Sometimes It’s a Financial Question

A global ceilings manufacturer was building a plant in China. Things were going pretty well until they realized they were going to be two months late starting up. The team wasn’t sure what they could do to get back on schedule, so I was invited to join them and use Lean thinking to help solve the problem.

I had been to China before, helping the team with Kaizens during different stages of plant development. These Kaizens were more challenging than most, as they required an interpreter, so the team and I would understand each other.  As a result, I had to communicate more slowly than I was used to, making sure I didn’t use any slang or other terms unfamiliar to Chinese team members.

As I boarded my flight to meet them, I wondered what I could do to help the team. After all, they had been working and solving problems as they came up all along the way. They had their best engineers and scientists on the team who had come up with many breakthroughs. Why couldn’t they solve this problem? Why was this problem stumping them to the point they required my help? I always sleep well on airplanes, but during this 15-hour flight to China, I was more restless than usual.

I met my interpreter on Monday and we reviewed the approach for the Kaizen. I would help the team look at their problem from many angles, trying to uncover opportunities they hadn’t thought of and brainstorm as many potential solutions as possible.  My interpreter reminded me in the Chinese culture, people don’t like to make a suggestion or offer an idea unless they are completely sure it is correct. In a Kaizen we want people to bring out ideas that aren’t fully formed or guaranteed to work, so others can build from them. I knew I had to make the team comfortable to say anything at any time. To do that, I would use sticky notes and pens and ask all team members to write their ideas down and share them, one person at a time, one idea at a time. This technique tends to make people comfortable saying whatever they are thinking, regardless of the country or culture.

The goal of our Kaizen was to have the plant start up on time. Our objective was to develop contingency plans to take two months out of the schedule and meet the initial commitments to the Board of Directors and the customers in China.  I knew very little about why the plant wasn’t on schedule, so I had the team brainstorm possible reasons why they were behind schedule. Using the sticky note technique, more than 100 ideas were written down, some in Chinese, some in English. Knowing we couldn’t solve all 100, I asked the team to prioritize the most critical reasons for the delay. I used a technique called “multi-voting”. Each team member placed a dot or a mark on the sticky notes that contained the top five ideas or reasons for the delay from their perspective. The sticky note with the most dots was the idea the team felt was the most likely reason for the delay.

There were 15 team members and 14 dots on a sticky note that said, “Two month wait for government testing.” Intrigued, I asked for an explanation. They told me the Chinese government must qualify and approve the first ceiling tile produced by the plant before they were allowed to produce more and sell to customers.  It took two months from the time a test was requested to the time a tile could be submitted for testing, and then another week to get results. The team wouldn’t produce tiles that weren’t officially approved, so they were going to wait those two months for approval before starting full production. The plant had scheduled production of the first acceptable tile around April 1st, 15 days before the original start-up date commitment, and then would have to wait two more months before gaining approval to produce tiles for sale, thus creating a two-month delay. It was then I knew there was an answer, but the team had to come to the right conclusion. It was time to ask some questions and facilitate them to an answer.

Question one was, “How much does it cost to submit a tile for a test with the Chinese government?” The answer was $10,000.

Question two was, “How long does it take from the time a test is requested until test results or approval is given?” The answer was two months.

Question three was, “When do you believe you will be able to produce tiles?” The answer was around April 1st.

Question four was, “What is the cost of the plant starting up after April 15?” The answer was $60,000 per day, as defined in the original project investment request.

Question five was, “Do you currently believe that the tiles you will produce on or about April 1st will meet the Chinese government requirements?” The answer through internal testing and quality control was “highly probable”.

Question six was, “Are you willing to risk $10,000 by submitting a test request to the government two months in advance of producing your first production tile, in order to save $60,000 per day for the next two months?”

At that point, the team knew what it had to do. The rest of the Kaizen was spent developing plans to ensure a successful test by the Chinese government on April 1, two weeks ahead of schedule. In the end, the plant started up on March 28, and the team saved over $2.5 million for the company. The lesson here is that when you frame a problem on a financial or factual level, rather than an emotional level, the answer becomes obvious.

