The Shinkansen miracle

Picture: Fikri Rasyid

Extract from

Winfried Weber, Die Purpose-Wirtschaft, 2024, eBook (Amazon Kindle, http://tiny.cc/9eznzz ) (Translation by the author)

The average delay of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train is twenty seconds - every year! In 2004, the 40th anniversary of the rail infrastructure was celebrated, and in this anniversary year it was a world record of six seconds per train per year, despite the geologically complex location (island fissures, frequent earthquakes, storms) and routes through mostly densely populated areas. With the prestigious Shinkansen project, the industrialized country of Japan is proving what the art of engineering and management is capable of. Since its inception, the Shinkansen has been running on newly built lines, all of which were constructed with a wider track gauge from 1960 onwards, whereas conventional Japanese railroad lines have a narrower track gauge. There are high fences and safety zones along all lines to prevent people or animals from approaching the tracks or to keep the tracks clear of falling trees during typhoons. There are no level crossings. All lines are equipped with seismic instruments so that trains come to a stop before an earthquake (on average, an earthquake occurs every day in Japan (Earthquake Track). Although the timetables are simpler compared to other Japanese railroad lines, they remain extremely ambitious with a minimum interval of three minutes between trains. No freight trains or night trains run on the lines. The annual number of passengers is over 400 million. (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism 2024)

The process of organizing is based on both rule-based standards and suggestions for improvement from employees. With a cycle time of just three minutes, communication errors between train drivers, conductors and station staff must be avoided. The "shisa kanko " (pointing and shouting) occupational safety method developed over many years is used here, a verbal and non-verbal communication system that was created to reduce errors in the work process, which have also been reduced by up to 85% as a result (Richarz 2017). Passengers also play their part in optimizing processes. You can only access the platform with a valid reservation and join parallel queues of color-coded lines that end where the doors are located and where the color-coded train on the display board stops, with a tolerance of 50 centimetres. There are no short-term changes to the sequence of wagons (cf. Kemmeter 2020).

To clean the trains, short buffers are created in the timetable at the terminus stations. As a foreign passenger, you may already be standing in line and be surprised that the train arrives a few minutes early and all passengers get off. Before you can board, the empty compartments are cleaned in a few minutes. You witness the so-called "seven-minute-miracle". In 2005, JR Rail's service subsidiary Tessei saw potential for improvement in the area of cleanliness and launched a project to improve the quality of cleaning and the commitment of the cleaning teams. Similar to the production system of car manufacturer Toyota, the "store floor" was empowered and offered scope for own ideas and team spirit in teams that had previously suffered from low morale at JR Rail. Tessei CEO Teruo Yabe changed the perception of the subsidiary, which was transformed into a purpose-driven system. The wording was also changed. The activity was no longer referred to as "cleaning" but as a "service". Cleaning was defined as a bottleneck factor of high service quality. Cleaning was important, the activity could be fun, was important for punctuality, had a purpose and its success was crucial for customer satisfaction. Suggestions for improvement in the daily quality circles came from all members of the teams, all members had a say. Job rotation between the teams generated further ideas and also fostered a spirit of purpose to exceed passenger expectations.

Examples of optimizations include using different cloths for tables and windows, as customers do notice such details from the train track and appreciate impeccable hygienic procedures. New retractable brooms have been developed that fit in a pocket and leave hands free. To promote team spirit, the teams in the stations are given their own staff rooms. In summer, the teams wear Hawaiian shirts and adorn themselves with a mascot called Chiritori (a play on words that combines the expression "cleaning up garbage" with the word "bird"). The members of the teams also interact with the passengers during the interim cleaning during the journey to find out their wishes and let them know that speed, friendliness and cleanliness are the lasting promises of their train company. (see Vlad 2019)

The "seven-minutes-miracle" is based on the mindset of teams, on the skills of their members such as close observation, continuous optimization, prioritization and efficiency. In 2008, Tessei was recognized by Nikkei Business Magazine as the top-performing team in Japan.

In many places, the "seven-minute-miracle" is based on informality and therefore not on the formality of hierarchical work preparation, in which simple activities are thought of "at the top" and carried out "at the bottom" in a predetermined rhythm. Formality is understood in organizations as the expectation that their members must fulfil in order to do justice to their ascribed role (Luhmann, Der neue Chef, Frankfurt, 2016). Informality offers scope in organizations in which patterns of action can be interpreted (Luhmann 1972). Peter Drucker also referred to it as "the outside-in" perspective, as the question of what the customer considers valuable (Drucker 2009). For Drucker, members of organizations with this mindset can work wonders. Organizations that operate in the luxury segment go even further. Tom Peters gives the example of a floor manager at the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain, Virginia Azuela, who is a sort of co-CEO for him. Ms. Azuela had the authority to spend up to $2,000 to fix a customer's problem without having to seek further approval from her superiors (Peters 1997).

The tendency for labour to become too cheap in many OECD countries is taking its toll today. It starts with management appreciating the value of "simple" work, which holds a lot of potential for innovation and productivity. When organizations today complain about a lack of cheap labour, management must learn to treat people like Virginia Azuela as equals, empower them, recognize their potential for value creation and reward them better. Tessei has had to let some employees go because they are now working as independent consultants, tapping into the innovation potential in other companies and performing seven-minute miracles elsewhere.