An Incorrect Measure of Success

As a small business owner, customer acquisition is my biggest challenge. How do I make sure people can find me, understand what I do, and see how my services could help them?

In the early days of running my own business, I was thrilled to have clients who were willing to pay me to help them improve their business processes. I’d meet them at their facility, map out improvement opportunities, and aim to secure a paying engagement.

Sometimes, I’d get the purchase order. Other times, I wouldn’t. It was all on me. If I could paint a clear picture of how I could help, and it resonated with their needs, I’d land the job. If I couldn’t make that connection, the opportunity slipped away.

When I did win the business, I was ecstatic. It felt like a validation. People valued what I brought to the table. And if I did a good job on that first engagement, surely more work would follow. It didn’t always work that way.

I can still remember an engagement with a steel slag producer. Steel slag is the waste product from steel mills, repurposed for things like roadbeds and other construction uses. I facilitated a value stream mapping session to support their strategic planning process.

The team was extremely engaged. My sponsors seemed satisfied with the outcome. Although there were some challenging moments during the week, I thought we’d worked through them together and ended with a great result.

Surely, they’d bring me back. But they didn’t. I followed up multiple times—emails, phone calls, check-ins but got little to no response. The crickets were chirping.

That’s when I realized that acquisition is not the objective. Customer retention is the true measure of success. When you can align your approach to the needs of your client and design to fit their needs and not yours, there is a much better chance for continued collaboration.

Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of “one and done” clients. And while I’m grateful for those opportunities—and I’d like to think I helped them in a meaningful way—they’ve been some of my greatest learning moments.

Fortunately, I’ve also developed a few long-term client relationships. These are the ones where there’s alignment in approach, trust in the process, and a shared belief in the power of continuous improvement. These partnerships are where the real magic happens.

At the end of the day, quality beats quantity. If you focus on alignment, collaboration, and shared outcomes, you won’t just win business, you’ll build something that lasts.

Value for the Customer

I’ve been helping a leading consumer brand company through their Lean journey since I started my business over six years ago. These days, they’re mostly independent. They don’t call me unless the topic is complex, strategic, or I help them see a major opportunity they hadn’t noticed.

About a year into their journey, they rolled out daily Gemba walks, which they call "Board Walks." These walks got leaders out of their offices, connecting with the people doing the work, surfacing issues, and strengthening engagement and alignment across the organization.

For a few years, these Board Walks looked the same across every location: a group of managers would visit a manufacturing line, listen to an operator or mechanic report on the past 24 hours, ask a few questions, and move on to the next area. It was a start, but something critical seemed to be missing.

I spoke to contacts at several locations about the current state of their Board Walks and what the next level could look like. One local contact told me his plant manager didn’t want to change anything, he was happy with the results and approach.

But another contact, who I’d worked closely with before, called to share his frustration. He knew they had made progress but couldn’t seem to reach the next level of performance.

We talked about the Board Walks and confirmed they hadn’t changed since they started. I suggested we run a Kaizen event focused on making those walks more effective, with the goal of improving safety and productivity.

He was intrigued. I told him I’d seen this work before at an Armstrong plant, where we’d redesigned the Gemba walks to serve our true customers: hourly production operators and mechanics. It resulted in an immediate improvement to safety and productivity.

It took nearly a year of conversations to gain enough momentum and alignment. Eventually, we got support for the Kaizen and invited representatives from four plants, with the intent that they’d take the results back home.

We kicked things off early Tuesday morning. Everyone aligned on the charter and objectives. I had hoped for more hourly participation, but we had one production operator and one maintenance technician on the team. Luckily, they were well chosen.

At 8 a.m., we joined the daily Board Walk and took notes. Everyone was scribbling on Post-its, so I expected a decent mix of observations.

Back in the meeting room, the team shared their ideas. There were plenty of suggestions, but something was missing. It didn’t feel like we had touched the core issue of customer value and engagement. I pivoted and started asking more pointed questions.

I asked, “Who is the Board Walk for?”

