Opening and personal resume introduction
At the beginning of this interview, Joewang (a senior black belt, lean consultant, and expert member) initiated the conversation with a warm and friendly attitude. He sincerely thanked the Quality Network for providing this interview opportunity.
Joewang's career has been rich and diverse. In 1998, after graduating from school, he joined the plastics division of GE. His journey started with a three - shift job on the front line of the factory. This seemingly ordinary beginning actually allowed him to accumulate profound grass - roots experience.In the following seven years, he was like an all - around player, shining in different positions. He was involved in the field of quality control and was well aware of the importance of product quality to an enterprise. He participated in the production process and understood how to build an efficient production workflow. He engaged in procurement work and mastered the key points of material supply. He was responsible for planning and learned how to allocate resources reasonably. He also participated in electronic bidding, which honed his sense of market competition. He even served as a regional sales manager, broadening his horizons in market sales.
As early as 1998, Joewang began to receive Green Belt training. After that, he also served as a full - time Six Sigma Black Belt for two years, which laid a solid theoretical foundation for him in quality management and process optimization. At the end of 2004, he immigrated to Canada and joined a consulting firm, where he was responsible for consulting work in Lean Six Sigma. He has traveled widely, covering North America and Asia, and has accumulated rich practical experience in different geographical and cultural backgrounds. Later, he returned to GE and served as the Lean Production Manager of a plastics factory in Canada. Three years ago, he made a bold career change and ventured into the banking industry, serving as the Continuous Improvement Manager of the back - office operation group of three major banks in Canada.
Joewang believes that starting from the bottom of the enterprise and having work experience in multiple departments, including the operations and sales departments, is an extremely valuable asset in his career. This comprehensive experience in enterprise operation and understanding of the needs at various levels enable him to communicate better with people at different hierarchical levels when promoting enterprise transformation, thus making it easier to achieve the success of the transformation.
Growth and experiences at the GE plant in Canada
Joewang worked as a Lean Manager at the GE Canada plant for many years, mainly responsible for process improvement in the engineering plastics department. During this period, his most significant area of growth was reflected in the transformation and maturity of his management style.
Before joining the GE Canada plant, his management style was a typical "PUSH" model, emphasizing top - down instruction delivery. However, after taking up a position at GE Canada, he gradually realized that the simple "PUSH" model was not suitable for the local work environment. Therefore, he began to try to combine "PUSH" with "PULL". He paid more attention to listening to the ideas of employees and was willing to spend time helping them grow. He used more patient guidance and positive incentives to stimulate employees' enthusiasm.In North America, the differences in salary and benefits between ordinary employees and management are relatively small, and people are more equal in status. A condescending management style can hardly achieve good results. Only by respecting and motivating employees can they be willing to follow the team forward.
In the early days after arriving at the GE Canada factory, Joe Wang faced numerous challenges. The language barrier and cultural differences made him feel pain and frustration when communicating effectively with team members and managing them. Moreover, he was also burdened with the important task of implementing lean production and continuous improvement across the entire factory. However, he didn't back down but took proactive actions instead.He spent a great deal of time conducting on - site inspections and observations in the workshop. He communicated with workers in the noisy environment, discussed problems with senior colleagues in the department, and even sought advice from his former colleagues in China. Thanks to his profound professional knowledge and hard work, he accurately grasped the core problems of the factory's production after a few months.He began to in - depthly arrange lean activities. With his ability to quickly identify the core of problems, he won the trust and respect of the entire company. And his approachable style also enabled him to quickly win the friendship of the workers.
