A Tasty Breakthrough

A North American ceilings manufacturer was closing a plant that produced a product no other plant in the division could manufacture, due to specialized, but obsolete technology. They had a customer who was buying millions of square feet of this product annually. They knew they had to come up with an alternative the customer would approve of and keep buying after the old plant was closed.

The product had a heavy texture and was extremely durable and tough.  None of the remaining plants in the division had the capability to produce this particular visual with the same durability and the project team was at a loss to come up with an alternative. They decided to use a Lean technique called Production Preparation Process (3P).  They had very little experience with it, but the stakes were high and they were assured a breakthrough could be achieved by using it.

I was asked to facilitate the Kaizen event with help from a consultant and we would use 3P and its 11-step method to drive the creativity of the team to create, test, and develop the new product in a one-week timeframe. Needless to say, there were a lot of skeptical people in the room, including me.

The first few steps of the 3P are designed to remove all preconceived notions of what the solution should be and force the team to define the true essence of what the customer is asking for. Once done, the team identifies how nature is able to meet those customer requirements. This part of the process usually results in the relaxing of inhibitions and the start of laughter and opening of minds to what might be possible. For some teams, it is a true leap of faith that these steps will lead to something useful.

This team consisted of engineers, designers, scientists, and technicians. We had the use of all of the testing and development facilities for the company and any resource we needed was made available to us. Scientists and engineers are typically more analytical than they are free thinking. Once we got to nature, I saw the team was loosening up and they seemed willing to try something new.

Steps 6 and 7 of a 3P require the team members to come up with 7 ways of solving the problem and then trying them out in real time with available materials. This is called “Moonshining”. During Moonshining, the team members started using available materials in the testing and development facility to come up with new textures and strength properties. Nothing seemed to look like or act like what we wanted. A respected engineer with more than 35 years company experience told us he was going on a shopping trip to find what he needed. We all wondered what he would come back with.

After about an hour, he returned with many different things he bought at a local grocery store, including various cereals, cat litter, salt, and other granular materials. Curious to see what would happen next, we followed him to the testing facility and watched as he poured the various materials, mixed with adhesives, onto boards. Cat litter didn’t look right to him. Then he crushed it, and it still didn’t look right. Next was salt. No good either. Next came cornflakes. He decided to grind them up and poured them on the board. They looked promising. They had the visual texture similar to the customer’s wishes. With the right mixture of adhesives, they might be able to achieve the desired durability. About a dozen trials later, he was able to get a texture and durability the whole team liked.

The team knew it couldn’t use cornflakes in the finished product, but they now knew they could create the proper texture and durability. The rest of the 3P (steps 8 through 11) was spent developing a method to replicate the cornflake texture with materials that could be adhered to the board and painted over in the manufacturing process. At the end of the week, the team was able to provide the overall project team with a concept and method to achieve this new product in an existing manufacturing facility.

Just over a year later, the product was being manufactured in an existing facility, at a reduced cost with better properties than the original product that was manufactured in the closed facility. The customer continues to buy the product to this day, and has no idea that the inspiration for it was found at the grocery store.

Top 5 Continuous Improvement Books

I have read many books on Lean, Six Sigma, and other Continuous Improvement methods over the years. Some inspired me, some frustrated me, and all made me think. The following 5 (and two honorable mentions) are my all-time favorites.

Number 5: The Toyota Way – Jeffrey Liker

This is an easy read and talks about the principles behind the Toyota Production System.  It is the first book that I recommend to anyone who wants to know what “Lean” is.

Number 4: The Goal – Eliyahu Goldratt

All about the Theory of Constraints, this book reads like a novel. I wanted to see if they save the factory and live happily ever after. There’s a great story in it about a camping trip that really brings manufacturing issues to life. I have shared this book with others to give them insight into the world of manufacturing.

Number 3: Key Strategies for Plant Improvement – Shigeo Shingo

Written by the all-time greatest Industrial Engineer (my opinion, of course), this book provides quick ideas and ways of thinking that opened my eyes to possibilities. Many of the ideas can be implemented immediately, without any investment.  

Number 2: A Revolution in Manufacturing:  The SMED System – Shigeo Shingo

The first continuous improvement book I ever read. It probably influenced me more than any other. I was able to immediately implement SMED in the little factory I worked in and saw amazing results. I found it on the bookshelf of another supervisor, who gave it to me without reading it! There’s a great explanation of how Shingo’s feet blistered while playing golf and how it led him to a breakthrough in changeover reduction.

Number 1: Toyota Production System – Taiichi Ohno

Written by the man who was essentially responsible for Toyota’s vast success over many decades. This book explains what Toyota did, why they did it, and the results they were able to achieve. All the other “Lean” books just interpret what Ohno did and why he did it. He didn’t want to write a book, but thank goodness he did!

Honorable mention 1: The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton Christiansen

This book explains the impact of disruptive technologies on the world. It not only gives many case studies, but also explains what companies should do to become disruptive in their industries.

Honorable mention 2: Today and Tomorrow – Henry Ford          

Written almost 100 years ago, the very elements of Lean are described by the man who put a car in everyone’s driveway. Taiichi Ohno was inspired by Henry Ford and so was I.

PIP Visits Dogfish Head Brewery

One of the benefits of being in business for yourself is to decide what’s most important to you and then prioritize your time to let you do what you are most passionate about.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit with Gordon Zavilla. Gordon and I worked together at Armstrong a few years ago and he was interested in accelerating Dogfish Head Brewery’s continuous improvement journey. Gordon invited his boss, Brian Hollinger to join us during the visit. We took a walk of the processes and shared ideas of ways to immediately improve safety, productivity, and customer service. We also discussed a strategic approach to the improvements they want to make. Their culture of employee engagement and creativity is a great foundation from which to build on.

One of the most creative tool boards I have seen was in their maintenance shop. Notice how there are actually three boards in one. No searching for anything in traditional tool boxes.