The manufacturing manager quickly responded, “It’s for the operators and mechanics, of course.”

Then the operator on our team spoke up. “For us? I always thought it was for management. The Board Walk does nothing for me.” That was the turning point. There were many shocked team members in the room.

We created a Current State Value Stream Map of the Board Walk, identifying every step and evaluating which ones added value from the operator’s perspective. The results were clear and painful. None of the steps provided value for the actual frontline team members.

That created a realization that the Board Walk had to be redesigned to deliver true value to the customers. Now, it became apparent what the improvement priorities would be. Any changes must improve the customer experience.

The team selected three areas to focus on: the agenda, the ground rules, and the follow-up process. During the week, they trialed these changes on one production line.

The biggest shifts in design were:

1.      A smaller, dedicated group focused on that area.

2.      The discussion shifted to what needed to happen in the next 24 hours, not just rehashing the past.

3.      Critical issues that came up would receive rapid follow-up and clear feedback.

The results were immediate. Operators felt heard. Managers were more focused. The Board Walks started to serve their true customer. Alignment and engagement skyrocketed.

Two months later, the new process had been rolled out to every line in the host plant. And at least one of the visiting sites took it back and implemented it with similar success.

This is the kind of transformation that happens when we pause to ask the right question and are willing to listen to the answer.

My first VSM for a non-manufacturing process

I applied Lean thinking exclusively to manufacturing processes for many years of my career. I wasn’t able to stretch my thinking beyond what I could see – the production of a physical product and how it impacts the customer, business, and employees. I conducted Value Stream Mapping (VSM – a strategic planning approach based on the view of the customer) sessions for many  manufacturing facilities and we were able to identify countless opportunities to significantly improve safety, productivity, quality, and customer service. I developed a reputation for my ability to engage teams and facilitate complex sessions.

I was approached by Henry, a coworker, to see if I would be willing to use my VSM approach and apply it to his marketing department. This was an intriguing request and a risky one. He had a strong Lean background and the vision to take what he learned beyond the manufacturing arena. I told him that if he was willing to take a chance, then so was I.

I took a session plan for a manufacturing VSM session and started tinkering with it to make it apply to a non-manufacturing process. It didn’t take long to realize the approach didn’t have to change much. The challenge was to help the team visualize their process in a way that would expose the waste, pain, and opportunities for improvement.

During a typical VSM, we take a Gemba walk of the process, to go and see what’s happening and what gets in the way of delivering for the customer. For the marketing department, the process wasn’t something we could easily see. How would I deal with that, I wondered. I talked it through with Henry and we bounced many ideas back and forth.

Then one of us (I’d like to say it was me, but I really don’t remember) suggested we didn’t have to physically see the process in order to visualize it. We had the experts in the room who knew what role they played in the overall process. We could have them talk us through their part, map it on a wall, and then visualize the entire process once all the experts had their say. As long as we started with the customer and worked our way back to the beginning, we could find the waste, pain points, and opportunities.

This was a brilliant revelation. Now the true test was to try it out in a real situation. And that’s what we did. The team engaged and gave their all. We visualized the current state of the marketing process and identified many wastes, pain points, and opportunities to provide an improved customer experience.

My mind opened to the possibilities. I could now apply Lean principles and Kaizen events to any process, not just manufacturing. Through the years, I learned the benefits in non-manufacturing settings can be multiples of manufacturing processes, as most groups haven’t pursued Lean thinking in these settings. There is so much opportunity it’s almost too easy to provide a winning experience for the teams I support.

I now apply VSM visualization to any process teams are trying to improve. It generates many “a-ha” moments and I often get comments like, “I didn’t realize our process was so complex. Now, by seeing it, I know what to do about it.” I recommend using Lean and VSM when you’re improving a process. You’ll be glad you did.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

I had many stops in my corporate career. I worked in furniture, ceiling grid, ceiling tile, ceramic tile, and vinyl flooring all over the world. My most challenging assignment was working for Dal-Tile in Dallas Texas. I was the environmental, health, safety, mining, and industrial engineering liaison for the twelve manufacturing locations around the country.

