The Obeya Management System

Proactive Problem-Solving for Successful

Product Development and Beyond
Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

Obeya Management: 10 Practical Tips to Create a

Command Center for Success
Like complex system designs, most development programs struggle at the interfaces. That is,
managing dependencies between various required disciplines like design, software, engineering,
manufacturing, and others is the greatest challenge in development. This is especially true when
companies attempt to work concurrently without understanding these dependencies. In my
experience, this may be the single greatest source of rework, churn, delays, cost overruns, and
quality spills. Which often leads to a divisive, combative, and frustrating working environment
for everyone involved.

Lean Product and Process Development (LPPD) is a set of principles, practices, and tools designed
to enable people from diverse disciplines to work together to create successful new value streams.
One of those tools is the obeya management system. Obeya, as pretty much everyone knows, is a
Japanese word for “big room.” But as my friend Andy Houk, vice president and general manager
at Schilling Robotics, says, it’s so much more. It is where the program comes together on cadence
to improve collaboration, communication, and coordination through the transparent, proactive
management of those interfaces. When done correctly, it is a powerful management system that
helps people work together more effectively, not just a place to hang stuff on the walls.

There is currently some (unimportant) debate about the genesis of obeya, but my first experience
of it as a management system was in 2003 when my coauthor Jeff Liker and I had several meetings
with Takeshi Uchiyamada, the chief engineer who led the development of the original Toyota
Prius. This breakthrough product demanded rigorous and effective management of the many
interdependencies across the multiple disciplines required to integrate the technologies required
to create this industry-disrupting product. Obeya provided exactly what the Prius team needed
to enable their success.

10 practical lessons from experience

Since then, I have participated in, helped create, or observed hundreds of obeyas in automotive,
aerospace, health care, electronics, energy technology, appliances, and many more industries. I
would like to share a few thoughts on what I have learned about successful obeyas.

1. Obeya is not senior management entertainment. It is a tool for the development team
to manage their project and should be designed accordingly. A fixed and flexible approach
to obeya design is usually best. Provide guidelines and best practices to teams, perhaps even
some minimum requirements, but leave the team plenty of room to customize the space to
meet their specific needs.

2. It’s okay to be “red”. It’s not okay to stay red. Things go wrong in development — lots
of things. Obeya requires transparency. People will not be forthcoming if they get wire-
brushed whenever they bring up an issue. Consequently, it must be safe (normal) to bring up
a problem. However, it can’t end there. Obeya is not a place to just dump your problems. If
you are reporting a red project status, you should also be able to answer the following: What
is your plan to get to green? What is the date to green? What help is required? What are the
implications for the rest of the program?

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

3. Make the plan and the objective obvious — including all critical glide paths. Who
is the customer? What are we trying to do? How do we propose to do that? What are the
critical attributes of this product or service? What’s our plan to deliver? Who owns what part
of the plan? Remember, obeya is more than a schedule.

4. Focus on leading, not lagging indicators. Allow the team time to react and fix issues. It
doesn’t help to know something will be five weeks late, the day it is due. Not much you
can do then. Work back from the critical event –- what step is most likely to determine the
outcome of that deliverable?

5. Use effective integration points defined by the quality of event criteria, not just
activity. Too many programs define integration points or milestones solely by an activity.
For example, take the first virtual build. In that system, you accomplish the activity — so
milestone met. That can be incredibly misleading. How many designs were at the appropriate
level of maturity? How many open issues did you have? What was the level of supplier or
manufacturing readiness? (i.e., can we even deliver those designs?). Set minimum quality
thresholds.

6. Transparency + Cadence = Accountability – Drama. In my early days, I was in more than

my share of table-pounding, threatening, and even chair-throwing program meetings. It was
drama that said much more about the leader than it did the program team. And it created an
environment where your goal in reporting status was to get off stage and not be the slowest
gazelle.

Compare that to Alan Mulally’s “That’s okay, we’ll be back next week, and I know you will have a
better plan” in his famous Business Plan Reviews. That is the power of transparency and cadence.
No yelling, no threats, but also no place to hide because we will keep coming together.

Just a quick note about obeya cadence and location. Both can vary depending on the needs of
the project/program. Early in the program, the team may only need to come together every two
weeks. But during times of intense testing, build, or launch, the team may need to meet every day.
Similarly, the obeya may be located in design at the beginning of the program, the prototype shop
in the middle, and the manufacturing plant during launch.

7. Participation is not optional. Everyone is included. Everyone understands the plan and
their responsibilities. Everyone participates. This includes key suppliers or supply chain
leaders as required.

8. Individual workstream leaders talk to their workstream members. They know best and
are the people responsible.

9. Establish/utilize an effective help chain. Occasionally, problems will require help beyond
the capability of an individual team. There must be a predefined, effective method for
raising issues and helping the team in a timely manner. Hint: It’s not adding more senior
management report-outs.

10. Review the program at the right level. Don’t waste everyone’s time down in the weeds
solving an individual problem. Do that afterward. Your focus should be on managing the
interfaces. But at the same time, you want to resist “traveling hopefully” with large undefined
blocks of time. Like many things, it’s a balance that must be maintained by skilled leadership.

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Leveraging speed and precision

Multiple disciplines working together concurrently is the key to increasing your speed to
market. It does not have to lead to enormous amounts of rework and waste. The key to success
is understanding the actual work to be done and the cross-workstream dependencies. Designing
your development process to leverage these dependencies is the first step to doing this well.

