Getting your Masters Degree in Business? Going after a Master Black Belt Certification? Masters in Lean Six Sigma? Do you secretly wish to be a Jedi Master? (Just for fun). Perhaps some other level of mastery in a specific body of knowledge is what you seek?
All are worthy pursuits in the quest for self improvement or development on the lean journey, except maybe for the Jedi Master one. However, I suggest that becoming a Master of the Obvious is a far greater challenge and one that we should consider utmost on our lean journey.
I am not talking about repeating what has already just been said therefore adding no value to a discussion. What I mean by Master of the Obvious is seeing what is right before us that most of us do not see. It’s about not missing the details. It’s about mastering the art of listening. It is about the ability to grasp the real situation objectively. It is the ability to make some complex things simple. It is about seeing through all the noise and getting to the essence of the matter. It is about making the connections. It is about having common sense that is sometimes not all too common. It is about being open minded to a better way regardless of our past beliefs.
Face it; most of us are oblivious to the obvious. With so much noise, clutter and stimulus coming at us at a faster and faster pace, it is understandable that we have difficulty making sense of it all. It is an amazing characteristic of human nature to overlook things depending solely on what we decide to focus on. It is also amazing that despite all the facts that may be known, we refuse to face reality because of ingrained thinking or habits.
Try this short awarness test of your powers of observation.
Awareness Test-Amazing - video powered by Metacafe
Here is a great example. As reported by the CDC, “Hand washing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection”. And every year, almost 100,000 Americans die from infections they catch in health care settings. One of the most obvious ideas (plain old common sense) would have doctors and other health care providers wash their hands as often as they should, right? But some research suggests that less then 50% of the doctors wash their hands as much as they should. Why?
What a waste!
The same can be said of each of us as we leave a public restroom. Some observational studies conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health reveal that at three separate public events, the percentage of females that washed their hands after using the public restroom were 64%, 65% and 75% whereas only 30%, 39% and 51% of the males bothered to wash their hands. And we wonder why we have so many colds going around?
Maybe I’ll ask for only female doctors in the future?
It is a difficult path to be a true Master of the Obvious because many times we are fighting our own human nature and irrational behavior but it is not impossible. The first step is self awareness that we need to improve our skill and then devoting time to practice our skills on a daily basis. Learn by doing.
Learn to Stop, Look and Listen more often. Work in small teams to help each other see what the other misses. Be a teacher and a student.
Make it your mission to develop people.
Be curious.
Open your mind. Have a beginner’s mind. As taught by Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”.
Go and see for yourself.
Ask why? Ask why 5 times.
Instead of running after ambiguous or poorly defined problems, look at what is right in front of you. Fix it. Now prevent it.
Ask the people closest to the problem for their thoughts and ideas. Ask people the farthest away for their thoughts and ideas. This is not a discussion to share your ideas with them. To many times we are only listening for the pause when others speak as a signal for us to jump in with our thoughts and ideas. We are not focusing on what they are telling us. Keep silent except to ask questions and really concentrate on listening.
Fight the forces of the dark side that cause us to immediately think of the reasons why we can’t do something instead of focusing on how it could be done.
And in the profound words of Yogi Berra, sports legend and true Master of the Obvious, “You can observe a lot just by watching”.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Are you Chasing the Rabbit?
One of the keynote presentations at the 2008 AME Conference was Steve Spear, author of Chasing the Rabbit. Steve’s presentation was a brief highlight of his new book which I have just finished reading. The main topic was stepping up to the challenge of complexity and examining the rabbits within our industry which is reference to high velocity, market leading organizations to learn how they always seem to lead the pack.
Several interesting points were mentioned like identifying the four capabilities of high velocity organizations.
Capability 1: Specifying design to capture existing knowledge and building in tests to reveal problems.
Capability 2: Swarming and solving problems to build new knowledge.
Capability 3: Sharing new knowledge throughout the organization.
Capability 4: Leading by developing capabilities 1, 2, and 3.
Another key insight is step by step training. Instead of dumping tons of information and tasks to learn in unison on a person to learn, it is suggested that teaching in smaller bits is a better approach. For instance, if you have an assembly line job with a takt time of 57 seconds, let the associate learn only the first element and the teacher perform the others tasks each cycle. Once the employee has mastered this task element, then and only then do you add the second task element while the teacher performs the remaining tasks. After the employee masters the second task, you add the next task. This step by step approach is repeated until all tasks are mastered.
In my opinion, the best part of the book discusses problem solving. The key learning for me is using the problem solving process to learn to become better problem solvers, not just to fix things. The act of problem solving gives us the practice in observing, analyzing and piloting change. So problem solving becomes a means to an end, improve the process to improve the people. WOW!
In Chasing the Rabbit, Steve details some great examples to illustrate from his viewpoint what makes companies a high velocity organization. A great book that I highly recommend.
Several interesting points were mentioned like identifying the four capabilities of high velocity organizations.
Capability 1: Specifying design to capture existing knowledge and building in tests to reveal problems.
Capability 2: Swarming and solving problems to build new knowledge.
Capability 3: Sharing new knowledge throughout the organization.
Capability 4: Leading by developing capabilities 1, 2, and 3.
Another key insight is step by step training. Instead of dumping tons of information and tasks to learn in unison on a person to learn, it is suggested that teaching in smaller bits is a better approach. For instance, if you have an assembly line job with a takt time of 57 seconds, let the associate learn only the first element and the teacher perform the others tasks each cycle. Once the employee has mastered this task element, then and only then do you add the second task element while the teacher performs the remaining tasks. After the employee masters the second task, you add the next task. This step by step approach is repeated until all tasks are mastered.
In my opinion, the best part of the book discusses problem solving. The key learning for me is using the problem solving process to learn to become better problem solvers, not just to fix things. The act of problem solving gives us the practice in observing, analyzing and piloting change. So problem solving becomes a means to an end, improve the process to improve the people. WOW!
