Liu Chengyuan's Lean China Dream

"The root of lean is in China. Lean management is not an inherent model, but a process of full participation and continuous improvement. If you learn from Toyota, you should learn its continuous improvement culture, not copy Toyota. One-half method.”

Dr. Liu Chengyuan, who has studied in Japan and served as a senior executive in Japanese companies for more than 10 years, and has accumulated rich experience in consulting practice, has his own unique insights into manufacturing management. He believes that Toyota's improvement culture is the foundation, while the specific practices on the production line are the end. Many Chinese companies often ignore the learning and reference of the improvement culture when learning lean management, and do not see the continuous improvement of employees. great power.

Interactive topic: How to make the boss change from a black-faced "Bao Gong" to a "Buddha"?

Benefits improve, the boss becomes Maitreya

As we all know, lean management comes from Japan, but its philosophy originates from China. "; Confucius said "Jing Yi"; Guan Zi proposed "Speciality", and the idea of lean is continuously passed on. "China is the world's largest car producer and consumer country, but it can't make good car engines; the Chang'e-3 lander and the lunar rover can play with each other, but they can't build a decent camera! In most industrial fields, we So far, I haven't mastered the core technology. China's manufacturing needs to be bigger and stronger, and it is absolutely impossible without the spirit of innovation and lean management." Liu Chengyuan's words were powerful.

Past For more than 30 years, the rapid expansion of scale has caused Chinese manufacturing enterprises to form a pathological development model of "high investment, high growth, and extensive management" and the phenomenon of "scale inefficiency". The output capacity per unit of resources is less than that of Japan, the United States, One-fifth of Germany's, with huge potential to be tapped. With the continuous intensification of market competition, management has actually become a fashion, and various management "masters" have appeared in turn. Words keep stimulating the entrepreneur's nerves. Survival pressure compels manufacturing bosses to learn eagerly, or to keep trying in the enterprise like a monkey breaking corn | using new management methods, making employees miserable but with little effect. Liu Chengyuan constantly warned entrepreneurs not to be kidnapped by management fashion on various occasions. The most effective upgrade of Chinese manufacturing enterprises is "lean management". Only in this way can we continue to improve the operating physique of the enterprise and enhance the profitability of the enterprise.

Dr. Liu talked about the actual case of "9-minute mold change" for a 500-ton injection molding machine in a company in a lecture. A boss did not hesitate to pay a high price to transform nearly 100 injection molding machines in his company into 9-minute replacement. mold, so that the production efficiency is greatly improved. However, he did not expect that this kind of change can not be accomplished overnight, only if the environment, equipment, materials, methods and staff are of high standard at the same time, such results can be maintained. The case company spent several years and accumulated more than 900 "micro innovations" to shorten the mold change time from 3 hours to 9 minutes!

Turning the business owner into a "Maitreya Buddha" is what Liu Chengyuan is most proud of. He said frankly that to improve the operating efficiency of a company, it is actually the leaders of the company who need to change the most. The internal problems of many enterprises are complex, like a mess. When the boss arrives at the production line, his eyes are full of problems, and he can't help but lose his temper. However, criticism and accusations may provoke more dissatisfaction and resistance from employees, and the vicious circle leads to a snowball of problems.

In order to change this situation, 3A consultants "forced" managers and employees to make improvements on the production line, man-to-man Looking forward to further improvement. Slowly, employees begin to understand the boss and are willing to make more achievements; the boss sees the positive changes in the employees, from criticism and blame to appreciation and affirmation, from the sidelines of the black school to business ethics and the spirit of contract, from the black The face "Bao Gong" transformed into a smiling "Buddha". In this cycle, the enterprise continuously accumulates the wisdom of employees, and the continuous improvement culture is gradually formed.

The bosses who have become "Buddhas" found that lean management can effectively help enterprises reduce the break-even point, and continuous improvement allows enterprises to gain more space for survival and development. In 3A's long list of customers, there are not only leading companies in various industries, but also small and medium-sized enterprises that are not well known. Over the years, with the help of Liu Chengyuan's 3A consultant team, the efficiency of a small household appliance company in Midea has increased by 40% in more than one year; the efficiency of TCL's home network business department has increased by nearly 80% in three years; the efficiency of Gree's air-conditioning assembly workshop has increased by nearly 30% in one year; The non-performing rate of Kemeijia has dropped by 90% in four years, and there are many similar cases. What makes Liu Chengyuan even happier is that many manufacturing enterprises have gradually established a "family culture" after introducing lean management and embarked on the road of everlasting business.

One sword in ten years, "localization" creates miracles

After obtaining a doctorate at Osaka University in Japan at the end of 1989, Liu Chengyuan decided to return to China to show his grand plans. There are very few people, but he firmly believes that there are more opportunities when everyone does not come back. Unexpectedly, in Shenzhen in the early stage of construction, his job search was unexpectedly bumped everywhere. After a tortuous "blind date", Liu Chengyuan came to Ricoh Industrial (Shenzhen) Development Co., Ltd. and began a ten-year management practice.

Ricoh is a Fortune 500 company with excellent management. Mr. Lishen, the chairman of the board, broke the old employment system and created a relatively equal working environment for Chinese managers such as Liu Chengyuan. Cultural integration with Chinese management practices. Mr. Lishen and Liu Chengyuan agreed to make Shenzhen Ricoh a school for cultivating management and technological innovation talents, hoping that Ricoh's Chinese employees will not only get good income, but also learn real skills. A few years later, Shenzhen Ricoh's middle-level managers were all localized, and half of the top managers were Chinese. Compared with other foreign companies, it not only saves costs, but also promotes the integration of Chinese and Japanese employees, giving full play to the enthusiasm and high efficiency of local talents, and creating a management miracle that is more efficient than local Japanese factories.

