process Development

Product & Process Development

How to Launch Better Products Faster

Article by Lean Leaper

hands at a table working together

Product & Process Development

Teaming Up to Overcome Common Business Challenges

Article by Katrina Appell, PhD and John Drogosz, PhD

Augment Book

Product & Process Development

Empowering Frontline Operators with Human-Centric Technology: a Conversation with Natan Linder

Podcast by Tom Ehrenfeld

Related books

The Power of Process – A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development

The Power of Process – A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development

by Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko

Welcome Problems, Find Success – Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World

Welcome Problems, Find Success – Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World

by Nate Furuta

Related events

April 24, 2023 | Online Live Course

Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

Learn more

March 19, 2024 | Optional Post-Summit Workshops March 21-22
Carlsbad, California

Lean Summit 2024

Learn more

Explore topics

Product and Process Development graphic icon Product & Process Development
Executive Leadership graphic icon Executive Leadership

Join us on social

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Join our #LeanCommunity

Join us on slack
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©Copyright 2000-2023 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lean Enterprise Institute, the leaper image, and stick figure are registered trademarks of Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn More. ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!