I had the opportunity to read “ The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge upon recommendation by Prof YETI who is a class apart professor of Operations Management. His sarcasm is heavier than the concepts he teaches. But let's focus on the book here. The book talks about Systems thinking as the fifth discipline for creating a learning organization . The subtleness with which Prof Yeti highlighted the magnanimity of the book was hard to ignore. With this featherweight motivation and literally no time to die ( courtesy one year MBA) , I forced myself upon a voyage to understand what systems thinking is all-about. First of all, it is a classic read. The book dwells upon a cumulative thought process which encapsulates the idea of an ever-evolving and learning system/ organization. The core philosophy that the book preaches is - Structure causes Behaviour. And this was practically demonstrated during live simulation of Beer Gamein one of the class lectures. Structure refers to the interrelationships between key variables that influence behaviour over time. The main learning from Beer game was that more than external forces and individual mistakes, systems cause their own crisis. The book goes on further to elaborate balancing processes and reinforcing feedbacks as building blocks for creating a structure that supports Learning organization. Balancing processes build on goal oriented behaviour. Reinforcing feedback are engines of growth. A leader must leverage both balancing and reinforcing feedbacks depending on the needs of the organization. The author discusses on managing mental models and building a shared vision. What was most fascinating part of the book for me was the chapter on The Indivisible Whole. The direct experience of astronaut Rusty Schweickart where he discovered the principles of systems thinking while floating in space is awe-inspiring.
More recently, Toyota Production System(TPS) was taught in class by Prof YETI, as usual in his very own stoic yet pompous style. I could not stop but wonder that on a conceptual level, how both the subject matters(Systems thinking and TPS) are unique yet interlinked, like two sides of a coin (barring the one that Amitabh Bachchan had in Sholay). TPS is much more than only lean management, JIT or other ideas such as muda, Kanban, heijunka. It’s an ecosystem of multiple processes that focus not to push growth but to remove growth limiting factors. It’s a precise amalgamation of standardization and flexibility in processes aimed at high quality regardless of the short-term losses. TPS allows a specific sequence and timing of doing a task which must be first broken into separate activities. Most endearing fact is that there is no training manual for TPS, all rules are taught in Socratic fashion of iterative questioning and problem solving. Each of these rules are further tested based on clearly defined hypothesis. Strength of TPS lies in making people capable of and responsible for improving their own work.
Now let's come to the point which motivated me to pen down this article, interlinkages between Systems Thinking and TPS. I have observed that the conceptual ideas from The Fifth Discipline have been taken to task and their implementation is visible in TPS. A few of them are mentioned below.
Learning from Fifth discipline -> Toyota Production System Process implementation:-
- Team learning is the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire -> Standard Communication and Standard process flow is a rule in TPS for avoiding ambiguity and achieving accountability.
- Leading involves supporting people in discovering underlying causes of problems and empowering them to make choices -> Andon cord running adjacent to assembly lines of TPS enables workers to stop production if they detect a defect.
- Small changes can produce big results but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious -> TPS accepts a short term loss in throughput reflecting the reduction in inventory and then identify the most prominent problems in process.
- Easy way out usually leads back in as we find comfort in applying familiar solutions -> Every process improvement in TPS is done scientifically by success across lowest possible levels.
- Self concluding decisions result in deeper convictions and more effective implementation -> TPS uses teaching approach that allows workers to discover the rules as a consequence of solving problems. For example the supervisor asks the worker that how to know that the outcome is defect free? This continuing process gives the person deeper insights into his specific work.
This analogy will find more relevance with Industry 4.0 picking up pace and industry 5.0 looming over the horizon. Industry 4.0 model is already shaping the manufacturing world of the future and more companies will witness exponential growth thanks to the capabilities provided by IoT devices, cyber systems and cognitive computing. In a few year’s time, human workers and factory robots could end up collaborating on designs and sharing workloads across a variety of manufacturing processes.
I conclude with words of wisdom by Akio Toyoda , "I believe that the more automation advances, the more the ability of the people using it will be put to the test. Machines cannot improve unless people do, too."