Thanks to Gordon and the great folks at Dogfish Head who taught me what it means to be “Dogfishy”.

From Russia with Love: The Spirit of Kaizen Lives in All of Us

A Russian ceilings manufacturing plant asked me to help them facilitate their strategic road map in 2017. This was an activity they did annually since the plant opened in 2015. I had been to Russia one time before, during construction of the plant, so I had some experience travelling there and working with the people. This time, I would be coaching their continuous improvement leader in how to organize and facilitate this important session.

I met the continuous improvement leader on Sunday afternoon at the plant. My goal was to prepare him for what was about to happen and give him some tips on engaging the workforce and getting quick results during the session. It turns out that he was somewhat familiar with the techniques I was teaching, but frustrated by the culture of the leadership team. I assured him we would be able to break through and get strong engagement and quick results, but didn’t really know what I would be up against. In Russia, if someone at a higher level is speaking, someone at a lower level did not. Things also took longer to accomplish than what I was used to, so this was going to be a challenge.

We agreed we would use a modified Value Stream Mapping approach to develop the strategic road map. Rather than going into great detail when mapping the process, we would stay at a high level, but still have the team map the current state and identify opportunities for improvement.

On Day 1 of the session, I found myself in a large room of 30 team members and 7 interpreters. Each interpreter was paired with an English-speaking participant. The interpreter spoke into a microphone and the English was relayed to a headset. Amazingly, there was only a 1 – 2 second delay from the time someone spoke in Russian, to the time I heard the English translation in my ear.  It was hard to concentrate at first, but in just a few hours I was able to find a comfortable rhythm as I facilitated the team.

After introductions and Voice of the Customer, we took a Gemba walk of the process on the factory floor. I advised all team members to take sticky notes with them, so they could write down their ideas in real time and not have to remember them. These ideas would form the basis of the improvement efforts we would be mapping out later in the session.

When we got back to the meeting room, we mapped the current process on a wall. We used sticky notes, and I encouraged all team members to write process steps and waiting steps on their sticky notes and then place them on the wall where they thought they should go. If there was an error or a better way to write the step, I asked the team members to go up to the wall and replace the original sticky note and place it in the more appropriate place on the wall. When we exhausted all of the steps, I asked the team to review the map and make sure they believed they had the correct steps and sequence. If someone didn’t go up to the wall, I encouraged them to verify things were accurate, or at least close to accurate.

Next, I asked the team members to look at the steps and put a mark on the ones they felt caused the most problems or pain to them. Once we saw the steps with the most marks on them, I encouraged the team to come up with ideas that could solve that problem, writing their ideas on different-colored sticky notes. After all ideas were written, it was time to share the ideas and make sure that everyone on the team, from line operators to the plant manager, had an equal voice. This was accomplished was by going around the room, one person at a time, one idea at a time. When an idea was shared, we put the sticky note on a large sheet of flipchart paper for everyone to see. When we exhausted all of the ideas in the room, I encouraged all team members to look at the many flipchart pages with ideas, find their 5 favorite ideas, and place a mark on each one. The sticky notes with the most marks were the highest priority ideas for the team to pursue.

Once we determined the highest priority ideas to work on, we broke the team into sub-teams of 3 or 4. The sub-teams were tasked to work on each of the high priority ideas and build them out into future work for the plant. One of the sub-teams was assigned a project with $800,000 annual savings. After an hour and a half, I asked each sub-team to report on their progress, and the rest of the team was to provide support and feedback. The sub-team with the $800,000 idea hadn’t made any substantial progress. After all sub-teams reported on their progress, I decided to spend time with the $800,000 team and took the continuous improvement leader with me.

When I asked what was going on, the team members told me they thought their idea was a good one, but it would never be approved by upper management. When I asked why they thought this way, they said that because no one from upper management was in the session, they wouldn’t understand the idea and wouldn’t support their efforts. I asked them if they could phone the appropriate person in upper management to give them a better understanding of the idea. They were uncomfortable with my suggestion.

I stopped by the plant manager’s office and talked with him about the situation. He informed me a high-level executive was at the plant, but not in the session, and she was working on another project for the company at the time. I asked him if he thought we could get a few minutes with the executive. He gave me one of those looks I tend to get from my wife when I say something she doesn’t like.  I decided to spring into action anyway.

I asked the sub-team and the continuous improvement leader to come with me. We were going to get an immediate answer to our question. We walked over to the office the visiting executive was using and waited outside the door. She was on the phone. The sub-team wanted to walk away, but I wouldn’t let them. The executive looked up from her call and saw us waiting outside. Instead of waving us in, she looked back down and continued her call. Once again, the sub-team wanted to leave, but I wouldn’t let them. The executive looked up again, saw us still standing there, hesitated, and then motioned for us to come into the office. This was our opportunity!

Being the outsider, I felt it would be easier for me to explain the situation. I apologized for the interruption, thanked her for inviting us into the office, and explained what we were doing. I then asked if she had a few minutes to spend with us to review the $800,000 idea. She said, “I’m really busy right now.” Then, thinking better of it, she said, “I can give you a couple of minutes, then I need to get back to what I am doing.” We thanked her again and I asked one of the sub-team members explain the idea to her. As he explained, I could see the executive getting interested in the idea and even offering advice on how to make the idea better. Fifteen minutes later, she told the team they had her full support and they should pursue this fantastic idea. We thanked her for her time, told her she had the spirit of Kaizen in her, and left so that she could go back to work. Later, she came to visit the sub-team to see how they were progressing on the idea. The enthusiasm of the sub-team spilled over to other team members and before too long, many additional ideas were being developed to make the plant safer and more productive.

By the end of the session, the plant had a strategic roadmap designed to help it meet its goals for the next 3 years. The teams remarked they had never been in a session where everyone was given equal voice and where so much had been accomplished in such a short amount of time. It turns out that the only thing in their way was their thinking. We also discovered that no matter your cultural background, the spirit of Kaizen can live in you!

