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Appendix B: Protocol semi-structured interview
A: Introductie
1. Kunt u zichzelf voorstellen. Wie bent u en wat is uw functie bij Louwman & Parqui (L&P)?
2. Hoe lang bent u werkzaam bij de organisatie en in uw huidige functie? B: Marketing/Sales activiteiten bij Louwman & Parqui
3. Wat zijn de kernactiviteiten van uw afdeling?
4. Wat wordt er van u verwacht op het gebied van Marketing /Sales performance? 5. Hoe wordt u hierin gefaciliteerd?
6. Hoe wordt de performance gemeten/bijgehouden? C: Lean denken en werken
7. Wat verstaat u onder ‘Lean denken en werken’? 8. Wat verstaat u onder ‘The Toyota Way’?
9. Hoe is ‘The Toyota Way’ zichtbaar binnen de organisatie? 10. Hoe past u de ‘The Toyota Way’ toe in uw werk?
11. Waarom deze manier van werken?
12. Visie, mensen, processen, probleemoplossing. Hoe verhoudt dit zich tot elkaar? 13. Zijn er specifieke doelstellingen op continu verbeteren (leiderschap/houding &
gedrag/proces/om)?
14. Welke specifieke middelen, methodieken zetten jullie in? 15. Wie bepaalt of het op de juiste manier toegepast wordt?
16. Hoe ervaart u de rol van collega’s (in het verbeteren, oplossen van problemen)? 17. Hoe ervaart u de rol van het (hoger) management (in het verbeteren, oplossen van
problemen)?
D: Verbeterproject NPS / Verbeterproject Launch
1. Welk probleem wilde het verbeterproject oplossen?
2. Hoe is het verbeterpunt gesignaleerd? Wat deed u precies? 3. Wat was uw specifieke rol in dit verbeterproject?
4. Hoe is het project vervolgens tot stand gekomen?
5. Hoe heeft u de uitvoering aangepakt? Welke middelen en methodieken heeft u ingezet?
6. Waarom heeft u voor deze aanpak gekozen? 7. Hoe past dit binnen uw bedrijfscultuur?
8. Wat ging er goed tijdens de uitvoering en wat kon beter? 9. Hoe ging u hier specifiek mee om?
10. Wat heeft geleidt tot de pluspunten en wat tot de minpunten? 11. Wie waren de belanghebbenden en welke rol hebben zijn gespeeld? 12. Wat zag u ze precies doen?
Appendix C: Interview data display
1 Respondent AB-1 Respondent CD-2 Respondent EF-3 Respondent GH-4
Culture “Lean is TTW, our culture. Only within Toyota we don’t know the term Lean. Long term thinking, the spot at the horizon. Set ourselves challenging goals. Always apply Kaizen and Genchi genbutsu. Always think in common interest and teamwork. Give respect in advance. We strive to a serving & coaching Leadership style. “Our culture consists of 3 major subjects: continuous improvement, that the people work together, entrepreneurship, which we expect from each employee”
TTW is that we are constantly trying to work as efficiently as possible. Working together with a good relationship.
Lean is not the same as the Toyota way. It does fit with our culture. I know Lean from the production process. I don’t think that it works for all the processes we have here internally.
Our culture is the Toyota way. Teamwork and respect for the people are very important here.
The Toyota Way is a certain way of working together and how we do our processes.
In everything that we do, try to deliver quality work. Toyota is the great example of how you can do things in a Lean way.
I think that it lies very close to each other [Lean and the Toyota Way]. I think that a lot of people see it as one. TTW is also about how you can do your work as good and smart as possible.
Respect is in how we approach each other, give each other space and listen to each other.
The visualization of TTW is very old- fashioned. It’s not attractive at all.
I believe it is in our genes to hate waste. We don’t call it Lean. I don’t know if we are Lean.
We do look at how we can make our processes more efficient, can we save costs? We do this by looking in a different way to our processes. What draws me to this culture is one of the core values: Respect for people. We respect someone before even knowing the person. And the teamwork, we are in it together. This motivates me to keep supporting this company.
When a person does not match with our core values they will be let go. People working here have to be able to pass our ‘gate’ of core values.
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Employee behavior
“We use research results for our improvement programs” We start improvement from our processes”
Find each other in an early stadium to solve problems. Giving each other feedback are daily affairs. Feedback goes very natural on all levels. ‘A lot of personal contact to discuss what we can improve, also cross departments” “Only start with a well thought out plan and we continuously adjust if necessary to the current market situation” We still make a lot of mistakes, but most of the time we learn from it"
We are expected to keep the costs in mind, because we work for our own wallet.
We apply Genchi genbutsu when there is a problem to solve. This is very typical unaware behaviour within the organization.