Breaking Through - The Edge

In 2005, I was asked to help a team reduce the changeover time of a painting operation at a ceiling tile manufacturing plant in Oregon. The approach I used was SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Die. The goal was to reduce the existing changeover time by 50% or more, while improving the safety of the work.

After training the team, we took a walk on the factory floor to observe a changeover in progress and see if we could generate any improvement ideas. As with most SMED events, we saw a ton of improvement opportunities related to the existing changeover and the team was excited they would be able to help everyone in the process.

Towards the end of the walk, we stopped at the quality testing station and saw something that didn’t look right to us. The Quality Technician was using a box knife to cut four 2-foot edges of the ceiling tile off by hand. It looked difficult, unsafe, and extremely inefficient. When we asked her more about it, she told us she was required to measure the color of the face and edges of the ceiling tiles. The only way to get the colorimeter to read the edge of the ceiling tile was to make these cuts, allowing the tester to be placed directly on the edges. She also told us it made her wrists hurt. On a break, I verified with plant leadership they were also very concerned about this requirement. It was their number one safety concern in the facility and a number of engineers had studied the issue with no practical solution.

Following the walk, the team went back to their meeting room and listed all of the improvement ideas they had. They then prioritized the ones they wanted to work on to reduce changeover time. During the next two days, many of the highest priority ideas were implemented and the team was extremely excited about the improvements they were able to make.

At a break, a mechanic on the team came up to me and asked if it would be ok for him to work on something outside of the prioritized list of improvements the team had identified. I could tell something was bothering him, so I asked him to tell me more about what he was thinking. “Adam, I can’t get that edge cutting process out of my mind. It’s not right that we are putting our people at risk. I think I have a solution, and if you give me an hour to work on it, I can come right back to the team to help out with the other efforts.”

Kaizen is a team sport, and the team needs to be aligned around what everyone is doing. I asked the team what they thought. They enthusiastically supported the mechanic’s efforts. So much so that one of the operators volunteered to help him work on his idea. We couldn’t wait to see what they would come up with.

About an hour and half later, both team members came back with grins a mile wide. They brought a contraption that looked like a standard vise with a two-foot wide angle iron attached to each jaw. Curious, we stopped our other work to watch a demonstration of their invention. They put a 2-foot ceiling tile into the vise vertically, with the edge of the tile in the jaws and closed the vise carefully. Then, with a swift tap, the ceiling tile broke off cleanly at the edge, across the entire 2-foot length. We were stunned.  One of our team members stepped up and tried the next of the four edges, and it broke off just as cleanly. One by one, we all tried it and saw how quick and easy it was to break off the edges. Now, we gave it the ultimate test – we brought it to the Quality Technician and showed her how to use it. She easily broke off the edge and immediately gave the mechanic a hug in a show of gratitude.  It was probably the only hug the mechanic ever got at the plant!

We were so proud, but knew we had to finish our other work and gain alignment from plant leadership that our new method would meet the quality testing requirements. During the rest of the Kaizen, we implemented as many of our improvement ideas as possible, then created an overall changeover procedure that we verified, practiced, and used to train the rest of the operators on the line. The changeover time had been reduced significantly, but we wouldn’t feel like we had won until we implemented the new edge breaking process. So, we decided to build a final report to win over the plant leadership.

We invited plant leadership to see the new changeover procedure, which the team demonstrated for them. Some of the leadership team even participated, to see for themselves how much easier and safer it had become.  They were extremely pleased, but we had saved the best for last.

Our creative mechanic invited the Quality Technician to join him in front of the group of plant leaders. Then, another team member brought out the vise and handed a ceiling tile to the Quality Technician. She put it in the vise, gave it a tap, and the edge broke right off, as clean as could be.  In my life, I have never seen a collective group of people’s jaws drop at the same time, but it happened right then. After they got over their initial shock, the Operations Manager said, “Let me try that.” He did, and got the same result.

Everyone wanted a turn, and when it was over, the Safety Manager said, “This has been our number one safety risk. We have spent over 6 months trying to solve it the conventional way and haven’t been able to do so. Your team worked together and solved it so quickly. We need more teams to help us solve our problems in this way. Thank you!”  Then, she gave the mechanic the second hug he had ever received in the plant. After blushing, he admitted to the group that in all of his years working at the plant, he had never done anything as impactful as this. He also reminded everyone that this was a prototype, so there may be an improved way of doing the work.  Many years later, the original vise was being used in the plant without a complaint.