It was challenging for many reasons, not the least of which was the negative environmental history Dal-Tile had in the state of Texas. In the 1980’s, they were given the highest environmental fine in the history of the state. The next reason was I had no background in environmental, health, and safety (EHS). The final reason was that the corporate EHS department didn’t want to help me, my boss, or the facilities with compliance. It was an extremely difficult situation to navigate.

My boss and I decided to tour all of the plants, establish relationships with their staff, and identify areas where we could help. Most of our visits started out the same way. Plant leadership would be wary of us, having been “burned” by the corporate EHS staff in the past. Once we showed we were genuinely interested in helping them stay compliant, they warmed to us and let us see the critical issues they were facing. Wayne, my boss, was exceptionally adept at getting people to warm to us. He was a true gentleman who cared about the people he served.

We realized we needed to understand the various rules and regulations governing the plants, especially in Texas. Instead of reading many books, we decided to travel to seminars hosted by OSHA and the EPA. I was in Austin Texas at an EPA seminar when the presenter asked each of us our names and who we worked for. When I introduced myself from Dal-Tile, the room fell silent. I felt a bit embarrassed, so I blurted out, “but we’re trying to get better!”

At a break, another participant introduced himself to me and told me he used to work for Dal-Tile many years before. He said, “don’t feel bad, when I used to go to seminars, they used to hold up the front page of the Dallas Morning News that showed the headline, ‘Dal-Tile fined millions for environmental transgressions.’ Then, they’d say, ‘don’t let this happen to you.’ They’d go around the room with introductions and I’d get booed!” I felt bad for him and me too, but I was resolute in my belief we could do better and improve the company’s reputation, even with all of the obstacles from the past.

After many more seminars, research, and building relationships with plant leadership, I started to get pulled in to help plants resolve environmental issues and even prevent them. This was a breakthrough.

One day, Al, the Dallas plant manager, called me and asked for my help. I went to the plant to find out what was going on. He showed me a letter saying they were being fined for too much zinc in the wastewater. We walked the inside process to see where the zinc could be coming from. In raw material form, there was less zinc in the product than they were being fined for.

We walked outside to look at the water that was being treated before going into the drains. It looked clear and had no debris in it. The EPA testing point was about 100 yards from the outflow point and the treatment process. Somehow zinc had to be entering the water between the treatment process and the testing point. Where could it be coming from, I wondered?

Then, I saw it. The fence separating our property from the factory next door was shiny for most of its surface, except for a 50-yard length that was a dark brown. It was a drastic difference. Al told me that the neighbor was an electroplating company and they always turned off their smokestacks whenever they were being inspected by the EPA.

I knew what I had to do. I would invite the EPA to visit the plant and help us solve our “zinc problem.” When I shared my idea, Al looked worried. I said, “Al, do you trust me?” He said, “you haven’t let me down yet. Don’t let me down this time!”

I scheduled a visit from the EPA for two weeks from our conversation and they seemed surprised that someone from Dal-Tile would invite them to the plant to help resolve an issue. I guess they were used to defensiveness, rather than cooperation. This gave us time to get everything in the plant in the best possible condition and find all of the materials information that might be requested during the visit.

Edward, the EPA inspector, joined me and met the leadership team early in the morning. I took him on an inside plant tour, showing him all of the possible locations where zinc could be coming from. He agreed with me it was highly unlikely our materials were causing the unusually high zinc levels in the wastewater.

Taking his cue, I took him outside to the wastewater treatment process and showed him how clear the water was. He agreed it didn’t make sense to have high zinc in the water. I then asked him if he could help me clear up a mystery. He seemed intrigued. I showed him the fence, with the shiny and brown areas and asked him what could be causing it? He looked at the fence, then saw the neighboring factory. Once the realization of what was happening hit him, he told me, “Adam, the zinc isn’t coming from your plant. I’ll rescind the fine and the EPA will deal with the real cause of the problem.”

