Obeya

Obeya (from Japanese Ōbeya 大部屋 "large room") originated from a long history of learning & improving. The earliest notion of which is believed to be the Analects of Confucius nearly 2500 years ago (China, 206 BC–220 AD). The roots of what is now a valuable management practice can be found across continents with many disciplines influencing each other throughout history. One of the more recognizable modern examples involving Obeya was at Toyota during the G21 (Globe 21st century) Project, while building the Prius. Chief Engineer of the G21 project, Takeshi Uchiyamada “felt that he lacked the necessary authority to make the optimal decisions and thought he could be overrun by experienced discipline leaders in a way that was not optimal for the project as such”. (Aasland, Knut & Blankenburg, Detlef. 2012) This need for support from the other leaders that Uchiyamada identified, is what manifested for him the first use of Obeya "large room" in this environment. The Obeya, was instituted "as an arena for all his discussions with the discipline leaders. In this room, the other discipline leaders would be present, and documents and data would be available to all." (Aasland, Knut & Blankenburg, Detlef. 2012)

It is considered a component of lean manufacturing and in particular the Toyota Production System. A variety of different analogies have been drawn between an obeya and other real life systems and structures. One such example is the bridge of a ship, where many different crewmates come together to support the operation of a complex entity by allowing all roles to be connected and understood. Obeya has been described as "the brain of the system".

During the product and process development, all individuals involved in managerial planning meet in a "great room" to speed up communication and decision-making. This is intended to increase efficiency and bring a better flow to the project, as well as an understanding of one’s role within the cycle of the process.

The Obeya can be understood as a team spirit improvement tool at an administrative level. Often associated in product development, an Obeya room can also be a place for software development, a command center, managing new business strategy, workflow and project management. This tool forces people to work together without distractions and creates a great atmosphere to generate new ideas. Conceptually akin to a traditional "war room", an Obeya will contain visually engaging charts and graphs depicting such information as program timing, milestones and progress-to-date and countermeasures to existing technical or scheduling issues.