A hotel group had invited Mr. Masai Imai from Japan to hold a
workshop for its staff. The staff were very skeptical- the hotel is
doing excellent business, this person from Japan has no exposure to
hotel industry- what exactly is he going to teach?
But everybody as planned gathered for the workshop in
the conference hall sharp at 9 am. Mr. Masai was introduced to them- a
not so impressive personality, nor the English all that good; spoke as
if he was first formulating each sentence in Japanese and then
translating it into rather clumsy English.
“Good morning! Let’s start work. I am told this
is a workshop; but I see neither work nor shop. So let’s proceed where
work is happening. Let’s start with the first room on the first floor.”
Mr. Masai, followed by the senior management, the participants, the
video camera crew trouped out of the conference room and proceeded to
the destination. That happened to be the laundry room of the hotel. Mr.
Masai entered the room and stood at the window, “beautiful view!” he said. The staff knew it; they need not invite a Japanese
consultant to tell them this!
“A room with such a beautiful view is being
wasted as a laundry room. Shift the laundry to the basement and convert
this into a guest room.” Aa Haa! now nobody had ever thought about that!
The manager said, “Yes, it can be done.”
“Then let’s do it.”, Mr. Masai said.
“Yes sir, I will make a note of this and we will include it in the report on the workshop that will be prepared.” Manager
“Excuse me, but there is nothing to note down in this. Let’s just do it, just now.” Mr. Masai.
“Just now?” Manager
“Yes, decide on a room on the ground floor/basement and
shift the stuff out of this room right away. It should take a couple of
hours, right?” Mr. Masai.
“Yes.” Manager.
“Let’s come back here just before lunch. By then
all this stuff will have got shifted out and the room must be ready with
the carpets, furniture etc and from today you can start earning the few
thousand that you charge your customers for a room night.”
“Ok, Sir.” The manager had no option.
The next
destination was the pantry. The group entered. At the entrance were two
huge sinks full of plates to be washed. Mr. Masai removed his jacket
and started washing the plates.
“Sir, Please, what are you doing?” the manager didn’t know what to say and what to do.
“Why, I am washing the plates”, Mr. Masai.
“But sir, there is staff here to do that.” Manager
Mr.
Masai continued washing, “I think sink is for washing plates, there are
stands here to keep the plates and the plates should go into the
stands.”
All the officials wondered – did they require a consultant to tell them this?
After finishing the job, Mr. Masai asked, “how many plates do you have?’
“Plenty, so that there should never be any shortage.” Manager.
Mr.
Masai said, “We have a word in Japanese-‘Muda’. Muda means delay, muda
means unnecessary spending. One lesson to be learned in this workshop is
to avoid both. If you have plenty of plates, there will be delay in
cleaning them up. The first step to correct this situation is to remove
all the excess plates.”
“Yes, we will say this in the report.” Manager.
“No,
wasting our time in writing the report is again an instance of ‘muda’.
We must pack the extra plates in a box right away and send these to
whichever other section of Taj require these. Throughout the workshop
now we will find out where all we find this ‘muda’ hidden.”
And then at every spot and session, the staff eagerly awaited to find out muda and learn how to avoid it.
On the last day, Mr. Masai told a story.
“A Japanese and an American, both fond of
hunting, entered a jungle with guns. In the pursuit of game they entered
deep jungle and suddenly realized that they had run out of bullets.
Just then they heard a lion roaring. Both started running. But the
Japanese took a short break to put on his sports shoes. The American
said, “What are you doing? We must first get to the car.”
The Japanese said, “No. I only have to ensure that I
remain ahead of you.” All the participants engrossed in listening to the
story, realized suddenly that the lion would stop after getting his
victim!
“The lesson is competition in today’s world is so fierce, that it is
important to stay ahead of other even by just a couple of steps. And you
have such a huge and naturally well endowed country. If you remember to
curtail your production expenditure and give the best quality always,
you will be miles ahead as compared to so many other countries in the
world.”, Mr. Masai.
HAPPY IMPROVEMENT...