In Chasing the Rabbit, Steve details some great examples to illustrate from his viewpoint what makes companies a high velocity organization. A great book that I highly recommend.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
2008 AME Conference Experience
What a great experience to learn from so many lean leaders and practitioners. After two days of attending sessions and networking with others on the lean journey, I have to say I have learned a lot.
I really liked the opportunity to talk with others on the lean journey and share our stories. It is amazing to hear all the great lean stories and there are so many of them out there. It renews my energy levels and fills me with hope for our manufacturing future in America.
Honestly, not all the sessions were flat out homeruns but I learned something in every session none the less. I just wish I could have attended more sessions and didn’t have to choose between so many good stories.
Here is a quick list of lean points that I am taking back to Batesville Casket.
From Dan Jones, Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, UK: We need to accelerate our lean journey and close the performance gap. It is not a choice anymore, it is mandatory for survival. Ask the right questions rather than issue instructions and telling the staff what to do.
From Ken Goodson, Executive VP Operations, Herman Miller: Capture the gains and reinvest. As you free up resources, move them out and give them other tasks.
From David Mann, author of Creating a Lean Culture: For daily accountability-ask why and follow root cause. For visual controls-focus on process and capture the misses. For Leader Standard Work-We should maintain the visuals, convert the misses to improvements then sustain the improvements.
From John Shook, author of new lean book Managing to Learn: When you tell someone what to do, you take ownership and responsibility away. Create a process and provide an environment for improvement. A3 makes it easier to persuade others and understand your thinking. The A3 process leads to effective countermeasures and problem solving.
I did get a few moments to talk with John one-on-one between sessions earlier this morning. We specifically talked about Batesville’s lean journey and lean beyond the shopfloor. I did get a copy of his new book, Managing to Learn and I hope to pass on my review soon. Thanks John!
Other points:
* Hire best fit with emphasis on attitude and trainability
* Lean without education and training is not sustainable.
* To change your culture, you have to work within your current culture to do so.
* Lots of examples of employee led training and developing topic champions within your company.
My session this morning went very well and there were some outstanding questions throughout from an engaged audience. I hope to improve my delivery on a few points in the future but I felt that I got our lean message across. Thanks to all those who attended!
Tomorrow is the last day for me as I head back home. I plan to listen to Steven Spear, author of the new book Chasing the Rabbit (I got a copy of this one too), in the morning and hit a couple of other sessions. I’ll pass on any lessons in my next post.
Monday, October 20, 2008
AME Conference Toronto
I made it to Toronto tonight for the AME Conference this week. It should be an outstanding week and I look forward to learning more on operational excellence from my fellow lean practitioners. As the week goes on, I’ll post on my experience.
Try Something Different Today
One of the barriers to Kaizen is found in the comfortable arms of the status quo. For most of us, we have difficulty breaking away from what we feel secure in doing. If you really think about it, we are creatures of habit.
The biggest reason preventing us from change is fear, either real or imagined. To help us overcome our fear, we should embrace opportunities to practice doing things a little different. This spirit of adventure is extremely helpful in embracing the kaizen way.
You don’t have to do anything radical in trying something different. Pick a small change but pick something. For instance, it could be just trying a new way to go to work or picking a new restaurant for lunch or dinner.
Just last week while in Chihuahua, Mexico, I took this challenge. For the first time, I rented a car for the week and drove myself around in a foreign country. I did have a little help from a co-worker who knew his way around the city which made it a little easier. Certainly, there were some anxious moments but the experience was thrilling to me.
On the way to Toronto, Canada today for the AME Conference, I sat on the plane behind a family of four going on vacation. The two kids were probably 4 and 5 years old on their very first airplane ride. As we took off, the kids were looking out the window, really excited to fly.
Even as we hit a few bumps soon after take off, they filled the cabin with laughter like we were on some amusement park ride. Their laughter was contagious as all the adults around us started to laugh with them. These two kids embraced this new experience with complete joy and pure wonder.
For our lean journey, we could learn plenty from those two young kids. Embrace the experience of trying something different today.
The biggest reason preventing us from change is fear, either real or imagined. To help us overcome our fear, we should embrace opportunities to practice doing things a little different. This spirit of adventure is extremely helpful in embracing the kaizen way.
You don’t have to do anything radical in trying something different. Pick a small change but pick something. For instance, it could be just trying a new way to go to work or picking a new restaurant for lunch or dinner.
Just last week while in Chihuahua, Mexico, I took this challenge. For the first time, I rented a car for the week and drove myself around in a foreign country. I did have a little help from a co-worker who knew his way around the city which made it a little easier. Certainly, there were some anxious moments but the experience was thrilling to me.
On the way to Toronto, Canada today for the AME Conference, I sat on the plane behind a family of four going on vacation. The two kids were probably 4 and 5 years old on their very first airplane ride. As we took off, the kids were looking out the window, really excited to fly.
Even as we hit a few bumps soon after take off, they filled the cabin with laughter like we were on some amusement park ride. Their laughter was contagious as all the adults around us started to laugh with them. These two kids embraced this new experience with complete joy and pure wonder.
For our lean journey, we could learn plenty from those two young kids. Embrace the experience of trying something different today.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Where There is No Standard, There Can Be No Kaizen
These words spoken by Taiichi Ohno have been one of his most popular and well known sayings within our lean community. Typically, we use his famous words to stress the importance of establishing standard work as a baseline to measure any changes to signify actual improvement in our process. Without standard work, we can not be sure what impact our changes had on our process. The emphasis of standard work is clearly placed at the beginning of the kaizen process.
We teach the kaizen process to be four distinct steps:
1. Establish the existing standard work.
2. Analyze the current process
3. Make improvements (PDCA)
4. Document the new standard work
From these steps, we see that standard work is both the beginning AND the end of the kaizen process cycle. Not only is standard work required to begin kaizen, we also need standard work to finish kaizen.