But your development process can’t possibly anticipate every potential failure mode and design in
countermeasures. Nor should it. This would create a bureaucratic process that would, at best, take
even longer than a serial process and, at worst, be completely impossible to execute. Obeya enables
you to manage your dependencies in real-time. You’ll see a potential conflict on the horizon and
have a ready-made forum to react, course correct, and keep everyone on the same page.

When taken together, effective development process design and the obeya management system
will help your development teams execute with a level of speed and precision that will serve as a
competitive advantage.

Your challenge this month is straight forward. Utilize the experiences shared by John Drogosz,
Steve Shoemaker, and the amazing team at TFMC to improve the way your development teams
communicate, collaborate, and coordinate. Good luck.

Regards,

Jim Morgan
Senior Advisor
Lean Enterprise Institute

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System
Lean Product & Process Development
Guiding Principles

1 1 1 1

Putting People First

Synchronizing Building in Learning

Workflows and Knowledge Reuse

MFG Quality ENG HR

© 2020, Jim Morgan, PhD

Developing Products Designing the

Understanding before Executing
is a Team Sport Value Stream

Lean Product and Process Development

Learn more about Lean Product & Process Develpment at lean.org/lppd

(LPPD) Guiding Principles

1. Putting People First: Organizing your development system and using lean practices to support people to reach
their full potential and perform their best sets up your organization to develop great products and services your
customers will love.

2. Understanding before Executing: Taking the time to understand your customers and their context while
exploring and experimenting to develop knowledge helps you discover better solutions that meet your
customers’ needs.

3. Developing Products Is a Team Sport: Leveraging a deliberate process and supporting practices to engage team
members across the enterprise from initial ideas to delivery ensures that you maximize value creation.

4. Synchronizing Workflows: Organizing and managing the work concurrently to maximize the utility of incomplete
yet stable data enables you to achieve flow across the enterprise and reduce time to market.

5. Building in Learning and Knowledge reuse: Creating a development system that encourages rapid learning,
reuses existing knowledge, and captures new knowledge to make it easier to use in the future helps you build a
long-term competitive advantage.

6. Designing the Value Stream: Making trade-offs and decisions throughout the development cycle
through a lens of what best supports the success of the future delivery value stream will improve its operational
performance.

The LPPD Guiding Principles provide a holistic framework for effective and efficient product and service
development, enabling you to achieve your development goals.

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

Improve Design Team Collaboration: A Beginner’s Guide to

Setting Up an Obeya Room
By John Drogosz, PhD

M ost organizations on their Lean Product and Process

(LPPD) journey gravitate early on to applying
the practice of obeya. When we see an obeya that is well
they are doing and frequently get lost in the details.
The visuals should be the ones that help the team
achieve its goals. Each team member should ask
established, we can see the appeal. The team is engaged, themselves: “What do I need to know from others?
the project activities and status are clear, and people are What do they need to know from me?”
working together in real time on the issues that matter
3. It is a team sport. Everyone needs a space; everyone
most to the customer and the organization. However, most
shows up and everyone speaks to their activities and
teams will say it took them some time to hit their stride
issues.
with this way of working.
4. Cadence is key. Obeya rituals should be designed
If you and your team are getting started with obeya, the around the specific needs of the team. Some examples
first piece of advice is to not overthink it. Just get your include:
space up and running and be ready to make adjustments
• Daily standups to surface key issues and provide
over time. That being said, below are a few tips to help you
team members with help;
up the learning curve.
• Weekly obeya gallery walks for the team to see
1. Use a space that is available and accessible to
the big picture;
most of the team. Ideally, a dedicated room where
the team is co-located works best. However, many • Weekly focused topics -– cost tracking, key
organizations have had to adapt to physical constraints decisions, design reviews;
in their environment (and distributed teams – more on • Monthly – Pulsing with key stakeholders on
this in the other Design Brief article). project goals and trajectory.
2. Keep it simple. Less is more when it comes to visual 5. Remove other meetings and status reports once
management. Most teams struggle at first with what you are in the obeya.
to display and tend to cover the space with everything

