Resources for Lean Continuous Improvement

Why should you worry about Enterprise Alignment?

6/27/2019

Because, to succeed on your journey to enterprise-wide excellence, organizations must have management systems in place that ALIGN work and behavior based on core principles. The workshop delves into this relationship in ways that are simple, comprehensive, actionable and standardized by defining ideal behaviors and the systems which drive them.

Join GBMP & VIBCO for the Shingo Institute workshop Enterprise Alignment this July to discover how to create ideal results in your organization by building a sustainable culture of excellence based on the core principles of The Shingo Model. Learn to see & evaluate, in a real-life setting, how culture aligned with guiding principles elicits Ideal Behaviors & Results.

Are you absolutely sure your team is Value Stream Mapping correctly?

6/27/2019

GBMP wants to make sure they are so be sure to join us on July 9-10 at Abiomed in Danvers, MA for an excellent 2-day workshop during which students will learn the RIGHT way to use VSM to document material and information flow and get practiced through hands-on activities so they leave the workshop with the knowledge AND CONFIDENCE to use Value Stream Mapping to eliminate waste in your process. Read more/register here.

How do you conduct a Lean System Assessment to measure progress from “status quo” to “world class”?

5/1/2019

It is management’s role to continuously assess the current condition of the Lean implementation and provide appropriate support and motivation to raise the bar. Failure to keep a watchful eye on True North has caused many a Lean effort to fail. Perhaps management has invested in classroom training, but no time for action (and therefore no tacit learning.) In other instances, the effort may be treated as a “crash program” which will indeed end with a crash and gradual return to the status quo aka “business as usual”. In many cases however, companies do achieve early benefits but are challenged to sustain and accelerate their improvements. Assessments can be used on an on-going basis to challenge and re-invigorate your efforts.

There are 16 categories for evaluation through direct observation. Each describes a key business function as a work in progress, advancing from traditional practice to Lean thinking. Don’t be discouraged if your initial scores are low. That would be normal.

Ultimately every aspect of a business requires reconsideration. The current condition was not built up over night. It represents decades or more of practice and development. Kaizen is the means to re-align resources to TPS philosophy. For employees it represents small changes for the better in their daily work. For management, kaizen is the means to re-think strategy, organization and policy, and to implement incremental changes to the management system.

Here's a brief description of each of the 16 categories:

Production Instruction – Is our production based on speculation (push) or actual customer requirement (pull)?
Shipping Management – Are problems found early and fixed immediately?
Finished Part Management – Is it the outcome of push production or is it a buffer to facilitate Kanban improvement?
Inventory Management - How many days are maintained? Are locations & quantities clear?
Material Handling - Are parts moved to the floor infrequently in big batches (push?) or small quantities according to need (pull)?
In-Process Inventory - Are large quantities of WIP produced too early & moved to a warehouse? Are production quantities determined by capability or container size?
Production Flow - Is the workplace laid out functionally with long distances b/w ops or has flow distance been reduced to combine ops closer.
Process Flexibility - Are workers trained to do only one job or able to handle different tasks Is workload balanced?
Man/Machine Separation - Are workers tied to machines or have improvements been made to allow workers’ time to be divided?
Quality - Is inspection done remotely in batches or on the spot, one-by-one?
Standards - Do work standards exist? Are they followed? Are they integrated with kaizen or do they thwart improvement?

12. 5S - Is the workplace cluttered or well-organized? Is 5S considered an on-going process? Are all employees engaged?
13. Visual Management & Control - Are operating conditions clear at a glance? Does management receive and respond to visual communications? Is it frequent and reflective of changing conditions?
14. Information Flow - Are problems hidden from management or “made ugly”? Is management on the floor regularly to “go see”?
15. Favorable Environment - Does the environment encourage employee participation with teams or suggestions? Is there enthusiasm for improvement?
16. Management System - What is the current condition of policies and measures? Is it “status quo”, and contradictory to True North?