How many kaizen events do we conduct where establishing the new standard work is not completed by the end of the event? Does our activity to document the new standard work normally end up on our homework list? What happens to our kaizen if the new standard work is not documented?
Documented standard work is just a simple written description (with pictures) of the safest, highest quality and most efficient way known to perform a given task or process. It is best written by the associates who actually performs the task and should be written in the most direct and simplest form possible.
How many tasks and processes do we perform daily where there is no documented standard work? How many of the tasks or processes have changed while our documents remain the same making them outdated.
In my experience, we do not place enough emphasis on documenting the new standard work in our kaizen event process so we easily backslide. The result is still the same. If you don’t document the improvements into new standard work, there is no kaizen.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Mi Mejora Continua
While rolling out our My CI program to all our manufacturing facilities, we learned that acronyms do not translate well. In our Chihuahua, Mexico plant, where I am currently consulting on two kaizen events this week, the use of CI (short for Continuous Improvement) was not well understood.
As a result, we changed the name to “Mi Mejora Continua” which simply drops the acronyms and spells it out as “My Continuous Improvement”. By the way, this employee suggestion program has had a fantastic start with over 50% participation level in just two months. We have expanded our kaizen wall fame twice already and filled all three walls up with implemented ideas from our associates.
As for acronyms, I have written in the past about the problems of acronyms as a barrier to better communication. Please avoid them as much as possible. It is amazing how acronym use has embedded itself deep into our culture. Think text messages. How many things are not completely understood in our daily life because of an acronym?
It is just not text messages. A few years ago, while helping my father-in-law out at his shop one Saturday afternoon, a wedding reception was about to begin at the local VFW Hall, which was located next door. As the wedding party made its way down the street to the VFW Hall, all the horns were blaring and people stopped to cheer them on. My 10-year old nephew, who was helping us out, watched with the rest of us as the cars parked out front and the wedding party made its way into the hall.
My nephew looked up to me and asked what the “V” meant in “VFW”. I told him the V stood for Veterans. He didn’t say anything at first and had a puzzled look on his face. So I went on to explain that VFW stood for Veterans of Foreign Wars and a little about this organization.
Oh, he replied and then added that he always thought the F stood for Funerals and the W stood for Weddings and he just couldn’t figure out what the V stood for.
As a result, we changed the name to “Mi Mejora Continua” which simply drops the acronyms and spells it out as “My Continuous Improvement”. By the way, this employee suggestion program has had a fantastic start with over 50% participation level in just two months. We have expanded our kaizen wall fame twice already and filled all three walls up with implemented ideas from our associates.
As for acronyms, I have written in the past about the problems of acronyms as a barrier to better communication. Please avoid them as much as possible. It is amazing how acronym use has embedded itself deep into our culture. Think text messages. How many things are not completely understood in our daily life because of an acronym?
It is just not text messages. A few years ago, while helping my father-in-law out at his shop one Saturday afternoon, a wedding reception was about to begin at the local VFW Hall, which was located next door. As the wedding party made its way down the street to the VFW Hall, all the horns were blaring and people stopped to cheer them on. My 10-year old nephew, who was helping us out, watched with the rest of us as the cars parked out front and the wedding party made its way into the hall.
My nephew looked up to me and asked what the “V” meant in “VFW”. I told him the V stood for Veterans. He didn’t say anything at first and had a puzzled look on his face. So I went on to explain that VFW stood for Veterans of Foreign Wars and a little about this organization.
Oh, he replied and then added that he always thought the F stood for Funerals and the W stood for Weddings and he just couldn’t figure out what the V stood for.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Greensburg Honda Begins Production Today
At 7:50 am this morning, the first Honda Civic production vehicle, a 4 cylinder, 4 door, crystal black pearl sedan, drove off the assembly line here in Greensburg, Indiana. It was cool watching what once was cornfields transformed into a world-class manufacturing operation designed to be a zero landfill waste operation from the start. Check out the details from the press release at Inside Indiana.
Spirit of the Toyota Suggestion System
Yuza Yasuda, author of 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System, describes the spirit of the Toyota Suggestion system in this simple thought- “I want to make my work easier to do, even if only a little bit.” He goes on to say “If people are on the alert to detect problem points, and the environment is created that makes it easy to notice problems, the supply of creative idea “seeds” will not run out.”
Our job as lean leaders is to help create that environment and inspire everyone to act, to take action to make improvements. With the My CI process, we have seen hundreds of small, simple improvement ideas already implemented to make our jobs easier just a little bit.
A recent My CI idea by a shop floor associate was to add material stops on the end of a conveyor track. In twenty years of operation of constantly monitoring material on this conveyor and occasionally picking up material from the floor, this “problem” was just considered as part of the job. Not anymore thanks to an alert associate. His supervisor commented that it is amazing that this problem was not “noticed” for so long despite so many people working around it everyday.
The opportunities for improvement are truly infinite.
Our job as lean leaders is to help create that environment and inspire everyone to act, to take action to make improvements. With the My CI process, we have seen hundreds of small, simple improvement ideas already implemented to make our jobs easier just a little bit.
A recent My CI idea by a shop floor associate was to add material stops on the end of a conveyor track. In twenty years of operation of constantly monitoring material on this conveyor and occasionally picking up material from the floor, this “problem” was just considered as part of the job. Not anymore thanks to an alert associate. His supervisor commented that it is amazing that this problem was not “noticed” for so long despite so many people working around it everyday.
The opportunities for improvement are truly infinite.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Kaizen 30-Day Homework List
At the end of a fast paced, energy draining, week long kaizen event, despite all the improvements achieved, our teams always ends up with tasks that they did not complete during the event. Even with a well defined scope and dedicated kaizen team, some items from our kaizen newspaper still remain open. During the kaizen report out, these items show up on our kaizen 30-day homework list.