Cross-cultural management requires long-term mutual understanding, and each discussion can only be dealt with for a while. At that time, the Chinese and Japanese staff of Shenzhen Ricoh had a short run-in time, and Liu Chengyuan, who officially entered the management role, first faced the problem of cultural conflict. At the beginning of 1992, Liu Chengyuan led a team to Nanxiong County in northern Guangdong Province to recruit workers. It was originally scheduled to lead the team back at 6 o'clock in the evening, but the road was muddy and no phone was found along the way. It did not reach Shenzhen until 12 o'clock in the evening. Mr. Kikuchi, a Japanese executive, was furious about this and asked him why he didn’t report to the headquarters at any time. Liu Chengyuan explained repeatedly but Kikuchi was still stubborn. Half a month later, the company went to Nanxiong to recruit workers again. Liu Chengyuan suggested that the team should be led by Kikudai, but the whole team did not return until 2 am the next day. Kikuchi, who had experienced it personally, apologized to Liu Chengyuan repeatedly. In the continuous work collision and running-in, Kikuchi and Liu Chengyuan understood and learned from each other and became good friends.

Not every conflict has the opportunity to exchange roles and understand each other. Mr. Lishen's unswerving support and trust in Liu Chengyuan has become the most solid cornerstone.

Knowing that "knowledge changes destiny", Liu Chengyuan insists on subsidizing tuition fees for employees who study by themselves in their spare time, and designs related promotion channels to create a strong learning atmosphere and a soft environment for employee growth, benefiting thousands of Ricoh employees in Shenzhen. In order to help employees grow and improve management, Liu Chengyuan also implemented the improvement of "TPM and Employee Proposal", and employees actively participated. Since then, Shenzhen Ricoh has become a benchmark for domestic companies to emulate in terms of management. Employees who leave Ricoh have been hired with high salaries, or have succeeded in starting a business, or become expert consultants, making great achievements in their respective positions.

During ten years as a senior executive, the entrepreneurial impulse in Liu Chengyuan's heart was surging like an undercurrent. At the end of 2000, he finally resigned and founded Hezhong Resources · 3A Consulting Company. Excellent management experience helps more domestic enterprises to establish a model project of China's manufacturing industry with effective practical methods and localized management teams.

Educating people first, promoting lean spirit

Liu Chengyuan, who treats employees with parental heart, will be rigorous in his work, keep improving, be honest and trustworthy, and not opportunistic, and gradually teach by words and deeds. Internalized into the excellent culture of 3A consulting companies, he firmly believes that learning management should be realized in practice. With successful career experience in excellent companies and systematic study in business schools, consulting companies are the most needed talents. Liu Chengyuan said: "Our primary criterion for selecting consultants is the management experience of manufacturing companies such as Toyota, Samsung, and Ricoh. After systematic intensive training, they will be able to use lean management to help companies solve practical problems."

The effect of domestic enterprise management training is often not guaranteed. After in-depth research, Liu Chengyuan found that the reason is the lack of content closely related to work and an environment for applying what he has learned. In view of this, Liu Chengyuan creatively developed the "talent workshop" model to help enterprises quickly replicate talents in various positions. Different from ordinary training, Liu Chengyuan internalized the key elements of management thinking, management technology and work skills into the simulated production workshop of the talent workshop. Under the leadership of the instructor, the trainees participated in the operation, practiced management, and improved their awareness and ability through physical and mental experience.

Based on years of practice and experience, Liu Chengyuan, who is good at summarizing, refined a set of practical lean management "comprehensive improvement" theory, and divided enterprise management into "creation" and "education" The two major divisions implement the ability improvement of the "creation system" into the effective operation of the "education mechanism". Creation is the goal, and educating people is the means, which fully conforms to Toyota's "creation first educates people" idea. Liu Chengyuan believes that in order to make products or services to be first-class, we must build an efficient education mechanism, so that teams and employees can gradually become first-class through continuous learning and improvement.

The core of Liu Chengyuan's theory is "education", which consists of high, medium and low levels and is applicable to different types of enterprises and organizations. The high-level emphasizes the establishment of a "managerial capability" mechanism, which is used by leaders to "distribute a thousand pounds" to achieve efficient operation; the middle-level focuses on the three major mechanisms of operation self-management, employee proposal and subject improvement, in order to break down departmental barriers and solve practical problems of the enterprise , to comprehensively improve the level of business and process management; the basic part focuses on three mechanisms: construction quality improvement, learning and growth, and atmosphere creation. The role is to cultivate employees' good habits, guide employees to learn independently and promote employees' extensive participation in improvement. Over time, the theory will continue to be enriched and refined in a large number of practices.

Thinking about the management problems of China's manufacturing industry and looking for answers makes Liu Chengyuan happy. He constantly encourages friends, employees and family members around him to face current social problems with a proactive attitude, reminding entrepreneurs that although they cannot change the social environment by themselves, they can rely on their own conscience and sense of mission to work in the enterprise or the company. Create a more lean and beautiful small environment within the team, and indirectly affect the society. He firmly believes that the dream of Lean China is not far away.