Lean Six Sigma News Updates

Jenny Rode
The Enquirer

A color photo sits on Gary Convis' desk, showing the Battle Creek native surrounded by Japanese executives from Toyota.

He's the tallest in the group, and the only one smiling wide enough to show his teeth.

Why shouldn't he grin? He's among an elite group of executives leading the global car company's steady march to the top of the industry.

The math-major-turned-executive, 63, has been heralded a pioneer in Toyota Corp.

Getting there took years of hard work and long hours. His workaholic tendencies of rising before 6 a.m. to check e-mail and voice mail, and working some weekends, didn't hurt.

But it took something else ?being a good student in the Toyota school of thought ?for Convis to get where he is.

It's clear his studious ways paid off.

He made Toyota history, and a bit of automotive history, by "breaking the rice ceiling." In 2001, he became the first American president of a Toyota plant, a mammoth facility in Georgetown, Ky., that builds the Avalon and best-selling Camry, among other cars.

"It was a very proud moment for me," he said. "... It sent a resounding message to the thousands of other North American people that make Toyota successful that no longer would there be barriers preventing people like myself from moving up the ladder and taking over larger responsibilities. That was just a part of what happened. It was motivational, I believe, to the entire organization. That really made me proud ?to be kind of the leader."

He broke the rice ceiling again when he was named a managing officer for Toyota, one of only 39 employees worldwide to hold the post. Only three of the company's managing officers aren't Japanese.

Toyota doesn't have an external board of directors; instead, a group of executives at the company's highest levels manage the business.

"He got into the inner circle," University of Michigan professor Jeffrey Liker said of Convis. "It's very significant in the history of Toyota and in the history of lean manufacturing."

Liker has studied the Japanese auto industry for more than 20 years and is the author of "The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer."

"Penetrating the inner circle ?that's when Toyota leaders say, 'This guy is one of us, part of our culture. We trust him. He's part of the family,' " Liker added.

Convis often travels to Japan to meet with top brass about the company's North American operations. He loves all kinds of sushi but admits he doesn't speak Japanese well. At six-foot-four, mustached and with an athletic build, Convis easily stands out in Japan, "like a toothpick in a cake," he said. He can create a mild stir when he goes there.

Sometimes he'll meet Toyota employees who say, "I know you ?you're famous."

But talking about all this is done with restraint. Boasting or bragging would never happen. That's not how well- respected Toyota executives operate. They instead spend most of their time focusing on where they need to improve.

"In our culture, if you stop to observe and pat yourself on the back, somebody else will pass you by," Convis said of Toyota. "So we kind of live with a healthy sense of paranoia."

Toyota continues to gain market share over the Big Three, but according to Convis, the company's goals are not to be the biggest car company in the world or the most profitable.

"I think they want to be the most respected," he said. "It's an interesting part of our culture."

B.C. ROOTS
Convis developed a solid work ethic growing up in the Cereal City, where his family connections run deep. His ancestors were among the first to settle in the area in the 1830s.

He grew up in Verona with a brother and sister. His dad, Orville, was a Grand Trunk railroad man. His mother, Margaret, worked at Sears and for H & R Block. She also cut hair.

He played baseball in Bailey Park and basketball in the fieldhouse downtown. When he was 9, he and his brother had a paper route, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to deliver the Detroit Free Press.

"What was really neat was in the winter when you were walking the route, how quiet it was," he said. "Like you were the only people in the world. It was kind of a neat experience."

The other memorable part of the paper route? The doughnut shop at the end of the trail, where they'd reward themselves with a treat, Convis recalled.

After graduating from Battle Creek Central High School in 1960, he went to Michigan State University, earning a bachelor of science degree in mathematics while playing basketball and baseball.

Several times a year, he gets back to the Cereal City from his home in Lexington, Ky., where he lives with his wife, Deborah. His parents, brother and sister and their families still live in Battle Creek.

"I'm the maverick," Convis said. "I moved out to California."

