obeya

[Adam Rice]

I'm working on an ongoing job consisting of a lot of shorter documents. The word 大部屋 has cropped up a couple of times in a low-context Powerpoint presentation, and again in a report.

The overall context is the business strategies of a company that manufactures widgets. Some text from the original:

更に、開発・生産・販売戦略の一体化を目指した具体的な活動として、[widget] の開発大部屋活動の検討をスタートさせた。
大部屋活動を開始するにあたって体制等の具体的な進め方を検討し、まずは、少人数で大部屋準備室を立ち上げ、大部屋のルール等の細部事項を確認後、[date] から正式に設計・生技の開発大部屋活動を開始した。

My impression is that 大部屋 is being used to mean something like "team."

Adam Rice :: Austin TX USA :: adam...@8stars.org :: http://8stars.org

[David Farnsworth]

I was puzzled by that term as well (it came up just recently for the first
time), and after some thought I used "team", which seemed to fit the
context.

It is borrowed from the world of sumo... so you could try "stable"
(ducking).

David Farnsworth
Tigard OR 97224

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[Mika J.]

こちらのリンクの

「課題が解決するまで関係者全員が合宿形式で討議する集中討議方式」
には関連はありそうですか？

http://jp.fujitsu.com/about/journal/publication_number/305/img/downloads/journal305-fieldinnovation.pdf

Mika Jarmusz 清水美香
        English to Japanese Translator
        http://inJapanese.us

[Mika J.]

合宿せずとも、分断化の壁を撤去する試みとしても使われているようです。

大部屋方式：
http://alfaconsulting.at.webry.info/200711/article_4.html

[Richard Thieme]

Yes I was thinking something like that. Brainstorming session, or maybe another term to get the sleepover idea into the concept.

 

Richard Thieme

 

 

 

[Chris Poole]

Well if the "widgets" have four wheels and drive up and down the road then I
can report the Obeya is actually a big room and the walls are covered in
graphs tracking a multitude of performance indictors, per division, and that
the katsudo involves people from all divisions assembling in that room
regularly whilst a representative of each division reports out to the
assembled on how their division is performing.

Another giveaway is the term 「生技」short for 「生産技術」which in English
is "Production Engineering". But perhaps that Divisional name is not limited
to this particular manufacturer, starting with "T", of widgets?

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: hon...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hon...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
Of Adam Rice

Sent: Saturday, 19 February 2011 10:44 AM
To: Honyaku
Subject: obeya

I'm working on an ongoing job consisting of a lot of shorter documents. The
word 大部屋 has cropped up a couple of times in a low-context Powerpoint
presentation, and again in a report.

The overall context is the business strategies of a company that
manufactures widgets. Some text from the original:

更に、開発・生産・販売戦略の一体化を目指した具体的な活動として、[widget] の

開発大部屋活動の検討をスタートさせた。
大部屋活動を開始するにあたって体制等の具体的な進め方を検討し、まずは、少人数
で大部屋準備室を立ち上げ、大部屋のルール等の細部事項を確認後、[date] から正

式に設計・生技の開発大部屋活動を開始した。

My impression is that 大部屋 is being used to mean something like "team."

Adam Rice :: Austin TX USA :: adam...@8stars.org :: http://8stars.org

--

[Shuichi Yamakawa]

Hi everyone,

I agree with Chris when he says Obeya is actually a big room.

As has already been pointed out, in the OP's context
the idea is developing a team comprising necessary people
from all relevant business units and functions, which you
might call a cross-functional team.

Equally or more imoportant in this effort, however, is the
need to establish a physical place where all the activities of
the team can take place, in contrast with forming a virtual
team with its members scattered in the compnay, even beyond
national boundaries, connected with telecom technologies.

A very old business glossary published in Japan has:
大部屋制 working together in an open office space.
This refers to such big rooms where white collar workers
used to work (they do even today) at most Japanese
companies. More recently you may find cubicles for staff
and luxurious rooms for management at most non-Japanese
companies in Tokyo.