PIP Helps Team in York, PA Improve Reliability of Critical Operation

Many consultants train and teach. I like to demonstrate and verify with teams that they truly understand the techniques for improvement that I am sharing with them. Most importantly, I want them to be able to take this work and transfer it to other parts of the factory without my assistance.

During an event in York, PA, I showed a team of maintenance technicians, engineers, and production operators how to level, square, and centerline equipment during a reliability improvement Kaizen. I demonstrated these techniques to show them how critical even the smallest improvements are. We were able to reduce the out-of-level condition on some conveyers from ½” to less than 1/16”. We also optimized the location of the product that was flowing through the conveyers and equipment. Immediately after doing this work, the production line ran smoother than anyone could remember.

When the team reported their results and findings, the audience was so impressed that they committed to doing this work all over the facility, using their new reliability experts.

Listen To Your People, People

A Research and Development team wanted to create a three-year strategic plan. Their goal was to reduce the time it takes from a new product idea to launch of the new product.  Many of the team members believed “you can’t schedule invention.” Working with the team leader, the Research and Development Director, we decided to focus on the work leading up to and supporting the invention, even if we couldn’t specify when an invention would occur. We agreed to use Value Stream Mapping as the approach to help the team accomplish their goals.

On the first day of a Value Stream Mapping event, the team learned about Lean tools and techniques, and then quickly went to Gemba (the place where the work is done) to see what was actually happening in their current process, the Current State. Most people who haven’t participated in a Value Stream Mapping event don’t appreciate the time and effort put into understanding the Current State of their process. They want to work on the Future State, thinking they already know the issues, pain, and problems in their current process. But, as Lean practitioners know, there are always breakthroughs and “A-Ha” moments that occur during the Current State review that lead to a much stronger plan for the Future State.

The team wondered how they could walk their Current State, as much of their work was on their computers, at their desks, in labs, and other testing facilities located in the building. Ever the optimist, I encouraged the team to walk the process, regardless of where the work got done to uncover something that would help them on their journey to the Future State.  Although they were skeptical, they agreed to follow my lead. We walked around the offices first.

We saw different people working at their desks and asked them questions about what they were doing. They did their best to explain things, but I noticed most people weren’t taking notes or asking many questions.

Our next stop on our walk was at a large wall containing a wide variety of graphs, charts, and documents. The R&D Director stopped there and told us proudly about how much information he shared with his people and how much they used the information on the wall. The team seemed satisfied with the explanation, but to me, it looked like a bunch of clutter. There were so many charts and graphs, it was unclear what was important, relevant, and critical to the work of the R&D employees.

I walked over to a Scientist who was working at his desk and asked him if he could join us at the board. I asked him what he thought of all of the information that was posted on the wall. He told the group that he didn’t know, he never looked at it. The team, including the R&D Director was shocked. Was this scientist the only one who didn’t use the information or were there others? As it turned out, there were others working in the area who confirmed they didn’t use the information on the board either. I didn’t want to insult our leader, so we continued our walk through the process, taking note of other issues as we saw them. The team started opening up and asking tougher questions as we went further into the process.

After we completed our walk, the team listed all of the steps in the current process and the issues and problems that existed. One of the biggest problems identified was the lack of communication of relevant information to the scientists. It was just as our brave Scientist had said during the Gemba Walk. Now, the team knew what it had to do in the Future State: Provide visible, relevant, and timely information to the scientists in a way that would help them do their work every day. Over the rest of the three days, the team built a path to the Future State that reduced time from new product idea to launch significantly. Much of the effort centered around providing the proper information to the people who needed it. Instead of assuming what was needed, they included the scientists and technicians in the development of the communication of highest value.

Over time, this communication was developed. In addition, the team created feedback loops to verify the communication was helping R&D employees do their work. Ultimately, the time from new product idea to launch was reduced significantly. More importantly, the team realized how important it is to include people in the design of systems that will be used for their benefit. One properly posed question can save months of effort.

350 Business Owners

An engineered flooring plant in Kentucky was losing money. They knew their product yields were deteriorating and didn’t know what to do about it. Process Improvement Partners was invited for a site visit. After reviewing performance and discussing the issues with plant leaders in a meeting room, we took a Gemba Walk to see what was actually happening.

As we walked around the plant, it was obvious that safety was the top priority in the plant. There was signage and effective placement of supporting tools and materials. Most importantly, all leaders in the plant were demonstrating their commitment to safety.  It was clear production was the next priority. There were hour by hour production boards, and all kinds of measures of productivity posted around the lines and in the offices.  There was no sign of the importance of quality or yield to be found. We searched all over the plant, but there was nothing that showed people what to do to reduce defects or improve yields.

We suggested a three-day Kaizen to develop managing systems to shift the plant from a culture of productivity to one of quality and yield.  The Plant Manager was unsure how we would do that, but was open to the possibility of using a Kaizen for such a significant effort. We agreed the team would be made up of all of the members of the plant leadership team, with a few extra guests added to provide outside perspective. We also suggested a few highly trusted production operators be included on the team, as they would provide an unfiltered view of what they would need in support of their efforts to improve yield and quality.

The Plant Manager was not comfortable with the production operators participating in the entire Kaizen, but did agree they should participate in part of the agenda to provide their perspective on efforts to improve yield and quality. Their part would be on the agenda on the first day, representing the Voice of the Customer.

The Kaizen started with a kick-off from the Plant Manager. It was clear most of the team wasn’t sure anything important was going to happen during the three scheduled days and were wondering why they weren’t in the plant running operations. After introductions, we reviewed some Lean managing systems and had a discussion about the current mind-set and culture of the plant. It was apparent all team members valued safety above all and then production. They were not sure quality and yield was well emphasized or even highlighted.

