6 Myths about Standardized Work

Ruth Acosta, Paula González, and Javier Torres, undergraduate students of Industrial Engineering, prepared a creative commercial-like video describing one of the chapters Jeffrey Liker included in his book “The Toyota Way Fieldbook”. The argument is that Standardization trends are biased into the documentation paradigm, and myths have grown around it.

Here, the students created a funny way to compare Standardized work, versus Work Standards. In their research on Liker’s Book, they found the following 6 myths and summarized them in a 30-second TV ad.

Myth 1: If we have standardized work, anyone can learn everything about the job by looking at the documents

Myth 2: If we have standardized work, we can bring anyone off the street and train them to do the job in a few minutes

Myth 3: We can incorporate all details of the work and standards into the standardized worksheet.

Myth 4: We will post the document so the operator can look at the sheet each day to remember how to do the job.

Myth 5: Employees develop their own standardized work.

Myth 6: If we have standardized work, operators will do the job properly and will not deviate from the standard

Artistic view of the Myth, shown as a TV ad

Source: JEFFREY LIKER-DAVID MEIER.2006. The Toyota Way Fieldbook. McGraw-Hill. 475 p.