Relieved, I thanked him for his help. I found Al and told him what had happened. Al responded, “Adam, you had me worried, but I was hopeful you would pull it off.” Al then invited me to have a beer with him and it was the coldest and tastiest one I ever had.

Raising the bar for quality

Armstrong World Industries and Worthington Steel combined forces to create the number one ceiling grid manufacturer in the world. It didn’t start out that way, as employees of both companies were feeling their way through the combination of cultures.

I had been a team manager (shift supervisor) at our plant near Chicago. We shut down the plant and I moved to the Baltimore facility as the Industrial Engineering and Quality manager. It was a critical moment for our new company and my career. We had to establish ourselves as a quality leader, in order to build consumer confidence.

I spent many hours on the factory floor, understanding where we stood in regard to production reliability and quality control. We had each line leader measuring the grid that was being produced and comparing it to  product standard drawings. My early observations were that each person was interpreting the drawings differently and also measured based on their “feel” for the product. This meant somebody might think a product was within tolerance limits, even though the customer didn’t agree. This was reflected in a higher than industry standard return rate. We were at risk of losing customers unless we corrected our quality problems quickly.

I reviewed the product quality drawings and realized they were confusing and written for engineers, not production workers. Also, depending on how hard the measuring device was handled, people could make their measurements vary by up to .020” (twenty thousandths of an inch). This was a huge problem for ceiling grid, as tolerances could be as small as .010”.

I reviewed my plan with the plant manager. I would reformat the product quality drawings so they would be easy to understand and interpret as intended. At the same time, I would develop a measurement training program to help all employees measure the same way, with the same “feel.” I got approval for new measuring equipment, that was more repeatable and accurate than what we currently had at the plant. I was off and running.

I did an informal survey of many of the production technicians to help me understand how to format the product quality drawings to be easily understood by them. Specifically, I wanted them to understand the tolerance limits for any critical measurement. Previously, an example measurement would say 24.025” +/- 0.15”. This forced employees to add and subtract and sometimes make errors. Through their feedback, I changed all measurements to look like this (for the prior example): 24.010” – 24.040”. Now there was no confusion. As long as the measurement was within the range shown, it was a good product.

There were literally dozens, if not hundreds of drawings to correct, so I prioritized my work by the products that ran the most frequently first. Then, time permitting, I would correct the lower frequency products. Sometimes, I would have to change my process, as a rare product would be ordered, and we didn’t want to take the chance it would be measured incorrectly.

Now it was time to improve measurement reliability. Some people had a “hard” hand, meaning they would squeeze the measuring device against the bar of grid with much force. Others had a “soft” touch, meaning they barely touched the bar with the measuring device. I had to come up with another way to consistently find the correct measurement and then verify the variation between operators would be acceptable.

After many tests and trials, I developed the 2-step touch technique. Basically, the technician would squeeze the measuring device to find the bar, then back it off, and then bring it back to just “touch.”

No matter how hard or soft a hand people had, they were very consistent when it came to the second touch. In fact, the variation between operators was reduced from .020” to .003”. I instituted an audit and follow-up process to ensure we sustained our consistent measuring technique.

Over time our returns rate was reduced drastically, and we became the number one grid producer in the world. I learned that systems must be designed for the people who use them, rather than the people who create them.

The Ship that Didn’t Sail

Sometimes, even though you know you could help a prospect, they don’t feel the same way. This is one of those stories about my inability to create alignment with a business leader.

I was referred to a yacht brokerage by the CEO of CITY Furniture and after a few months was able to set up a meeting with their CEO. We seemed aligned around my approach and soon he invited me to visit him at his business during one of my upcoming trips to Florida.

We met for dinner the evening before the official visit. He brought his second in command along and we quickly found common ground and shared stories about past work and personal adventures. When dinner was over, we parted ways and I was excited at the possibilities of helping a company who was focused on something I had zero experience with: yacht sales brokering. My only experience with yachting is the old Looney Tunes cartoon, where Bugs Bunny convinces Elmer Fudd that he’s “Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire, who owns a mansion and a yacht.”