Some things to think about……
Are kaizen 30-day homework lists considered good or bad?
Can we complete a kaizen event without having a 30-day homework list? Should we?
What does this say about the effectiveness of our kaizen event?
What items are allowed to end up on the list?
Do we intentionally leave items off?
Do we put the same high level of energy and focus on completing the 30-day homework list as we put forth during our kaizen event itself?
Do we follow-up on the 30-day homework list?
Are homework items tracked, measured and reported?
Are people held accountable? Don’t blame the dog!
Do homework items get done?
How can we improve our 30-day homework process?
Do certain items habitually find themselves on our homework list? Is there a pattern?
What resources can we dedicate or make available during the event to help reduce the number of items ending up on the homework list?
Some things to think about……
Are kaizen 30-day homework lists considered good or bad?
Can we complete a kaizen event without having a 30-day homework list? Should we?
What does this say about the effectiveness of our kaizen event?
What items are allowed to end up on the list?
Do we intentionally leave items off?
Do we put the same high level of energy and focus on completing the 30-day homework list as we put forth during our kaizen event itself?
Do we follow-up on the 30-day homework list?
Are homework items tracked, measured and reported?
Are people held accountable? Don’t blame the dog!
Do homework items get done?
How can we improve our 30-day homework process?
Do certain items habitually find themselves on our homework list? Is there a pattern?
What resources can we dedicate or make available during the event to help reduce the number of items ending up on the homework list?
What can we learn from our kaizen 30-day homework list?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Toyotaism
I finally found a copy of the book 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System by Yuzo Yasuda and I did have not pay the going rate at Amazon (starting at $198 used) to read it. One of our new production managers owns a copy and he graciously lent me his copy to read. (Thanks Gene!) It is a very good book and I’d love to have my own copy but not at the current price range. It’s good but not that good.
As pointed out in Mark Graban’s recent post on his Lean Blog, The 20 Things a Supervisor Should Not Say, there are plenty of interesting points found in this book.
One of the more interesting pieces I read is a part talking about Toyotaism. According to the book, the original Toyotaism was written in 1935 as the “spiritual foundation of the entire company”. As written in this book, Toyotaism is…
“With harmony between supervisors and workers, with sincere devotion to work, strive to help your industry and your country reap the fruits of progress.
By studying and developing your creativity, always anticipate the treads of the times.
Be on your guard against showing luxury, while making effort to be more frugal and courageous.
While maintaining a warm and friendly attitude, improve the atmosphere in your own home.
Have respect for the Gods and the Buddhas, always repay a kindness, and show gratitude.”
According to the author, this version of Toyotaism lasted until 1989 when it was revised to the following:
“Always think of the customer first; considering the basics of manufacturing, always making products that are outstanding for their high quality, low cost and technical excellence.
With a foundation of mutual trust between labor and management, cheerfully make progress as a company highly valuing creativity.
Stimulate Toyota activities everywhere, inside and outside the company, while cooperating to expand business.
Contribute to expanding our economy and building up a better living environment for our society by doing business actively all over the world.
Strive to improve yourself through self enlightenment, constantly on the alert for any new social or market trends.”
After reading and re-reading these points, I continue to be fascinated by the depth and scope found in these points of Toyotaism. Very interesting, indeed!
As pointed out in Mark Graban’s recent post on his Lean Blog, The 20 Things a Supervisor Should Not Say, there are plenty of interesting points found in this book.
One of the more interesting pieces I read is a part talking about Toyotaism. According to the book, the original Toyotaism was written in 1935 as the “spiritual foundation of the entire company”. As written in this book, Toyotaism is…
“With harmony between supervisors and workers, with sincere devotion to work, strive to help your industry and your country reap the fruits of progress.
By studying and developing your creativity, always anticipate the treads of the times.
Be on your guard against showing luxury, while making effort to be more frugal and courageous.
While maintaining a warm and friendly attitude, improve the atmosphere in your own home.
Have respect for the Gods and the Buddhas, always repay a kindness, and show gratitude.”
According to the author, this version of Toyotaism lasted until 1989 when it was revised to the following:
“Always think of the customer first; considering the basics of manufacturing, always making products that are outstanding for their high quality, low cost and technical excellence.
With a foundation of mutual trust between labor and management, cheerfully make progress as a company highly valuing creativity.
Stimulate Toyota activities everywhere, inside and outside the company, while cooperating to expand business.
Contribute to expanding our economy and building up a better living environment for our society by doing business actively all over the world.
Strive to improve yourself through self enlightenment, constantly on the alert for any new social or market trends.”
After reading and re-reading these points, I continue to be fascinated by the depth and scope found in these points of Toyotaism. Very interesting, indeed!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
My CI Wall Runneth Over
It just took a few months and we filled up our Kaizen Wall of Fame with implemented ideas from our associates at the Batesville Indiana plant. So far, our simple kaizen process is becoming another brick in our lean foundation. Although we may consider extending our wall, we are currently taking down the oldest ones and replacing them with the newest ideas. Fantastic job by our Indiana associates!
Since the beginning of our initiative in April to improve our Total Employee Involvement at Batesville Casket, we have introduced the “My CI” process to all 5 manufacturing plants in North America. Each plant now has a Kaizen Wall of Fame to recognize the ideas of our associates and share their ideas.
For those of us on the lean journey, we know this is not just a manufacturing thing. Next stop for joining the “My CI” process is our corporate office!
Since the beginning of our initiative in April to improve our Total Employee Involvement at Batesville Casket, we have introduced the “My CI” process to all 5 manufacturing plants in North America. Each plant now has a Kaizen Wall of Fame to recognize the ideas of our associates and share their ideas.