During his experience at the GE plant in Canada, Joe Wang was deeply impressed by the powerful influence of North American labor unions. At that time, a small group of workers intended to establish a union in the factory, and this news put the company on high alert. When the boss held a meeting with the leadership team, he nervously closed the door of the conference room.The company quickly took a series of actions. As a department manager, Joe Wang was involved in the whole process, including having conversations with employees, discussing counter - measures with experts, unifying the external statements, writing letters to employees' families, and discussing how to improve employees' benefits. This process resembled the labor - capital confrontation scenes shown in old Shanghai movies of pre - 1949 China. However, the difference was that in this situation, the employers seemed to be in a more vulnerable position. The leadership team was extremely cautious, while the union members were high - profile and assertive. This stark contrast made Joe Wang think more deeply about the social conditions required for implementing lean management.
Reasons, Challenges and Gains of Engaging in Consulting Work
Joewang got into the consulting work of lean and Six Sigma management by chance. He got acquainted with the boss of a consulting firm. This boss was a senior consultant who had come from LEI. The boss was very interested in Joewang's rich experiences and invited him to take charge of clients in the electronics and chemical industries. Joewang also hoped to broaden his horizons through this opportunity and try to develop his career in the consulting industry, so he readily joined the consulting firm.
After joining the company, Joewang has been on business trips for most of the time. He has traveled extensively across Asia and North America, visiting over a hundred clients from different industries. In this process, he has witnessed many successful and failed cases and has actually helped some clients implement lean improvements.
His first business - trip consulting assignment was at an injection - molding factory in Canada that specialized in manufacturing automobile parts. To his surprise, there were many Cantonese people who had immigrated to Canada in the early days in the factory, so that he could communicate only in Cantonese on some occasions. After investigation, he found that there were not many problems with the product quality of the factory, but the production scheduling was backward, the mold - changing time was long, the factory inventory was high, and the on - site environment was dirty and messy.Joe Wang gave full play to his professional abilities. First, he wrote a simple electronic production planning system for the factory, reducing the production planning time from two hours to half an hour. Then, he designed several tools and had the suppliers manufacture them, which significantly reduced the switching time. As the production scheduling became more reasonable, the workshop production gradually got on the right track. Seeing these obvious improvements, the boss was very happy and shared with Joe Wang his arduous journey of starting a business in Canada after immigrating from Europe in his early years.Through this experience, Joe Wang deeply realized that simply knowing theories such as Lean Six Sigma was not enough to solve problems in specific industries. For consultants engaged in Lean Six Sigma, in - depth industry experience was crucial. Otherwise, they might only be able to provide training to enterprises.
Engaging in consulting work poses numerous challenges. One of the biggest challenges is how to quickly identify the key issues of a problem within a short period and propose effective solutions. Consultants often encounter unfamiliar industries and processes. It's impossible for them to have in - depth knowledge of all industries, and they don't have enough time to carefully ponder over the answers. Although one can learn about common corporate problems and conventional solution approaches through an MBA program, Joe Wang believes that learning from practice and enhancing one's insights and abilities are more important. Another challenge is to have a strong body, as frequent business trips are physically exhausting.
In the consulting work, there is one thing that left a deep impression on Joe Wang. At an electronics factory in East China, he was discussing a serious quality problem with several managers of the client in the meeting room. When he asked a very detailed question, none of the managers knew the answer, so they had to invite a female worker on the production line to answer it. After the female worker came in, seeing several bosses present, she was too nervous to sit down and stood by the table, trembling. This scene made Joe Wang think of those confident white - collar workers in North America, and he felt a complex mix of emotions.Later, based on the female worker's description, Joe Wang judged that it was a problem with the raw materials and suggested that they test the raw materials. As a result, it was found that the quality of a certain reagent, which was used in small quantities but was very expensive, was unstable. Further investigation revealed that the supplier had substituted inferior products for the good ones in order to reduce costs.Through this incident, Joe Wang realized that most of the problems encountered in consulting work are related to human factors, while purely technical problems only account for a small part.
Working in the consulting field has broadened Joe Wang's horizons. He has got to know different industries and made acquaintance with many peers in the consulting industry. More importantly, he has mastered a systematic approach to quickly understand an industry and identify its problems from a macro - perspective. Combining this with his in - depth experiences in multiple departments before, he believes that he has truly developed the ability to manage an enterprise.
