CANDEW Cycle

The kaizen formula of Aha! + Eureka! =Wow! is just part of larger pattern, or a continuous improvement cycle, discovered on my lean improvement journey. At least this holds true from my lean journey experience. It’s the Confused-Aha-Nirvana-Darn-Eureka-Wow Cycle, or otherwise known in the back hills as the CANDEW cycle for short. It appears that we, both as an individual or as a team, pass through these varies stages before achieving actual improvement.

Stage 1: Confused
The confused stage is the beginning point of all continuous improvement where we are actually lost, clueless, and oblivious to the current state. We may think we know the facts but in reality we are blinded by assumption, opinion and arrogance. As we humbly open our eyes and minds by going to gemba, listening to our employees and using data, we start down the path of discovery.

Stage 2: Aha
Eventually, our path of discovery leads to Aha moments. Aha moments are where we see the light, everything clicks and we become one with our current state. We reach a point of genuine understanding. What was once hidden is now in plain sight. Often times, we wonder why we never saw it before now. This Aha Moment could be the view of whole picture or just an element of the current state. In either case, it is found most often in the seams or gaps of the process or between the traditional function silos of a business.

Stage 3 Nirvana
The Aha moment creates the flash of an idea, a vision of paradise or heaven as we clearly see what is possible and how to make it better. This vision is nirvana. A rush of excitement takes over our entire being and it is possible to actually jump for joy. Care must be taken to hold on to this fragile idea for this stage of nirvana is short lived. We will be challenged in the next stage of Darn where our idea or visions of paradise can quickly turn into just an illusion or fantasy.

Stage 4: Darn
The Darn stage is where we stumble and make mistakes. After walking blindly for so long in the Confused Stage, and finally seeing the light in the Aha Stage, we naturally try to run as fast as possible to the light. Since we are not used to running to the light, we can easily fall. In fact, it is not unusual to fall several times in the Darn Stage which makes this the most critical stage. Failure is often a result in the Darn stage and rarely do things go according to original plans. It is at this point most people give up and even question their Aha Moment and Nirvana vision as a neurotic mind trick. In the Darn Stage we may face many difficulties, road blocks and barriers in our path. It takes persistence to continue on the path.

Stage 5: Eureka
As we navigate through the treacherous Darn Stage, we will find it. It being the solution, the way to make our idea work. We find success.

Stage 6: Wow
The Wow stage is where we reflect on our success and share our joy. We share so others may learn and join us on our path of continuous improvement. Many times we discover the total impact of our Eureka moment at this stage. In the Wow stage, we reap the reward of our efforts.

Just as I stated at the beginning, this process is a cycle. If we stay too long in the Wow stage, we quickly find ourselves in the dark again. Everything changes so we must constantly seek improvement. The path of continuous improvement promises no certainty but only opportunity.

Kaizen Formula

Aha! + Eureka! = Wow!

Contempt for 5S

There seems to be a swell of support against 5S activities which is certainly not a new phenomenon. The backlash against any attempts to organize areas like a person’s desk or workstation can be powerful, passionate and personal. This 5S backlash easily grows into contempt as we hear about extreme examples of 5S-Gone-Wild. This includes stories of companies that place footprints on desks for everything (computer, keyboards, phones, papers, etc) without regard of actual benefit, stupid rules that limit the number of personal items on a desk to an arbitrary number like 3, or label crazy consultants that have us labeling every possible object on site under the principle of visual management like in this Far Side Cartoon.

With the release of the new book, “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder-How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-The-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place” written by Eric Abrahamson and David H, Freeman, many supporters of the messy desk lifestyle are united against any and all actions to “fix” what they believe is not broken.

Maybe guilt over not being better organized is a factor that causes people to rationalize the mess and clutter. As pointed out in Mark Graban’s post Not Neatness for Neatness Sake at Lean Blog, it seems that the authors of the book are glorifying messiness.