Improving Changeover Time in 4 Simple Steps

Have you ever watched an auto race? If so, you probably noticed what happens when a car enters Pit Row and is tended to by a whole team of people trying to get it back on the track as fast as possible. If you wondered how they knew what to do and how they didn’t get in each other’s way, the answer is SMED.  

SMED stands for Single Minute Exchange of Die. It was developed by Dr. Shigeo Shingo in the 1960’s and 1970’s on behalf of Toyota. Dr. Shingo was interested in reducing the time and effort that it took to change a production line from one product to the next. By intense study and trial and error, he developed a 4-step method to drive all changeovers down to less than 10 minutes, thus coining the term single minute exchange of die. For auto racers, they use SMED to improve their auto changeover times and have achieved times below 15 seconds.

Changeover reduction is a team sport, just like in NASCAR, so picking the right team is critical. Bring people together who have had experience with the changeover being studied, use their differing opinions and techniques and encourage sharing and learning. By doing this and applying SMED, you should be able to reduce changeover time by more than 50%. You should also be able to improve the safety of the changeover for everyone.

STEP 1 – Identify All Elements of the Existing Changeover

The first step in SMED is to identify all elements of the existing changeover. This is done by observing the changeover as it occurs. Use a changeover that is typical for the process. Teams use tools such as a stop watch, video, and spaghetti diagram to truly understand everything that is happening during the changeover. Rather than just discussing things, they observe the changeover and then discuss it to better understand the current situation. It is also not unusual for team members to mimic the steps of the changeover so they can see the impact and difficulty of the changeover for themselves.

The spaghetti diagram is a paper exercise that shows everywhere a person travels during the changeover, whether it is to get tools, information, or do work on equipment. To use it, you should have a general layout of the area being worked on, then place a pen or pencil on the layout, moving it to the places that the worker moves during the changeover. Don’t lift the pen or pencil. If there is more than one worker performing the changeover, there should be more people creating the spaghetti diagram. At the end of that exercise, the lines on the page tend to look like spaghetti and people are amazed at the amount of travel required to complete the changeover.

STEP 2 – Separate All Elements into External and Internal

The next step in SMED is to identify what steps or elements can be performed while the line is running (External elements) and what steps must be performed while the line is down and waiting (Internal elements). Process Improvement Partners saw an example of this in one of our sessions. After a production run was completed, the press was shut off, a die was removed, the die was returned to storage, and the new die was brought back to the press from the storage area. At that point, every step was Internal, meaning that the line was not running while each step was completed. However, the team soon realized that the retrieving of the new die could have been done in advance of the changeover and the storage of the other die could be done after the line was back up and running. The team identified all of the elements that were external, and this step saved more than 25% of the changeover time.

STEP 3 – Convert Internal Elements to External Elements

The third step challenges the team’s creativity and they start to devise ways of doing some of the changeover steps that originally had to be done while the line is down and finding ways of completing them while the line is still running. A team we worked with created a fixture that allowed parts to be positioned for installation prior to the line stopping. This saved a significant amount of time and the fixture was built with existing materials, so no money was spent. Another example is to connect a tool to the equipment, so that it is immediately accessible to do the work once the line has been stopped. There are so many examples of this that teams can do research through the internet to get ideas, or they can visit other manufacturers to see the ideas in action.

STEP 4 – Streamline All Elements

In this step, the team thinks of ways of shortening time and effort required to do any remaining elements. They prioritize and work on the internal elements first, and then work on any of the external elements that have opportunity for improvement. This is a great time to look at the video and the spaghetti diagram again and see if the amount of travel can be reduced by the repositioning of tools, materials, and equipment, or if another sequence would be more efficient. Trial the new procedure, redraw the spaghetti diagram, and get the input of all team members to ensure that the new steps are truly better for them.

