Tweddle Continuous Improvement

Lean Tip #241 - Leaders must teach by example to transform a culture. To get people across an organization to systematically work on improvement every day requires teaching the skills behind the solution. And for that to happen, their leaders and mangers also need to practice and learn those skills.

Lean Tip #251 - Effective problem solving requires good understanding of the problem and the current situation. The first step in problem solving is to be certain you have a good understanding of the current situation. To ensure your solutions get to the root cause, you must understand the process where the problem initially occurred. When starting to diagnose a problem, don't rely on verbal reports to provide the details. Go to the work area, observe the situation, solicit help from the people in the area, and collect hard evidence for yourself. Gathering the facts first hand will help you gain a better understanding of the problem which, in turn, will allow you to better focus your solutions.

One team described to me how the use of a checklist had reduced defects by 50%.  When I asked why it was important they showed me how many patients were still alive as a result.  The manager had taken the time to bring everyone into the plan.  Powerful!

"Determination of root causes should provide a clear and obvious understanding of the necessary solutions." - Jeffrey Liker and David Meier, The Toyota Way Field book

Factory workers manipulate and process titanium alloys or scratch-resistant iPhone glass faces. Knowledge workers manipulate and process information. Regardless of what kind of worker you are, you need 5S to provide you with quick access to what you're working on, and to allow you to spot abnormalities.

So, when the signal-to-noise-ratio approaches zero - when there's just a little bit of information coming through the static, as at the consumer products company described above - you know it's time for information 5S. It's time to identify what information is necessary to serve the customer, make decisions, and manage the business, and eliminate the rest. Anything else may be interesting, but is ultimately irrelevant - and even worse, it sucks valuable resources into the giant maw of waste

I will begin using this today. We'll see how it works.

There are three elements which are critical to any process improvement initiative, irrespective of the overall approach.

Might be useful for us.

Might be a good video to watch for those in a non-manufacturing environment.

Deploy a daily accountability process. Effective lean management systems include the use of tiered meetings to review team performance versus targets, plan for the next 24 hours, and identify issues, barriers and countermeasures. It drives shared understanding of process performance, foments dialogue, and "pulls" suggestions.

The last reason this works at Toyota is because of the roles and skills of the people. Front-line workers know the true meaning and value of each standard procedure - not only in theory. They have the skills and knowledge to solve problems and an end-to-end process perspective. The supervisors are pivotal in developing these competencies. They check and confirm that the standard procedures have been put in place and that workers are following them exactly. Supervisors can improve processes through coaching, questioning (not ordering), and making front-line workers think and take responsibility. Managers (supervisors, managers, directors, and above) motivate workers by meeting with them to communicate the corporate vision.

Couldn't resist posting a cartoon on Kaizen. In what ways do we exhibit this behavior?

Good video on Kaizen

Nice article on how to use the Fish Bone diagram.

What will not change in successful companies, though, are three things

I see our efforts to speed up our "kitting" process on the Turret is moving us in this direction. We've got to PDCA our way toward this. I'm anxious to take the next steps with the team on this. Very exciting.

Cable organizing ideas for the 5S team

To be clear about this, you first need to be clear about the strategic direction or vision for the organization.