To get a better insight to their supportive argument that messy is better, read Tom Peter’s Cool Friends interview with David Freeman about his findings. I find it curious that many of the findings in support of disorder are based on surveys which I tend believe are not all together scientific and most likely bias. I do admit that I have not read this book or verified the details on his research so I only present my opinion on the use of survey data as fact.

Take for instant Mr. Freeman’s theory that “People who keep messy desks actually spend less time looking for things then people with neat desks”. And what is the scientific proof cited by the author that supports his theory, “We did a survey for the book that backed this up” along with his comment, “Common sense backs this up.” For me, common sense tells me the direct opposite. I guess even what is considered common sense is up for debate.

My thoughts are that organization and 5S principles are critical to continuous improvement success. As I have learned on my lean journey, we should question all assumptions and actions to eliminate waste. Even activities thought to be lean requirements like 5S should be constantly monitored like any other process for the value of performing the activity. Remember, any activity that adds cost or time without adding value as defined by the paying customer is waste.

Seven More Ideas Towards a Healing Workplace Plus One

I liked Jon Miller’s post yesterday Seven Ideas Towards a Healing Workplace and it sparked some of my own ideas on the subject. I think the topic is quite important since we could spend over 11,000 days of our lives at work. I thought I would hitchhike on Jon’s list and add seven more ideas plus one. Side note: Adding one more idea than Jon’s list is not a case of list envy or my list is bigger than your list. I am always challenging myself to do just a little more in the spirit of continuous improvement. I highly respect Jon’s thoughts and insights in making things better!

So here are seven more ideas plus one.

Add some rocking chairs. This is not an early effort to look forward to retirement. Some believe that the rocking motion can be therapeutic. I have even seen rocking chairs at airports and have enjoyed it as I waited to board my flight.

Provide a public puzzle table. Puzzles can relax and re-energize your brain by focusing on a simple challenging task to put the pieces together. You would be surprised to learn that the brain still can solve other problems in the background when you are not thinking about them. Have you ever solved a problem while sleeping, in the shower or driving to work? Same principle applies.

Eliminate or reduce harsh noises. How many facilities use annoying intercoms, buzzers, loud machines, rattling conveyors, etc.? Try standing in the middle of your facility when everyone is gone, the lights are out and all the machinery is shut down. Big difference! Buy a sound meter to measure your noise levels and start the kaizen process to lower the levels.

Play comedies on a big screen TV at lunch. Making people laugh and smile does have a positive affect. Just make sure that you don’t show any comedy that would offend anyone.

Provide a healing atmosphere. Installing a fountain or two can help. The sound of running water is thought to be beneficial to your spirit. You can also green it up. Add plants, fresh flowers around the facility and not just in the office. Put the plants in staircases and the shop floor. Yes, even the shop floor! And you can play classical or relaxing music. Music can lift the spirit, soothe the soul and spark creativity. Even though you could considered this section as three separate ideas (and they are), I lumped them together under the disguise of a single idea.

Get rid of the vending machines. This idea will make me an enemy within this industry and these product companies but most of the items are not healthy including the soda. Replace them with healthy alternatives like water (Add fresh lemon slices!), fruit, etc. Another replacement could be to provide a healthy salad bar cafeteria. Not all companies provide a food service but you should try it. It also keeps people from fighting traffic to go out at lunch.

Wear visible name tags. Some people may not know everyone’s name including visitors, new employees, temporary employees, etc. Nametags help encourage open, friendly communication and people like to hear you call them by name.

And for my bonus idea…

Just ask your employees for their ideas! In the spirit of total employee involvement, open up the topic to your employees. They will certainly add to the list and help implement improvements while feeling positive for being part of the improvement process. Remember, change is best done with people and not to them!

Simple Kaizen 1

Before Kaizen: What was my problem? My laptop cords and mouse cords gets tangled up in my computer bag.




After Kaizen: What is my simple idea? Attach velcro strips to each cord, wrap and secure.




Result: What is the benefit? Eliminates frustration and time to untangle the cords.

Be Careful What You Measure

I was reminded this week of the important lesson to be careful what you measure, measurements drive action and behavior.