Work Content and Challenge Resolution in the Financial Industry
Three years ago, Joewang switched to the financial industry and took on the role of a lean consultant at one of the three major banks in Canada. This job differs from his previous positions. He needs to formulate lean implementation strategies from the perspective of the company's headquarters, assist the lean managers in each business center to implement lean practices in line with the headquarters' requirements, develop and standardize the company's operating systems, and cultivate the internal lean culture of the company.In addition, he is specifically in charge of the STAFF TO VOLUME project, which involves accurately predicting demand, optimizing production capacity allocation, and reducing costs. This project has provided him with many opportunities to interact with managers at all levels. It is also the most influential project among the lean activities and is still being continuously promoted. He plans to further introduce the relevant situation of this project on his blog.
In this position, the biggest challenge Joewang faces is how to promote the lean concept among middle - and senior - level managers. The banking industry is a conservative and stable one. Many middle - and senior - level managers have worked here for more than a decade or even longer. Especially those general managers, they are skeptical and resistant to the lean concept. In the initial stage, the promotion work was extremely difficult. There were often sarcastic remarks during phone conferences. Once, a general manager sent an email to all the other general managers, questioning the lean concept throughout the email. This email circulated among the general managers, and some even copied Joewang on it. Facing such unprofessional ways of raising doubts, although Joewang despised it inwardly, he also realized the huge resistance the change was facing.
However, Joewang was not intimidated by the difficulties. He was well aware that in any change, both the positive and negative people are in the minority, and the majority are on the sidelines. Just like the crowd in the movie *Let the Bullets Fly*, they will ultimately choose to side with the winning party. Therefore, he decided to start with those relatively open - minded general managers to carry out improvement activities.He invited these general managers to visit lean benchmark enterprises and participate in the lean summit of the financial industry. He also conducted improvement activity trials in their departments, enabling them to personally experience the results brought about by the improvements. Meanwhile, he invited higher - level presidents and vice - presidents to attend some improvement activities to enhance the influence of the activities. In addition, he invited all general managers to attend a lean managers' meeting once a month, allowing them to see the progress of other departments.
After more than half a year's efforts, the situation has changed significantly. In particular, the STV project led by Joewang has provided great support for the general managers in terms of cost control and has been recognized by them. Of course, there are also individual general managers who would rather retire early than accept the lean concept. In such cases, the company has no choice but to let them leave. Through these efforts, Joewang has gradually promoted the lean concept in the banking industry and made contributions to the company's sustainable development.
Key points for consultants in the early stage of implementing lean management in enterprises
In the process of enterprises promoting lean management, the support from senior management is like a solid backing, providing guarantees in terms of resources and directions for project implementation. However, for consultants, accurately selecting a breakthrough point for improvement at the beginning of the project is of utmost importance. If this is ignored, it's like sailing blindly in a rough sea, and it's easy to find oneself in a desperate situation. The doubts and objections from people are like fierce waves that can easily submerge the consultant, ultimately leading to a tragic end described as "dying before achieving success, which always makes heroes shed tears." Therefore, consultants must have keen insight to find the key node that can have a far - reaching impact on the whole in the complex business processes and management systems of the enterprise. This key node should be used as the starting point for improvement, laying a good foundation for the subsequent implementation of lean management.
Sharing of experiences on lean and Six Sigma management by practitioners
After years of experience in the fields of Lean and Six Sigma management, I have witnessed the unique charm of these two areas. These two fields are like two dazzling stars, each emitting its own distinct light.