We use the terms Kaizen and Genchi genbutsu constantly. My people often name and use the Toyota way. Is there a problem they then say: ‘We
should go back to the source’ or ‘Let’s do Genchi genbutsu’. We
challenge each other to find the root cause of the problem. In everything that you do try to offer the highest quality. For the customer. We try to work as much as possible from the processes. Sometimes the preparation phase is very long, this can be frustrating. It is not in our nature. Everybody needs to have a say. The way we handle things depends on our values, but also a lot on the characters of people. It is also in our nature to do things quickly, so sometimes the research and analysis part makes us impatient. But we stand for when we do something, we need to do it well, and make sure there are no defects in our products.
” Going back to the source is natural behavior for us. We also conduct Nemawashi to create support for improvement ideas, by informally planting the seed.
We approach each other easily; our people are very open. We show interest in each other by asking how the other one is doing and what he/she’s busy with.
We often lend each other a helping hand.
You get a lot of opinions when a new idea will be picked up. Sometimes the speed goes out the process because we go into too much detail with too many people.
In my opinion continuous improvement goes very slow. A good idea too often strands in bureaucracy.
Leader Behavior
My manager easily gives feedback and this goes both ways.
I see him giving us challenges. He often poses direct and critical questions to stimulate our thinking process.
I see higher management often keeps asking questions until they get to the bottom of things. 5 times Why.
“I take up an active and objective role.” “Address what happens and stimulate my employee to solve it.” Ex. When something has gone wrong, my colleague and I bring our departments together. We address wat happened and discuss what the consequences are. I make sure that there is no finger pointing and I try to stay objective. “I act as a mediating person to get the right people at the
Our manager is the motor behind continuous improvement in our department. He is tireless.
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table to elaborate and work on reaching our common goals.” I enthuse them to work on our goals. “I give compliments when things go well”.
The role of the leader is very important, exemplary behavior. If you say that you find something very important, you also have to show it. What I do see is that when we are under pressure, then the emotions come in. We find feedback important, but sometimes we are not always open, because then your thoughts come first, can I say this to this person? Especially when it’s someone in a higher position. You will see that in difficult times this is not a priority. Our MT could do better. You should always keep talking about this and remind each other of this. In our daily work we pay with more awareness attention to kaizen and genchi genbutsu than to teamwork and respect.
Politics also influence the way we treat each other. When there is a conflict. But there are not a lot of conflicts.
We spend a lot of time on thinking things over, analysis, which also means we take more time for things.
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Vision, Strategy, Business goals
“Business goals are formulated by the management team, sometimes also by employees, a top down and bottom up process, depends on which type of goal”
My manager is very open about the goals. Higher management sets goals and sends/presents them to my manager. He translates it to my department.
“Set frameworks and manage expectations”.
We now work with a business plan on A4. It’s much more concrete on what we expect from you.
We have a mission and vision and goals, like any other company has. But our way to get there is unique in my eyes. Our steadfastness.
Performance “We hold Customer satisfaction surveys, we conduct mystery shopping and we audit dealers by the standards” “Operational management is also The Toyota Way from which the
organizational goals are determined”.
We work with performance
overviews to follow our purchase and sales figures. Not everybody works with the figures. We do not purposely check from the Toyota way, but we do daily look at how we can optimize our processes and performance”. For example, together with marketing we look at the short term results and then find solutions when a product sells less .
We do not use specific tools to carry out TTW. We just do it.
We should focus more consciously on our culture. Because of the focus on NPS, TTW went more to the background.
We measure a lot of customer data and share that with the rest of the organization. We make use of KPI’s. I manage by goals. During appraisals we discuss the results. Everybody has their own goals.
We continuously discuss where we stand, what we still have to do.
My performance is hard to measure. Measurement is mainly based on formal and informal conversations. We can still improve a lot on certain performance measurements. We are strong at process-oriented working. We stick to our procedures.
Project NPS “Put the customer in the center of our services. A new way to look at customer experience. We stopped with merely focusing on what the customer should say about our existing processes, and started asking what was important to the customer. We applied genchi genbutsu and Kaizen”
I was not involved. I only followed the NPS training to understand what it is. During our quarterly meetings the NPS results are discussed. We make sure that we contribute to a good score by making sure the data is available on time for our partners. I do not do anything else with NPS.
While we worked on this project people started to see NPS as a goal on itself, they started to hang everything under NPS, while it actually was about TTW.
We did not use kaizen or genchi genbutsu specifically.
Toyota took NPS over from us. We saw the role of higher
management as conditionally for the success of the change. We constantly
The project has brought a lot of improvement in the way we and our dealers approach the customer, our NPS score has increased significantly. Our standard working methods were applied back to the source, and kaizen. We applied Nemawashi at the MT as one of the preparations.
The process did not always go flawless. Sometimes too much discussion on
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had to keep fighting for their attention on this. They often tried to put their responsibility back in the organization.
details. Because we want to know all the facts and figures.
Our approach is thoroughly. We know exactly what we are talking about. We also made the effort to have the entire organization involved, to keep their focus on the project goals: Make sure that our dealers have loyal customers. We went outside to look how others worked with NPS and we did research on the customer side. We invited all our dealers at L&P. We presented what NPS was and gave them all the support from our office and at their location to imbed it in their organizations. We do demand their commitment, but we also give it to them. We are loyal to each other. We explain that this new tool is something that could help their business, they understand that our common goal is the customer. Also here Nemawashi is very important. This is about understanding that with very simple things you are able to influence the customer experience. It is about that insight of what can amaze or surprise a customer.