The productivity numbers have dropped slightly at the first of the year and not rebounded despite all the continuous improvement efforts. Needless to say, this was not the expected result. Management wanted to know what caused the drop and take the proper countermeasures to reverse the trend.

To add to the complexity, several changes occurred during this time frame regarding the usual suspects of volume, mix, lot size, manpower, new products, methods, etc. There did not appear to be an easy answer to the simple question, “What changed?”

When I observed the processes at gemba, the process flow appeared to be improved yet the numbers told a different story. As one that likes to use data to drive decisions, I dug a little deeper. With a little investigation, I started to analysis the historical data to see if I could determine any patterns or potential causes. Unfortunately, only summary reports were available and the details behind the summary were thrown out every month. Not a bad policy since I was the first to ever request to see this data. The good news is the 5S for this area looks great.

Turning my attention to the spreadsheet used to create the productivity charts, looking for anything abnormal, I noticed that several of the formulas did not make sense to me. Looking closer, I saw that one of the formulas in this year’s spreadsheet pointed to cell in last year’s spreadsheet which turned out to be a blank cell. Apparently, in the process of creating the new 2007 spreadsheet from the old 2006 spreadsheet, the formula did not get properly translated.

A couple of keystrokes later, the formula was corrected. Followed by a weeks worth of clerical effort to restate the year, the productivity measures displayed a more accurate and improved operation.

Although this recalculation of productivity had a positive affect, it is not what I would consider a triumph. Ongoing efforts are still required to truly increase productivity, so it’s back to gemba. However, I am modifying the lesson to “Be careful what and how you measure, measurements drive action and behavior”.

Toyota Releases Temp Workers

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana (TMMI) officially announced last week, April 25, 2007, their plans to eliminate its “variable workforce” by the end the year, citing low demand for the Toyota Sequoia. The news release added “About 350 temp workers will be affected by the decision” which is a more pleasant way of saying that 350 workers will lose their jobs. The TMMI is located in Princetown, Indiana.

This news flash did not make the major headlines like the recent quarter sales announcements that Toyota passes up GM as the Number one (in sales) worldwide automotive manufacturer. I guess the hype of the Toyota race to unseat ex-goliath GM and the potential effect on the future of GM is more news-worthy. In my opinion, this little news headline tells a bigger story about Toyota.

Although I feel saddened for the 350 families affected by the pain of losing of a job, I also feel hopeful. For one, the announcement stated a timeline “by the end of the year” for the elimination. That is a seven month horizon to ease the burden. From my manufacturing experience, temp workers are typically given little notice that their services were no longer needed. This meant same day or next day notice with the “Thanks for your work, here is your last check and don’t come back tomorrow” speech.

Also noted in the news release, Toyota is working with PMI, the company that provides TMMI with variable work force team members, to find them other assignments. This includes transferring workers to the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant in Lafayette, Indiana where Toyota has recently begun building the Camry. So far, 17 workers have accepted the move.

All are steps to ease the burden of a job loss, while following the “respect for people” principle of lean which extends to even the I-get-no-respect temp workers. I don’t know all the details on how Toyota is actively working to ease the job loss pain yet I get the impression it would be more than most companies.

Other lean lessons point to the workforce strategies of Toyota in a variable demand market. Despite all the news of Toyota’s popularity and sales growth, some Toyota models decline in sales as with the Toyota Sequoia in this case. How does Toyota balance their workforce in a cyclical industry?

One strategy is the variable (temporary) workforce. The role of the variable workforce is a huge strategic difference from typical Western Manufacturers. This is not to say using temporary employees is uncommon in America, just that we use a lower percentage of temporary employees by comparison. This was a surprising fact I learned on my trip to Japan where temporary employees made up 40-50% of the workforce at companies I toured. With the exception of highly seasonal industries, I’ll bet that most American manufacturing companies that have temporary employees have a much lower percentage.