At about 10:30am, a group of six production operators and two production supervisors entered the room. They took their seats with the rest of the team and waited uncomfortably to see what would happen next. It seemed as though nobody had explained to them why they were there and they hadn’t interacted with the leadership team in this type of setting before.

I thanked them for joining us and explained the purpose of the three-day Kaizen and their role in this part of the agenda. They were our Customers. They were not impressed. Next, I told them we wanted to get their honest feedback about how the plant was run. Still not impressed or even believing we would listen to and use their feedback, it seemed likely they wouldn’t offer anything of value unless I could get them to relax and open up.

I asked a series of open-ended questions, such as “What is the message you currently receive about the importance of quality and yield vs. productivity? Is it clear or confusing? How do you decide to prioritize productivity vs. quality and yield vs. safety when you are in the middle of a production run?” A few gave some short, terse answers, and a few of the leadership team members asked follow-up questions to show they were listening. Still, nothing of high value was being shared.

After about 30 minutes of questioning and terse answering, I asked this question, “If you could change one thing about how the plant is run, what would it be?” One of the production operators, let’s call her Sally, blurted out, “If these SUMBICHES would just care enough to come to work every day, things would be better!” Blushing, she put her face in her hands. The room roared and clapped with approval. The Plant Manager thanked her for being so open and honest and said he wanted to know more about what she meant by her statement.

All of the sudden, the Customers opened up and told the team exactly what they thought. They talked about the leadership approach and the message that was being sent to the production operation about the value of quality and yield. People were now sharing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas, and leadership was listening. We were getting somewhere. After another hour or so, we had exhausted all topics and thanked our Customers for joining us. There were handshakes, high fives, and hugs and everyone left feeling like they had contributed to something important.  It was clear that the production operators and supervisors truly cared about the company and its impact on their families and the community.

The team now knew they had important work to do, and the next step was to create a vision for the plant emphasizing what their customers needed to do their job in the best possible way. It didn’t take long, and they came up with this vision statement:

“350 business owners with a yield-first mindset making every plank matter. Close is not good enough – stop until the customer will be delighted. Encourage everyone to take the time to make it right the first time.”

The rest of the Kaizen was spent developing strategy and tactics to support and emphasize the new vision. There was energy and excitement, and by the end of the Kaizen, you could see and feel the difference in the plant. The initial results were promising, as quality and yield performance improved. More than that, 350 people were aligned around what’s most important to them, their families, and their community.

Owning Their Solution in the Weld Shop

I have conducted many workplace organization Kaizens (5S) over the years. The results have always been dramatic. All of the teams were made up of production operators or office workers, with some mechanics assisting the team. The production operators or office workers owned the areas needing organization and the mechanics were able to do some of the more complex tasks needed during the Kaizen. All of the teams, that is, until I met my Weld Shop team. Five mechanics and an engineer, who underestimated what we could accomplish.

Let me tell you about a typical mechanic on a Kaizen team. He or she is there to support the team, but not usually vested in the improvement process. Most of the time, they participate in the Kaizen and do great work, but sometimes they aren’t interested in being there, and would rather be doing their “normal” job. Facilitating a Kaizen with a team where some of the members were this way was not new for me, but having the entire team this way was. The good news was the area we were going to be working on would directly impact their safety and productivity. The better news was they had a supervisor, acting as the team leader, who was extremely excited about the possibility of improving the weld shop. And the best news was I could leverage their pride and competitive nature to turn their existing Weld Shop into a show place for all the world to see. Only if I could get them to own the improvements, of course.

When I run a 5S Kaizen, I do it step by step. On the first day of the Kaizen, after training the team in all of the S’s, we took a walk in the space we were going to organize. I asked the team to identify things we could remove first – the clutter. This is the first S.  I asked many questions and they identified the items to be removed while I took photos. Then, after removing all of the clutter, we decided on the best locations for anything remaining in the space. We did this in an organized fashion and I had team members demonstrate how each new location would be safer and more productive than the old location. This is the second S – Set in Order. Following this, we made sure that everything left in the shop was in the best possible shape. We did this by cleaning and inspecting all tools, equipment, materials, and storage spaces. If we found something in disrepair, we either fixed it or replaced it. We relied on everything in the area to work, so we took great care. This is the third S – Shine.

The first three S’s, Sort, Set in Order, and Shine, are the most physical, dramatic, and fun parts of the Kaizen. By the time we got to the fourth and fifth S, the team was extremely energized and the area looked dramatically different from where we started. Here’s an example: Before we started the Kaizen, you had to enter the Weld Shop and walk about 30 feet to turn on the lights. To get to the light switch, you had to navigate in the dark through all of the clutter in the hopes of finding the switch without running into something. In some of the initial “before” photos, you couldn’t tell there was a light switch on the wall at all. During the evening of the second day of the Kaizen, we relocated the light switch to the entrance of the Weld Shop, on an outside wall. Lights could now be turned on before entering the shop, eliminating the safety risk of navigating in the dark to the switch.

The fourth S is Standardize. For this step, the team was tasked to create a managing system to ensure the improvements they made would continue to live on, be supported and requirements followed by everyone using Weld Shop in the future. This was not a physical exercise. It was a mental and paper exercise. Teams typically create checklists, sign-off sheets, signs, and audits that must be followed by anyone using the area. To mechanics, this is “paperwork”, and although it has more than four letters, it might as well be a four-letter word. This is the last thing they wanted to work on, and I knew that. I also knew that this was the most important step, as their improvements would deteriorate back to the “before” condition if not done properly and completely. The real trick would be for the team to own their solution and not just go through the motions. I had a plan, but it was risky. I needed to facilitate an emotional event, so the team would create and own their managing system.

On the morning of the third day of the Kaizen, after congratulating the team on the improvements of the first two days, I explained this would be “Standardize and Sustain Day”. They looked at me with grumpy faces as I showed them examples of checklists and audits other teams had developed. They were not impressed, to say the least. In fact, they didn’t believe simple pieces of paper would keep people from messing up all of their good work. I showed them examples of how teams made these documents visible and established responsibility all the way up to plant leadership. They were still not buying it. I needed to push them further.

