One of the most iconic and well-known Lean resources is known simply as Toast Kaizen, and was created by GBMP President Bruce Hamilton 20 years ago. In this Lean Talk from the recent LEI Transformation Summit, Bruce answers the question of, as he puts it, “where the hell did toast video come from?”
Check out this 10 minute talk to learn how the famed video was produced by Bruce to demonstrate his personal commitment to kaizen when challenged by his sensei to do so. Enjoy the previous versions of the finished product (the director’s cut material, as it were). And hear from Bruce the twofold intent for what has become a lean blockbuster:
To show that all improvement comes from direct observation. “You have to go see to understand.”
And, to understand that continuous improvement and kaizen “are not so much about the work but all the things that get in the way of the work”.
Enjoy!
Bruce Hamilton will be a speaker and host at the North East Lean Conference this October 10 & 11 in Providence, RI. Learn more about the excellent lineup of speakers here: http://www.northeastleanconference.org/
I think a 25th Anniv edition would be good, but not at the expense of Toast’s huge simplicity of concept and universal relevancy of the task that is “making toast for your wife”. When I run a waste workshop using Toast Kaizen, I also overlay many other concepts including the idea that, were we to base our next budget upon the 4min17s performance we observe in the prior condition, we might naturally then give ourselves the ‘glass ceiling’ of perhaps a small % improvement (I work for a company where budget is king!!). However, if we allow ourselves the benefit of direct observation, engage people in kaizen and open the process up to CI, we might achieve 2mins and better AND AT THE SAME TIME ensure the customer receives what she actually wants too!!! Bruce, I can’t thank you enough as I have honestly used the video all around the world for 20yrs+ to challenge conventional thinking; with my most notable successes being in Corporate Finance setting (to expose the futility of budget setting) and even more successfully, I have used the mandarin version DVD to inspire employees in near the Chinese border with N. Korea at an Automotive JV I helped set up….and I’m pretty sure that they’d never seen a toaster in their lives before. Fantastic and utterly indispensable resource!!! Jim