Project Launch “make the process more efficient and at the same time improve our quality towards the dealer and customer”
“I was not involved, but I do work according to the new improved process” I see the improvement, We did reduce mistakes and lead time of the process” It is important to know what our departments do, so you can understand better why they would
We first researched what was really wrong in this process by going to the source. We asked anyone in the organization involved to share their experiences and thoughts. After this we started making very clear
agreements on what we had to do and
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need certain information or actions from you.
what we should not do anymore. During the meetings we strictly followed the agenda structure with short to the point discussions. We now all know earlier in the process what we have to deliver. It works and the people are more involved.
2 Respondent IJ-5 Respondent KL-6 Respondent MN-7 Respondent OP-8
Culture TTW is about improving things, doing it cost-efficient and doing it together with all the departments.
A very important value is Genchi genbutsu: you always go search for the truth at the source.
We guard TTW by only hiring people that are able to work by our values, that are able to work together to get results. We train our people in TTW. We often don’t act consciously in line with TTW, because it is in our genes. We just do it. There are no specific TTW goals formulated. The way we are has grown through the years from the start of the company.
The focus on TTW has become less due to the problems in the European market. We do not speak enough about the TTW.
The Toyota Way is wider than purely Lean thinking. Main pillars are Respect for people and Automotive entrepreneurship. I don’t think this one needed to be added. I cannot call the third one to mind right now. I should know it…
Cultuur is je niet opgelegd, maar je voelt het aan. Deels bewust en deels onbewust. TTW is op meerdere plekken zichtbaar gemaakt, posters aan de muren, kaarten op de bureaus. Bij de introductietraining krijg je al mee dat continu verbeteren, zo werk wij is. Er wordt niet gezegd dat het van je wordt verwacht, het wordt je niet opgelegd, maar je krijgt vanaf de start het gevoel van: zo hoort het te zijn.
Je krijgt de vrijheid om iets aan te kaarten: wanneer ik een voorstel heb
We have an open culture. As
colleagues we help each other out and take care of each other,
spontaneously.
We do have a consultation culture. For me TTW is a collection of values that typifies L&P. I don’t know if we are Lean. I know Lean mainly from the production process, it is the prevention of waste. This is easier to recognize in supply chain
management than in a management style.
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Are we doing Lean? I don’t think in all aspects. Lean is constantly searching for waste in you processes and eliminating this, and frequently testing what does for your results.
ter verbetering dan word ik aan alle kanten gesteund om daarin verder te denken.
Je mag discussies voeren, maar je moet anderen niet schofferen. Mensen zijn open naar elkaar en dat geeft vertrouwen.
Employee behavior
We stimulate the employees to seek cooperation with colleagues from all the disciplines in marketing (marketing, sales, procurement). We expect that there are no ‘walls’ between departments or teams.
We stimulate them to give each other feedback, so that they are better able to get results together. We learn them that it’s OK to make each other stronger. To deliver value we first find out what the process is. To understand our processes, we go to the place where the process is, whether in-house or at a dealers’ place.
When I see someone who doesn’t keeps the TTW values high, I will give him feedback. We stimulate our people to get back on track. It is OK to make mistakes, as long as we learn form them.
Genchi genbutsu has gone wrong a few times. We then fell into endless searches for facts and discussions to come to some agreement, which slowed down the process. We have learned
Toyota staat bekend om het Kaizen principe. Hier hou ik me erg mee bezig. Het is afhankelijk van de functie, wat er van je verwacht wordt. Ik streef zelf constant naar
verbetering, in mezelf als persoon en in het werk wat ik oplever. Je moet jezelf niet blokkeren in wat je kan. Ik heb ook het idee dat als je wil groeien in het bedrijf je jezelf moet bewijzen. Ik durf risico’s te nemen.
Ik denk niet dat de TTW in iedere functie even sterk aanwezig is. In bepaalde functies, met alle respect, is men alleen maar bezig met de uitvoering van een taak en niet verder kijkende naar verbeteringen. Dit doen ze alleen wel als een probleem zich structureel voordoet.
We zoeken makkelijk de samenwerking op. Veel ideeen ontstaan bottom up. Manier van uitvoering van ons werk wordt ons niet van bovenaf opgelegd. Ik overleg veel met anderen, omdat er veel afhankelijkheden zijn tussen mijn afdeling en inkoop en marketing. I
Each employee is able to help each customer, that is how the team takes responsibility for the customer. We divide our work, but the customer does not notices that, they never have to wait for an employee to be available.
We continuously analyse our work. Monthly we analyse our contact moments with the customer by discussing results and management reports. We do kaizen and Genchi genbutsu to improve. When we signal problems that cannot be solved by ourselves we point it out to the responsible.
We distribute our knowledge from