
176 ◾ Lean Production Simplified, Third Edition
A3 Thinking
An A3 report is a one-page story on 11" × 17" paper.
20,21
A3s were originally
used at Toyota in the 1960s to summarize kaizen circle activities. They have
perhaps become Toyota’s most effective communication tools. There are
now four kinds of A3s:
grimace and think,“You pretend to give us a reasonable strategy, and
we’ll pretend to do it.”
Why do otherwise capable leaders behave this way?
In part, they’re trying to buffer uncertainty. “We don’t really know
what’s happening, so we’ll keep pressing buttons.Something is bound to
work!” Surely, a better approach is to take the time to grasp ...