Once all steps of SMED have been completed, the team should observe the new changeover procedure and verify that it is truly an improvement. Time is one measurement, but effort, travel, and the anecdotal input of those performing the new changeover procedure are also important. People need to feel that the new way is better than what they had been doing personally. Because change is difficult, the team needs to develop methods to sustain the improvements that they created. Once they do so, they will realize the benefits of their efforts.

The Pursuit of Creativity

In my years of running Kaizen events, I never saw anything as powerful as a creativity approach called 3P – Production Preparation Process. The goal is to eliminate waste in the design of a new or existing process or product in the maximum way possible, unlocking the creativity of the team in ways most of them have not experienced. In 2016 I was fortunate enough to experience this approach through the eyes of the man who invented it, Chihiro Nakao. Sensei Nakao was a former Toyota employee who was sent out to help other companies at the behest of the originator of the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno.

There are eleven steps to the approach, and although they may seem simple or counterintuitive on the surface, they are truly deep and complex and can lead to amazing breakthroughs. A short article will not do this justice, but perhaps it will motivate you to learn more about 3P.

A typical 3P Kaizen event takes 4 ½ days. They are long days, extremely engaging and exhausting, but at the end, the team will have a solution to an important problem that they are seeking. They will also have simulated their solution at a scale that will tell them whether or not it is truly viable.

Background – The team needs to understand certain key Lean principles and terms, such as Takt time, just in time, right sized equipment, and 5 whys prior to initiating the 11 steps of 3P. They also need to know how to use certain tools, such as the Standard Work Combination Sheet and the Fishbone Diagram.

Voice of the Customer – The team needs to hear directly from the customer to understand what is expected from them. There should be a direct exchange with the customer, so there can be no doubt about what is needed. Criteria for the solution is shared, so the team can measure their efforts against the criteria during the 3P.

Step 1 – Determine the Function of the Product or Transformational Step. As a first step, the team must identify what the customer would like them to accomplish in the simplest of terms. They will be challenged to describe this in two words, using a noun and a verb only. For example, a lightbulb does many things, but at its essence, it either “gives light” or “provides heat”. What is the product or process that the customer is most interested in? The team must avoid thinking about what is currently happening, but rather the bare essence of what the customer is willing to pay for, no more, no less.

Step 2 – Define the Essence of the Function Using Keywords. What words are the simplest way to describe what the customer is asking for? The team should generate as many key words as possible and then sketch them out on paper or sticky notes for everyone to see. The act of identifying the key words and sketching them is a way to drive the creativity of the participants forward. Some examples of key words are: drill, shear, guide, roll, and fasten.

Step 3 – Look for Examples of Keywords in Nature. In this step, team members do research and find examples in nature of the keywords. No examples should be man-made. Nature has used millions of years to perfect the simplest ways to accomplish tasks. Again, it is better to draw the examples than just list them. For example, if a key word is grip, then an example in nature could be an eagle’s talon gripping its prey. This step takes time and most team members will initially resist putting great effort into it, but with perseverance, they will make important discoveries about simple ways to perform complex tasks. Each team member should draw at least three examples, so that they expand their thinking beyond what they already know.

Step 4 – Sketch Examples and Examine “What is Happening” to Enable the Function. This next step is to examine in greater detail what allows nature to accomplish the keywords. What causes an eagle’s talon to grip its prey? Team members attempt to attain a greater understanding of the mechanism that is being utilized by nature through research and drawing. More examples are encouraged, as team members dig deep into their understanding and creativity.

Step 5 – Sketch Background and Conditions of the Function. This step takes a deeper dive at the function and the surrounding conditions that allow the function to occur in nature. More than just the eagle’s talon gripping the prey, what is happening with the muscles and nerves in the talon that allow it to grip? What interactions are occurring, and how are they able to do so?

Step 6 – Combine Ideas from Nature and Create Sketches. Each team member is challenged to come up with at least seven ways of solving the original problem using what they have learned from nature and other ideas that they may have. People generally have three alternatives in mind, so getting to seven causes them to think beyond their normal approach and have a bit of fun. It is not unusual to hear laughter during this step as people start to relax their creative minds and let go of their paradigms of what is possible.

