Belief

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

- E. E. Cummings

Chief Engineer

The top product development program at Toyota is the chief engineer (CE). CE is the project leader, project manager and technical leader all rolled into one. CE designs the system and is ultimately responsible for delivering value to the customer and the program's commercial success. CE therefore is usually sponsored by someone in vice-president level.

In Toyota product development, managers with no technical skills are moved to manage other things. Knowledgeable engineers without interest in people and money are sent to R&D.

During the program, CE becomes the primary voice of the customer. Because of this, a person with the background and experience to establish an emotional connection with the target customer is selected as CE for a program.

Therefore selecting chief engineer for a program is the critical first step of Toyota product development process.

Once selected, CE focuses on value discovery process and value definition. CE then communicates customer-defined value & vehicle-level performance objectives and aligns the vehicle-level performance goals of the entire program team.

Another interesting thing is the document called shijisho produced by CE. This is a concept paper that outlines the CE's vision for the new vehicle. The literal translation of shijisho is "direct order document" almost like a military order.

Elements of Toyota's Lean Product Development

This is from Lean Product and Process Development by Allen C. Ward.

• All Toyota developers spend about half of their first year assembling and selling cars. The final customers & the customers for the product development process.


• Identifies the critical skills associated with each job.
  
  1. Understands the basic engineering principles
  2. Works fast enough to keep up with the team
  3. Takes responsibility for the work
  4. Can teach the skills


• Keeping people in position long enough to become expert and to get good feedback on their decisions.


• Require engineers to "get their hands dirty".


• Developers must be evaluated on their contributions to project success.

Follow Process Mapping with Walk Through

I have never walked through a process mapping or a process flow during the discovery phase of a project. This simple technique was mentioned in a local lean group meet-up.

Just pick up a process map and physically follow the process where the operational people are. Opportunity to talk to people on the ground, learn more about what they do and review the current process mapping. It can lead to rich learning experience. Rich context around the words and drawings.

Definitely something to try next time.