is to reduce middle management overload with problems, teach supervisors at all levels to experiment and systematically improve processes while increasing people initiative at the same time. In a simple form, Kata teaches managers to delegate, hand over responsibility to lower levels and not to solve all problems in the company.
really integrates improvement process into daily routines thanks to definition of obstacles to reach target condition and their progressive elimination through small “experiments” that can be executed through TWI Job Methods. Changes can be integrated into daily life and standardized through TWI Job Instruction. Associated problem solving can be supported by simple 4-step method of TWI Job Relations.
is a standardized effective tool for all management levels targeted at daily utilization of work with people aimed at sustainability of defined changes and their transformation to routine. Connected with TWI Kata is used to fix new habits.
Markéta Šimáková, Jitka Tejnorová
Managing Partners, DMC management consulting
Brandon Brown, Master Kata Coach
Brandon Brown, DMC
Brandon Brown, Markéta Šimáková, Jitka Tejnorová
Brandon Brown
Jitka Tejnorová
Tomáš Otradovský, Hartmann-Rico
IPA Slovakia
Brandon Brown
Tomáš Otradovský
DMC management consulting
Aquapalace Hotel**** Prague offers the TWI & Kata Conference participants an accommodation at special conference price. The special price conditions and room availability are guaranteed till October 15, 2017.
Brandon Brown is a Master Kata Coach and an Associate for the W3 Group and delivers tangible and sustainable continuous improvement results as a Toyota Kata Coach and Lean Instructor/Facilitator. He recently returned from Europe giving Toyota Kata workshops both “in company” while in Stockholm and at University of Gent, Belgium, and Ansbach University for Applied Science in Stuttgart, Germany. Since 2006, Brandon has been a Professor of Operations Management at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville teaching courses and instructional designing online courses in the Industrial Engineering department such as Lean Production and Leadership Principles and Practices for the Master of Science in Operations Management degree program. Brandon is a Regional Director and board member for the Southeast Region of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. He is also a Certified John Maxwell Coach, Teacher, and Speaker. Prior to his work with W3 Group, he advanced through management leadership at Central States Mfg., as Regional Operations Manager for three facilities in the Eastern Region, which served 17 states. He has a Master of Science in Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a Professional Engineers license in Arkansas. He holds a certificate as a LeanSigma Kaizen Instructor from Time Based Management Consulting Group, to teach Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen instruction, and has led many continuous improvement events.
Brandon has 20 years of continuous improvement experience in various leadership roles for Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions, Central States Manufacturing, Waterloo Industries, and Lincoln Automotive. He has led many Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen and Continuous Improvement projects with various companies. Aside of his keynote speech at Prague TWI & Kata Conference on Kata philosophy he will facilitate Kata simulation game and workshop showing case study of 1 mil. $ saving through Kata in automotive.
More information: continuouscoachingcommitment.com.
Graduate of Technical University Liberec in field of Mechanical Textile Technology. After finishing his studies, he joined HARTMANN – RICO a.s (producer and seller of medical and hygiene devices and materials). He started as a Process engineer. Through positions of Production manager and Technical preparation of production specialist he moved to position Plant manager. Production plant Havlíčkův Brod is focused on single used drapes for operating theater. As a production manager Tomáš was a project leader of project focused on implementation of One Piece Flow. The result of the project was double production quantity with same number of employees in 4 years. Tomáš is holding TWI JI, JR and JM certificates and has seven years of experience with implementing of this method in medical production.
He utilizes this experience in implementing LEAN principles as all TWI modules are an integral part of standardization, problem solving and improvement processes as an important part of LEAN processes and world class manufacturing.
Aside of his keynote speech at the TWI & Kata Conference Tomáš Otradovský will present a case study of Kata implementation in Hartmann-Rico, a.s., Havlíčkův Brod. The participants will learn what are the roles of KATA and particular TWI modules in LEAN implementation in a production plant and how KATA contributes to people engagement and helps in transformation from a changing to learning organization.
Mike is co-author of two groundbreaking workbooks, Learning to See: value-stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda, which received a Shingo Research Award in 1999 and Creating Continuous Flow: an action guide for managers, engineers, and production associates, which received a Shingo Award in 2003. He co-developed the accompanying Training to See kit that teaches facilitators how to run value-stream mapping workshops. His latest book is Toyota Kata (McGraw-Hill). Mike is an engineer, a researcher, teacher, consultant, and speaker about management, leadership, improvement, adaptiveness, and change in human organizations. His affiliations have included the Industrial Technology Institute (Ann Arbor), the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Stuttgart), and the Technical University Dortmund. Mike began his career in the manufacturing division of Thyssen AG in Germany. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI, and Cologne, Germany. Currently he concentrates on Kata principles implementation in education (Kata in the Classroom).
“Toyota Kata” by Mike Rother (2010) distinguishes itself from other books on the Toyota Production System in the way he describes the means of the tools that are used in Lean implementations. Tools like Heijunka (leveling of production) and Kanban are used within Toyota not with the goal to be implemented, but as a tool to find the next improvement. The continuous learning necessary to implement the tools is described by Rother as the improvement Kata, where Kata is Japanese for ‘organizational routines’. In addition to the improvement kata Rother also describes a Coaching Kata, which describes the need to coach people in sustaining the improvements in their processes.
Toyota Kata is a management book based on the basic principle that Lean is a culture, a management philosophy. I can recommend this book to managers who are managing organizational change. The book Toyota Kata consists of four parts, of which three are described in this article: the Improvement Kata (Part 3), the Coaching Kata (part 4) and Objectives for replication (section 5).
One part of the book describes the IMPROVE KATA in two chapters. A chapter on setting a target condition and a section on moving towards the target condition. The target condition can be explained as the ‘objective conditions’ which Rother describes as: “a description of a process that functions in a certain way”. When the target condition is defined, Rother describes the need to improve the current state of the processes by using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. PDCA is based on the principle of experimentation and learning. At Toyota, five questions are asked to guide improvements towards the target condition. Asking these questions will motivate employees to experiment more.
Part four of “Toyota Kata” describes COACHING KATA: Who will carry out improvements within Toyota (1) and what kind of leadership is necessary (2). Rother describes the misunderstanding that operators implement all improvements in their processes. In practice, 90% of the improvements to reduce costs and improve quality at Toyota are made by Team Leaders and engineers. The remaining 10% is improved by the operators themselves throughout a kaizen suggestion system.
Rother describes two leadership style features, which correspond to two of the principles that Liker (2004) describes in The Toyota Way. A leader is a teacher (1), and plan slowly – act quickly (2). All executives in the organization should spent 50% of their time coaching others. Managers do not provide the answer to problems but coach people so they can find their own answers. Coaching enables employees to use the PDCA cycle and can be linked to A3 forms. Filling an A3 takes a relatively long time, but serves both as a communication tool as well as documentation.
Section 5 describes how THEORY IS PUT IN PRACTICE. First, Rother argues that the improvement kata should be used to start up the improvement kata. This means the PDCA should be used to train people within your organization to improve. In addition, the improvement kata should be facilitated by internal employees and the management team should particulary play an important role.