Step 7 – Rapid Prototyping (Moonshine). This is the step that brings everything together and turns the ideas into reality. By reviewing, grouping, and prioritizing all of the many ideas shared across the team, the team picks two or three ideas to build. The team should break up into sub-teams so that each idea can be worked on simultaneously. The team is encouraged to use any materials available to them to demonstrate their concepts. The team assesses their prototypes against customer criteria and the
Seven Flows: Flow of People, Flow of Material, Flow of Parts, Flow of Products, Flow of Equipment, Flow of Information, and Flow of Engineering. They learn and improve as they go and are expected to make multiple iterations as they build. This build should be in three dimensions, so it is critical to have enough space and materials for team members to work. The term “Moonshine” refers to the historical practice of building stills in the woods by the light of the moon during Prohibition and using any available materials.

Step 8 – Conduct Trials and Gather Real Data. After building prototypes, they must be tested. Data is collected and compared to the customer criteria. As the comparisons are made, improvements are identified but not yet implemented. Often, the team identifies a better way to approach the problem and plans out the improvements for the next round of prototyping and moonshining.

Step 9 – Select the Three Best Designs Based on Criteria. During all of the prototyping and moonshining, it is not unusual to create variations on the original ideas and have many options to choose from. In this step, the team uses the original customer criteria to score all options and narrow down to three best designs to continue working on.

Step 10 – Continue Simulating and Gather and Evaluate Data on the Top Three Proposals. The team continues to do work on their proposals, learning about them, simulating them, and improving them. Any problems that occur are fixed on the spot, with as little discussion as possible. The act of building rather than discussing expands the creative process. At some point in this step, time will run out, so the team should set a target time to get all information and simulate how their idea will work.

Step 11 – Presentation of Solutions. The team demonstrates to the customer how each option works and shares the data and criteria evaluation. It is similar to a high school science fair, in that the customer acts like the judge and delivers constructive criticism and asks deep questions to the team. Rather than a Power Point presentation, this is a demonstration in 3D, with physical activity, so it’s easier to understand what the team is presenting.

The 3P approach is a highly engaging way to drive breakthrough creativity in teams that have the opportunity to participate. It has been shown to save precious project time and drive cost out of the finished product or process. Some teams saved 6 months in their Innovation cycle time by using 3P. Other teams have said that using 3P revealed viable options that they would never have pursued otherwise. I encourage you to consider this approach and learn more about it.

Use Standardized Work to Unleash Creativity

Most people don’t like being told what to do. They definitely don’t want to be told how to do it. But, with proper standardized work, we can show people the right way to do things and free their minds to work on more complex problems that they face. The key is to develop standardized work that engages people, speaks to them at the appropriate level, and captures the routine aspects of a task in a way that ensures everyone follows it properly and easily. Once that occurs, they can concentrate on solving problems that aren’t covered by the standardized work.

When I was very young, I was told, “Don’t touch the stove top. It’s hot!” Naturally, that sparked my curiosity. I wanted to know how hot, so I had to touch it. Unfortunately, I got burned and learned a lesson. I should have asked “How hot?” or, “What happens if I touch it?” If I understood what and why and the implications, I may not have received a boo-boo. This was a valuable personal lesson, but it also provides a good structure for standardized work. Now that I didn’t have to touch the stove anymore, I was freed up to use my creativity to create other mischief.

How to Engage Your People to Develop Standardized Work

People tend to do things the way they are taught, the way they observe, or the way that feels right to them. Unfortunately, they may be doing things improperly, unsafely, or inefficiently. So, it is incumbent on you to help them see the better way to do their work. The best way is to engage them in the development of the work. I have found that you should engage at least three people who are currently doing the work so they can share experiences, approaches, and break the tie, if a final decision on how to proceed is needed. You should set the expectations that work must be accomplished safely and productively, but give them the freedom to use their experiences to guide them in the process.

What To Do

The first part of standardized work is to define what to do and the order in which the work must be done. Once you have engaged people who do the work to participate in this effort, have each one of them demonstrate their approach to the work. Those who are watching should provide feedback and ideas that would make the work safer and more efficient. Once all ideas are shared, help bring the group to consensus around the final procedure. Once they have done this, they should practice the new procedure and see if they have missed any vital elements. Following that, document the procedures with pictures, videos, and/or written process steps. The more visual the better, as you want to be able to explain the procedure to anyone in a short amount of time, and you want them to be able to demonstrate their understanding without much effort. Once they have reached consensus, you must gain agreement that the procedure will be followed the same way by everyone who does the work. 

