Archive for January, 2012

Where Do I Start?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

by Susan Pleasant

Often people will attend a class about lean, usually a basics class, and on the last day feel a little overwhelmed with what they are going to do when they return to their workplace. There are stories about positive results that have been experienced after training. Here are a few things that increase the probability of have good results using lean after your initial training:

  • Get started right away.  Choose something you can do within the first 5 days after returning to work.  The sooner you put something into practice the more likely you will be to build the learning into skills.
  • Keep it simple.  We love big wins and “homeruns.” This could be a trap when starting your personal lean journey.  Choose something simple to start with such as a waste walk, direct observation of a challenging or frustrating part of your process, do a product process map of one part of your responsibilities, use 5 why’s, conduct an After Action Review.
  • Make it worthwhile.  Try your new way of thinking or tools to something you need to do anyway.  So often people think of lean as extra work in addition to their “real work.”  You knew what your goals were and where improvements were needed before you went to your lean class.  Apply you new thinking to opportunity areas to avoid wasting time.
  • Let people know what you are doing and why.  You will want to consider the culture and your team’s exposure to lean to decide how much lingo you will use.  In addition, be careful of over promising the benefits at this point.  However, having members of your team know what you have been doing, why the training is important, and how they might see the benefit of the use of lean, and what help you will need for  them is essential.  Ask to see if there are a few people who would be interested in learning more or working with you on a few simple projects.
  • Keep notes.  Often you will hear or see opportunities to use lean before you are ready to pursue them.  Write it down.  You will be surprised how helpful the list will be as you develop and expand your skills and those of your team as you start your lean journey.

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Define a Clear Vision of the Ideal State

Monday, January 30th, 2012

by Jim Sonderman

Most lean practitioners understand and would agree that it’s a good practice to try things out prior to making changes permanent. Trying things out through simulations and mockups allows us to test changes against anticipated results so that we can see what works and what does not. The practice of testing ideas against an anticipated result allows us to learn from every change we make. This is the essence of making improvement through the scientific method. In practice, many lean practitioners experiment without first clearly defining what is ideal in terms of the total process.
A common approach to improvement begins with making an intense observation of the current state. After the current state situation is understood, the next step taken by many individuals is to brainstorm on the current state for improvement opportunities. Subsequently, ideas are generated, tested, refined and then implemented. This seems like a fairly sound practice and using this approach will more than likely achieve some positive results for you. However, when I see individuals taking this exact approach and I ask them why they made that particular change or took that particular course of action, the response seems starkly familiar to the response I gave my lean coach from Toyota many years ago. “I made this improvement because it removes waste and it’s certainly an improvement on the current condition.”
Years ago, I was assigned by my company to help a supplier over a 6 month period of time improve the total value stream of the part they were supplying to us. A coach was assigned from Toyota to guide me in my project. I began immediately removing waste wherever it surfaced. I had made significant progress in reducing labor and inventory. My coach returned for a visit and reviewed my progress on the production floor. I was expecting applause but only got a question? What specific problem are you trying to fix? You are jumping all over the place making changes without clear direction. Then he asked another question. “Please define for me what ideal is in terms of this total process”. I answered by providing the following: “one piece flow, no delays, full utilization of manpower and produce only what the customer wants when they want it”. His reply was “Very good!……… Now go do it”. I was expecting a little more direction than this. However, what he did was to help me establish a clear pathway forward to an ideal target condition. Then every experiment we structured was with this end in sight. We never did achieve one piece flow, but we came much closer to achieving it during those 6 months. We freed up so much floor space that we eventually consolidated two facilities. Without a clear vision of the ideal process, we would have never achieved this magnitude of outcome.

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How to react when you find something out of place in 5S

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

by Jamie Flinchbaugh

Sustaining 5S is the hardest part. The average life of a 5S program is 1 year, and sustainability is the reason. So what behaviors should you exhibit to make it work?

Finding something out of place in the 5S’d area is not a sign that the system is broken. In fact, it’s a sign that it is working. It worked because you noticed it. You’ll never keep everything in place all the time. Unless it’s a serious violation, my first reaction to something is just to move it back where it belongs. Many people might disagree with that, because it’s an opportunity for coaching. But if you literally grab every opportunity to coach that you find, you’ll never leave the one area. Correcting it is the behavior you’d want from those in the area, so if the system tells you what to do, then just do it. That’s role modeling the behavior you want to see in others. If it is not straightforward, then ask an operator in the area what is the item, or where it belongs, or why it’s not in the right place. They are the ones who will best know. If needed, coaching can be provided. If it becomes a pattern, then it needs to be brought up with the supervisor in the area so that they can coach as well as hold accountable.

If you are on an audit, then the right first response is to the supervisor, because the audit is specifically focused on the process. You are surfacing issues about the system working when on an audit, so that is meant to facilitate the discussion with the supervisor in the area.

Furthermore, if all of these fail, then change the system. This means find a way to make the particular failure easier to do right, easier to spot when wrong, impossible to do, etc. We can’t always go back to coaching and reminders. Find some way to make the repeated failure no longer a problem.

What’s important about these behaviors is that they are widespread and consistent. This isn’t just for the manager immediately of the area in question. Anyone in management should be in the same page. Get other people who might be going through the area engaged, such as engineers and HR.

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