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

Build obeya; build the team couple days later, the team received a call from the customer
telling them that they had moved the fixed points for the
If you are pioneering obeya at your organization, then
third-row seat to give them more clearance. Two weeks on
hopefully the above tips will help you. The best way to learn
an issues list, two days in obeya! That was the inflection
obeya is to “go and see” others. One multinational company
point for this team, seeing how obeya could concretely help
I worked with strongly encouraged each new obeya team
it be successful in their work!
to first go and see a team experienced in obeya. Visiting
was not just looking at the walls to copy the displays but Another sign that your team is growing into obeya is when
actually attending some meetings to get context and see the it moves from using it simply for reactive problem-solving
team dynamics of how obeya is different from traditional to proactive risk mitigation. All obeyas have some kind of
team collaboration. visual schedule. In the early stages, I see teams focused on
what got done, what they are working on now, and what
As you build your obeya, you are also building up your
issues they have today. This daily/weekly blocking and
team. As with any sport, a team improves with time and
tackling has its benefits. Teams that have matured into their
thoughtful practice. Most teams take six to eight weeks
obeya spend less time in the moment and are using it to
before the obeya becomes the new norm, and the team
look forward to anticipate risks and issues and mitigating
starts feeling the benefits for themselves.
them before they become real problems.
One team I coached had a bumpy start as it struggled to
A telltale sign that obeya is seeping into the team culture is
see how obeya was helping it. The members had worked
the level of activity happening in the space outside of the
together for years and had some well-established rituals yet
formal rituals. Obeya is meant to be a collaborative space
their performance from project to project was mixed. In
for the team to informally meet to work together on the
the early obeya stages, they went through the motions and
issues and challenges surfaced during the other meetings.
some people said, “Why put this stuff up on the wall, we
This is valuable real estate, so make sure teams are taking
have it in the system for anyone to see?”
full advantage of it.
That perspective changed about a month into the project
when their customer came to visit them, and they held Quick help at leader’s obeya “office hours”
their meeting in the obeya. During that session, they One project leader was frustrated that the obeya seemed
walked the walls with the customer lead, and he stopped empty most of the time. She installed a touch screen to
when he reached the full-scale mockup of the product. facilitate design reviews and video capabilities to collaborate
He quickly saw that the clearance for the third-row seat with off-site personnel and suppliers. This helped increase
was going to be restrictive. Several of the team members traffic in the space, but it still was not natural for people to
already knew this, and I saw them roll their eyes. It had gravitate there.
been on the issues list for over two weeks, and nothing had
been done about it! Eventually, she moved into the obeya herself and set up
daily “office hours” where she and the technical lead made
Problem-solving: from two weeks to two themselves available for team members to drop by with
days using obeya anything they wanted to discuss. Team members reacted
well to this as they knew they could get quick guidance.
The customer lead asked if they were sure about the
Eventually, this led to sub-teams coming in to work as
dimensions and the team confirmed the physical model was
they knew the leader would be there if they needed help.
precisely what was in the current CAD model. The lead
The utilization of the space went from approximately 15
went “Hmm” and they continued walking the walls. The
percent to 80 percent in four weeks!
skeptics in the team took this as a sign that the obeya had
failed, and they would be rid of putting up visuals and go It has frequently been said that obeya is an andon system
back to their usual project management work. However, a for a project team. Within the team, issues are surfaced

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

and should be addressed there whenever possible. As you progress through your journey with obeya, it
Organizations that have adopted obeya over time have will need to evolve based on the project’s needs and the
effectively integrated it into their operating system. individual needs of the team members. Take some periodic
Essentially providing a help chain to teams when issues pauses to reflect on the obeya (process and visuals). Obeya
get surfaced that are beyond the team’s ability to deal with is a dynamic environment. If something is not working, it is
them so that they have a clear line to get the help they your room, so change it!
need. In fact, some leaders have created their own senior
Obeya is a proven way to help teams improve collaboration,
leader obeya once they have seen its value.
meet their goals, and accelerate time to market. n

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

Lean Product and Process Development at Scale: Implementing

Obeya Across Global Teams
By Steve Shoemaker

“M ake it visible” are the words I most remember

from any discussions I’ve had with Jim Morgan,
PhD, a globally recognized expert in product development
this approach would work given our circumstance. We were
under tremendous cost pressure, both variable and period
costs. Management was impatient for change and so action
and coauthor of Designing the Future and The Toyota Product on all fronts was vital.
Development System. “It” is the work. Seeing “it,” the work,
The division had a common banner to drive a feeling of
in a factory is relatively straightforward. Seeing “it” in the
unity. However, each location operated under its own
world of product development is hard at best and grows
manager and set of financials. This independence was a
increasingly difficult with project complexity, including
source of pride and a barrier to ideas from elsewhere. Not
locations involved in the project.
invented here reigned supreme. Consequently, seeds had
Our division jumped into Lean Product and Process to be planted in each location to bloom in the light of local
Development (LPPD) in the summer of 2018, taking teams. Finding common ground for sharing best practices
advantage of attending the first “Designing the Future” would come in time.
conference in Traverse City, MI. I had elected to send
engineers from the US and French campuses, a total Make it visible
of five locations and 17 engineers. This exposed all
The obeya is a common starting place for most LPPD
product lines equally to this new development approach.
journeys. It builds off the value-stream map and quickly
In addition to these five primary locations, there were
helps the team see the flow of work for better value creation.
teams in Italy, Brazil, India, Thailand, and China that
It also helps team members see who their customers are
were intertwined.
from a value-creation perspective. It is easy to think only
When I say jumped, I mean exactly that. The conventional of the end user as the customer in the development cycle.
approach to introducing lean is to develop a single To be sure, this is the person exchanging currency for your
experiment that demonstrates success so that it can then be product. However, from a development cycle, there are
replicated across the organization. In the case of Caterpillar’s many customers throughout the process. In the case of an
Earthmoving division, I did not have the confidence that engineer, he or she could be designing a part that will be