The next morning, I met the CEO at his office, and he introduced me to his staff. Throughout the day, I had meaningful conversations with many of the people who worked there and learned about the biggest pain points they were facing. These included:

• The lack of overall aligning metrics across the business – how did they know if they were winning?

• The complexity and length of time it took to close a yacht sale – many of these transactions included more than one country, which multiplied the effort immensely.

• Utilizing the in-house resources to identify and solve problems – this business was family operated and run by a few trusted executives. Others did their work to the best of their ability but didn’t get to make empowered decisions or changes.

I knew I could help, if only I could convince the CEO he could cede control of some critical decisions and let his employees be part of the improvement efforts.

He seemed interested and by the end of the day showed what I thought was a desire to operate his business differently in the future. We left with a plan to reconnect and develop a path forward.

Except that it never happened. I stayed in touch with the CEO for a while, but then realized my approach wasn’t aligned with his vision of how work should get accomplished. Even though he never told me directly, I knew he wouldn’t pursue further meetings with me. It would have been a huge leap of faith for him, and my image of continuous improvement couldn’t overcome years of management-engrained behaviors.

My approach isn’t for everyone. I have to understand that even though I know I can help many of the prospects I visit, they don’t always see it the same way as I do. Maybe I’ll get on a yacht one of these days. It would be fun to pretend to be “Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire.” Until then, I’ll continue to navigate the seas of change for clients, steering them in new and unchartered directions, knowing that if they’re willing, I can help bring them to a great destination.  

Rally to the Customer

Armstrong World Industries makes billions of square feet of ceiling tiles every year, shipping to locations all around the world. Most of these tiles are white. The remainder are off-white or a few standard colors.  If a customer wants non-standard colors, until recently, Armstrong used an outside vendor.

In 2017, the vendor was getting behind on orders from Armstrong. I was asked to join a team visiting the vendor to find out what was causing the delays and to identify options. We took a guided walk of the facility. I could see things weren’t well organized and processes were backed up. When the rest of the team attended meetings with the vendor leadership, I decided to stay out on the floor and find out what was really going on. I spoke with a number of operators, who were very open to discussing the current situation. It appeared things were about to change in a big way and the managers weren’t paying much attention to the day to day operations. Every order was behind.

Overlooking Operations

When the other meetings were over, I reviewed what I had observed with the team. They found out the vendor was about to expand capacity and new product offerings. They weren’t spending much time or attention on the day to day operations. Moreover, the factory was to be shut down for a number of weeks during the expansion project. Some of the new equipment used technology the vendor had no experience with. I knew we wouldn’t be able to rely on the vendor in the short term and possibly long term. We needed to come up with another way to provide non-standard color tiles to our loyal customers. If not, they wouldn’t stay loyal to us.

When I returned to Armstrong’s corporate center, I reviewed my findings with my sponsors. We agreed we couldn’t rely on the vendor to meet customer demand in a timely fashion. We had to come up with another solution. I was tasked to find the solution quickly. Working with my counterpart in Marketing, who was responsible for the relationship with the vendor, we agreed we would find other options to produce non-standard color tiles and then reduce the demand to the vendor in steady increments. He took the vendor relationship and product management responsibilities. I took the production, operations, and logistics responsibilities.  We took a walk into the Pilot Plant to see what might be possible. 

The Pilot Plant was a series of disconnected operations designed for scientists and engineers to experiment, test, and develop new products. It was not a manufacturing facility, and was not designed to be. Upon review of the operating permits, we determined we could produce a limited amount of material on a temporary basis. Now we had to figure out how to produce products safely and effectively with our available resources.

The Customer Comes First

One Monday morning I visited with the technicians who were responsible for operations in the Pilot Plant. I reviewed the situation.  If we didn’t figure out a way to produce thirteen non-standard colors of tiles, we would lose valuable business from our loyal customers. Most of the technicians weren’t keen on trying to turn the Pilot Plant into a production facility, but they realized how important it was to keep customers happy. Some of the technicians volunteered to help me determine the best way to connect and run the disconnected processes in the Pilot Plant.

