Sweeping the Road

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Jan 7, 2023, Mr. Wang elaborated the management idea of "sweeping the road".

During this time, I read the "Sweeping the Road" by Xiusano Keiyama of Japan. This book tells the story of the author's family who lost the life of being well cared for because of the war, but his parents not only did not lose heart, but also focused on everything in life. His parents' education way of setting an example, let the author form a view of life that never gave up, and also paved the way for his doomed extraordinary life. At the same time, Xiusano Keiyama spent a lot of time talking about the preparation before cleaning, not only the preparation of tools and personnel, but also the ideological preparation before cleaning. Through the preliminary preparation, participants are not afraid of trouble, and develop the good habit of careful thinking and continuous summary. In fact, the management thought of Japanese management masters, such as Xiusano Keiyama’s "Sweeping the Road" and Kazuo Inamori's Six Improvements, are derived from ancient Chinese philosophy. For example, the first sentence of "Zhu Zi's Family Instructions" is "At dawn, clean the house, clean the inside and outside; At dusk, you should take a rest and check the locked door in person. "; According to Zeng Guofan's family letter, we only need to look at three things of future generations to see the family's success or failure, that is, getting up early, doing housework, and reading sages' books; Wang Mingyang's “To Conscience”. I still remember a teacher Cao from Shanghai International Studies University said to me that if you want to understand Chinese traditional culture, you should go to the countryside of Japan and South Korea to experience it. Why did Japanese culture and ideas come from China, and now Chinese people have to learn their ideas or thoughts? This shows that the inheritance of Chinese traditional culture in China is not enough. From another point of view, learning from them also shows that Japanese management masters are better than pioneers. Besides, students need not be inferior to teachers. We should not only learn to clean up, but also learn the spirit and way of thinking of cleaning up as described in the book.

Three treasures of Ouhai

In ancient times, one who intended to carry forward all the inherent virtues in the world and to rid them of material desires had to first rule his state well. To rule his state well, he had to first educate his family. To educate his family, he had first to cultivate himself. To cultivate himself, he had first to set his heart right. To set his heart right, he had first to be sincere and honesty. To be sincere and honest, he had first to perfect his knowledge and perfection of his knowledge depended on his investigation of things. It is only when one is able to investigate things that knowledge can be perfected. It is only when one's knowledge is perfect that one can be sincere and honest. It is only when one is honest and sincere that he can set his heart right. It is only when the heart is set right that a man can educate his family. It is only when his family is educated that he can rule the state. It is only when the state is ruled that the world can be governed well. As early as 2012, the company took "discipline, hygiene and culture" as the three treasures of Ouhai. 6S activities have been implemented in Ouhai for more than 20 years. The core of the 6S activity "sorting, rectifying, cleaning, literacy and safety" is literacy, which is expressed in ancient Chinese as "self-cultivation". Many employees prefer to sleep a little longer than get up ten minutes earlier to wash their hair and keep themselves fresh, and even some people feel uncomfortable with dandruff on their heads and clothes. I told you the story of my grandfather more than once. My grandfather lived to be more than 90 years old. He got up early every day to clean the house in front of the court. Every time he came home from farm work, he washed his hoe clean. In addition, my grandmother, who is nearly 100 years old, still insists on using cosmetics to wipe her face and maintain her skin. She has not sprinkled a drop of urine on the bed from her illness to her deathbed. An old man born and raised in the countryside has been clean and tidy all his life. It can be said that the words and deeds of my grandparents have a great impact on my personal cultivation. Every management cadre is the big parent of this organization. If we want to implement the "discipline, hygiene and culture" the three treasures of Ouhai in an enterprise or department, we should start from our own cultivation, set a good example for our employees, and take the lead. Only if you are upright, can you dare to ask for your subordinates and have requirements for their work.

Three questions of implementation

The ancients said: "If you don't sweep a house, How to sweep the world?" I hope that whatever our team does, it needs to be down-to-earth and do everything thoroughly. As explained in the book "Sweeping the Road", once the smallest thing is done thoroughly, it can release huge energy. For the internal implementation of the enterprise, if we want to implement every work in place, we need to reflect on the following "three questions of implementation" from the heart.

1. Whether the requirements are understood. In order to implementation producing results, we should first understand the requirements thoroughly, which is what the company has always stressed: we should first solve the problem of knowing. The company has implemented the assembly line production mode for so many years, why is there still material accumulation on the assembly line? This shows that our grass-roots management cadres at the production line have not clearly understood the requirements of the streamline production mode. In fact, before the promotion of the assembly line production mode, the planners clearly defined the factors such as human, machine, material, method and environment according to the actual situation of production, formulated detailed operation instructions, and even gave corresponding suggestions for handling common abnormalities. As a management cadre at the production line, he should understand these standards and requirements thoroughly, and achieve "1" to "2" through exploration and deliberation.

2. Whether to set a good example. Model means "good example". Among them, "table" is "model" and "rate" is "pattern". Some parents blame their children for not getting up early because they didn't set an example when their children were young. In recent months, the company has organized the quality of a strategic customer to implement the standard. The youngest son of the former manager of the metal special line asked him: Dad, how many points did you get in the exam? For example, the plastic spraying manager, Mr. Wu, who is more than 50 years old, still reads and writes notes every day. When his grandson sees the picture of his serious reading, he will leave the impression of a model grandpa. In their daily work, many management cadres speak of others in a rightful way, and speak eloquently on the stage, but in their actual work or life, they show another side that is inconsistent with what they say. The ancients said: "Do not do what you don't want to do to others". If the management cadre does one thing to the face and one thing to the back, it is easy to cause criticism and questioning from the employees. It will create a bad atmosphere within the team, and it is also difficult to establish the trust of the employees in the management cadre. More importantly, it is to see the big with “small” and see the leopard in the “spot”.

Whether you personally participate? Personally participating is very important to improve the team's execution. I remember that when I was a student, I served as a labor committee member. I always take the lead in doing the dirtiest and most tiring work when cleaning and digging the sewer. Whether it is the 6S activity or the promotion of the assembly line production mode, as a management cadre, we should step into it. We should not walk around the periphery, and we should not just command without practice. The company requires grassroots cadres to stick to the production site and implement every requirement of the company. For the problems existing in the production site, if the grass-roots cadres fail to rectify, the manager shall participate in the rectification in person; If the manager's participation has not been rectified, the deputy general manager should go down to the grass-roots level and take the manager and the grass-roots cadres to rectify together.

We should not only learn to clean up, but also learn the spirit and way of thinking of cleaning up as described in the book. If we want to implement the "discipline, hygiene and culture" the three treasures of Ouhai in an enterprise or department, we should start from our own cultivation, set a good example for our employees, and take the lead. Only if you are upright, can you dare to ask for your subordinates and have requirements for their work. When reflecting on the implementation of the three questions, we should first understand the requirements thoroughly, which is what the company has always stressed: we should first solve the problem of knowing. The second is to set an example. The ancients said, "Do not do what you don't want to do to others." If the management cadre does one thing to the face and one thing to the back, it is easy to cause criticism and questioning from the employees. It will create a bad atmosphere within the team, and it is difficult to establish the trust of the employees in the management cadre. More importantly, it is to see the big with “small” and see the leopard in the “spot”. The third is to participate personally. In the daily management activities, as a management cadre, we should step in, not walk around the periphery, and not just command without doing anything.