Why To Do It

You can’t guarantee people will follow the new procedure, just because it is safer and more efficient. They may not realize this is the case. Most people are willing to try something different than what they are used to if they understand why it will be a benefit to them. Therefore, the group that develops the new procedure should incorporate the “why” or benefits behind the steps in the new procedure. If they’re unable to do so, it probably means there aren’t real benefits and the procedure needs improvement. Keep working and improving the procedure until you have something that delivers a benefit. Once you have done that, it will be easier to sell the new procedure to others.

The Implications of the Work

The best standardized work results in safety and efficiency gains. These should be clear and measurable. After all, how do you know you’re winning if you’re not keeping score. So, the team should be able to identify and incorporate clear measures of the standardized work. For example, the procedure now takes six steps and 30 minutes, while in the past it took 12 steps and 48 minutes. Another example is the new procedure results in a higher yield rate than the old procedure. It is not uncommon to reduce the time required to accomplish a task by 30% to 50%, just by gaining alignment and simplifying process steps.

Using these three elements – what to do, why to do it, and the implications of the work should convince people to try this new way of operating. Once they are convinced, they should also see that by following this new process, their minds are freed-up to work on more complex problems, thus unleashing their creativity.  

Here’s a real-world example: A production line was shutting down erratically.  In the past, people would be blamed for not following procedures. With clear standardized work, the time to troubleshoot was reduced dramatically, as the human variables were eliminated. The team could focus on other reasons and quickly found the root cause of the problem, which was a switch that was shorting out.

We want people to be creative and improve things and solve complex problems. By creating clear standardized work that is consistently followed, we give people the opportunity to use their creative minds and drive positive results.

How to Use Kaizen to Ensure Teams are Invested in Process Improvements

In 2005, I was helping a team improve the safety and productivity of their operating line. During a 4-day span, each of the team members was able to try and implement many different ideas that arose from their creativity. At first, they didn’t believe that they would be allowed to make changes to the operating line, but after each successive attempt, they grew more and more confident, and the energy, enthusiasm and momentum grew. At the end of the 4 days, each of the team members reflected on their experience. One of the team members was a gruff mechanic who had been skeptical at the beginning of the session. He stood up with tears in his eyes and stated that this had been the most meaningful and impactful experience of his working life. I knew right then that I wanted to bring this joy to as many people as possible.

Kaizen brings people together to solve problems in their area of concern. They have the most understanding, experience, and vested interest in the effort. They also reap the benefits of the improvements moving forward. Kaizen asks us to make things better, not perfect, and go rapidly, without investing anything but the time and energy of the people making the changes.  There may be some minimal cost, but because things are going so fast, a significant financial investment isn’t likely. Using the speed of Kaizen and the creativity of the team, I developed 3 approaches to drive the deep and emotional connection to improvement that I was seeking.

1. Idea Gathering and Sharing with Sticky Notes
Each team member takes a pad of sticky notes with them as they tour the area of concern.  With guided questioning, the team members write down their personal observations or ideas that come to mind while touring. It is quick, personal, and drives ownership and accountability to come up with ideas for the benefit of the team and the people in the area. I ask each team member to write down one idea per sticky note, so that nothing gets missed and it’s easier to organize ideas as a team once we have reconvened. In the meeting room, I have the team members share all of their ideas, one person at a time, one idea at a time. Each idea is placed on a flip chart or on a wall for everyone to see. If there are 15 team members, I have each person share one idea until the team has heard 15 separate ideas. Then I give them a chance to share their second idea, third idea, and so on, until the team has run out of ideas. This creates an atmosphere where everyone has equal voice, regardless of position, experience, or pay grade.

2. Prioritization with Criteria
Once the ideas have all been shared and posted, the team may choose to group similar ideas together. This gives them the chance to see all of the ideas and remove any redundancy. Following this, each team member is asked to pick his or her top ideas using these criteria:

a. Provides the biggest benefit to our team and our customers

b. I personally want to do this

c. We can do this during the allotted time of the event

Everyone is given an equal number of votes (usually between 3 and 5), so no team member can dominate the conversation or the voting. These criteria are interpreted differently by each team member, but in the end, this approach creates a list of the team’s top priorities.  This approach generally takes no more than 10 – 15 minutes.

