Learning firsthand with Lean Benchmarking Tours to Japan

Successful businesses have always set the bar for those trying to achieve the same level of prosperity. Companies will often take what others have done and imitate it in hopes of reaping the same rewards. You see this all the time in the consumer electronics industry, with companies such as Apple creating innovative products and competitors then following in the company's footprints.

The same can be said of business operations. Henry Ford perfected the production line, and many companies soon followed suit. The concept of the production line was then integrated by thousands of business, both within automotive industry and in completely unrelated sectors.

Now, many companies are striving to do this with Lean manufacturing. They have seen the success realized by businesses such as Toyota after adopting these principles and practices, and want to achieve similar results by incorporating these mindsets into their businesses. Companies across the globe are switching to Lean production to minimize wasted resources and maximize efficiency.

However, with Kaizen and Lean, it can be substantially more difficult to integrate these concepts. They are foreign philosophies and practices that can be difficult to replicate, particularly among Western businesses that have long run under different value systems.

In fact, few company owners have personally seen a genuinely successful example of Lean programs in action. Many Western business leaders look past key aspects of Lean, such as the focus on people and culture. The misinterpretation of materials and self serving consultants' opinions on the internet can further confuse the matter.

Learning by Immersing Yourself – the Value of the Japan Lean Tour Experience

The fact of the matter is that implementing Lean solutions is a difficult task that requires a concerted effort to make meaningful changes. Without anything on which to benchmark their Lean programs, businesses will have trouble making the switch.

This is precisely why Lean Tours to Japan can have such a significant impact on the development of a business' Lean programs. When companies send their organizational leaders to Japan, they are sending them to the heart of Lean and Kaizen, where the mindsets and practices were developed decades ago and have been leveraged by a variety of businesses ever since.

In Japan, Kaizen is more than just a philosophy – it's a set of well-established business practices that a significant number of companies use successfully. There are reputable people who have made entire careers of establishing successful Lean programs at various companies over the past few decades.

A Lean Tour can give Kaizen leaders the firsthand experience they need to study and internalize what these mindsets and practices are all about. They will see not only which practices work, but learn why and how they are crucial to the development of a Lean company.

Tailored experiences

Of course, learning is a matter of seeing Lean programs in action and then applying these processes to your business. However, some Lean Tours tend to be very limited in scope, analyzing only a handful of companies in a few specific industries. This can limit the insight gathered by tour participants – for example, there is only so much a software company can learn by studying the Lean initiatives of an auto manufacturer.

In contrast, Enna has an extensive network of Japanese contacts and partners in a multitude of industries. When you embark on a Lean Tour with Enna, you can be sure you will receive the insight you need to develop your own Lean programs because the tour is designed with your needs in mind. There is no set schedule that everyone has to conform to – it can change depending on what is relevant to you.

This flexibility helps Kaizen leaders become more intimate with Lean processes and practices. Our business partners will welcome you to their floor rooms, take the time to speak directly with you and answer questions. Moreover, these are the people who are directly in control of Lean programs at their businesses, not some executive who has little contact with how companies are actually run.

When you're taking a trip to a foreign country to learn a complex system of practices and philosophies, relevancy is key. Businesses should be looking to take Lean Tours that put their own needs at the forefront of the experience. By taking tours designed specifically for them, participants will be better able to learn and internalize how Lean can be integrated into their business practices.