STEPPING OFF A CLIFF
Being the maverick, it turns out, was a great move.

California became a turning point in Convis' career.

It was 1984 and he was being recruited from Ford for the general manager position at a California plant that was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.

The project was New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, "and it was a big deal," Convis said, because it was Toyota's first big step outside of Japan.

Essentially, it was an experiment.

"There was no guarantee, no golden parachute. There was nothing," he said. "I was just steppin' off a cliff."

He thought about it, prayed about it, then took the job.

After accepting the offer, he was invited to a celebration with Toyota executives Tetsura Toyoda (who later became president of Toyota) and Kosuke Ikebuchi (who is now vice chairman of Toyota).

Overcome with emotion at having been offered the position, Convis had tears in his eyes as he met with his new bosses. He couldn't help himself.

"I reached down and hugged Mr. Ikebuchi ?actually lifted him up off the floor, with no thought to any of it," he said.

After getting Ikebuchi about a foot off the floor, Convis realized how inappropriate it was for him to do that. The Japanese aren't seen touching each other, particularly not in a business setting. They don't even shake hands ?they bow.

"So it's going across my mind subconsciously that maybe I'm doing something that's not socially proper," he said. "So I set him down and apologized and bowed, and we had a drink."

A social faux-pas? Yes.

A career-ender? No.

"I know that it didn't hurt," he said. "But at the time, I was really wondering."

BRIDGING THE GAP
As the years went by, Convis successfully bridged the gap between the American work force and the Japanese management style. He earned a reputation for his technical expertise and personable style with the workers on the line.

He always was approachable, said Richard Pearson, who worked for Convis at a Ford assembly plant in Lorain, Ohio, and who is now president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences in Ann Arbor.

"As all managers of a major production facility are, he was intense. He was firm and extremely fair," Pearson said. "He had a knack for listening ... and getting everyone to march to the same drummer. He just had a good way about him."

Convis, who relaxes by playing golf and riding a Harley Davidson, describes his management style as leading by example and not asking others to do what he wouldn't do himself.

"You respect people," he said. "You listen to them, you work together. You don't blame them. Maybe the process was not set up well, so it was easy to make a mistake."

Convis also has a dedication to the Toyota production system, knowing it well enough to solve problems and "sell" the solutions to the workers, who, by the way, must be appreciated and cared for, he said.

That's all done in the traditionally humble style of Japanese managers.

These days, Convis still oversees the Georgetown plant and its 7,000 employees. But he's also traveling to other Toyota plants and focusing more on long-term strategic planning.

But he won't give up one activity that dates back to his early days in the auto industry: walking the manufacturing floor.

He does it whenever he can.

"It's my favorite time of the day," he said. "It's where I grew up and that's where we add value. I like to say that the rest of us are all overhead. If I don't add value, there's no reason for me to be there."

Peggy Ferris, a conveyance manager in the Georgetown plant who has known Convis since he came to the plant in 2000, said he's a president who connects well with workers.

"To me, Gary is always teaching," she said. "He's a president that's very involved in the daily activities and projects. When he sees you're at a stumbling block, he offers support and follow-up, and then follow-up on that support to see if it's helped you," she said. "...He's out there on the floor and he's interested, and people respond to that."

She also appreciates his accessibility. "He's very, very busy, but you don't feel he's very, very busy because he makes time for you," she said. "That's very unique."

Convis said it's not about being a boss, but about being a facilitator and a coach. When he became a vice president at Toyota, his supervisor told him to manage as if he had no power.

"I thought about that and I thought 'My goodness ?what an amazing approach.' And I thought at the time, would a North American executive in a similar type of business ever say that to a newly promoted person? Never. So I've never forgotten that."

For the Enquirer
Gary Convis, center, is considered a pioneer in Toyota Corp. The Battle Creek native has turned heads in the auto industry by becoming an executive at the Japanese automaker

Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006

'Breaking the rice ceiling'