I showed a slide of a checklist, going line by line over each requirement. I could see the discomfort and frustration in their faces. I was on line eight of the checklist when one of the mechanics, whose face was beet red said, “Adam, we’ve had enough of your paperwork. We’re going to the smoke shack. You can’t come with us. We’ll figure it out and then we’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” All of the team members stormed off and left me in the meeting room by myself. I had facilitated the significant emotional event. I didn’t really know if they would ever come back, and if they did, what would they come back with?

It felt like two hours, but it was only twenty minutes when all of the team members returned to the meeting room. They looked pretty proud of themselves as one of them declared, “Adam, we’re going to tell you what we’re going to do. We’ll talk and you type.” They listed eleven things they wanted on “their” checklist. They were similar to what I had presented, but it was in their words and it was their ideas, and that’s all that mattered. I thanked them for coming up with such a well-thought out checklist and then challenged them to develop the system to ensure everyone would use it properly and not “pencil-whip” it. This is the fifth S, Sustain. Enthusiastic and full of pride, the team developed a visual Area Owner board, with all of the required documents easy to find and to use. Then they set up daily and weekly requirements for the area users, the Area Owner, and members of the plant leadership team.

On the final day of the Kaizen, the team shared their results with the plant leadership team and some executives visiting from their corporate office. It’s not unusual for mechanics to shy away from presenting in front of an audience. In this case, all team members spoke from their hearts and explained how important it would be to support and sustain all of their good work, which was improving safety and productivity for them and the rest of the plant. They even asked the executives to hold the team and plant leadership accountable to keep this good thing going and spread this effort to other areas of the plant.

After the presentation was over, I spent a few minutes with the team, getting their final thoughts about the Kaizen. Happy with the results and most aspects of the Kaizen, they told me they wished I had been more assertive with them during the week. We laughed as I told them I wasn’t sure they were coming back to the meeting room after storming out on Standardize and Sustain Day. They told me it was just the motivation they needed to get to their solution.

Go See for Yourself – The Best Selling Tool There Is

In 2006, our Kaizen team was working on improving changeover time for a painting operation. After reviewing changeover reduction techniques with the team, we took a walk to the line to observe a changeover.

The team watched the paint technician clean the front of the paint booth with water for approximately 10 minutes. After that, he walked behind the booth for a few minutes and then came back to work on the front of the paint booth. None of the team members had followed him to see what he had been doing in the back of the booth.

After the changeover was complete, we asked the paint technician to demonstrate what he had been doing in the back of the paint booth. To our horror, he had to squeeze his body between a post and a wall, make his way to the paint tanks, stand on a natural gas line, twist his body, and reach above his head to open a valve on a paint tank. He told us, “This is the way it had always been done since the plant was opened [in 1990].”

A change was necessary, but the equipment had been installed this way and our small team would not be able to move equipment or automate valves in the short time we had during the Kaizen. We knew we had to sell the idea to the leadership team and identify safety and financial reasons for the change.

Luckily for us, each of the paint booths had some automation built in, so we wouldn’t have to install control systems from scratch. As a team, we decided that if we could automate the opening and closing of the valves on three paint tanks, we could eliminate the need for paint technicians to put themselves at risk while opening and closing the valves. We had an electrical engineer on the team, so while we worked on other aspects of the changeover time reduction, we asked him to develop engineering estimates for the valve automation.

Normally, engineers want to do research and build estimates with high levels of accuracy when they present their findings. But, in the spirit of Kaizen, he was willing to put together a cost estimate with an error of +/- 25% in a day. He came back with the cost estimate and we decided how we would sell our idea to the leadership team.

During the Kaizen, we worked on simplifying procedures, accessibility of tools, and the overall coordination of work by all technicians during the changeover. None of these things cost money, but they reduced the overall changeover time by more than 50 percent. We had accomplished our Kaizen objective.

On the day of the report out, we gave a tour of the new changeover procedure to the attendees. Our hope was to highlight the success of the team and the need for the automation. Eight leadership team members joined us for the report out. We began by thanking them for joining us and then explained the changes we had made. We then invited them to see the new changeover procedure.

We started in the front of the paint booth and demonstrated the simpler procedure.  Then, it was time to take them to the back of the booth to see what was actually happening. One by one, they ascended and descended the stairs that crossed over the line to get to the back of the booth. They squeezed past the post and wall one by one. One of the team members showed what was necessary to open and close valves. From the looks on the faces of the leadership team, they were unaware of what was happening in the back of the booth during changeovers. The operations manager said, “we need to automate these valves as our top priority.” Right on cue, our electrical engineer presented the cost estimate and got immediate approval.

Within three months of the Kaizen, the automated valves were installed and a 16-year problem was corrected. If someone had walked the line with the paint technicians when the plant was being built, this issue would have been avoided. The best way to understand what’s going on is to go see for yourself.

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.

A Simple Way to Think about a Problem You Want to Solve

Many years ago, I was having difficulty getting my mind straight about a problem that I wanted to solve. A co-worker of mine introduced me to a thing he called a “Task Cycle”. Once I understood it, I had a simple way to go about solving problems and executing tasks.

The Task Cycle was developed in the early 1990’s by Paul Boulian and revised by Marlyn Rabenold eight years later. I had the good fortune of meeting Marlyn and was amazed at the simplicity of thinking that can be used to help solve the most complex problems. Now, I want to share it with you.

The Task Cycle has 4 components: Purpose, Products, Process, and Functional Capabilities. It is truly a cycle and can be visualized in this way:

When you are planning a task (or planning to solve a problem), you follow the cycle counter-clockwise, from Purpose to Products, Process, and then Functional Capabilities. When Executing a task, you follow the cycle clockwise and start at the Functional Capabilities and end at Purpose.