For those of us on the lean journey, we know this is not just a manufacturing thing. Next stop for joining the “My CI” process is our corporate office!
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Dreaded Stopwatch
In the middle of a value stream mapping kaizen event, the team was stopped dead in its tracks. Our first-time team leader approached me in a semi-panic state. She quickly informed me that the union rep told the kaizen team that they could not take time studies in their production area because we did not official notify the union ahead of time. He was standing firm by this contract rule.
“Mike, what should we do?” she asked with stress in her voice. “We really need these times to complete our value stream map. You told us we should not rely on computer times and go to gemba for our data.” she pointed out.
“Yes, that is the better way.” I answered.
For a typical value stream map kaizen event, we plan to complete the current state map, the future state map and the implementation plan to get to the future state in only 3 days. Throw in a half day of training and the report out, this leaves us with only 2 actual work days. There is no time to waste to meet our objectives.
“Let’s go back to gemba and talk with the union rep. Can you introduce me to him?” I asked.
Since I have only been with the company less than a year, I have not learned who all the 550 associates are in this plant although I have already conducted lean training sessions for the entire plant. I certainly did not know all the plant rules either so this was an additional learning moment.
As we walked together to the department, our team leader provided additional information, “Dave is the department union rep. He is a long time veteran of the plant and a stickler for details.”
As we walked up to Dave, the kaizen team leader introduced me to him. I reached out to shake his hand. “Hi Dave, it’s great to meet you. How are you this morning?
“Yes, I remember you from our training session. I’m doing fine,” he answered back.
I started by saying, “I hear that we did not follow the respect for people principle by not telling you ahead of time about timing some jobs in the department. I apologize for not letting you know. Can you teach me about this union rule?”
“You bet I will!” he stated with a slight air of boldness. He began by saying, “Our union contract clearly states that before anyone can take time studies to set job rates and change our job instructions, the union must be officially notified 24 hours in advance. Since you did not tell us, you can’t take the time studies, period!” At this point, Dave looked like he was not about to budge one inch. Rules are rules.
I went on to explain that we were not there to time study the jobs to set rates or change job methods. We just wanted to take some basic time observation for our value stream map. I took the time to provide a few details on the purpose for the value stream map. After about 15 minutes of open, honest discussion between the two of us, Dave agreed to let us take our time observation data. The event was back on track and went on with great success.
In reflection, the stopwatch has earned a dreaded reputation on our shop floor. Most people do not like to be timed and over the years, many people associate a stopwatch with someone getting let go or working harder. It is no wonder that stopwatches are not a welcome sight. A stopwatch is just a tool and its how we use it that matters most.
We also see opportunities to improve our communication with all our associates as we go to gemba to make improvements. This situation could be seen as just another example of union roadblocks or management steamrolling, but we should simply look at this example as a moment to engage our entire team, to better align our team focus and to practice respect for people. Take the time that these moments present to us each day to live the principle of respect for people. Each time we do, our team becomes stronger.
“Mike, what should we do?” she asked with stress in her voice. “We really need these times to complete our value stream map. You told us we should not rely on computer times and go to gemba for our data.” she pointed out.
“Yes, that is the better way.” I answered.
For a typical value stream map kaizen event, we plan to complete the current state map, the future state map and the implementation plan to get to the future state in only 3 days. Throw in a half day of training and the report out, this leaves us with only 2 actual work days. There is no time to waste to meet our objectives.
“Let’s go back to gemba and talk with the union rep. Can you introduce me to him?” I asked.
Since I have only been with the company less than a year, I have not learned who all the 550 associates are in this plant although I have already conducted lean training sessions for the entire plant. I certainly did not know all the plant rules either so this was an additional learning moment.
As we walked together to the department, our team leader provided additional information, “Dave is the department union rep. He is a long time veteran of the plant and a stickler for details.”
As we walked up to Dave, the kaizen team leader introduced me to him. I reached out to shake his hand. “Hi Dave, it’s great to meet you. How are you this morning?
“Yes, I remember you from our training session. I’m doing fine,” he answered back.
I started by saying, “I hear that we did not follow the respect for people principle by not telling you ahead of time about timing some jobs in the department. I apologize for not letting you know. Can you teach me about this union rule?”
“You bet I will!” he stated with a slight air of boldness. He began by saying, “Our union contract clearly states that before anyone can take time studies to set job rates and change our job instructions, the union must be officially notified 24 hours in advance. Since you did not tell us, you can’t take the time studies, period!” At this point, Dave looked like he was not about to budge one inch. Rules are rules.
I went on to explain that we were not there to time study the jobs to set rates or change job methods. We just wanted to take some basic time observation for our value stream map. I took the time to provide a few details on the purpose for the value stream map. After about 15 minutes of open, honest discussion between the two of us, Dave agreed to let us take our time observation data. The event was back on track and went on with great success.
In reflection, the stopwatch has earned a dreaded reputation on our shop floor. Most people do not like to be timed and over the years, many people associate a stopwatch with someone getting let go or working harder. It is no wonder that stopwatches are not a welcome sight. A stopwatch is just a tool and its how we use it that matters most.
We also see opportunities to improve our communication with all our associates as we go to gemba to make improvements. This situation could be seen as just another example of union roadblocks or management steamrolling, but we should simply look at this example as a moment to engage our entire team, to better align our team focus and to practice respect for people. Take the time that these moments present to us each day to live the principle of respect for people. Each time we do, our team becomes stronger.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Beware the Slippery Slope along the Lean Manufacturing Path
In Lean 101, the lean approach is concisely stated as the elimination of waste in our processes. While waste elimination gets to the core of the lean approach, it is just one key aspect within the lean journey. The most notably result of waste elimination is cost reduction. If asked, cost reduction easily jumps to the top of any upper management’s list of major benefits in following the lean approach.