Lean is more like a profound philosophical concept with wide applicability, seemingly a universal truth. Toyota's successful practice is undoubtedly a classic example of lean management, attracting numerous enterprises around the world to follow suit. In the eyes of Westerners, lean management is the only management system successfully exported from the East to the West in the field of management, which shows its significant influence.From the perspective of corporate strategy, lean management is highly suitable for enterprises to formulate long - term competitive strategies and helps them build a corporate culture that enables the transition from excellence to greatness.However, implementing lean management is not a smooth journey. Although the Toyota Production System serves as the core template, enterprises still need to develop an operating system that suits their own characteristics according to the nature of their industries. At the same time, they also need to create a unique corporate culture that matches it. Moreover, it is sometimes difficult to directly quantify and evaluate the improvement effects of lean management, which also poses certain challenges to its implementation in enterprises.
Six Sigma embodies the typical Western approach to problem - solving. Its advantage lies in closely aligning with the enterprise's strategic management. It highly emphasizes the improvement results and the quantification of benefits, and can provide clear data analysis and decision - making basis for enterprises.However, Six Sigma also has some deficiencies. There is a tendency to overly focus on tool application while neglecting the construction of corporate culture. Moreover, its scope of application also has certain limitations. Since the vast majority of management problems are closely related to people, many problems do not necessarily need to be solved through the DMAIC approach.
Although many companies are striving to explore ways to combine Lean and Six Sigma, as of now, I haven't seen any successful cases at the macro - practice level in enterprises. Based on my practical experience, it is usually better to first use Lean management to grasp the improvement direction and cultural construction of an enterprise from a macro perspective. Then, when dealing with local problems, combining the two methods might yield better results.
My deepest understanding is that nothing is more terrifying than being earnest when it comes to doing things. From a technical perspective, Lean and Six Sigma are not esoteric knowledge. Enterprises can hire experts for guidance or organize employees to participate in training courses. However, in terms of implementation, only a very small number of enterprises can truly do it well. Weak execution has become the main obstacle to successful transformation for the vast majority of enterprises.
The gaps in lean management between domestic and foreign countries and foreign trends
In today's globalized economic environment, the vast majority of advanced enterprises from Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, as well as those from Taiwan and Hong Kong are actively learning and implementing lean management, and promoting it to their branches and factories in China. From the perspective of these enterprises, there is basically no obvious gap in the application of lean management between domestic and foreign markets. However, when observing from the broader perspective of the whole society, the popularization of lean management in China still lags behind.Take state - owned enterprises as an example. Due to the huge profits brought by their monopoly positions and the special management system, they lack the internal motivation to implement lean management. As for private enterprises, many are still in a difficult stage of survival. They are more concerned about how to obtain orders from national macro - policies to keep the business alive. In comparison, lean management is often relegated to a secondary position.
As early as 2005, I introduced the progress of lean management abroad in a blog post. In addition to its in - depth application in the corporate field, more and more foreign non - profit organizations have started to learn lean management. This includes hospitals, schools, the military, and even some state governments in the United States. When I participated in some seminars, I often saw very small enterprises, even family businesses with only about a dozen people, sending representatives to learn. Their motivation for learning was extremely strong.Not long ago, I met a principal of a Canadian middle school. He had worked at Toyota and was very interested in lean management. After becoming the principal, he began to apply the concept of lean management in the field of school education, aiming to improve students' test scores. This innovative approach was really astonishing.It can be seen that the lean thinking is constantly penetrating into more fields and industries, demonstrating strong vitality.
Suggestions for enterprises to introduce lean management
In the process of implementing lean management in enterprises, I have witnessed many successful and failed cases. Based on these experiences, I believe that Chinese enterprises can follow the following three suggestions when introducing lean management.
First of all, enterprises should have enough patience and be able to tolerate failure. As the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Any success doesn't come overnight, and it's extremely rare to achieve success without experiencing failure. Lean management is a long - term and continuous improvement process. Enterprises are bound to encounter various difficulties and setbacks during the implementation process. Only by maintaining patience and persevering can they ultimately achieve success.