Purpose

This is the reason that we are trying to do something, or the problem that we are trying to solve. That seems simple, and it is, but building a clear purpose statement is critical, and should not be taken lightly. As is said, the first step in solving a problem is know that you have one in the first place. When building a clear Purpose statement, consider and communicate why you want to do something, as much or more than what the specific task is. Consider these components of the Purpose statement with this recommended format:

“TO” – describe the task to be done or the problem to be solved

“IN A WAY THAT” – describe the benefit to be realized by the accomplishment of the task. Think in terms of the customer of the task.

“SO THAT” – describe the impact or result the task will have on the organization

Using the experience of writing this article, here’s an example of a Purpose statement:

To write a description of the Task Cycle, in a way that:

-          Exposes the reader to a new way of thinking about a task

-          Provides a simple construct for dealing with a complex problem or effort

-          Engages the reader’s interest

So that this knowledge will help readers in their efforts to solve problems in the future.

Clarity of purpose helps us gain alignment and support from those who will either help us with our task or those who have assigned the task to us.

Now that Purpose has been established, it’s time to move on to Products.

Products

Products are the output or results that we are trying to create when we accomplish the task or solve the problem. A good question to ask is, “If we accomplish the task or solve the problem, what would we see or know that reinforces that the task is complete or the problem is solved?” We aren’t always looking for a physical product, but also non-physical or virtual products. These can be timing, a new way of doing things, or other similar results. Products of the prior example could be:

1.       Ten or more responses or inquiries about the article

2.       Three shares of the article

3.       A phone call to discuss more in detail about the article

Now that the Purpose and Products have been identified, it’s time to move on to Process.

Process

How are we going to get the products that tell us that we have achieved our purpose? What is the methodology or approach that we will use to do this? We can now design a process to specifically accomplish the purpose and deliver the products as stated. Whether we use existing tools and methodologies that we are familiar with, or do research and ask others for their input, we can now test our thinking and approach and see if it delivers the desired results. We want to think through the series of steps and actions that we will take in order to get where we want to go. Because we are clear on purpose and products, we can now design process in a way that has the least amount of effort and waste associated with it.

For the prior example, the process being used is to research the original thinking and documentation on the Task Cycle, consider my personal experiences with it, and try to describe it in a way that the reader can utilize practically. Time will tell if my process was properly thought out.

Functional Capabilities

Do you need people to help you accomplish your task or solve the problem? Do you need tools for this? Are there skills that need to be acquired? What else do you need to solve the problem or complete the task? These are the questions that should be answered in order to identify the functional capabilities needed.

When all four components of the Task Cycle are put together, they should be the foundation for the effort. You should share your thinking with others to see if you have missed any vital elements, always improving as you go. You might even need funding, and that is why it is critical to have alignment around your task cycle.

Earlier in the article, I stated that when you are executing a task or solving a problem, you now go through the task cycle in the opposite direction. What I mean is that you use the functional capabilities to follow the process, which delivers the products and ultimately achieves the purpose.

Although this is not new thinking, I believe that many have forgotten about the Task Cycle and are missing out on this simple way of solving problems and accomplishing critical tasks. I will be interested to see if I accomplished my task in providing you with information that you can use. Your feedback will let me know if I have done so.

What Happens in a Cost Reduction Session?

Most companies want to reduce costs in their operations. There are many ways to do this. Some companies choose to reduce their workforce, others decide to sell off under performing businesses. Companies that use this approach are just avoiding the problems and inefficiencies of their business practices and are not targeting the root cause of their problems.

At Process Improvement Partners LLC, we believe that the best way to reduce cost is to optimize your business to the benefit of your customers. Using that premise, we have developed an approach to leverage your team’s creativity to drive waste and inefficiencies out of your process, thereby reducing cost. In a 2 to 4-day session, teams will identify and build plans to take millions of dollars out of their operating costs, often greatly exceeding their cost reduction targets. The following summarizes how this can be accomplished.

Create Leadership Alignment

The first step in the process is to meet with Operations Leadership to gain their alignment and support for the approach that is being recommended. They have to stand by it, show their support for it, and supply dedicated resources that will participate fully in the cost reduction session(s). They should communicate with all potential participants and their managers well in advance, showing their support for the effort.

Event Preparation

Once Leadership is aligned, the event is scoped out, with a clear problem statement and objectives. When the scope of the event is known, we then plan the amount of time necessary for the team to achieve their cost reduction goal. Critical team members are identified who can help meet the goal, and then the event can be scheduled. All facilities should be reserved well in advance of the event, as meeting rooms come at a premium in most companies. There should be adequate space to move around and enough wall space to display information and ideas on. Typical supplies include flip chart easels, flip chart paper, sticky notes, pens, and a way to project presentations and information.

Session Kickoff

On the first morning of the session, an executive sponsor or key member of the leadership team kicks off the session, reinforcing the importance of the session and the targeted cost reduction that is to be realized. The sponsor should encourage team members to be as creative as possible and not limited by what has or has not worked in the past. It is not unusual for team members to be skeptical that their efforts will not be implemented, so the sponsor should meet that skepticism head on.

Voice of the Customer

Those who will be impacted by any cost reduction efforts must share what is most important to them and their customers. Often, Marketing will represent the customer’s interests, but other areas can do this as well, such as Operations, Research and Development, Sales, and Distribution. Some companies will bring in direct customers and this can be quite powerful. In the end, the team cannot and should not implement any cost reduction ideas that will negatively impact the customer. But, in some sessions that Process Improvement Partners has facilitated, cost reduction ideas created a positive customer experience.

Ideation

This is a free-wheeling exercise. In the early stages of ideation, it is more important to get as many ideas out as possible, regardless of their likelihood of success. Many team members will come to the session with ideas to share, so let’s get them all out on the table. When the team starts running out of ideas to share, facilitators will suggest topics and ask questions to encourage more ideas from the group.

