“The morning’s orders are revised in the evening.” 【朝令暮改】

Taiichi Ohno’s “Workplace Management" includes a saying: “The morning’s orders are revised in the evening.” 【朝令暮改】 "Choureibokai.”

This saying originates from the Book of Han, which recounts the history of the Han Dynasty. The book states that “farmers must work all year round, facing frequent tragedies and disasters. They are pressured to pay taxes. In such situations, laws and regulations are made in the morning but altered in the evening.” This episode warns that such conditions are unacceptable for a leader.

Ohno challenges this phrase. He warns that waiting until the end of the day to change an “order” is detrimental. If the results after a trial appear inadequate, he advises changing the “order” immediately.

Let’s clarify a few points.

The word “order” does not refer to a customer order. Many factories struggle with changes in orders. There was a factory with about ten full-time employees working on customer orders. Here, we need to be cautious. Often, they weren’t “real” orders; they were the opinions of random people. In many cases, a rash order comes in, and production rushes through the processes. Then, the product sits in the warehouse for days and weeks. “Oh, it was a mistake.” Great. And we just delayed a shipment to another customer. Then, they discover that a material is missing (the products in the warehouse just used it). Such days go on and on.

Taiichi Ohno does not mention such chaos in customer orders. Regarding customer orders, the TPS establishes a Heijunka condition concerning the volume and types of products. If there is a change in a customer order, it follows a formal process rather than being negotiated by influential parties. Specific order changes require time to implement.

What is he referring to?

We assert that “Standardized work is the law of production.”

The symbol, Rei 【令】, signifies law and its notification to the public. If this is the case, the subject of this symbol will be standardized work for production. “Morning, Standardized work, Kaizen by the evening.” Or Ohno’s version will be, “Kaizen by lunch.”

There are no defined rules for how quickly we must proceed with Kaizen; it depends on each organization's interpretation or capability. At one place, there was a “continuous improvement board.” The date on the board was a year old. When I asked why it was so old, they responded, “We are continuously working on this topic.” It was a bizarre interpretation of “continuous improvement,” which I had to say was incorrect. By the end of the year, we should have a clear understanding of what worked and what didn’t. From there, we should develop modified ideas and trials, or invite other experts and specialists to examine it from different perspectives. Keeping action items on a list for an extended period and labeling it “continuous improvement” is a significant mistake. Additionally, some will argue that we should move faster. I agree. This is like a minimum requirement.

Ohno clearly explains why we must maintain such a fast pace: it's because we make mistakes. Kaizen focuses on rapid trial and error. I'm not trying to justify the error I just made. The new rack didn’t work well. If that’s the case, I need to improve it. Why should I give up on the first trial? Failure teaches success, Edison. The most important lesson is understanding why we failed, rather than instantly giving up on an idea or delaying the attempt.

One thing to keep in mind is that to reduce the pressure of failure, we should start with low-cost solutions. Too often, we spend a lot of money, which heightens the pressure to succeed. Nobody is asking for such risk-taking. We should use affordable materials or, in many cases, repurpose items that are about to be discarded. A so-called junkyard often holds materials awaiting transformation into treasure. Cardboard and wood provide numerous applications we can use to test our hypotheses. Additionally, making simple modifications to our current resources is a great place to begin. The less we spend, the more trials we can conduct. The more trials we undertake, the more likely we are to succeed.

Another point is that we shouldn’t change the direction of Kaizen. Once you decide to improve the rack or material presentations, focus on that direction. There are always places where they try once and then give up. Then we hear the classic excuse of “we already tried that.” However, that trial may have failed due to minor issues that we can easily improve through Kaizen. This fine-tuning, or Kuhu, is the essence of Kaizen.

We must maintain a sense of speed. "Morning standardized work, Kaizen by lunch."