Overview

I recall a trip to Japan, which provided me the opportunity to visit a number of leading manufacturers in that country, where I visited a facility that was touted as being world class. The plant manager served as our tour guide and although he spoke relatively good English, we had an interpreter accompany us. For the most part, the plant manager allowed the interpreter to do most of the talking; however, there were numerous times over the course of the tour that he openly remarked "no good," as we passed various processes in the factory. Occasionally, he would leave our group to go into a production process and speak with an operator or group of operators. I would see polite nods displayed among all those concerned, but it was evident he had not stopped by to exchange pleasantries and that he wasn't necessarily a happy trooper.

At one location the interpreter asked a production supervisor to tell me about the process. During the overview the supervisor stopped to apologize about a tool that was poorly positioned in a shadow box, where tools for the job were intended to be kept in a neat, orderly fashion. I tried to be polite: "At least you can find all your tools and they're in the right box. We can't even do that most of the time." The plant manager quickly intervened, waving a finger in the air for effect as he very sternly corrected me. "No ... no good!" I apologized, a...