Lean HE North & Midlands event 12th March 2020

Post date: Mar 27, 2020 11:24:33 AM

HE meets Toyota: What one sector can learn from another, hosted by the University of Liverpool.

The day started with an overview of the work undertaken by process and continuous improvement teams at the University of Liverpool before keynote speaker, Peter McArdle from Toyota delivered a presentation on the origins of Lean, the Toyota Production System, the Toyota Way and how we can apply similar practices in HE. Delegates then had an opportunity to ask Peter questions and learn more about Toyota’s practices.

In the afternoon we completed a roundtable improvement kata workshop following on from Toyota’s presentation based on the following four principles: People, Philosophy, Process and Problem Solving. Participants discussed the vision for our institutions, our current position, the next target condition of where we would like to get to and asked everyone to make a personal pledge of something they could start to implement within the next 30 days. Following this, we held an open mic session and gave participants an opportunity to pose their Lean challenges to everyone in the room and get ideas of potential solutions from other universities and from Toyota.

The day was full of lessons, challenges and inspiration with the key takeaway being ‘No company should aim to become a clone of Toyota, as each firm has its internal strengths and cultural idiosyncrasies. However, Toyota's path and the development of the people who got it there serves as a strong lesson for any company that seeks excellence’