But somewhere on the lean path, we can start to slide down the slippery slope and fall off the path. Our cost reductions turns to cost cutting and we quickly fall into the mode of cutting corners. Delay a machine repair. Reduce or eliminate our Total Productive Maintenance program. Cut back on building maintenance. Let racks and fixture degrade. Forget the daily 5S, just make more products. Cut a little more and cut a little deeper, why not…we are still pushing out our products, right?
At first everything looks great at the bottom line but that is just a short term benefit. It doesn’t take much time until the destructive nature of cutting corners starts to make its presence known.
All our previous gains suddenly evaporate. Overtime goes up, machine breakdowns increase, deliveries are missed and quality problems are popping up all over the place. Chaos reins. We must regain control. Time to drop this lean approach and we jump into our past-proven, all-hands-on-deck firefighting mode.
Here is a simple example of cutting corners. Most of us drive cars and it is recommended that we change our oil every 3,000 miles. At a cost of about $35 to get our oil change and estimating our typical annual mileage at 20,000 miles, it costs us $210 a year.
But what if we only change our oil every 6,000 miles? Our costs are cut in half. But what if we go 12,000 miles before we change our oil? We can save 75% of our annual oil change cost!
But are we really saving anything in the long run? Factor in the reduced life of our car, increased downtime and repair bills to come and we learn first hand what is meant by the old saying “pay me now or pay me later”. And the “pay me later” ends up costing us more, sometimes a lot more. We now can begin to see that our cutting corners approach is not a good approach from a total cost standpoint in the long run.
As we look to our own lean journey and at the “improvements” within our own organizations, are we focused on reducing wastes or are we really just cutting corners?
But somewhere on the lean path, we can start to slide down the slippery slope and fall off the path. Our cost reductions turns to cost cutting and we quickly fall into the mode of cutting corners. Delay a machine repair. Reduce or eliminate our Total Productive Maintenance program. Cut back on building maintenance. Let racks and fixture degrade. Forget the daily 5S, just make more products. Cut a little more and cut a little deeper, why not…we are still pushing out our products, right?
At first everything looks great at the bottom line but that is just a short term benefit. It doesn’t take much time until the destructive nature of cutting corners starts to make its presence known.
All our previous gains suddenly evaporate. Overtime goes up, machine breakdowns increase, deliveries are missed and quality problems are popping up all over the place. Chaos reins. We must regain control. Time to drop this lean approach and we jump into our past-proven, all-hands-on-deck firefighting mode.
Here is a simple example of cutting corners. Most of us drive cars and it is recommended that we change our oil every 3,000 miles. At a cost of about $35 to get our oil change and estimating our typical annual mileage at 20,000 miles, it costs us $210 a year.
But what if we only change our oil every 6,000 miles? Our costs are cut in half. But what if we go 12,000 miles before we change our oil? We can save 75% of our annual oil change cost!
But are we really saving anything in the long run? Factor in the reduced life of our car, increased downtime and repair bills to come and we learn first hand what is meant by the old saying “pay me now or pay me later”. And the “pay me later” ends up costing us more, sometimes a lot more. We now can begin to see that our cutting corners approach is not a good approach from a total cost standpoint in the long run.
As we look to our own lean journey and at the “improvements” within our own organizations, are we focused on reducing wastes or are we really just cutting corners?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
How Many Kaizen Team Members does it take to Change a Conveyor?
At one of Batesville Casket’s kaizen events last week, we found out the answer to this question. It took the whole team of eleven members in pit crew style just under 29 minutes to change a conveyor track. Our event was focused on adding different casket models on to our main assembly line and attempted to make the changes without a disruption to production, hence the 29 minute goal which was completed during the assembly department 30 minute lunch period.
With the planning and precision of a professional pit crew team, our kaizen team planned out all the elements of the change and staged all the material along with tools using basic SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) principles. Once the buzzer blared signaling the start of the lunch break, the kaizen team jumped into action. Despite the close quarters and a couple of uncooperative fasteners, the kaizen team successfully completed the conveyor change as the line associates returned from lunch to start the line back up.
With the planning and precision of a professional pit crew team, our kaizen team planned out all the elements of the change and staged all the material along with tools using basic SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) principles. Once the buzzer blared signaling the start of the lunch break, the kaizen team jumped into action. Despite the close quarters and a couple of uncooperative fasteners, the kaizen team successfully completed the conveyor change as the line associates returned from lunch to start the line back up.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Glory Days
“Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight
and I’m going to drink till I get my fill.
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit
around thinking about it but I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days.
Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days.”
A popular song lyric from the 1980’s written and preformed by Bruce Springsteen.
How many of us fall into the trap of living on past glory as described by Bruce Springsteen? Can we see this same mistake in our company? How long can you or your company sustain growth by feeding off the past?
At Batesville Casket, we have been extremely successful on our lean journey and have received a few national awards along the way. A few weeks ago, if you drove by the entrance of our Batesville Indiana plant, you would have seen a huge banner above the main entrance of the plant proclaiming “Industry Week 2006 Best Plants Winner”. A great accomplishment indeed and it is something to certainly be proud of and celebrated.
However, if you drive by our plant today you may notice that our banner has been removed. It is so easy to live off our glory days and before you realize it, we find ourselves getting comfortable with the status quo again. That is the main reason we have taken our banner down.
and I’m going to drink till I get my fill.
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit
around thinking about it but I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days.
Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days.”
A popular song lyric from the 1980’s written and preformed by Bruce Springsteen.
How many of us fall into the trap of living on past glory as described by Bruce Springsteen? Can we see this same mistake in our company? How long can you or your company sustain growth by feeding off the past?
At Batesville Casket, we have been extremely successful on our lean journey and have received a few national awards along the way. A few weeks ago, if you drove by the entrance of our Batesville Indiana plant, you would have seen a huge banner above the main entrance of the plant proclaiming “Industry Week 2006 Best Plants Winner”. A great accomplishment indeed and it is something to certainly be proud of and celebrated.