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manufactured by an external supplier and then shipped into enabled by the value stream map in the obeya is crucial.
a factory for final assembly into a machine or automobile. Inputs and outputs (to and from different locations) are
In this case, the engineer would need to collaborate closely made visible and become part of the development process.
with the supplier to create a successful design. Technology has simplified this significantly and it remains
imperative that someone be part of the obeya process
The obeya serves as a coordination center to ensure the
who is accountable for representing workflow (inputs and
value stream flows smoothly. It allows the team to see
outputs) even for remote locations. This can be challenging
development in real-time and respond to problems as mole
and, at times, will require special effort to accommodate
hills before they become mountains.
time zones. It is worth the effort to include all locations,
even if it is difficult. Inclusion builds team accountability
Different strokes for different folks
and is vital to a well-run obeya.
My first obeya visit was at the Solar Turbine facility in San
Diego, CA. At the time, I was based in North Carolina Project obeyas are for teams
in our small-machine division and was eager to build on (not for management)
the momentum from another part of the company. I was An important equation introduced in the book Designing
intrigued by the process and the metrics used to run the the Future is:
obeya. As I snapped pictures so we could replicate it back
home, Howard Kinkade, the leader responsible for the MS = OS × LB
obeya, commented, “Take all the photos you’d like, but I
It means that a Management System (MS) is a product
don’t think they will help you much.” I was dumbfounded.
of the Operating System (OS) and Leadership Behaviors
“It works here. Why shouldn’t we just take what you’ve got
(LB). When leadership behaviors are good, they have a
and run with it?” I retorted. “The team needs to own the
compounding impact. Bad leadership behaviors have
obeya and part of owning the obeya is deciding what gets
a deteriorating impact and become challenging to
used to run the project,” Kinkade emphasized.
overcome.
Conventional wisdom suggests that each team and
I suggested earlier that we introduce LPPD at multiple
location should have the same look and feel. They should
locations concurrently. This allowed multiple teams to
all work to the same metrics. They should all have the
experience this new way of development together and
same charts. This is an easy trap to fall into. The intent
yet in their own locations. We had many obeyas running,
is not bad but can negate creativity. Most teams have
and naturally, they were not the same. I asked the chief
their own ideas and part of the creativity and knowledge
engineers to share what was working and not working at
development aspect of lean is to learn by doing. Creating
their locations with their peers. This allowed cross-site
an obeya purpose fit for a common team or project allows
learning to be pulled rather than pushed (by me) and
the team to try ideas and to adopt what works and trash
adoption of what each team considered a best practice.
what doesn’t.
Consequently, it enabled them to solve problems while
Seldom is a project run entirely in one location. The enhancing organizational learning.
obeya must be flexible to accommodate team members
Jim Lancaster shared a similar lesson in his book The Work
from multiple sites, sometimes in different locations in the
of Management. He highlighted that in his factory, he did
same facility or city and sometimes in different states or
not require common charts that made it easier for him
countries.
to move from one zone to the next but rather wanted to
In our case, it was common to have teams around the world ensure ownership from the team to continuously improve
engaged in the same project. For example, team members their work: “We decided on a few standards for presenting
in China, India, France, and the US would be working on information on the board. Improvement activities to raise
the same bulldozer program. This is where the visibility the level of performance always went on the right side of the

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

board, while daily issues about maintaining performance each team. Naturally, common themes developed around
went on the left. But mostly, we wanted those boards to be quality, velocity (AKA timeline), resources, and priorities.
useful to the people on the front line.”1 Over time, much of the content migrated to be similar and
often the same. This was by the teams’ choice and not by a
I considered myself blessed to experience the innovation
management mandate. n
that each team demonstrated as they launched their
obeyas at sites around the globe. My leadership staff and 1 Jim Lancaster, The Work of Management: A Daily Path to
I could not have prescribed the solution that best served Sustainable Improvement (Boston: Lean Enterprise Institute Inc., 2017), 29.

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From Product Development to Enterprise Transformation:

TechnipFMC’s Obeya Revolution
TechnipFMC is a global leader in energy technologies and complex engineered systems in the subsea oil and gas industry. This article
explores the company’s journey with the obeya management system across three parts:

• Part 1 – TechnipFMC’s successful obeya implementation in product development, adapted from Designing the Future by Jim
Morgan and Jeffrey Liker published in 2018, with additional material by Morgan.
• Part 2 – Expansion of obeya management across the enterprise, led by the executive leadership team.
• Part 3 – An internal memo from Paulo Couto, Senior Vice President Industrialization and Quality, highlighting the ongoing lean
transformation and its impact across the global organization.

Innovating at Depth: systems would be easier to install, operate, and service if

they were in space.
TechnipFMC’s Journey
with Obeya in Product The production systems consist of enormous
components, including “Christmas trees,” manifolds,
Development valves, and connectors spread out over a 30-square-
By James Morgan, PhD and Jeff Liker, PhD kilometer area on the sea floor. They must withstand
crushing pressures and incredible temperatures; resist
corrosion, sand, and debris; and be operated remotely

T echnipFMC is a global leader in energy technologies, with virtually no maintenance for 25 years. And they can
complex engineered systems, and services in the never, ever leak — all while controlling 50,000 barrels of
subsea oil and gas industry with a market cap north of $12B. oil per well per day, at 20,000 psi, and at temperatures
Among other things, the company designs and builds subsea higher than 400.
production systems that control and commingle fluids on
When TechnipFMC joined our learning group of
the sea floor at depths of up to 3,000 meters. That’s 9,842
companies they were on a mission to radically reduce
feet — the deepest a human has dived was nearly 2,300
the cost and complexity of their Christmas trees on
feet, a world record held by French company Compagnie
a program called Subsea 2.0. Paulo Couto, SVP of
Maritime d’Expertises (COMEX) — so in some ways these
Industrialization and Quality and Alan Labes, Subsea