Does this high proportion of temporary employees strategy work? It appears so, but not without creating other issues. Healthcare coverage, employee benefits, pay structure, training, re-staffing to name just a few. A closer investigation into the pros and cons beyond replacing the term “layoff” with “release” would help determine if this is a better approach. Given the added flexibility, a larger variable workforce is more likely a growing strategy for the future beyond even typical cyclical industries.

Just Hide It

While on a Gemba walk, I saw a section of the warehouse that was neat, clean, organized and free from the piles of inventory awaiting disposition that typically would be stacked up in this location. After seeking out the team leader of the area, I complemented him on the organization and improvement to the flow of these parts. Of course, he was happy I noticed.

I asked him what were the countermeasures used to make the improvement. He said that a special tour was coming through today and he had all the parts moved outside into several empty trailers. Yes, it took several semi truck trailers. By hiding the parts outside, the tour path was quickly cleared and the results were impressive looking.

I am sure his manager passed on the message that the tour was forthcoming and to make sure the area was tour ready. This team leader naturally did what he thought was the best and quickest action, just hide it.

Although I find that the “just hide it” countermeasure is an extremely popular one, it is one method that I strongly argue against! The entire activity is muda (waste) from buying, renting, securing trailers to loading, stacking, unloading items in and out of the trailers. Not to mention that we may need some of these parts for production during the hiding process. This creates additional muda to search for the parts and retrieve them including moving other parts around to get to the parts we need. What about potential damage to these parts causing us to delay customer orders, scrap or rework parts, reorder parts, expedite parts, air ship them in and out to the customer? What about missing parts as a result of doing a fantastic job of hiding them? Of course, our burden of paperwork, tracking and reporting just increased. All for what? Just to make our plant look good for a tour.

It is also a clear indicator that we have a long way to go on our lean journey. By hiding our problems, we create muda and more importantly we ignore the real problems. It is better to make the problems more visible and deal with it even at the expense of “looking good” for a tour.

Kaizen Wall of Fame

Celebrate your employee’s kaizen improvements by creating your company’s own Kaizen Wall of Fame. While I visited Japan, I noticed several of the companies proudly displayed all the small improvement ideas from their employees. It’s easy to do and can greatly benefit your lean journey.

First, implement a small, simple kaizen. These are the small, common, ordinary improvements that we tend to overlook as insignificant or not important. An example would be where an employee added a recycle bin by the copy machine. Or another employee thought to eliminate a report that is no longer needed. To get a better understanding of the small, simple kaizen approach, I highly recommend that you read “The Idea Generator, Quick and Easy Kaizen” by Bunji Tozawa and Norman Bodek. This book does an excellent job of explaining the quick and easy kaizen approach.

Second, have the employee who created the improvement answer these three simple questions (just a short, single sentence answer per question is needed):
What was the problem?
What is your idea?
What was the result or benefit?

Third, take before and after pictures to better explain the simple kaizen idea along with a picture of the employee. Make it personal.

Finally, hang a laminated, color copy of the idea on the wall in your facility where everybody can see it!

By posting the idea on the wall, you give instant recognition to your employees for making the improvement. You also encourage the small, frequent kaizen approach. Another benefit, you create a company wide communication board to share all these ideas. Finally, it helps motivate everyone to join in the fun of kaizen.

Aside note, one Japanese company (only 200 employees) I toured last fall will try to implement 50,000 of these kaizens this year. Your company may not produce quite that many but I would still plan on using a BIG wall.

Kaizen in the Dark

The windy city, Chicago, turned into a blowing, wet, snowy mess today. It was quite a shock to my body after spending last week working in sunny, warm Mexico. Towards the end of my morning lean training session, the power went out. Luckily, I just finished the PowerPoint part of the session but that left us in the dark to continue our lesson.

As we continued working with just a small amount of light from the hallway windows, all the office employees began to congregate in the hallway. Without power for their computers or light to see in their windowless cubicles, they could not work. The same went for the shop floor employees. It is amazing to see the power of technology abruptly halted by the simple lack of electricity.