3. Pick Your Project
We now have a list of things to work on, prioritized by the amount of votes the team has placed on them. I then list the top 3 or 4 projects on a flip chart, depending on the size of the team.  Now it becomes personal, as I tell the team, “First come, first served. Place your name on the project you want to work on.”  More than a few times, team members rush to the flip chart to put their names on a project. They want to ensure they get the project that matters to them the most. This may sound risky, as a project may not get claimed. I have never seen this happen. Team members have different interests and you can’t always guess what they are, so I have stopped doing that. Also, if there aren’t enough team members on a project, I ask if there’s anyone willing to swap projects. Often, there are a few team members who don’t have a real preference, so they are happy to change projects. 

Now that we have personally observed and shared issues, picked our projects, and assigned the work to the people who want to do it the most, we have the foundation for the deep personal connection to the improvements that we seek. Sometimes a team member will find it moving enough to convince others to get involved in future efforts and find the same joy that they did.

How to Organize Your Work Space With 5S

In the world of Lean Manufacturing, 5S is used to organize workplaces to make them safer and more productive. Although many great manufacturing organizations and others have been credited with inventing or popularizing 5S, I’m pretty sure my mom invented it.

When I was young, I wasn’t very organized. My mother told me, “pick up your clothes,” “put your toys away,” “make your bed,” and most importantly, “there’s a place for everything and everything in its place.” Not only did she tell me to do these things, she showed me how to do them, nagged me about them, and checked my work quite often. I couldn’t get away with anything!

Although I really didn’t heed my mother’s advice as a child, as I grew older, I came to realize how powerful these statements were. When I entered the working world, I started applying 5S to many different situations and was amazed at the immediate positive impact that I was able to make. I also saw how deeply it moved those that were able to participate in 5S efforts. They became disciples of the effort and wouldn’t allow others to erode any of the benefits of the change.

As simple and powerful as 5S is, there are many who don’t understand what it is and how it should work and use it to just “clean things up.” I would like to share my understanding and approach to 5S and try to clear up some of the confusion. 

The first thing to understand is the purpose of using 5S. I believe 5S should be used to improve the safety and productivity of an area or work space. Once agreement and alignment around this purpose has been established, the team will make choices that will benefit the users of the area.

The first S, Sort, tells us to remove anything that is not immediately needed or useful in the area. Duplication, clutter, and non-working things are to be removed, discarded, donated, or sold. Three hammers turn into one, broken things are repaired or replaced. Things that were saved, “just in case,” are no longer allowed in the area. It’s not unusual to take away more than 70% of the tools, materials, documents, and other things that were just getting in the way.  Productivity is improved by reducing the time and effort required to find what’s needed.  Safety is improved, as you no longer have to move clutter out of the way to get to what is needed.

Set in Order, the second S, says to create visible, easy to find locations for all remaining materials, tools, and equipment in the area. Define proper inventory levels, place things within reach, make it impossible to lose anything or put it away improperly. As Mom said, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Trip and bump hazards are eliminated in this step, greatly improving safety. Productivity continues to improve as it becomes difficult for anyone to be non-compliant to the system requirements.

The next S, Shine, tells us to clean and inspect everything that remains in the area, to ensure that it is in optimal condition. We are trying to prevent problems before they happen by identifying any issues, cracks, leaks, or poor performance that may occur with our tools, equipment, documents, and other things that help us do our work. Some think that Shine means “clean things up.” I believe Shine is much more powerful than that, as this effort can reduce risk of failure, greatly improving productivity. Safety is enhanced because we can rely on everything to work properly when called upon, creating no surprises. 

The fourth S, Standardize, tells us to create expectations and audits to involve everyone in keeping things as they should be. No longer is it the responsibility of just one person, but the greater community. When I work in an area, I may not realize that things are shifting to their prior condition, things are starting to return to the area that were previously removed, or people aren’t putting things away properly. With a series of audits and auditors, there is a better chance to catch issues quickly and hold each other accountable to follow the rules of the area. In context of my childhood, I thought my room was OK every day, but Mom didn’t always see it that way, and often pointed out the error of my thinking. The safety and productivity gains are maintained through the commitment of the community and its auditors.