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

2.0 chief engineer, were enthusiastic students of lean deal with, and lessons that had to be learned during the
product and process development (LPPD) and employed development process.
many principles, practices, and tools to their advantage.
The team achieved the objectives of drastic reductions
One of those tools was obeya.
in size, weight, and part count, reducing complexity and
Our division jumped into Lean Product and Process shortening the lead time by 50%. And they delivered
Development (LPPD) in the summer of 2018, taking the project on time, at cost, and at a projected lead-time
advantage of attending the first “Designing the Future” reduction of one-third on future orders. And best of all …
conference in Traverse City, MI. I had elected to send the teams love working this way! And now TechnipFMC
engineers from the US and French campuses, a total is working to spread this methodology around the global
of five locations and 17 engineers. This exposed all company.
product lines equally to this new development approach.
In addition to these five primary locations, there were
teams in Italy, Brazil, India, Thailand, and China that
were intertwined.

When I say jumped, I mean exactly that. The conventional

approach to introducing lean is to develop a single
experiment that demonstrates success so that it can
then be replicated across the organization. In the case
of Caterpillar’s Earthmoving division, I did not have the
confidence that The team needed a level of transparency,
collaboration, and fast decision-making that had not
Conventional subsea manifold versus Subsea 2.0 manifold—same
seemed possible in the past, and team members agreed to functionality, half the size and weight
meet with other Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) partner
companies to see how they were using this powerful tool. But there is more. Not only did the team hit its targets on
It was an epiphany. Not only did they see the use of the time, but it created a significant competitive advantage and
obeya system in action, but they learned about how to use a new development operating system for the company. And
milestones more effectively. The team returned to Brazil investors and analysts have noticed. Couto presented the
fired up about employing what they learned in Michigan breakthrough product and new methodology to an outside
with LEI coaches and companies. The obeya system group of analysts, and the result was an upgrade of their
completely revolutionized the way that the team worked stock from “hold” to “buy” and an immediate jump in
together. TechnipFMC also established the obeya system in their stock price. Byron Pope, managing director of Tudor,
the other engineering centers. According to Labes: Pickering, Holt & Co., wrote just one of many glowing
reports:
When creating a new system from scratch, the tradeoffs
involved in architectural decisions at the system, “Seeing is (fully) believing, and we very much like what
subsystem, and component level need to be tested we saw (and heard) at the Analyst Day. We were treated to
extremely fast so the full spectrum of possibilities is what was a rather compelling TechnipFMC Analyst Day in
covered. The obeya system enables not only that, but also which the company illustrated how its radical rethinking of
enables a deep and common understanding for all the how to best help its E&P customers improve their offshore/
team members of the most valuable characteristics of the deepwater project economics has resulted in both improved
system and what their work must deliver to support. form and functionality of the company’s subsea systems
Obeya management system improved the process offering (FTI’s “Subsea 2.0”), a harbinger of an eventual
dramatically — especially due to the novel nature of renaissance in subsea projects being sanctioned in 2018+.
the project, and the many unknowns the team had to The essence of Subsea 2.0 and why it is the proverbial

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

game changer?… try 50%+ reductions in the size, weight, going to change our development practices!’ It just seemed
and number of parts associated with key subsea production like a lot of added work on an already difficult task.”
systems elements (trees, manifolds, etc.). It is these sorts
Despite being a skeptic, David had an open mind about
of innovations which heighten our confidence. Lightbulb
learning. He and Andy were inspired by what they had read
moment of confirmation was during our rotation through
about obeya. Working with LEI coaches and exchanges
the company’s Innovation & Technology Showroom (which,
with other LEI partner companies to see how project
by the way, was our up-close … but no cameras allowed …
teams were using the obeya system to great benefit in
looksee at some of the key hardware elements of Subsea
their development work. Although David and Andy were
2.0) when it came to light that TechnipFMC’s leadership
impressed by what they saw at Herman Miller, they both
challenged the organization to think differently well before
wondered if the process would scale to something as
the most recent oilfield service industry downturn began in
complex and sophisticated as Gemini. David, in particular,
earnest.”*
remained quite doubtful and even kept a separate, detailed
As word spread about the incredible effectiveness of lean schedule in Microsoft Project on his laptop in anticipation
product and process development (LPPD) practices, of when “this obeya thing would all fall apart.
engineering teams around the world began to learn about
Schilling has an incredible experimentation culture in which
and implement them on a huge scale. One of those teams
people are very willing to try new things; however, those
was at TechnipFMC subsidiary Schilling Robotics.
same people are also incredibly bright and opinionated.
David heard initial grumblings about what some saw as just
Schilling Robotics another status meeting where they had to waste time that
David Furmidge is a highly experienced and very capable they could have spent actually “doing their job.”
project engineer. He worked seven years in the aerospace
industry on satellite development at Lockheed and then 10 “People didn’t say much in our first few obeya meetings,”
years leading development projects at Hewlett Packard and recalled David. “I think it was a combination of speaking
Schilling Robotics, where he heads up their most complex in front of 40 or 50 people and the fact that they did not
and difficult ROV (remotely operated vehicle) programs. It really understand or trust the process at first. So I invested
was no surprise when Andy Houk, VP of engineering, asked some time taking small groups of people through the room
him to lead the Gemini program. The vision of Gemini and explaining the purpose. I assured them it wasn’t a
was to develop a robot that could travel to the work site up status meeting; it was an issue identification and problem-
to 13,000 feet below sea level on the ocean floor and carry solving meeting, [and] that our goal was to work together
out complex tasks, including changing tools without having to deliver this incredible product and to support each other
to return to the surface. This in and of itself would be a in the process. Within a few weeks, people started to see
huge advance and save their customers millions of dollars how powerful this system was [and] that we had a level
and days of time. But they also aimed to make Gemini of transparency and collaboration we had not had before.
much simpler to operate, giving their customers increased That’s when things started to change dramatically — and
flexibility in operator selection. In short, Gemini would I even ditched my secret MS Project schedule for good.”
be a game changer, and the most advanced and complex On one side of Schilling’s obeya room was a giant schedule.
product ever developed by Schilling. It was anchored at the top with the overall project-critical
Even with all his experience, David knew this would be milestones as column headings. Beneath the milestones
the toughest program he ever led. And as if that wasn’t were horizontal swim lanes for each of the subsystem
challenging enough, Andy asked him to use an all-new project teams, such as manipulator, tether management,
method to develop it. According to David, “Of course, I controls, and ROV, as well as functions like software and
said, ‘Yes, we will do it,’ but I was thinking, ‘Holy cow, we safety. On each swim lane were placed sticky notes that
have got this huge project we’re doing, and now we are identified critical tasks in support of the milestone timeline.