But this post is not about the impact electricity has on our productivity. It is about the hidden opportunity this power outage provided us for kaizen. We learned which emergency exit signs failed to light along with a couple of failed emergency flood lights. It was easy to see (or not see) where new emergency lights would be helpful. Several employees suggested having rechargeable flashlights strategically placed in the facility. Another employee questioned our procedure for testing the emergency lights and how we might have prevented the problem. Before we knew it, we were starting a kaizen list with our new point of view! Even in the dark, or in this case because of the dark, we found ideas for improvement and an opportunity to learn.

Visual Management Confusion

While waiting in the drive thru line at my local bank, I looked up and noticed these conflicting signs. One sign clearly stated the roof clearance as 8'10" while the other sign informed me that the same roof clearance is 9'2". Huh?

While my car would have no problem at either height, this visual management conflict may cause a problem for others. I asked the teller about the conflicted message and she was not aware of the problem. To be fair to my bank, there was some obvious renovation work in process that most likely caused the problem and it was corrected a couple of weeks later.

These signs did get me thinking about all the signs we use at work as part of our visual management process. How many signs or other visual labels do we have at work that only adds to our confusion instead of helping us? How many are no longer valid or required? How many are incorrect? What about signs that are so worn that they can't be read? What about the bar coded tags on our stock racks that can't be scanned anymore?

We assume all the signs in our plants were put up for a reason. We also assume that the signs are accurate and needed by someone to perform their value added activities. I started asking the experts on the shop floor and found out that many signs were actually obsolete yet we never removed them. As a result, we started removing all the useless signs and improving the signs that actually were needed. Not only did our plant look better, it reduced the confusion and errors caused by poor visual management.

On your next gemba walk, take notice of all your signs and ask your experts if they help or just add to the confusion? Then work together to improve it.

5S Assignment Chart

One of the best aids in sustaining a daily 5S process is found in the 5S Assignment Chart. This assignment chart lists all the 5S tasks to be completed in a zone (designated area) along with the frequency the task should be done (daily, weekly, monthly), the person’s name responsible for completing the task and listing of the tools needed for each task (broom, towel, etc). All you have to do is post this assignment chart in the zone to help insure the tasks get done. Sounds simple enough, right?

Like most concepts I have learned in lean manufacturing, it goes much deeper that what we originally think. That holds true for even the simple 5S Assignment Chart.

For one, the posting of the 5S assignment chart, or for that matter, any other document, sign, work instruction, standard work sheet or PM task list, itself does not insure that the tasks are completed or followed as described. You learn that rather quickly after the initial excitement of the newly posted item turns towards the mundane. We sometime fall into the trap that anything posted is important therefore everyone will follow it. Not true. Just look at speed limit signs as an example.

So how do you use a 5S Assignment Chart successfully?

Here are just a couple of ways I found that work.

1. In the first column, organize alphabetically by name, the person responsible followed by the task, frequency and tools assigned to them. Typically, we list tasks first which makes it more difficult to see who is responsible and harder for the person responsible to find their assigned task. Make it easy (more visual) for each person to find their own tasks.

2. Cluster all the tasks for each employee together if they have more than one task assigned to them. Again, makes it easier to find all your assignments.

3. Have all the team members divide up tasks and who is responsible. In most cases, a leader normally just assigns who gets what task and some people don’t like the results. A team approach on this point gets better buy-in.

4. Under frequency, be more specific. Don’t just say weekly, specify the actual day of the week, i.e.Tuesday.

5. In addition to assigning specific days, make frequency visual. For example, use a column for each day of the week adding a symbol on the assigned day for each task. If the task is daily, put a symbol in every column of the week for that task and put it in color.

6. Assign a daily task(s) to every person. The 5S process works best if done daily so base your task listing with daily assignments.

7. Keep assignments simple. Assigned tasks should be completed in a daily 5 minute period.

8. Have each employee sign off individually (and daily) after completing their task. This, by itself, is not the complete answer however it is better than having someone else (a zone leader or supervisor) signing off for all tasks.

