Telescope puts ‘the Toyota Way’ to work

Lance Stevens drives a Toyota forklift on the Telescope campus. Telescope has adopted ‘the Toyota Way,’ which holds that it is ‘everyone in the company’s responsibility to remove waste from the work process,’ according to consultant Darril Wilburn. (Jeff Foley / For NYVT Media)

By Jay Mullen / For NYVT Media

After nearly 100 years of doing things a certain way, officials at Telescope Casual Furniture decided in 2014 that it was time to begin streamlining the company’s processes.

Enter Honsha and “the Toyota Way.”

James Lamb, a trade show coordinator with Telescope who also oversees all of the timberlands at Mettowee Lumber, a company subsidiary, became a certified “lean” practitioner when Telescope started working with Honsha.

“(Honsha) is a consulting firm that’s made up of ex-Toyota managers that teaches and consults on lean manufacturing practices and principles,” Lamb said.

Honsha has worked with Fortune 500 companies as well as family-run ones such as Telescope.

Darril Wilburn is a senior partner at Honsha, and he went to Telescope several times when the company was looking to implement a new production system seven years ago.

“There was tremendous potential for improvement, as it is with most places we visit,” Wilburn said. “Kathy (Juckett, CEO of Telescope) had the one thing that is needed most when doing some lean transformation work: humility.”

Wilburn said the Toyota Way means different things to different people. But he sees it as more of a business mentality.

“Fundamentally, it says that it is everyone in the company’s responsibility to remove waste from the work process,” Wilburn said.

Everyone in a company attempting to enact the Toyota Way needs to be trained to identify the “Seven Wastes,” Wilburn said, adding that he defines them as anything the company does that the customer isn’t willing to pay for.

‘Fundamentally, it (the Toyota Way) says that it is everyone in the company’s responsibility to remove waste from the work process.’

Darril Wilburn, senior consultant

The goal is to eliminate any waste that can be associated with transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing and rework.

“Leadership and management have the responsibility not just for removing waste but for also creating systems that allow for smooth production schedules and reduced overburden,” Wilburn said.

Lamb said the practices Honsha brought to the table were very well received by everyone at Telescope. By the time he had become a certified practitioner, Telescope senior officials already had worked with Wilburn and Honsha for almost a year.

“Our senior management here had already been exposed to a lot of the value-stream mapping and the ways we can mine data and how we can use data to make informed decisions,” Lamb said.

Becoming acclimated with “lean” manufacturing or the Toyota Way hasn’t been beneficial only in the workplace. Lamb said he takes what he has learned and applies it to his everyday life.

“When I’m at home on the weekends putting dishes away, I’m thinking about, you know, ‘Well, what dishes do I use most? And are they the easiest for me to access and get to on a regular basis?’” Lamb said. “It’s a really empowering way to think and look at life as a whole, not just your day-to-day and your work life.”