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

“At first, we only had really good fidelity for about an manufacturing engineering manager at Schilling. “We
eight-week period, after that tasks were identified at a weren’t design people or operations people, we were one
higher level,” said David. “And we would add detail as we development team. We owned the issues and the product
progressed from left to right on the project. In the meeting, together.”
though, we really kept our focus on the upcoming week.
As time went on, Andy spotted more and more small groups
We noted upcoming events, but we really wanted to work
huddled around some part of the obeya between meetings,
on what had to be done this week.”
working though issues or discussing plans. “That helped
In the meetings, individuals responsible for tasks would convince me that this was really getting traction,” said Andy.
speak to the status of their tasks: issues they were
David turned from a leading skeptic to a leading proponent.
experiencing and where they needed help. They had a
“I think the obeya management system enabled us to
movable red line that was located on the meeting date of
eliminate a lot of large issues and the associated drama
the schedule, and everything to the left of that line should
that usually accompanies this type of project.” He believes
be complete. As tasks were completed, the sticky note on
that not only was it successful from a program delivery
which the task was written was crossed off with a green pen.
perspective, but it was instrumental in bringing the
“By getting the group together around the schedule board
team closer together and relieving him of a great deal of
it made it much easier to identify disconnects and conflicts
stress as project leader. “I think the obeya system was the
— especially in areas where we had struggled historically,
greatest contributor to our success. It helped us integrate
like hardware and software integration,” noted David. “As
engineering and operations into one team, and built in
a leadership team, we never attacked or criticized a team
transparency and accountability. I could definitely see this
for being behind, we just asked what help was needed.
working in [the] aerospace industry. We finished the first
But there was a ton of peer pressure in that meeting. No
project phase two weeks early with no open issues — and
one wanted to let the team down. We seldom, if ever, had
that’s a first for us.”
someone be late a second week.” The meetings were held
weekly for most of the project, but occurred daily as the Tyler Schilling, the founder, is no less enthusiastic about
project moved into the test phase and work moved faster. the obeya system. The company had experienced incredible
As the team got better, the schedule discussion only took up growth over the years, but one downside of that was more
about 10 minutes of the meeting, and the rest of the time and more electronic communication. He explained, “Over
was spent on the product side of the room. the last how many years, there has been a constant wind that
has been blowing, a trend to do all your communicating
On the product side of the obeya room was a set of posters for
with Microsoft tools, even with people a few feet away. I
each of the various project subsystems. The posters showed
have nightmares of my most critical resources around here,
the latest design information, notes on the latest thinking,
inside of a PowerPoint program resizing circles, changing
decisions that had to be made, and concerns or issues in
fonts, and just wasting their time. I thought, ‘Holy cow!
a particular area. Eventually the posters were expanded to
I can’t have that kind of thing going on.’ And then I saw
include a rich assortment of operations, safety, and supply
what you guys were doing with obeya. The paper charts,
posters. As this process matured, the team was encouraged
the Post-its® — it was a wonderful expression of spending
to post questions, suggestions, or issues with sticky notes
time on substance and as little as possible on form.”
on the posters. The owners of a poster were typically given
until the next week to respond to the comments. “This “I love attending the obeya meetings,” added Tyler. “It is
really helped to streamline decision-making,” said David. a frictionless flow of information that happens in a truly
efficient manner. Once a week a group of 50 people or so
Issues were not allowed to fester in the obeya, and team
get a super-charged dose of what’s going on. Decisions
members supported each other as they faced challenges.
are made and the team moves on. It’s brought back the
Because of the obeya process, “I really felt like part of
synchronization and rich communication we had in the old
the development team,” said Hannah Waldenberger, a

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Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

days. We are advancing Gemini in a much more predictable did. Improved collaboration, better communication, and
manner than recent projects. It really reminds me of the greater transparency led to faster, more inclusive decision-
early days at Schilling when we were just a small start-up.” making—all without PowerPoint. But there was something
else, something unexpected.

