The 7 Kata

The biggest competitive advantage an organization can achieve comes from the synergies created by employees skilled in enhancing organizational dynamics. The Seven Kata: Toyota Kata, TWI, and Lean Training supplies time-tested tools and advice to help readers adapt to changing conditions and outcompete their rivals. It explainswhy a mix of the skill sets that Training Within Industry (TWI) and the Toyota Kata (behavior patterns)teachis the ideal recipe toboost organizational synergies and enhance any Lean transformation.

Bridging the kata/TWI nexus, the book lays out a road map for Lean success. It devotes a chapter to each of the Seven Kata and suggests possible courses of action dependent on your organization’s strengths and constraints. Bringing together valuable information on many of the disjointed Lean practices, it explains key Lean concepts, including gemba walks, genchi gembutsu, and PDCA.

After introducing kata, it reveals the different kata inherent in the three major TWI courses and the TWI Job Safety course. It illustrates the value stream analysis relationship to the kata and the kata relationship to TWI. It also demonstrates how to use kata to solve the problems identified in your value stream analysis while simultaneously conditioning your employees’ adaptive thinking patterns.

Supplying a clear understanding of exactly where the seven kata apply in your Lean journey, the authors include helpful guidelines for coaching a kata. They also highlight mistakes they have experienced or witnessed so you can avoid the same pitfalls. As globalism continues to make management’s organizational skills a competitive differentiator, this book provides you with the tools to use the seven kata to place your organization on a discernible path towards operational excellence.
Listen to what Pat Boutier has to say about The Seven Kata. Part One — Part Two

Conrad Soltero and Patrice Boutier are with the TMAC in El Paso, Texas.

Weapons for the Economic WarriorSkills, Not ToolsToyota’s Connective TissueSkills of the WarriorTraining Within Industry’s Japanese ConnectionLean’s Formula: Syncretism and RitualGetting StartedA Word of Warning to Top Management
The Improvement Kata: KaizenMeans to an End—Kata and KaizenValue Stream AnalysisImprovement Kata Method Coaching the Improvement Kata The Five QuestionsYokotenConclusions

The Nested Job Instruction Kata: Learn to TeachTraining to Instruct On-the-Job Training Development Power of One-on-One Quintessential Standard—DemonstratedNested Kata Important Step (IS) Kata Key Point (KP) Kata The Kata for How to Get Ready to InstructFrom Training Course to KataConclusions
The Coaching Kata: Teaching to LearnIntroductionPreceptor DevelopmentCoaching PhilosophyCoachingCoaching and Improvement Kata Card RevisionDeveloping a Kata Culture Using a Training Timetable The JR Connection Coaching the Problem-Solving KataConclusion
The Problem-Solving Kata: Seek to Understand KataUnconsciously Neglecting ProblemsPS KataPS Kata FamilyTraining Within Industry Problem-Solving TrainingSix Sigma in ContextConclusions
The Job Relations Kata: The Cultural FortifierCollaboration and ConciliationPracticing the JR KataNeed for Coaching Coaching the JR KataPracticing the JR Kata Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 ReflectionFoundations for Good RelationsJR Kata and A3 ThinkingConclusion
Job Safety Kata: The Duplex KataJS Improvement Kata JS Improvement Kata: Step 1 JS Improvement Kata: ObservationsJS Problem-Solving Kata JS Problem-Solving Kata: Step 2 JS Problem-Solving Kata: Step 3 JS Problem-Solving Kata: Step 4JI Kata ConnectionA New 5-Why?Conclusions
The Job Methods Kata: Kipling’s KataIntroductionRelationship of the Improvement and JM KataCoachingProposals and the Nascent Teian ProgramJM Kata JM Analysis Nemawashi and A3 Thinking Continuous ImprovementConclusion
Submit to the KataFirst Things FirstAdaptive LearningConclusionBiographiesReferences
Appendix: A Lean Training Within Industry (TWI) Timeline