However, if you drive by our plant today you may notice that our banner has been removed. It is so easy to live off our glory days and before you realize it, we find ourselves getting comfortable with the status quo again. That is the main reason we have taken our banner down.
Imagine feasting on Thanksgiving dinner and living off the leftovers. In most cases, we would say it was wonderful meal with good cheer, even the leftovers taste good. Despite the fantastic feast we once enjoyed, how long can we survive off that one wonderful meal? It was meal to be remembered but it can not sustain our strength or provide endless nourishment and growth for the future. We must rely on other meals or we will grow weak and die.
The same is true on the lean journey. We must rely on future improvements for our survival or we will grow weak and die. Celebrate our past success but do feed off past feasts. The lean journey is about moving forward and not living in the glow of past success. We can not grow our companies on yesterday’s achievements.
The same is true on the lean journey. We must rely on future improvements for our survival or we will grow weak and die. Celebrate our past success but do feed off past feasts. The lean journey is about moving forward and not living in the glow of past success. We can not grow our companies on yesterday’s achievements.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Point Lesson Results
From my last post on the power of point lessons, the results from our spaghetti diagram training are in. After a short 15 minute lesson followed by an opportunity to learn by doing, we were able to identify and shorten distances traveled within our operations. The total daily distances before kaizen was 23,122 feet and after kaizen the new distance traveled was only 3,299 feet. Fantastic! In just one day, we eliminated 19,823 feet of daily distance traveled for an 86% improvement. That is elimination of over 3.75 miles of walking a day within our plant. Point lessons can be a powerful, simple tool.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Powerful Point Lessons
As a Lean Sensei, I try to live up to the standards set by my Japanese Lean Sensei as I teach the way of lean. Although I readily will testify that I am not perfect in my methods with ample room for improvement, there are teaching moments that actually seem like magic. These wonderful, magical moments are where the student and the teacher hit the sweet spot. Things seem to fit together without force. Everything aligns and clicks. Excitement and joy are created, very much like the feeling around Christmas time.
I experienced one of those moments today with a group of my students (a rare case when this experience typically occurs just in one-on-one moments). I was leading a simple point lesson at lunch time with a small group of plant leaders from our Batesville plant. The topic was the classic spaghetti diagram. The spaghetti diagram is a simple map indicating the path of a part or person through a process. As you draw the travel path back and forth, up and down, etc. the lines can resemble a bowl of spaghetti noodles.
For a point lesson, it is best to focus on one small topic and keep it short, usually I target 15 minutes depending on the topic. Following the short explanation (using little or no PowerPoint slides), I have my students now try it. Learn by doing is the best way to understand. If done well and often, these point lessons can have a far greater impact than full blown kaizen events.
I asked the students to go to gemba (shop floor or office) to find a process of their choosing to map using the spaghetti diagram. I gave them a deadline of just the next 20 minutes. The group practically ran out the door to meet the deadline. I knew I would get a few good responses upon their return but I was not entirely prepared for what happened next.
At the appointed 20 minute deadline, my students started funneling back. Everyone was excited about what they discovered in just 20 minutes. People were comparing stories and looking over the discoveries of the others. Many of the students were shocked at how much travel they just witnessed. Plenty of ideas were being thrown out to make improvements.
With that, I asked them to please make those improvements as tonight’s homework assignment due by the end of the day tomorrow. After making these improvements, I asked that each of them sketch out an after kaizen spaghetti diagram and share it with the group.
In just a short, focused 35 minute session of learn by doing, we had over 20 processes targeted for immediate improvement. Pretty Awesome! I can’t wait to see the results tomorrow. It almost feels like I’m seven years old again on Christmas Eve. I'll let you know what I find under my tree tomorrow.
I experienced one of those moments today with a group of my students (a rare case when this experience typically occurs just in one-on-one moments). I was leading a simple point lesson at lunch time with a small group of plant leaders from our Batesville plant. The topic was the classic spaghetti diagram. The spaghetti diagram is a simple map indicating the path of a part or person through a process. As you draw the travel path back and forth, up and down, etc. the lines can resemble a bowl of spaghetti noodles.
For a point lesson, it is best to focus on one small topic and keep it short, usually I target 15 minutes depending on the topic. Following the short explanation (using little or no PowerPoint slides), I have my students now try it. Learn by doing is the best way to understand. If done well and often, these point lessons can have a far greater impact than full blown kaizen events.
I asked the students to go to gemba (shop floor or office) to find a process of their choosing to map using the spaghetti diagram. I gave them a deadline of just the next 20 minutes. The group practically ran out the door to meet the deadline. I knew I would get a few good responses upon their return but I was not entirely prepared for what happened next.
At the appointed 20 minute deadline, my students started funneling back. Everyone was excited about what they discovered in just 20 minutes. People were comparing stories and looking over the discoveries of the others. Many of the students were shocked at how much travel they just witnessed. Plenty of ideas were being thrown out to make improvements.
With that, I asked them to please make those improvements as tonight’s homework assignment due by the end of the day tomorrow. After making these improvements, I asked that each of them sketch out an after kaizen spaghetti diagram and share it with the group.
In just a short, focused 35 minute session of learn by doing, we had over 20 processes targeted for immediate improvement. Pretty Awesome! I can’t wait to see the results tomorrow. It almost feels like I’m seven years old again on Christmas Eve. I'll let you know what I find under my tree tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Top 12 FAQ about My CI
Although the concept of My CI is quite simple and straightforward, it is similar to many of the other elements of a lean way where the concept is easy to understand but the execution is a bit more difficult. As we began the My CI implementation, there were several challenges that we had to work through and questions to be answered. Here are some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that may help you if you plan on starting on program like this one.