Over time, the leadership became more comfortable and

engaged with the process of “walking the walls” each
week. As they met regularly with the company’s functional
leadership in the obeya, they encountered naturally
arising interdependencies and conflicts, leading to diverse
opinions on resolving problems. This growing comfort
with conflict allowed the leaders to push back on some
ideas and challenge assumptions, resulting in better, more
candid conversations. They became adept at hearing,
Click the image to watch the video or watch
at youtu.be/K5FyOs0pmXo evaluating, and either challenging or embracing different
perspectives, ultimately enhancing their decision-making
and management effectiveness. The decisions made were
Transforming the Enterprise: more deeply understood and supported by the leadership
Spreading Obeya team.
Management Starting In addition to the weekly obeya, the executive leadership
at the Top team has converted their quarterly global update forums
By James Morgan, PhD from PowerPoint to obeya style. Each quarter, they share
critical updates to the top 1,000 leaders across the globe
directly from their obeya with the same posted data
they work with each week, further strengthening the

P erhaps not surprisingly, the amazing results

TechnipFMC achieved applying LPPD principles
and practices in product development have led them to
organization’s commitment to a new way of working.

apply what they have learned to a massive global enterprise Cascading obeya management
transformation. One of the first practices they chose to apply As word spread across the organization, Couto’s team
was obeya. And they started at the top of the organization. was inundated with requests for help setting up obeyas.
The team decided to take a “fixed and flexible” approach
With help from Couto and his team, the executive leadership
to providing guidance. Since teams requesting help came
team stepped up and started an executive leadership obeya.
from every functional organization, they knew they would
They knew it was important to lead by example, and so
need to provide the teams with flexibility in creating their
agreed to take the plunge. One of the lessons Couto and
own obeyas.
the team have learned over time is that obeya does not
work if it is just an add-on meeting to everything else. However, the team also knew it was important to share the
So, he worked with the executives to determine what lessons they had learned over the years. So they provided
meetings obeya would replace. They were able to eliminate what they had learned about the critical characteristics of
a surprising number of meetings with a single, weekly successful obeyas without specifying exactly what the teams
executive obeya that they hold every Monday with the had to do. These guidelines are available in a clever, small
company’s top leadership. Although it took some time and book and online on the company’s internal website. But as
fortitude, they achieved the same things the program teams usual, people are strongly encouraged to work with one

16
Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

of the available experts as required. A small sample of the

book is below: M ush Mustafa leads our machining and cladding
operations at our plant in Nusajaya, Malaysia. He
reports to Alberto Oliveira, the manufacturing site director.
Mush is an energetic Malay manager who told us he joined
TechnipFMC a few years ago, coming from Toyota Motor
Corporation, where he worked in Toyota City, Japan.
Mush has created an obeya where he, his team, and a cross-
functional support team meet daily.

Far from Nusajaya, on the other side of the planet, we are

doing a huge experiment to disseminate obeyas as a new
way of working. The use of obeya is expanding rapidly,
violating a bit of the science of starting experimentation
with a deep and narrow approach, as opposed to broad
and shallow. But that’s OK. We should consider our obeya
expansion a big experiment.

We’ve been visiting hundreds (yes, hundreds) of obeyas,

learning with numerous teams, capturing, sharing, and
reusing our knowledge. Some teams are creating obeyas
with the wrong purpose in mind (e.g., to “please the boss”),
but most are genuinely trying, making their best effort, to
learn and improve. Out of this great big experiment, we’ve
been capturing and developing knowledge to launch the
“Obeya Principles and Guidance” book to define what a
good obeya looks like.

We’ll publish the obeya report soon. A few weeks before

Couto reckons they now have some 300 obeyas at various the launch of this guidance, we were completely surprised
stages of maturity across the company and around the to see that Mush’s obeya matches exactly what is in it. For
world, and he and his team are committed to helping those example:
teams succeed. So, in addition to providing the guidance
discussed above, they visit the obeyas and observe the 1. It’s connected to the work they actually do, not to the
teams in action, answering their questions and giving them work that others do.
feedback on how they might improve. Below is a report
2. Its purpose directly connects to our company’s True
Couto created after visiting an obeya in a Malaysian plant.
North.

3. Safety-Quality-Delivery-Cost: SQDC walls clearly

A Case Study in Obeya expose problems; all plans are green and are actively
Management: Lessons Shared being managed.
from a Local Plant 4. Work improvement A3s are managed with the same
By Paulo Couto, Senior Vice President Industrialization criticality as their SQDC walls.
and Quality, TechnipFMC
5. The “people” wall shows how the organization develops
its people through the work, not conventional metrics.