9. Have the zone leader or supervisor (as part of their standard work) check and review each day that the tasks for that day were successfully completed. Their job is to coach and support employees. If a task was not complete, ask the person responsible “Why not?” and “What can I do to help you get it done?”

10. Use the best management tool, the power of “Leading by Example”. Every leader should have a daily assignment and complete them daily.

11. Rotate the task assignments often. Share the burden and eliminate the boredom.

Management By Standing Still

Early in my management career, the hot management technique was something called Management By Walking Around (MBWA). Basically, a good concept for the times since management rarely, if ever, got out of their comfort zone of the office and connected with what was actually happening at gemba (the actual place), on the shop floor. Some may argue the point that disconnected leadership, never-leaving-the-office types, still exists today and I would agree. However, at least a few company leaders saw some value to venture out to the shop floor and found gemba.

Did this technique work? I think it resulted in only a marginal improvement at best. Management learned how to find the shop floor but ended up not “walking around” but “walking through”. After a brisk walk through and an occasional stop to chat, they quickly got back to work in the office. It turned into an exercise of “being seen” then “to see”. Yes, there are some positive results that can be found in just being seen and showing a genuine interest in activities at gemba. But what you end up with is a mere snap shot of gemba when you could see a movie clip. From my lean prospective, you miss out on a great opportunity to “go to the actual place and see for understanding” (Genchi Genbutsu).

To seek understanding, we need to move away from Management By Walking Around to Management By Standing Still. Of course, this technique can be directly linked to the famous “Ohno Circle”, a circle drawn by Taiichi Ohno on the Toyota shop floor for engineers to stand in for hours on end “to see and understand”.

Yes, it takes a strong commitment to “stand still” at gemba and many may not feel comfortable to just stand and watch at first. This uneasy feeling quickly disappears the longer you stand still. It is amazing what you learn about your processes by seeing for yourself when standing still long enough. Don’t rely on assumptions on what you see, ask many questions. Take a small pocket notebook and pen with you to record your findings, thoughts, questions and ideas. I use this technique quite often with exceptional results. So next time you go to gemba, try thinking movies not snap shots.

Is Upper Management Support Enough?

Ask all the experts what is critical to a successful lean transformation and one item always surfaces to the top of the list, must have Upper Management support. This sounds like a reasonable and logical requirement but is Upper Management support enough?

No, I’m not asking if you need other items like solid training, good communication, competent teachers, value stream maps, a designated Lean Champion, or even a KPO (Kaizen Promotion Office). What I’m asking is aimed at the role of our Upper Management in a lean transformation. Is support all that Upper Management needs to give of themselves in our successful lean transformation recipe?

I guess that depends on our operational definition of “support”. If support means giving a speech/email/voicemail to state that “I support kaizen efforts”, or mentioning in the company’s annual report that we are using lean manufacturing principles to meet our competitive challenges, or just signing off for funds to aid kaizen efforts, then “support” is not enough.

In my experience, we need more that just support from our Upper Management for a successful lean transformation. What we need is active participation; we need our Upper Management to “Lead By Example”.

How can we expect all our employees to embrace lean if our Upper Management does not embrace lean?

Here are just a few examples of the type of “Lead By Example” behaviors that any Company Leader can do, should do, must do:

1. Use your office as a shining example of organization in 5S.
2. Eliminate office waste. For example, personally commit yourself to be on-time for all meetings, 100% of the time. Your employees will follow!
3. As you walk through your office/plant/warehouse, always pick up any trash in your path. Don’t step over it.
4. Add the responsibility of ownership in a 5S zone and regularly completing a cleaning assignment.
5. Exceed any employee individual goals or expectations. For example, if you set the expectation that every employee should provide two simple kaizen ideas per month, then you will provide 3 or more each month, without fail.
6. When reviewing kaizen efforts, don’t single out just the large dollar saving ideas or consistently focus on the dollars saved. Promote the number of ideas generated or the speed at which we implement the improvements.
7. Learn enough on any lean principle or tool to personally teach a class on the topic to your employees. Then teach it!