1. Who is involved in My CI?
Everyone is involved and encouraged to participate from CEO to temporary employees. We stress leading by example.
2. How do you announce the start?
After a few planning sessions, we conducted organizational wide training sessions to make sure every employee understood the need for this program, how it is different from a traditional suggestion program and how the process works. During this ½ hour training session, we officially announced the start of the program.
3. Is training really needed?
Yes. By investing the time, energy and dollars in these training sessions, we insure everyone gets the same information about My CI. It also sends a strong message that we believe this program is important enough to shut down production or use overtime for training.
4. When do you conduct the training?
We worked with the management at each site to plan the best way to get all the associates on all shifts through the training in a 1-2 day time period. Some sites required we train on overtime while others made time during normal working hours.
5. Who decides if the idea will be implemented?
We encourage the associate and their direct supervisor (team leader) to try the idea out first and determine if the idea works. Our My CI process is geared toward getting all the ideas implemented and keeping decisions at the lowest levels. The key is working with the team leaders on coaching skills to support the process.
6. Is it difficult to decide?
This has not been a problem when using the lean principles as a guide.
7. What if an idea fails?
In the words of my Japanese sensei to me when faced with a failure, “Please try again”.
8. How do you handle the implementation of the approved ideas?
We encourage ideas that can be implemented by the associates themselves. Sometimes we get ideas requiring some outside support from management, maintenance, tooling or even a supplier which turned out for us to be about 50% of the time. These ideas took a little longer to implement and we provided the support.
9. Do you have a designated maintenance team?
No. We use our regularly staffed maintenance team for support. We have learned from other companies that they have successfully formed designated kaizen support teams from hourly associates freed up from kaizen activities to help implement kaizen ideas. It sounds like a great idea that we may try out.
10. Do you post pictures of the implemented items for everyone to see?
Absolutely! A major component of My CI is employee recognition and sharing ideas that’s why we created our My CI Kaizen Wall of Fame in the plant where everyone can easily see all the ideas. At one plant, we hold a lunch meeting every Friday with the entire plant staff showing off the ideas from their area that week. We also added the ideas to our communication monitors throughout the plant and post them on our company wide intranet site.
11. Do you provide any incentives or rewards for the ideas?
We do not provide any special rewards or money for each idea, only recognition by posting the associates picture with their idea on our Kaizen Wall of Fame and public/peer recognition. We also encourage ideas that make their jobs easier and better which reaps benefits everyday. But this does not mean you could not add an additional incentives if that works in your company to increase participation.
12. Do you track the savings generated by the ideas?
No, we only track the participation level on a weekly basis. This metric is one way to reflect our company morale. We believe if we added the burden of tracking savings that we would create disagreement on how the savings are to be measured. The other reason is that putting a dollar figure to each idea might inhibit people from generating ideas because their idea did not save a lot of money compared to other ideas. Creating an environment to generate lots of ideas by everyone is more important than waiting to implement only “homerun” ideas.
1. Who is involved in My CI?
Everyone is involved and encouraged to participate from CEO to temporary employees. We stress leading by example.
2. How do you announce the start?
After a few planning sessions, we conducted organizational wide training sessions to make sure every employee understood the need for this program, how it is different from a traditional suggestion program and how the process works. During this ½ hour training session, we officially announced the start of the program.
3. Is training really needed?
Yes. By investing the time, energy and dollars in these training sessions, we insure everyone gets the same information about My CI. It also sends a strong message that we believe this program is important enough to shut down production or use overtime for training.
4. When do you conduct the training?
We worked with the management at each site to plan the best way to get all the associates on all shifts through the training in a 1-2 day time period. Some sites required we train on overtime while others made time during normal working hours.
5. Who decides if the idea will be implemented?
We encourage the associate and their direct supervisor (team leader) to try the idea out first and determine if the idea works. Our My CI process is geared toward getting all the ideas implemented and keeping decisions at the lowest levels. The key is working with the team leaders on coaching skills to support the process.
6. Is it difficult to decide?
This has not been a problem when using the lean principles as a guide.
7. What if an idea fails?
In the words of my Japanese sensei to me when faced with a failure, “Please try again”.
8. How do you handle the implementation of the approved ideas?
We encourage ideas that can be implemented by the associates themselves. Sometimes we get ideas requiring some outside support from management, maintenance, tooling or even a supplier which turned out for us to be about 50% of the time. These ideas took a little longer to implement and we provided the support.
9. Do you have a designated maintenance team?
No. We use our regularly staffed maintenance team for support. We have learned from other companies that they have successfully formed designated kaizen support teams from hourly associates freed up from kaizen activities to help implement kaizen ideas. It sounds like a great idea that we may try out.
10. Do you post pictures of the implemented items for everyone to see?
Absolutely! A major component of My CI is employee recognition and sharing ideas that’s why we created our My CI Kaizen Wall of Fame in the plant where everyone can easily see all the ideas. At one plant, we hold a lunch meeting every Friday with the entire plant staff showing off the ideas from their area that week. We also added the ideas to our communication monitors throughout the plant and post them on our company wide intranet site.
11. Do you provide any incentives or rewards for the ideas?
We do not provide any special rewards or money for each idea, only recognition by posting the associates picture with their idea on our Kaizen Wall of Fame and public/peer recognition. We also encourage ideas that make their jobs easier and better which reaps benefits everyday. But this does not mean you could not add an additional incentives if that works in your company to increase participation.
12. Do you track the savings generated by the ideas?
No, we only track the participation level on a weekly basis. This metric is one way to reflect our company morale. We believe if we added the burden of tracking savings that we would create disagreement on how the savings are to be measured. The other reason is that putting a dollar figure to each idea might inhibit people from generating ideas because their idea did not save a lot of money compared to other ideas. Creating an environment to generate lots of ideas by everyone is more important than waiting to implement only “homerun” ideas.
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