Understanding Continuous Improvement Strategy at Toyota and Becoming a Team Player Yourself!

To achieve world-class excellence through lean, companies must embrace, adopt, and encourage team-style environment. Both shopfloor and staff members need to feel that they are part of a team and that everyone is taking the lean journey together. Learn how Toyota and other Japanese companies launched team environment years ago through culture shift and mindset changes. See some best practice examples of team work from recent trip to Japan, and how their efforts impact productivity on the shopfloor.

Because North Americans have always embraced individualism and assertiveness, not collaboration or empowerment, hands-on learning environment is necessary to gain those skills critical to teamwork. This hands-on workshop is designed to foster effective teamwork by helping participants understand the chemistry behind team management. Various team management topics are discussed, and specific tools are described. Then participants will have an opportunity to actually engage themselves in team building simulation games designed to help them understand the best way to foster teamwork.

Simulations include such popular games as “creating your own company”, “design your own egg-dropper”, and Survival Team Conflict Simulation game. Participants will have fully engaging day working on variety of situations that will reveal their team working style.

David Chao is the president of a unique company called Lean Sensei International, which offers hands-on, specialized “coaching” to companies taking the Lean Journey toward world-class operation. He helps companies develop cutting edge strategy for becoming a lean organization, while delivering proven, highly effective lean manufacturing tools and techniques. As a professional engineer with extensive Canadian, U.S., and international industry experience, he has assisted numerous organizations achieve their goals.

Mr. Chao was one of the first people to bring lean methodologies from Japan to Canada through the Suzuki-GM joint venture operation in Ontario, and was instrumental in implementing lean with suppliers and within the joint venture company. His other past positions and experience include Lean Manufacturing and Supply Chain Consulting Manager at CapGemini Ernst & Young Consulting, Project Manager at PBK Engineering, and Advanced Manufacturing & Supply Chain Specialist at General Motors/Suzuki Corporations.

His extensive exposure to lean manufacturing process and his ability to quickly turn around a plant using Kaizen methods have earned him an undisputed reputation as a true Lean Sensei (Lean Coach). Because he focuses on making lasting changes through people and through teamwork, his work style is welcomed at the shopfloor level and appreciated by the management. Mr. Chao was born and raised in Japan, and therefore fluent in Japanese. In addition to his work experience at Suzuki, Mr. Chao spent considerable amount of time working with other Japanese and North American companies, managing both small and large-scale projects. In total, Mr. Chao has worked on over 600 projects over the past 20 years and has visited or worked with more than 100 plants around the world.