We decided to focus on the edge cutting, edge painting, and tile painting processes in the Pilot Plant. The prior processes, which included forming the board and cutting it to size, could be provided by one of the many manufacturing facilities in the Armstrong network. These facilities were set up to make large production quantities and these early process steps were efficient for them. The edge cutting and painting steps would differentiate the tiles and had to be well controlled, with low amounts of inventory. The large manufacturing facilities were not set up to run small production runs efficiently.

There were many separate areas in the Pilot Plant, but the key areas that we needed were located very close to each other:  paint mixing, edge cutting and painting, and overall tile painting and paint drying. These areas were not connected however, and we didn’t want people to have to physically transport the tiles through the line. Our first priority was to build and install temporary conveyers to flow materials through the line from beginning to end. Luckily our technicians were very creative and within days they had cobbled together the conveyers we needed.

The next step was to determine how to process the tiles safely and productively through the entire connected line. We had to determine the proper amount of people, the pacing, the supply of materials to the line, and the handling of finished product.

Timing is Everything

I took a small team of technicians and we decided the best way to design the process was to try it in many controlled experiments.  We gathered a bunch of scrap tiles to test and started loading them into the beginning of the process. “Be the tile” was our rallying cry. “Let’s walk the tile through the process and see what happens to it,” I said. We started at the beginning, the edge cutting and painting process. Three technicians were the loading crew. Two technicians positioned themselves at the end of the process as the unloading crew. They started putting one tile on the line at a time and quickly realized they couldn’t keep up with the speed of the line without adding one more resource, who brought full pallets of tiles to the line on demand. Think Lucy and Ethel on the famous Candy Factory episode of I Love Lucy.

Once we added the resource, the technicians were able to comfortably put a tile on the line every four seconds. They were very proud of themselves, but we quickly realized our short test wouldn’t be sustainable over long work shifts, with different people doing the work on the line. After much discussion, we agreed on loading a tile every five seconds. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but it could impact production output by 25%.  More importantly, it would ensure we were working as safely as possible.

Having confirmed the pacing at the front end of the process, we verified the other parts of the process could be optimized to this new rate. Then, we designed the quality control process and packaging station to meet the pacing requirements safely. We then built a logistics plan and operations schedule. Reaching out to the total Armstrong organization to get volunteers to help staff the line during these critical production runs, we had many volunteers, from administrative staff to vice-presidents to accountants. Everyone wanted to help out and ensure we didn’t disappoint our customers. 

The next few months, we produced the non-standard color tiles and met almost every order on time. More importantly, people who hadn’t worked together previously got an opportunity to do something special. We all rallied to protect the interest of our customers and the integrity of the business. It made our bonds stronger as an organization. It wasn’t apparent that we were producing these tiles in a different way and eventually we were able to outsource the orders to an Armstrong manufacturing facility. The demand for these non-standard color tiles and customer loyalty continues to grow. I am convinced it’s because of the special people who put the customer first and their normal duties second.

What Process Improvement Partners Can Do for Your Team

Process Improvement Partners LLC offers a variety of services that help teams achieve breakthrough results. Some are narrow in scope, while others are strategic in nature. Some are quite simple, and others are extremely complex. In all cases, we strive to apply the right service to our customer’s needs, providing hands-on assistance, where needed. Here is a summary of our services, and when you might want to consider using them:

Site Assessment
If you want to see what opportunities are available to you, or don’t know where to start, take this 5 to 6-hour test drive with us. Everyone learns something new in this session. Together, we will identify the highest value opportunities and develop the plan to realize those opportunities. Some teams decide to take on the work themselves, others choose to engage us. Either way, it’s time well spent.

