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Plant Manager, Scott Wessler observes a process under

improvement using the daily Toyota Kata

April 12, 2011

RE: Toyota Kata at Delta Faucet Company

Greetings Mike,

I wanted to give you an update following a recent 3-day Toyota Kata training event. This one was held at

Delta Faucet’s Greensburg, IN plant. During this event, we had 6 areas running in parallel, with Mike

Rohlwing, Todd Jacobi, and myself serving in

the Sensei / 2nd

Coach role. What struck me

clearly during this event was the degree of

progress the two area managers had made

since my last visit in December. These

managers, Mike Hunger and Ronnie Rudd,

have been the primary Coaches for nearly all

projects at Greensburg.

Over the course of the workshop, several key

bits of information became clear. I thought

you’d find it interesting the changes that plant

manager, Scott Wessler, made that

contributed to their improved competence.

Here is a summary of activities now in place.

DAILY COACHING CYCLES

For several months Scott had been doing Coaching Cycles with his teams, but on an “as needed / as

when” basis. Thus the intervals were irregular and difficult to schedule around other activities.

Since the visit in December, Scott has fixed

times *every day* to conduct coaching cycles.

He is now acting as Sensei for 3 different

projects, observing the coaching cycles

conducted by his managers. After each

coaching cycle he provides feedback to the

coach about how he could improve his

effectiveness. Additionally, Scott is personally

acting as a coach for a management level

project.

Scott’s observation is that the rate of learning

within the organization as well as the rate of

process improvement has increased

significantly since making the move to daily fixed times for coaching cycles. This is a big time

commitment for Scott on a daily basis; four cycles per day at 30 minutes / cycle equals two hours per

day. To him, it is well worth it because it provides him a consistent and reliable way to make headway

on projects while at the same time developing Kata thinking and behavior in his people. With more

practice perhaps they can get to the 15-minute coaching cycles we usually strive to achieve.

Todd Jacobi

2nd

Coach

Ron Rudd

Coach

Troy Deaton

Learner

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Some takeaways from the leadership book study group

HYBRID APPROACH

Combining Toyota Kata and periodic events - Early on in Delta’s experience with TK, all activity was

event based; conducted during 3-day workshops since the initial training was facilitated by an outside

consultant. This evolved into workshops being led by Todd Jacobi, Director of Manufacturing, which was

better, not relying exclusively on a consultant, but soon revealed its limits. Not all projects could be

completed in a 3-day window.

This prompted Scott to move to a daily coaching style as described above. Recently, however, they have

employed both formats. The daily routine involved once/day coaching cycles on a fixed time basis. Every

other month, though, Mr. Jacobi visits Greensburg for a 3-day intensive workshop event. The

difference? During these workshops, coaching cycles are much more frequent, occurring 5-8 times /

day, which results in even smaller and faster PDCA cycles. Also, additional personnel from outside the

Greensburg plant are able to serve in the Coach and 2nd

Coach roles, which provides fresh perspective

and energy to the entire process. The workshops allow more focused activity and added resources from

other plants, not available using the daily coaching model.

TK BOOK STUDY

Scott is conducting a structured book review of

Toyota Kata with all of his team leaders,

managers, and staff. The entire group reads one

chapter at a time and then comes together to

discuss what they’ve read. An important feature

of these meetings is the “Key Takeaway” list that

the group generates. These sessions are serving

to reinforce not only the practices of Toyota

Kata, but also a deeper understanding of the

intent and purpose behind them.

In speaking with Scott Wessler, it is clear that he

is beginning to manage differently as a result of

all of the above changes. He is recognizing that

TK is a means toward achieving important

business objectives and performance goals. Thus,

he is choosing challenges to work on with Toyota

Kata that enable him to meet his long term goals

and objectives. He has become strategic in the

use of the Kata as a means of managing. Scott is

eager to host events at his plant because he gets

the double benefit of intensifying the learning

opportunity for his team as well as making meaningful progress on important projects. His managers

also reflected this awareness.

Scott has been practicing with the TK methods actively for just over a year. It is encouraging to me how

significantly an organization can both develop critical thinking and problem solving skills in its workforce

as well as considerable progress in its business goals. Additionally, Mike and Ronnie each have over 35

years of service at Delta Faucet – Greensburg, which proves that you can teach “experienced dogs” new

tricks. These two seasoned managers are very excited about Kata.

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An Advance Group Reflection

It should also be mentioned that Delta Faucet’s Greensburg plant has undergone a tremendous amount

of downsizing over the past 5 years. Around 1,300 people worked at the plant at its peak. Now, it is

down to ~140 hourly associates. So, the workforce is very experienced (AVERAGE seniority of ~35 years)

and has every reason NOT to trust what management is trying to do. However, the hourly workforce is

actively engaged with management to support the improvement Kata. It’s not easy to change the

culture of such a seasoned workforce (both management and hourly), but practicing the improvement

and coaching Kata are developing new ways of thinking, acting, and remaining competitive!

As a final note, I thought you’d appreciate a brief

exchange that took place during one of the book

study sessions mentioned above. One of the Team

Leaders asked Scott if the Delta Faucet Leadership

team were using Kata themselves to develop Kata.

When Scott responded “yes, we are” (i.e., the

Advance Group conducts Coaching Cycles and

reflections every other week), the TL was a little

taken aback, but it reinforced that the Advance

Group is indeed “walking the talk” and bought a lot

of credibility!

I thought you’d want to know about this emerging

TK success story.

Fresh from the field,

Bill Costantino

W3 Group LLC