Prioritization

Now that all of the ideas have been shared, the team needs to prioritize the ones that will make the most positive impact on cost, without negatively impacting the customer. There are many ways to do this, but we have used these in most sessions: Group rotation and review of all ideas, grouping of similar ideas, multi-voting with criteria, and a 9-block Impact/Difficulty matrix. The goal is to take literally hundreds of potential cost reduction opportunities and narrow them down to 20 to 30 of the best ones for the team to work on.

Concept Shaping

The team is divided into small groups of 3 or 4 people and asked to build more detail on the top priority cost reduction ideas. A focused, one-page concept sheet template is given to all team members, and they are required to answer all of the questions to the best of their ability. There isn’t a lot of time available, so team members are told that they should take one hour per concept. If they need additional information, they may phone a friend, or make their best educated guess. In all cases, they are encouraged to list their assumptions, so that others will understand their thought process. All concepts are audited for completeness and listing of assumptions, with the view that others who may not have been in the room may be assigned the project later on and must understand the initial thinking behind the cost reduction idea.

Managing System Development

Some teams work on the way that they will manage the cost reduction efforts after the session is over. This can include project communication, resource assignment, project visualization and management, and regular meetings to review status. Other teams just hand off their efforts to the session leader to take the work forward. In all cases, the results of the session should be communicated back to the sponsor and other stakeholders.

Reducing costs in your operation doesn’t have to be difficult or painful. When using people’s creativity and engagement and focusing on ideas that will benefit the customer, opportunities become apparent and a path to realize those opportunities can be identified. Then, everybody wins.

Who is Your Customer?

We are all customers. We want what we want, when we want it, at the level of quality we expect, in the proper quantity. We are the final say as to whether a business will thrive, survive, flounder, or die. The business must deliver to our expectations, or we will not continue to purchase products or services that they offer. 

It’s surprising how many businesses wrongly believe shareholders are their customer, rather than those who actually derive benefit from what they offer.

A key principle of Lean is that everything should be optimized to the benefit of the customer, and anything that doesn’t deliver value is considered waste and should be eliminated. 

It is therefore critical that you understand who your customer is, what is most important to them, and what they perceive as value.  

Identify Your Customer

Questions to consider to identify your customer(s):

1. Do they pay for your product or service?

2. Do they provide feedback about your product or service, and how it affects them directly?

3. Do your actions directly influence their behaviors?

4. Do they depend on you for the product or service that you deliver?

Sometimes, we need to look internally to identify our customer(s). For example, in a manufacturing plant, one department receives a product from another department. The receiving department is the customer of the delivering department, and requires the product to be the proper quantity, quality, and to arrive on schedule. Anything that deviates from this is waste and should be eliminated.

Likewise, the workers in the same manufacturing plant are the customers of the Leadership Team, who makes decisions on their behalf. Their families are also customers as strong business decisions keep paychecks rolling in.

What is Most Important to Your Customer

Once you have identified your customer(s), you then need to understand what they truly want from you or another provider. To find out, you can analyze market trends, speak to your Sales and Marketing departments, host focus groups, and/or go directly to your customers and find out. Oftentimes, customers may not be able to directly identify everything that they want, but with the proper questions, you should be able to get the heart of their issues. Consider these questions:

1. What do you like about the product or service that we provide?

2. What don’t you like about the product or service that we provide?

3. What issue or need are you trying to solve with the product or service that we provide?

4. What are we not providing that you wish we would provide?

5. What changes would you make to our product or service that would make things better for you?

6. What do you wish you could say to our CEO about the product or service that we provide?

It’s surprising how effective face to face communication can be with customers. It’s also surprising how few of us use this method to extract critical information from them. Most people appreciate the opportunity to have these conversations. Now let’s talk about value.

A Question of Value

If you have identified your customer and reviewed what’s most important to them, you should be close to answer how they define value. Value isn’t necessarily a monetary thing, but can be thought of as something that enhances the customer experience. Some examples include:

1. Reduces time and/or effort

2. Simplifies a task

3. Enhances quality of life

4. Makes them happy

5. Keeps them safe and secure

6. And the list goes on

Once you have identified your customer, what is most important to them, and how they define value, you are ready to attack and eliminate waste in your business. To understand more about waste, read the blog entitled, “The Eight Deadly Wastes.”

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.

The 8 Deadly Wastes

The customer defines value for any product or service.  If they aren’t willing to pay for something, it has no value to them. In the terminology of Lean, anything that doesn’t directly provide value to the customer is called “waste”. Further, there are eight specific types of waste. Once you know what they are, you can begin to spot them, and then work diligently to reduce or eliminate them. If you do, the customer experience will be improved and so will your operating results.

These are the eight deadly wastes:

Transportation
The movement of anything from place to place is considered waste, because it adds no value to the product or service being provided. It only adds time, and the potential for loss or damage. It may seem necessary to move things around in a process – putting things in trucks, putting things away on shelves, sending electronic data from one server to the next, but there is no change to the form or function of the thing being produced. The question to ask is, “how can we reduce or eliminate transportation in the process?”

Inventory
Ideally, the only product you should produce is the product that your customer wants; no more, no less.  More production creates inventory. Less production creates a shortage. The risk of having too much inventory is that it may spoil, become obsolete, or never leave the shelf. Think about computer chips. Once the new version of computer chip comes out, who is buying the older version? Typically, nobody, or if they do, they are receiving a sizable discount.  Another problem with inventory is that the thing you need may get lost behind the thing you don’t need. So, you end up producing more inventory that can hide the next thing, and the cycle continues.

Motion
This waste addresses the effort required to complete a task. If you must reach over your head, or grab something from the ground, you are using extra motion. If you must go away from your area to track something down and retrieve something, you are using extra motion. Ergonomics, which is the study of people’s efficiency in their work environment, is a method to identify and reduce excess motion.

