Data Is Important, But I Prefer Facts

Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System, was famous for saying: "Data is important, but I prefer facts." Like a compass, data connected with the work can guide us in the proper direction.

Years ago, while building my very first manufacturing plant, my Sensei rephrased that lesson for me: "Data exists, but the truth lies at the Gemba."

I learned exactly what he meant during a trial run that I will never forget.

The line was finally finished. I stood there watching it run beautifully. The workers were happy, smiling, and everything looked picture-perfect. I felt a massive sense of pride.

Then my Sensei walked up to me on the floor.

"What is your takt time?" he asked. (He already knew the answer).

"Four minutes," I replied confidently.

"Good," he said. "Where are your weakest workstations if the customer adjusts demand?"

"Stations 2 and 4," I answered.

He smiled. "Good. Now speed the line up to a 3.5-minute takt time. I’ll tell you when to stop it."

I briefed the team, telling them we were running a quick experiment and not to panic. We ramped up the speed.

Almost instantly, the smiles vanished. Workers started sweating. Frustration filled the air. Within minutes, the line completely broke down—but not where I expected.

It failed at stations 4, 5, and 7.

Watching the chaos was painful. "Can we go back to 4 minutes yet?" I pleaded.

"Not yet," my Sensei replied calmly.

Suddenly, a manager with a clipboard rushed onto the floor, visibly upset. "What are you doing? You are destroying our production metrics!"

My Sensei didn't engage with him. Instead, he turned to me and whispered, "Who is the accountable owner on your standard work for this line? Is it him?"

"No," I replied.

We turned to the manager and asked if the actual accountable owner was out sick today. The manager snapped back, "No, he’s sitting in his office where he always is."

My Sensei nodded, turned to me, and said: "Return the line to 4 minutes."

Then came the real lesson:

"Your data told you your next failures would be at stations 2 and 4. Reality showed you they were at 4, 5, and 7. Furthermore, your standard work names an individual as the accountable owner, yet they never showed up when the process actually failed. There is much here we need to take the time to truly understand."

Data tells us a story, but it’s often the story we want to see.

When we introduce change, we cannot manage it from an office chair. We have to be close to the work. We must validate our spreadsheets with physical reality.

My challenge for you today:

Take an honest account of how often you leave your desk to visit the people doing the actual work. Go there not to micro-manage, but to ask questions, listen, and truly seek to understand.

Write down what you observe. Improve the process. Impact their lives for the better.

Let's make tomorrow better than today.