The fifth and final S, Sustain, challenges us to continually improve the performance of the area. By scoring the performance of the area and tracking it for everyone to see, we can identify further improvements that would enhance the safety and productivity of the area.  Once an area has seen the benefit of implementing 5S, it is not unusual for people to see other things in the area that could become part of the overall 5S system.

I think we can all agree that being organized is beneficial. I think we also can agree that we should listen to our mothers more often. Because I don’t like my vegetables, I can’t guarantee that I will do everything that mom tells me, but I will definitely do my best to listen more.

How to Ensure Standard Operating Procedures Don’t Collect Dust

We have been trying to get others to follow standard operating procedures since the Cavemen painted “Way to Kill Mastodon” on the cave walls!

But, try as we might, people still like to do things “their way”. And why not, most people think their way is best. But it may not be, and it may lead to errors and other problems. So, why aren’t we able to get people to follow standard operating procedures, the way they were meant to be followed?

The reason is that we haven’t really thought through what resources our teams need to properly follow standard operating procedures. This is why Process Improvement Partners LLC has developed The Wheel of Sustainability. With a hub and eight spokes, it all but ensures standard operating procedures will be followed.

Notification
The first and most traditional spoke in The Wheel of Sustainability. People are told there is a procedure and they are expected to follow it.

Training and Review
The second spoke gives people a chance to ask questions about the procedure, gain better understanding of it, and provide their input. If there are any opportunities to improve the procedure, this is a great time to uncover them. Buy-in for the procedure starts here.

Visible Evidence
The third spoke in The Wheel of Sustainability requires us to develop ways to show that the procedure is being followed, without having to interrupt the person doing the work. Is the procedure obvious, and are there visual cues that show things are happening as they should, in the proper sequence?

All Tools Available
The fourth spoke provides the person doing the work everything they need to do the job safely and productively. Are the tools easily accessible and in a logical location, or do they have to search for them? The tools can be physical (hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.) or virtual (databases, files on the computer, network connections, emails, etc.)

Clear Benefits
The fifth spoke in The Wheel of Sustainability asks if the person following the procedure sees it as being easier, more logical, and/or safer to accomplish. Have they been given a chance to give their input when the procedure was designed? Have they “seen for themselves” that this is a better way than what they did in the past?

Layered Audits
The sixth spoke requires others to engage with people as they follow the procedure, to make sure that they are following it, truly understand it, and can get help if they are unsure of the proper way to follow it. We also want to reinforce how important it is to follow the procedure as written.  Audits should be visible and engaging, not hidden from view or disruptive.  Many levels in the organization should participate at different times, thus the term “layered”.

Accountability
The seventh spoke in The Wheel of Sustainability asks the question, “What do you do if you observe someone who is not following the procedure as written”? This is the time to jump in and help them, not punish them. We need to understand why the person is not following the procedure and correct their behavior or provide more training. We must also hold ourselves accountable to help those who need our help. Do not turn a blind eye to improper work. Reinforce the proper way to follow the procedure.

Recognition
The eighth and final spoke ensures that people see the connection between the new procedure and improved results. We need to help people make that connection, so that it will lock in their commitment to continue following the procedure, even when no one is watching. It also gives credibility to the improvement efforts that generated the new procedure. Celebrate improved performance, when possible.

Leadership Commitment
The Wheel of Sustainability stays together with a strong hub. Leadership Commitment is that strong hub. Leaders must commit to helping, supporting, auditing, and providing everything necessary to make the procedure important and meaningful. Leaders should be visible. They should understand how the procedure impacts overall performance, and they demonstrate they are committed to the new procedure.

In summary, sustainability can be achieved through strong leadership commitment and investment in the eight spokes of The Wheel of Sustainability. Implementing this approach takes significant effort, so pick critical work first, get some practice implementing all eight spokes, and then add next level work. The more practice you get, the easier it becomes. The results will make the effort worthwhile.