The Bottom line, Executive Summary and Elevator Speech:
Success in lean transformation is dependant on our Upper Management going beyond just support to actively participating in improvement efforts. Upper Management must Lead By Example.

HOT Lists

With the reality of limited resources of time or process capacity, we need to focus on the “right” jobs first. Choosing the right job, in the best order to satisfy our customers, is no easy task. As our work becomes more complex, we look for help with the power of the computer. With MRP, ERP, CRM, or whatever acronym based tool we choose, we still are not able to react fast enough to our changing demands. As a result, we use a “HOT List” to set priorities.

First thing every morning, we check to see what’s “HOT”. We check to see if something requires our immediate attention over our normal, expected (planned!) work. It could be a job, a component needing expedited, or customer order that is “HOT”. The HOT List is used to prioritize jobs through the process, outside the normal order, to get these jobs complete first and without delay. This tool may work well if the HOT List is only used in case of emergency. However, that is not the case in my experiences. Every single day, we are faced with a HOT List.

After a while, the HOT List grows and grows until it no longer has a clear set of priorities. So what do we do? We create another list called the URGENT List. Now we complete the URGENT items first, followed by the HOT items and then the planned items.

Once again, our URGENT List seems to grow too large as did our HOT List. This leads us to create the CRITICAL List. Now we complete the CRITICAL items first, followed by the URGENT items, the HOT items and then the planned items.

In no time at all, we end up with more levels of HOT lists then the number of hot sauce levels at a Buffalo Wings restaurant. As our “HOT” priority system becomes more complex, we need more human effort to maintain it, track it and follow it.

It would not be uncommon that even the term “HOT” does not stir us to immediate action. I have seen parts clearly marked “HOT” bunched with other parts without any special action to move it ahead of the other parts. When asking about them in particular, the answer I usually get is that if it was really “HOT” someone would be yelling for it. So much for marking parts “HOT”.

How many different HOT Lists are you using? Do we just accept the use of a HOT List as a daily tool to set planned work? Maybe we could skip the planning all together and just use a HOT List approach?

Any process using a HOT List should look to convert it to a “KAIZEN List”. Try tracking each item on your HOT List and determine the root cause for it being on the list. Our focus should be on setting up countermeasures to prevent it from becoming “HOT” so the planned process will flow.

Website for Honda Jobs in Greensburg Indiana

For those interested, Honda recently announced a website to apply for jobs at the new Honda plant currently being built in Greensburg, Indiana. At this time, production associate applications are not open yet. However, some non-production associate positions have been posted. For more information, please visit www.indiana.honda.com.

Best of Luck!

Put Brains into the Method

After finishing Henry Ford’s book, “My Life and Work”, published in 1922, it is easy to see the impact his approach to manufacturing had on Taiichi Ohno and the development of the Toyota Production System. Here is a great lesson from his book:

“It is not good management to take profits out of the workers or the buyers; make management produce the profits. Don’t cheapen the product; don’t cheapen the wage; don’t overcharge the public. Put brains into the method, and more brains, and still more brains-do things better then ever before; and by this means all parties to business are served and benefited”.

The First Lean Hospital

It is extremely encouraging that lean manufacturing principles are beginning to take hold as an improvement approach in our healthcare industry. Our current healthcare system could certainly benefit from the elimination of waste and improvement of services.

I recently read, with great interest, about an experiment to transfer the manufacturing lessons in productivity to a hospital environment (600 beds) with some success. Here are a few excerpts that I found interesting:

“It is not at all certain whether hospitals as they are now managed exist for patients or for doctors.”

“It has been an aim of our hospital to cut away from all of these practices and to put the interest of the patient first. Therefore, it is what is known as a “closed” hospital. All of the physicians and all of the nurses are employed by the year and they can have no practice outside the hospital. They are paid salaries that amount to at least as much as they would ordinarily earn in successful private practice. They have, none of them, any financial interest whatsoever in any patient.”