17
Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System

6. Readiness levels effectively identify and gauge risks A few months ago, in a conversation with Professor Jose
across the value stream supported by mitigation plans. Ferro from the Lean Institute Brasil, we shared subtle
Lessons learned from Subsea 2.0 will inform other observations whenever we visited or talked to hardcore
products they produce. Toyota managers. Even though they have been the leading
Posted documents explain and display the help chain car company in the world for over two decades, ranking
sequence and hierarchy with actions, dates, and names #1 in profitability and possessing billions of dollars in cash
clearly shown. Red and green stickers make problems reserves, they always say, “Paulo-san, we have too many
visible. problems here. Our costs are too high. We have too much
waste.” They print in black and white because color print
A cross-functional help team conducts containment and
is too expensive. They turn off the lights at lunchtime, and
root cause analyses, which are managed with the same level
so on.
of urgency as everything else.
Back to our Nusajaya gemba walk.
Where is the workplace office of the cross-functional
team? Literally, at the gemba, adjacent to the obeya. That’s I wish we could have spent more time with Mush and his
brilliant. team, but Alberto kicked us out to visit the rest of the plant.
While walking out, I noticed that Mush didn’t come with
Most obeya documents are handwritten. You can understand
us. When I looked back, I saw him walking into the cross-
what is going on at a glance. When I asked what this red
functional team room. I walked over to say goodbye.
sticker meant, I was told it was a picture of the King of
Malaysia, representing an experiment they are doing on “Hey, Mush, aren’t you coming with us?”
Subsea 2.0 lead time. It means that a certain critical part “Yes, I’m just turning off the lights here.”
cannot stop. Work on other parts must yield “right of way” “Why?”
to it. Love it!
“Because it’s lunchtime.”
And their overall results? You can only imagine the
And with that, our time in Mush came to an end. He and his
(continuous) improvement they have made.
team had not just implemented an obeya, they had embodied
Incredible. How could Mush, on the other side of the its principles. Their dedication, their focus on continuous
planet, develop guidelines that match exactly what we are improvement, and their unwavering commitment to their
learning in our big global obeya experiment? It seems like work were inspiring.
fiction or magic, but it’s real.
Let us continue to share knowledge, collaborate, and
Coincidence or science? experiment. Together, we can create a future where obeya
is not just a tool, but the way we manage our company.
In our gemba and obeya walks together, Mush was
dissatisfied with what he had done, describing some of the Through relentless experimentation, TechnipFMC has
problems and struggles, even though, to our knowledge, he demonstrated they can spread their terrific success in
has the best obeya within TechnipFMC. product development to the entire enterprise. Obeya is
rapidly becoming the cornerstone of their management
In response to one inquiry, he offered this pearl of wisdom:
system, driving unprecedented levels of transparency,
“It’s easier to work in an environment than to bring the
collaboration, and efficiency across the global organization.
environment to the work.”
What steps can you take to begin your journey to obeya
Wow, I had to write it down! Mush’s words summarize the
management?
challenge and the legacy we’ll leave from our transformation
We extend our heartfelt thanks to TechnipFMC for their
— it’s easier to work in an environment that supports lean invaluable support in the creation of this article. Their dedication
principles than to change an environment that doesn’t. to innovation and excellence continues to inspire and set new
Changing the environment is hard, but that’s the secret of benchmarks in the industry.
sustainable improved performance.

18
Lean Enterprise Institute The Obeya Management System
Contributor Highlight

Steve Shoemaker
Steve Shoemaker retired as vice president of engineering in Caterpillar’s Earthmoving Division after 33 years. Over his
career, he worked as a designer in the company’s engine segment before moving into technical leadership in engines
and later electronics. He spent the last half of his career developing machines in the Building Construction Products
Division, where he led engineering and oversaw the building of the Clayton Machine Development Center.

In 2012, he moved to the Excavation Division in Akashi, Japan, where, as chief engineer, he led the Hydraulic Excavator
Design Center. In 2017, Shoemaker assumed his final role as vice president of Engineering. He led the global design
organization for the company’s core machine portfolio, which included bulldozers, wheel loaders, motor graders, and
paving equipment. In this final role, the pursuit of zero-defect quality levels benefited from his 15 years of experience
with lean product and process development. Shoemaker now serves as a senior advisor with the Lean Enterprise Institute.

John Drogosz
John has over 25 years of lean manufacturing, product development, and above-shop-floor experience. As a coach, he
has led lean transformations in numerous companies and industries, including Northrop Grumman, Johnson Controls,
Areva, Peugeot-Citroen, Tenneco, Eaton, Hertz, Schlumberger, Harley-Davidson, Embraer, and Caterpillar.

As LEI’s chief engineer, process and product development, John leads the development of learning experiences that
enhance design professionals’ lean development knowledge and capabilities while advancing the discipline’s body of
knowledge. He codeveloped and is an instructor of LEI’s Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product & Process
Development Immersive Learning Experience.

In addition, John teaches classes in lean product and process development and lean manufacturing for the College
of Engineering at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. He also contributed to the Toyota Product Development
System (2006) by Morgan and Liker and Liker’s book The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement (2011).

James Morgan, PhD

Jim is a senior advisor at Lean Enterprise Institute and a board member at Adrian Steel. He has a unique blend of industry
leadership experience and rigorous scholarship, which he draws upon to improve organizational performance at a select
group of companies.

Jim’s most recent industry experience was as chief operating officer at Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer on a
mission to keep the world adventurous.

Before joining Rivian, Jim spent a little over ten years at Ford Motor Company. He began by leading the development
of the Global Product Development System. He then served the last nine years as director of Global Body and SBU
Engineering and Tooling operations, where he and his team contributed to the company’s historic, product-led
revitalization under then-CEO Alan Mulally.

Before Ford, Jim served as vice president of operations at Troy Design and Manufacturing (TDM) during a period of
dramatic growth. TDM is a tier-one global automotive supplier of engineering services, prototype tools, and low to
medium-volume production parts and subassemblies.

19
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