“If you are prepared, you will have no worries.”

“If you are prepared, you will have no worries.”

A saying in Japan, originally from China.

Question: As a manager, how much of your work is about preparation?

The morning begins with the daily production meeting. Each team reports on their KPIs from the previous day. During the meeting, you experience a Déjà vu, asking yourself, “Didn’t we have this problem before?” But you look around, and nobody seems concerned. You don’t want to disrupt the atmosphere. Besides, this is what we’ve been doing for a long time, so why bother? You let it go.

After an hour of meeting, you have the financial review. You forgot whether it is monthly, quarterly, or annual, but the senior management will review the numbers. You have the script ready. All you gotta do is act well.

Then, you review each person's performance from last year.

… why are we living in the past?

My coach observed many morning production meetings and called it “Yesterday’s Newspaper.” He is mistaken. Sometimes, it’s last year’s newspaper.

The key to successful operations is how well you prepare. Even if you did well yesterday, it doesn’t guarantee success in the future. You need to stay prepared.

“If you are prepared, you will have no worries.”

A common saying in Japan that comes from ancient China. The original sentence is compelling.

【居安思危思則有備有備無患】

“You think about the danger when you are at peace. If you think about it, you prepare for it. If you are prepared, you will have no worries.”

This teaching is mentioned, for example, in earthquake preparedness. Japan experiences many earthquakes, and we are constantly reminded to be ready. Ensure you have emergency drinking water. Secure your furniture. Make sure the table and desk where you might hide are clear and accessible. Confirm that the evacuation route is unobstructed. Have an emergency power source available. Make sure your family has a way to communicate in case of an emergency, and so on. The list goes on. Usually, we hold a training session in September. These preparations are taken very seriously, as Mother Nature continually reminds us that these activities are essential.

Such mentality on preparations applies to operations.

🔹 Before the production meeting, the plant management should visit the Genba. The purpose is to make sure all preparations are in place.

Are all safety devices functioning? Are all personnel respecting the PPE?

All quality assurance activities completed without any problems?

All preventive maintenance completed without any problems?

Are all materials above the minimum level?

Do we have all personnel?

Do we have any issues with the production plan?

Did you see any other concerns?

Any problems the team notices are discussed first, before yesterday’s issues. The system must be green to run today.

🔹 Financial deviations start from deviations at the Genba

Most deviations in financial reports come from small issues in the Genba. Ignoring or delaying problem-solving allows these issues to grow, affecting financial results. For example, if a machine produces a defect and you stop to fix it, only one defect occurs. If you ignore it, defects will accumulate, costing more to repair or requiring reordering materials. Besides these costs, creating defects also puts unnecessary stress on the machine, leading to wear and tear that can cause mechanical failures. No machine breaks on its own; it fails because of poor decisions. Financial data has buffers, but once an impact appears, it’s often too late. Senior management must understand that the longer they keep frontline managers away from the Genba, the higher the costs will be.

🔹 Training to prepare, not react

Training is the best preparation. Yet, often used for firefighting.

A highly skilled operator was absent. The factory rushes to train a new person to meet output targets, but delays occur due to defects. The pressure is on this new person, who will eventually leave the organization, and the entire blame falls on this unfortunate individual. However, if we reflect properly, a clearer picture emerges. First of all, this skilled worker submitted the holiday request at least a month in advance, following the proper process. In other words, nothing was done to prepare since this submission. And, since they don’t rotate positions, the organization is always unprepared for such a change. The problem is not who is absent; the problem is poor preparation.

🔹 Preparation should be visible

Managers shouldn't need to spend hours verifying that operations are ready. It should be straightforward and quick to confirm. This also doesn’t mean there’s any paperwork involved, as that would require additional validation of the documentation’s accuracy. These preparations should be visible on the Genba. Once today's preparations are confirmed, we should focus more on planning for the future.

“If you are prepared, you will have no worries.”

Instead of stressing over how to report, we should focus on proper preparation—good preparation leads to good outcomes.