Secondly, enterprises should attach great importance to learning. Not only should they be good at learning themselves, but they should also focus on cultivating the learning abilities of their employees. Employees are the core assets of an enterprise. Only when employees have good learning abilities can they better understand and apply the lean management concept. Enterprises can create a good learning atmosphere and improve the overall quality of employees by organizing training sessions and carrying out learning and exchange activities.
Finally, enterprises should understand that what suits them is the best. Different industries have different characteristics, and each enterprise is at a different stage of development. Therefore, the lean strategies they need will also vary. When introducing lean management, enterprises should not blindly copy the successful experiences of other enterprises. Instead, they should formulate lean management plans that suit themselves based on their own actual situations.
In fact, these principles are not profound, and anyone who has run a business can understand them. At the technical level, enterprises can solve problems by hiring professional consulting companies, but the real difficulty lies in implementation. Only by effectively putting these concepts into daily work can an enterprise achieve lean transformation.
Conditions for Becoming a Lean Six Sigma Management Professional and Suggestions for Newcomers
I believe that an excellent Lean Six Sigma management professional should possess the following three abilities.
Firstly, it is the continuous learning ability. In this era of rapid development, knowledge and technologies are constantly being updated, and the field of Lean Six Sigma management is no exception. Professionals need to maintain an open - minded attitude, learn new knowledge and skills anytime and anywhere from various channels, and continuously improve their professional qualities.
Secondly, leadership skills. This includes the ability to motivate others, good communication skills, and strong execution ability. During the project implementation process, professionals need to lead the team to achieve the goals together and inspire team members to unleash their maximum potential. At the same time, they should be able to communicate effectively with people from different departments and levels to ensure the transmission and understanding of information. In addition, they also need to have strong execution ability to turn plans into practical actions and promote the smooth progress of the project.
Thirdly, professional competence. This encompasses in - depth industry background, solid knowledge of Lean Six Sigma, and excellent project management skills, etc. Only with rich industry experience and professional knowledge can one accurately identify the problems within an enterprise and formulate practical solutions. Meanwhile, good project management skills can ensure that projects are completed on time and meet the quality requirements.
In short, professionals in lean Six Sigma management should hold themselves to the standards of future business leaders. For newbies on the forum, I have three specific suggestions.
First, you need to set a clear goal for yourself and formulate a corresponding plan. For example, think about what kind of professional level you want to reach in five years, and then develop specific action plans around this goal. Only with a clear goal and plan can you maintain a sense of direction in your career and avoid groping blindly.
Second, spend half an hour writing something every day. It can be a summary of your life or a reflection on your career. Through writing, you can not only sort out your thoughts and sum up experiences and lessons, but also improve your expression ability and thinking ability.
Third, exercise for at least half an hour every day and at the same time, limit your Internet usage to no more than one hour. A healthy body is the foundation of career success. Only by maintaining good physical condition can you better cope with various challenges at work. Reasonably controlling the time spent online helps prevent you from getting addicted to the virtual world and improves work and study efficiency.
Life is a series of choices. Everyone should be clear about what they truly want and then strive forward in that direction.
Evaluation and expectations of Pinzhiwang (assuming "" is its proper name and can be directly transliterated. If it has a specific English name, please provide it for a more accurate translation)
Quality Network has more than 300,000 registered members and is the largest interactive community in the field of quality management in the Asia - Pacific region. On the special occasion of its 10th anniversary in 2011, as a senior member who registered in 2005, I have witnessed the development and changes of Quality Network.I think Quality Network has been very successful. It has brought together many professionals and provided a platform for everyone to communicate and learn, which has greatly enhanced people's understanding of enterprise management.I hope that Quality Network will continue to adhere to the professional path in the future, continuously improve its professionalism and influence, and provide more valuable information and services for its members.
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Thank you for giving me this interview opportunity. I also look forward to sharing more insights with the members of Pinzhiwang in the future, so that we can learn from each other and grow together.