For the full description of each of the 16 categories to measure on your journey from “status quo” to “world class”, get your digital copy of the “e2 Continuous Improvement System” here. Includes an example Assessment Matrix and suggestions on how to score each category.

Are your Systems Suppressing the Potential of your Lean Initiative?

4/29/2019

Probably. To overcome this obstacle, let's begin with a discussion of management’s role in a Continuous Improvement system? Most often when employees hear the term management it connotes a specific hierarchical assignment of jobs populated by persons with varying levels and spheres of influence. The term management is vague in that it sometimes refers only to an elite few persons at the top of the organization (executive management) and at other times middle managers and supervision as well. In both senses however, we are referring to the people who steer the ship. We can think of these persons either as the agents of change or as the keepers of the “status quo”, depending upon their predispositions.

As a means by which managers manage, their process may include a vision and mission statement as well as corporate values, and also the strategy and organization which emanate from these. Policies are written to clearly define how the management system should operate. Together, these create the infrastructure and shared understanding that run the business, both daily and long-term. Together they are the embodiment of the “status quo”.
The responsibility for revising these types of management systems clearly lies with executive management, but the task of implementing it must be shared across the management team at all levels.

When W. Edwards Deming stated that 95% of problems are systemic, this is the system to which he was referring. In the factory, over-sized, immovable equipment is often referred to as “monolithic”, referring to its immovability and un-changeability. But the greatest monolithic structure by far in any business is the model by which it operates; the system in whose context strategy is set, organization is developed, and policy created. These are the ultimate building blocks of the “status quo.” (Noticing a theme here?)

They are mostly transparent to everyone in the organization – both management and employees – and are taken for granted as givens. The irony is that this strategy and organization has been built to last in order to provide stability and standardization – and it is this very durability that suppresses the potential of Lean. The “status quo” management system by which traditional businesses operate is durable, but most definitely not a given, and it will be management’s responsibility to kaizen this system to create a new business model. Without this critical systemic improvement, any Lean initiative will soon be eclipsed by old ways. Be forewarned, nearly every policy must be reconsidered.

Are you Rowing Upstream? Imagine that you are the change leader for your company given the assignment to transform the thinking and practices of an entire enterprise to Lean. You need to “get everyone into the same boat” and then get everyone to row together – not an easy task.

But suppose that you then discover that the direction you need to row is upstream. Now the task is nearly impossible.

The direction that the river is flowing in this case is a function of management strategy, organization and policy, all built up over years to support a production system that in many ways is fundamentally the opposite of continuous improvement. Without examination and revision of the management system, Lean will never succeed.

What then is Management to do? Kaizen! Specifically, “Management Kaizen, are six essential functions of the management process that reverse the flow of the river to support and accelerate a Lean transformation rather than thwart it.

Volition – Unwavering management commitment to and articulation of the need for Lean in a manner that touches both the intellect and passion of every employee, “their hearts and their minds”.
Policy – How do we do what we do? What are the rules and guidelines? Are these True North, or do they oppose our new direction?
Planning & Deployment – Developing, managing and communicating a plan to re-direct the enterprise in a True North direction, balancing improvement time and daily management time. Critical review and revision of virtually every corporate policy and measure to encourage and reinforce the right behaviors both by management and employees.
Control and Monitoring – Creation of measurements that accurately align daily management practice and performance with organizational strategy.
Satisfaction – Fostering the organization and people development through on-going recognition and celebration of the Lean journey.
Ideas Systems – Developing a robust system to stimulate, capture, implement, recognize and share improvement ideas.

Management’s role in transforming the management system is analogous to every employee’s role in Lean: many small improvements that come from the common sense and experience of the people who do the work – in this case the work of top management and managers.

Did you like this article? Read more about the “e2 Continuous Improvement System” here, and learn more about Engaging Hearts & Minds here. And please feel free to share your comments. I love to read them. – Bruce