Japan Post tries Toyota system
Japan Post, a public corporation created in April to take over the Postal Services Agency's postal, savings and life insurance services, has been trying to introduce a production management system used by the Toyota group to streamline the postal services.
However, the system has yet to result in an ideal post office, and some employees are perplexed by the new system. It remains to be seen whether the system will be effective as a method of postal reform.
This autumn, Japan Post distributed to its branch offices 200-page manuals describing how Koshigaya Post Office in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, had introduced the Toyota-style system, known as the kanban, or just-in-time inventory system.
In late October, Japan Post designated 14 model post offices and intends to steadily increase the use of the system to avoid waste.
Koshigaya Post Office handles about 300,000 pieces of mail a day. Several signboards that help workers manage jobs are placed in prominent places on the first and second floors. The signboards show a horizontal axis representing time and a vertical axis with the names of employees in charge of particular jobs. By looking at the signboard, employees can easily ascertain the degree of completion of various tasks.
Under the conventional system, in which only managers were aware of the progress of each task, ordinary employees worked in separate sections and were not aware of the big picture.
Under the Toyota-style system, however, all employees are privy to the same information and can increase effectiveness by reducing delays.
Japan Post also introduced a system in which an amount of mail that should take 15 minutes to sort is put in a box. By counting the total number of boxes, workers can determine how much mail there is and how many of them it will take to finish the task on time.
Because the boxes have wheels, workers are able to transport them easily.
Yutaka Nishijima, head of a Japan Post department to promote the introduction of the Toyota-style system, said, "When I saw employees discussing their tasks in front of the signboards, I knew the system would be a success."
The Toyota-style system aims to reduce total working hours by accumulating time-savings measured in tenths of seconds.
Koshigaya Post Office set a goal of reducing total working hours by 20 percent by the end of March, when seven instructors who were dispatched from Toyota Motor Corp. to teach the post office how to operate the system are to return to Toyota.
A Japan Post executive said, "Koshigaya Post Office has already achieved a reduction (of working hours) of more than 10 percent."
However, the system has not always produced the expected results. For example, delivery motorcycles and bicycles initially were equipped with global positioning systems to shorten delivery time, but this scheme was scrapped because its effect could not be accurately measured.
Employees in charge of collecting and delivering mail, who used to sit while working, were told to stand to increase efficiency. Some had complained of being forced to stand.
According to a questionnaire conducted in October by the Japan Postal Workers' Union's Koshigaya regional chapter, 81 of 86 employees of the Koshigaya Post Office said they were more fatigued after the new system was introduced.
More than 70 percent replied that their effectiveness hadn't changed or that speed has decreased since the introduction of the new system. Some employees are confused by and hostile toward the new system.
"The custom of working slowly and receiving overtime pay hasn't been challenged before," a Japan Post executive said, indicating that Japan Post should no longer depend on the government to fund its operations.
"The Toyota-style system can be adoptable by both government offices and private companies," business journalist Setsuo Mito said. "But Japan Post is a gigantic organization and it is questionable whether it can successfully adopt the new system. The leadership of the top executives will be tested."