Waiting
Time lost while waiting for an answer, a return email, an earlier process step, booting up your computer, or general waiting around is considered waste. It can be frustrating, time consuming and adds to the overall time in the process, which delays delivery to the customer. The key is to find the things that force you to wait and strive to eliminate them. Empowering people to make decisions is a quick way to drive waiting time down.

Overproduction
Have you ever noticed people who print out every email that they receive? This is an example of overproduction. How about a production line that is running really well and the managers want to keep things running? While the current product gets produced, the next product waits. There is a risk there will be a shortage of the raw materials to make the next product, or that there will be a delay in shipping the next product to the customer.

Overprocessing
This waste refers to the complexity in the process. If there are more steps than needed, or if the product or service is delivering beyond the requirements of the customer, this can be thought of as overprocessing. In the 1930’s, there was a cartoonist named Rube Goldberg, who devised the most complex ways of completing simple tasks. It was entertaining and creative, but not the ideal way of accomplishing work.

Defects
When the product or service doesn’t deliver to the required level of quality, this is considered a defect. When something has to be reworked, this is considered a defect. Many companies try to instill a culture of “Doing it right the first time.” They want to ensure that each process step will continue adding value to the benefit of the customer.

Unused Employee Creativity
The people who do the work generally have ideas to make their work simpler and safer. The best companies listen to their employees to get improvement ideas. Other companies think they know all of the answers and ignore suggestions by their employees. We don’t want people to shut their minds off when they come through the door, or we will be responsible for the worst waste of all.

In order to reduce or eliminate waste, you must be able to identify it. These eight wastes are easy to find in any process, if you are willing to look. If you make it a habit to reduce or eliminate these wastes, your customers will benefit. If your customers benefit, so will you.

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.

Value Stream Mapping: The First Step on Your Continuous Improvement Journey

You can’t reach your destination if you don’t know how to get there. Maps, or in our technology-driven world, GPS systems, are critical resources for guiding you from point A to B. The same is true for your continuous improvement journey. Unlike your GPS, however, you must build your map through learning. The best way to build it is with Value Stream Mapping.

Value Stream Mapping views everything from the eyes of the customer. Anything that the customer would not pay for is considered Non-Value Added and is waste. The key to Value Stream Mapping is to see the waste in the current process and then develop strategies to remove as much waste as possible, delivering maximum value for the customer.

There are the 8 key components of Value Stream Mapping:

Identify the Value Stream to Map
What is the family of products or services that the customer is willing to pay for? Often, companies will pick a product or service that represents a significant portion of their overall demand or represents most of the process steps. It is better to pick a simpler process the first time Value Stream Mapping is attempted, increasing the complexity of processes to map as experience grows.

Build the Team
The members of the team are critical, as they will learn together and become supporters of the work going forward. The team should be diverse, comprised of people in the process, people who manage the process, customers of the process, and suppliers to the process. It can be beneficial to add a few team members who have no relationship with the process, as they provide “outsider” thinking and can challenge the team during the session.

Voice of the Customer
What is most important to the customer, from their point of view? Often, companies will engage Sales and/or Marketing to represent the customer, based on interactions they have had while dealing directly with customers. It is more powerful to invite direct customers to these sessions, but it can also be risky, as they will see some of the waste or inefficiencies in the current process. Most customers appreciate the opportunity to participate in these sessions, and the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Walk the Current State Value Stream
This is typically the most “eye-opening” part of Value Stream Mapping. The team should leave the meeting room and physically walk the process from the last step to the first. If they are mapping a physical product transformation, the team starts at the shipping dock, and then works their way back to the receiving dock. Start with the customer and what they are expecting to be delivered, then work your way back to the beginning of the process. All the while, the team is looking for waste and inefficiencies. They should be taking notes, pictures, and engaging with each other and others working in the process to fully understand what is going on and why things are working or not working as expected. If the process is virtual, the team should be demonstrating the steps of the process as they occur. Do not discuss the process in a meeting room. Go see what’s actually happening. 

Gather data for the Current State Value Stream
How long does each process take? How many resources are needed for each step? How much inventory or waiting occurs at each step? How is information communicated to each step? How long does it take to change from one product or service to the next? How much space is required by each step? There is so much data that can be gathered, that you have to be careful not to do too much and miss the simplest and most impactful opportunities in the Current State.

Map the Current State Value Stream
Once the team returns to the meeting room, they map out all steps and interactions between steps of the process. This is a team activity, so don’t let just one person do all of the work. Each team member can take a pack of sticky notes and write down steps, placing them in order on a wall or something similar. Next, the team should measure the total time it takes for the product or service to get through the Value Stream, measuring the value-added time, non-value-added time, and lead time. Don’t use a computer, this is a visual activity, and most “A-ha” moments occur while placing steps on a wall and seeing how inefficient the current process is. Don’t be surprised if less than 10% of the time is value-added. In many manufacturing plants, that number drops below 1%. One key point is to map the process as it is, not how you want it to be.

Build the Future State Map
The team develops a vision of what they want the process to be in the future, for the benefit of the customer. By seeing the waste and inefficiencies in the Current State Map, the team imagines what the process would look like if they minimized or eliminated non-value-added steps, inefficiencies, defects, safety issues, and other waste in the current process. After the map is created, the team recalculates the value-added time, non-value-added time, and lead time in the future state. It is not unusual to drop the overall lead time to the customer by 50% or more. It’s also not unusual to identify quick, simple activities to accomplish this lead time reduction.

Create a Plan to Achieve the Future State
The team builds a roadmap of activities and strategies to make the changes required to drive to the Future State. These activities are typically low-cost and quick to implement, but some activities require an entirely new way of leading and managing the process. The team develops the action plan, with owners, due dates, and the managing systems to ensure that the work gets done.

A typical Value Stream mapping session takes between 3 and 4 days. When it’s over, everyone knows their new destination and how they intend to get there. Now, leadership has identified what is necessary to take the journey. Just like any journey, you must take the first step. Value Stream mapping is that first step.