DERYL S. (Toyota NAMC President/CEO - Retired)
My first exposure to Dave Blanchat and the PFI Team was in the spring of 2012. I had recently retired from Toyota and was enjoying myself with family and doing things I know had time to do. Too keep my mind active I did a little consulting and found there was a great desire to learn more about The Toyota Production System and “ lean” in general. I did work with some of the largest and most successful companies around but found it lacking. In most cases the companies were successful in spite of themselves.
I had done some work with the largest insurance company in the world. Went out to dinner with their chairman who truly wanted to be excellent, he suggested that I meet with his team individually gauge and their interest. I did so and found that they were interested in doing lean, but for the wrong reason. They wanted to do it because the boss wanted to do it not because it was the right thing to do. I met with the chairman, and told him it might be a waste of his money and my time to work with his company. He asked me why and I suggested he assess his team regarding a lean undertaking and what their thoughts were regarding lean. I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble but felt he needed too better understand where his reports. This example was the rule and not the exception. Top management wanted to be lean but no one wanted to put in the work. I call this “hauling water and chopping wood”, doing the hard work required to be excellent.
So you can imagine my apprehension when I received a call requesting that I spend some time with PFI. I spoke with Dave Szeflin via phone and we made arrangements for me to visit the site in Lost Hills, California. I flew down and spent the entire day walking the plant, going to the jobsite, talking to the team members, and meeting members of their management, Dave Szeflin, Dave Blanchat, Nathan Ecret, Annu Gupta, and others. They were an impressive group. I have always defined leadership as three equal components, passion, knowledge, and the ability to reflect and redirect when necessary. If you lack any of these its hard to sustain long term trust and improvement in an organization. The leadership team had the first two in spades but only time would show if they had the third component. At the days conclusion we had a wrap up meeting and during this meeting I gave them my observations, good and bad, but also gave some suggestions and things too try. I did this for two reasons, first I actually wanted to help them but secondly I wanted to see if they would follow up. I discussed in detail visual management systems and how to engage the masses. One quick takeaway was that they had 6 or 7 very smart individuals making all the decisions and 2,000 people waiting for orders. I also said that the primary responsibility of top management was to develop people.
I went back home and sat on my back patio for some time and then my wife came out and said “well what did you think about the visit?” to which I replied “I have no idea what they are trying to do!” she laughed and said “can you help them?” I responded “yes, if they are willing”.
From time to time over the next few months I flew down and spent a day or two showing them some key concepts and ideas but more importantly I was trying to figure out their potential and willingness to learn but also implement and the only way to do this is by getting too know who they truly are. Two key concepts I discussed with Dave Blanchat was being out of the office and on the floor and engaging with the masses, developing relationships with team members and using a concept of leadership I call “managing as if you have no power”, using your personality to lead. The second concept I tried to teach was FMDS (floor management development system), this is a visible management system focusing on making all problems visual, one story and one truth, taking turns leading the activity in order to engage. After a few months, I came back and to my surprise Dave had converted his office into an FMDS meeting room and even better the meeting was being led by his secretary, it was very obvious that Dave and the entire management team were now out of their offices and spending time on the floor developing people and it showed on the faces of the members as they engaged in problem solving.
Ten years later Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds (PFI) is a completely different place due to the leadership of Dave Blanchat and Dave Szeflin. Instead of just trying to get shipments out, they have a 5 year plan, 1 year hoshin kanri plan and are even working on a 20 year strategy. Better yet, they have done it by developing people which makes everything sustainable. Looks like my question of “self reflection and redirection” has been answered. Lots of folks were and are praying for you Dave and god bless!
“God Shots” is a great book. An inspired look at the power of prayer and a reminder that God wants us to give all of our problems and concerns to him. I found reading it to be comforting and reflective. The fact that Dave is still with us on earth shows the healing power of god’s unconditional love.
As always, Deryl