I remembered reading this years ago, and thought I had lost my copy. In the midst of my current file purge, I came across my photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy that was passed around Boeing with the hand written notation “Hey team, this is a good read – enjoy!”
Even better, though, is that the article is included in its entirety in Google Book’s preview of the original book “Integrated Process Management: A Quality Model
I am not going to discuss the article much because I don’t want to play spoiler to the punch line.
Comments and discussion, however, are encouraged.
So, without further delay: Click here to read “The Origin”
Yes, that’s a good read. There are several ways to look at this story.
It appears the point of the story is that they, mainly the “ranking member of the group”, totally missed the opportunity to learn from McDonalds an American company. However, the ranking member figured out the issues because of his tour of the Japanese companies. Even though he could have listened to what his cohorts were talking about at the McDonalds and analyzed how McDonalds works. He would have found the same answers.
They probably wasted a lot of time and money traveling to Japan. But then again that’s what it took to help them see.
Oh, I know what the problem is. Long ago obtaining food was a long and complex process. Hunting, growing, gathering, fighting, etc. We males had a huge part in that process. Eating the food was simply the last and shortest part of the process. Currently in America we go out and buy our food. Eating it, the smallest part of the process, is now for us the biggest part of the process. And so the longer and more complex part of the process is off our radar screen. And who would think, in order to understand the best way to run a company, you could analyze the whole process of making and delivering a hamburger. Certainly not any male of the species. We just want to eat and get back to work.
“…the article is included in its entirety in Google Book’s preview of the original book…”
Well, almost its entirety, a couple of pages are missing from the middle. But the idea comes across.
And if you absolutely must know what’s on the missing pages you can still find used and NOS copies of the book for dirt cheap.