“In the ordinary hospital the nurses must make useless steps. More of their time is spent in walking than in caring for the patient. This hospital is designed to save steps. Each floor is complete in itself, and just as in the factories we have tried to eliminate the necessity for waste motion, so we have tried to eliminate waste motion in the hospital.”

This account details some additional topics like nurse to patient ratios, hospital design, and admissions. The most interesting part is who led this lean hospital transformation and when this experiment took place. Anyone care to guess?

This account was taken from the book I just finished reading titled “My Life and Work” by Henry Ford in 1922 referencing his experiment at Ford Hospital (previously Detroit General Hospital) in 1919. So I would guess that might establish Ford Hospital as the first attempt at a “Lean” hospital.

Absolute Elimination of Waste

“The basis of the Toyota production system is the absolute elimination of waste.”
Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System, 1988

As business leaders and lean practitioners, we can easily grasp the “elimination of waste” concept. It’s really common sense. What we tend to skip over and where we fall short is the “absolute” part. Absolute, meaning without limitation, total, complete, entire, infinite, full, unrestricted, unconditional, unbounded, utter, unmitigated, thorough, and wholehearted.

The absolute elimination of waste approach is one great challenge!

Setting Standard Time

My first professional job after graduating from college was a Junior Industrial Engineer tasked with time study duty and implementing methods improvements. Over the course of several years, I completed thousands of time studies with my trusted stopwatch. Since those days, I have learned several different approaches to setting the standard time like using the average time method, using the lowest repeatable time method and using the shortest observed time method. So which method should you use set a standard time?

My IE training in establishing a valid time standard was drilled into me to capture a repetitive method, rate the work pace, record the proper number of cycles, red circled non-standard times and take the average time as the standard. For example, if 10 cycles were recorded as follows in seconds (50, 53, 49, 47, 49 54, 46, 51, 65, 52) I would have red circled (not counted or excluded) the 65 second time and calculated the standard time for this task as 51 seconds (rounding up to the largest second). Also, I would have added a PF&D allowance (Personal Fatigue and Delay) boosting the time even higher but lets leave it out for this example.

When taught how to do a time observation to set the standard time in a kaizen event, the method was a little different. The observed work was set to a repetitive method and the lowest repeatable time was established as the standard time. Using the same times recorded in the above example, I would establish the standard time as 49 seconds.

Following the teachings of Taiichi Ohno, he believed that the best standard time is the shortest observed time. Again, using the same 10 time observation above, the standard time would be set at 46 seconds. Ohno stated that we should focused on the method used to complete the task in shortest time , trying to repeat it exactly and eliminating the causes in the other observations that prevented the operator from repeating the shortest time.

So which is the standard time in our example, 51 seconds, 49 seconds or 46 seconds?

Let’s look at taking the average observed time method resulting in the 51 second standard time. From the range of timed observations, we see that variation in the process exists. This variation could be from anything from dropping a screw, part mis-alignment, adjustments, location of parts, a miss feed, etc. Regardless of the cause, this variation is non-value added or a waste. So why would we include waste in our standard? What if the range was larger? Would we still accept this method? With our lean approach we should not accept this waste in our standard so it appears that using the average is not the best method.

As for the lowest repeatable time method, is this method of setting the standard time any better? In our example, it removes allowance for some of the waste however elements of waste would still be accepted. In our example, it is slightly better. But what if, based on our observations, the lowest repeatable time was above the average? In this case, it would include more waste in our standard. Again, this may not be the best method.

That leaves us with using the shortest observed time method as the best standard time. Some may argue with Taiichi Ohno saying that this one shortest recorded time is too strict, not repeatable, a fluke occurrence or even a small miracle. But instead of arguing against the merits of using the shortest time, we could put the same efforts into doing exactly what Taiichi Ohno tells us. Determine the reasons why the other times failed to reach the shortest time and eliminate them. Our efforts will be rewarded with the shortest time as the easiest time that can be repeated. Isn’t that core in our lean principles, seeing and eliminating waste?