It is up to the OP to decide what to call obeya in English
once he understands the concept.

Shu (Shuichi Yamakawa)

[Richard Thieme]

I am familiar with the concept of the 大部屋 as a means of office layout,
and in fact have worked in that environment. I actually kind of liked it. If
nothing else it was certainly easier on the eyes than a small cubicle.

War room also came to mind.

http://productdevelopment.com/howitworks/warroom.html

But I am not sure whether "war room activity" works for 大部屋活動, that
sounds more like brainstorming.

"war room synergy??"

Regards,

Richard Thieme

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shuichi Yamakawa" <s...@gol.com>
To: <hon...@googlegroups.com>

Hi everyone,

Shu (Shuichi Yamakawa)

--

[Shuichi Yamakawa]

Hi everyone,

The site Mika shared with us is just great. It seems to describe
the obeya concept best at leaset in general terms. I am not
sure if this fits the OP's context, but it should be close enough.

> 大部屋方式：
> http://alfaconsulting.at.webry.info/200711/article_4.html

Now I realize that the traditional obeya system at Japanese
companies was limited to having one big space for one
department that housed all the sections of the department.
The current obeya system seems to be taking away physical
walls between those departments. So it is obeya at a higher
level. The picture in the above site is impressive.

The same site mentions 蛸壺化 as a problem found at large
companies with rigid organizational structures. I think it is
called "silos" in English. Another similar Japanese expression
might be 縦割り組織 which suffers poor communication
(風通しが悪い) or lacks transparency or visibility.

Shu (Shuichi Yamakawa)

[Chris Poole]

All the English speakers in this particular Japanese-owned enterprise just call it the "Obeya". But then they are forced to use all sorts of ridiculous Japanese terms by their Japanese overlords...
In the same industry, but a US-owned company, also not a million miles from my office, they had one (a big room with gant charts and KPIs covering every surface) and an ad hoc use of "the wall room" developed amongst the English speakers. Although on reflection that may have been imported by the American project management team that the second company had poached from the first company years previous....

Chris

[Chikako K]

Cross-sectional activity or project?
組織横断的 activity sounds close to 大部屋.

Chika

Sent from my iPhone

[Minoru Mochizuki]

大部屋 means, if it is used to describe an office, a large office which is
occupied by many desks, meaning a plurality of workers, as opposed to a
private office, which is occupied by only one person.

Japanese companies typically prefer大部屋 where even a general manager of a
large department share an office space with rank and file members of the
department. Their belief is that 大部屋 creates a sense of comradery and
better communication. It definitely reduces privacy, however.

Minoru Mochizuki

-----Original Message-----
From: hon...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hon...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf

Of Adam Rice
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 8:44 AM
To: Honyaku
Subject: obeya

I'm working on an ongoing job consisting of a lot of shorter documents. The
word 大部屋 has cropped up a couple of times in a low-context Powerpoint
presentation, and again in a report.

The overall context is the business strategies of a company that
manufactures widgets. Some text from the original:

更に、開発・生産・販売戦略の一体化を目指した具体的な活動として、[widget] の

開発大部屋活動の検討をスタートさせた。
大部屋活動を開始するにあたって体制等の具体的な進め方を検討し、まずは、少人数
で大部屋準備室を立ち上げ、大部屋のルール等の細部事項を確認後、[date] から正

式に設計・生技の開発大部屋活動を開始した。

My impression is that 大部屋 is being used to mean something like "team."

Adam Rice :: Austin TX USA :: adam...@8stars.org :: http://8stars.org

--

[Doreen Simmons]

But lately the general office plan has changed to a maze of desk groupings inside the original obeya.
When this happened last year inside my own main office, I sent out an image of a maze,
with me in Mouse ears, trekking through the maze and shaking my head.

We are actually less in contact.

FWIW.

Doreen Simmons
jz8d...@asahi-net.or.jp