systematicHR

The intersection between HR strategy and HR technology

The Toyota Way: Principle 3

systematicHR Avatar

Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.

As I read “The Toyota Way” I constantly tried to think about how I could apply these principles to what I do, HR.  Reading the chapter on Principle 3, I repetitively came back to the idea of recruiting and how we pull talent from the marketplace and push them to hiring managers.

My problem with this principle is that it might work for the supply chain in manufacturing, but I’m not sure the principle is right for all of HR, like recruiting.  Based on workforce needs, I might just want to constantly push candidates to hiring managers even when they are not needed.  Have you ever run across the perfect candidate for a job, or just a great person you would want working for your organization in any capacity?  Waiting for the right job to open up might mean a missed opportunity to hire this individual whereas a flexible approach to staffing allows you to hire exceptional talent when they are available.

Another area where I think JIT fails in HR is information.  We’ll cover this again in a few days (principle 7), but suffice it to say that modern technology dashboards are designed to deliver easily viewed and informative organizational statistics on an ongoing basis so that problems can be identified immediately rather than as a reaction to an error.

There are of course areas in HR where JIT production makes complete sense.  We think about how we deliver call center and support services, for which the needs are largely unknown until the issue is raised.  The push/pull argument is really one of defining service delivery in all aspects of HR.  How information is requested and fulfilled, and what information or processes are critical enough to be available at all times is something your organization should be considering at all times.

Tagged in :

systematicHR Avatar

7 responses to “The Toyota Way: Principle 3”

  1. – Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of the short term financial goals. The Toyota Way: Principle 2 – Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.The Toyota Way: Principle 3- Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction. The Toyota Way: Principle 4 – Level out the workload. The Toyota Way: Principle 5 – Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

  2. – Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of the short term financial goals. The Toyota Way: Principle 2 – Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.The Toyota Way: Principle 3- Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction. The Toyota Way: Principle 4 – Level out the workload. The Toyota Way: Principle 5 – Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

  3. Wally Bock Avatar

    One issue is that JIT and most other manufacturing-developed systems depend on standardization of parts. People aren’t like that. Each one is unique as is each job slot. When you move away from the idea of interchangeable parts, some of the manufacturing ideas need to be scrapped or modified.

  4. jim Avatar
    jim

    Don’t we treat new hires as interchangable parts when we push them to managers that may not have a present need for them? Building up an inventory of candidates requires us to spend (or waste) recruiting resources and management time to hire the right candidate at the wrong time.

    According to the book “Toyota Talent” Toyota hires “capable people with a good work ethic that are moldable to the Toyota Way of doing things.” In other words, they hire capable people and develop them into perfect talent.

    Using the “pull” approach, if we’ve hired capable people, developed them adequately, then when there is an opening we have someone internally available for that position who has already aadpate to our way of doing things. Moving them into the new openning now becomes a signal to hire another capable person with a good work ethic, instead of looking for the perfect candidate.

    Jim

  5. luis Avatar

    I would say we already have pull and push systems:
    – succession planning is the pull system
    – talent development is the push system
    The beauty is when you integrate the two

    But the point with talent is that it can evolve in non predictable ways. So push and pull systems in HR need to be open-minded and accept frequent exceptions to general rules

  6. Romuald Avatar

    It seems like HR -and especially recruiting- has an identity problem. Everyone seems to compare it with other parts of the organization.
    I have seen it compared with
    – Sales for CRM,
    – logistics or production for supply chain management
    – financial for analytics

    The only other department that seem to lack its own identity is IT!
    When was the last time you have seen accounting compared to CRM?

    For sure, playing ostrich and not looking at what happening at other places is a good recipe for failure, or rather lack of success.
    But getting inspired from and copying are two different things. And here I have the feeling ( I may be wrong) that this is what is happening again.
    Yes, HR and recruiting are broken at many places.
    No, HR and recruiting are not a car assembly line.

  7. systematicHR Avatar

    Thanks for all the comments. I think everyone basically agreed that in this case, the Toyota principles are difficult to apply to HR. Certainly in terns of talent, the more we can load in, the better. However, as Luis mentioned, succession would be a good area where pull systems can be applied pretty easily.

    Should I have attempted to compare JIT and Toyota to HR? Maybe not, but I really do think this type of analysis and thoughtful thinking on the community’s part is how we figure out what our best next steps are. Thanks again.