Cost Reduction Ideation, Prioritization, and Implementation
If you need to drive out costs in your business without negatively impacting your customers, this session is for you. Team members are challenged to come up with new and more efficient ways to do what they do, focusing on the cost impact to the organization. Once they have heard from their customers, they creatively brainstorm cost reduction opportunities, prioritize those opportunities, and then more fully develop and analyze those opportunities for customer and cost impact. At the end of the session, the team has a roadmap to drive significant costs out of the business.

Strategic Planning (VSM)
The first step in any continuous improvement journey. This session opens the eyes of all participants to the wastes and inefficiencies in their current processes and provides a roadmap to improvement that will be a direct benefit to their customers. Often, the team identifies simple and quick changes (6 – 12 months) that will reduce lead time to their customers by more than 50%, free up space, reduce the need for inventory, and improve quality and safety performance. This session also changes how people manage and lead in their processes moving forward. The benefits are felt immediately by those who work in the process, as well as customers of the process.

Workplace Organization (5S)
This session makes an immediate, visible and measurable impact on safety and productivity in a work space. It’s fun and fast paced, as team members learn how removing clutter, organizing items into optimal locations, maintaining resources in top condition, and implementing audits of the area can improve the lives of the people working in the space. Team members may get emotional at the end of the session, as they are positively impacted by the experience.

Breakthrough Creativity (3P)
Based on the proven 11-step Nakao method, this session is designed to drive teams to places they never dreamed possible in a 4 ½ day session. It is extremely challenging and exciting, as team members find solutions to problems that eluded them previously. This session is not for the faint of heart, as team members will work at a rapid pace and for long hours. When the session is over, it’s not unusual to have reduced project time by 6 months or more.

Changeover Reduction (SMED)
If you find that you are constantly expediting orders due to long product changeover times, this is the session you need. Using Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology, teams typically reduce changeover times by half or more by the end of the session. Your customers will see the benefits of this session too, as lead times will be reduced as well. Teams will be trained so that they can apply the approach to other areas of their business in the future.

Process Optimization (Standard Work)
This session brings people together to determine the safest, most productive way to accomplish critical tasks. The team is guided through this session to create the new standard work for the improved process and develop the managing systems to ensure that everyone follows it once implemented. 

Failure Prevention (FMEA)
An industry standard approach to stopping problems before they happen through the identification, prioritization, development, and implementation of preventative actions. This session stretches team member thinking as they are challenged to identify all of the ways a process could fail, whether the process has been implemented or not. Through a standard scoring system, these failure modes are prioritized for greatest negative impact to employees and customers. Once the session is over, the team will have a strong plan of action to keep these potential problems from occurring.

Plant Reliability Improvement (OEE)
This ongoing effort to drive to World Class Reliability utilizes Standard Work, Visual Management, Changeover Reduction, Shop Floor participation, Best Practice maintenance, and Continuous Improvement events. The team will build a road map of actions and strategies to improve Plant Reliability, and then they will be given assistance with any or all of their identified actions. We step back when the organization is ready to take full ownership of the improvement efforts.

Cultural Transformation
What does it take to drive an organization to a culture of continuous improvement? This ongoing effort utilizes leadership coaching, mentoring, demonstrations, and implementation of the key drivers of cultural transformation. The team starts with their vision and mission, and then designs all of their actions around them. Assistance is provided until the organization has shown that it owns the change that it seeks.

Visual Management and Shop Floor Participation (Gemba Walks)
The people who work in the process know what’s going on and are just waiting for an opportunity to share their ideas for improvement. This session engages the shop floor work force and improves accountability for daily results. The team builds a plan and leadership actions that will drive shop floor performance to higher levels and improve workforce engagement. Once the team implements visual management, there will be alignment and accountability for the most important results.

Best Practice Facilitation
How is that the best facilitators look like they aren’t doing anything at all, while the teams they are working with are making breakthroughs? This ½ day training session will provide the tools, methods, and hands-on practice to improve skills of the participants. The result will be more productive meetings and events.

If you don’t know which of these services to choose, just contact Process Improvement Partners LLC, and we’ll help you determine your best course of action. We are totally committed to your success. These sessions can drive your operating results to new heights.