ABSTRACT

At this stage of implementation, we have already succeeded beyond our wildest hopes, despite a few mistakes along the way. In a project of this scope, mistakes happen often, especially when the experiment is undertaken using internal resources, without much reliance on external expertise or consultants. In particular, we notice-and this isn’t unusual-that we have somewhat underestimated the following points:

1. The length of the learning curve 2. The effect of bottlenecks 3. The scope of the information technology (IT) adjustments required 4. The length of time to implement hand-to-hand

Recall that our initial objective was to complete the factory’s transformation in three months and then implement hand-to-hand in all the modules within three years. In the meantime, we would have continued to coach our teams to bring them to 100% performance. At base, three years seemed sufficient for the learning curve on the new machines.