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There is a reason why Heijunka is a block in the foundation of the Toyota House, or the Lean House as some call it. The short answer is stability in an operation. The rest of this article will explain Heijunka, then discuss what can go wrong without it. I’ll also share 4 Videos that further explain how to apply Heijunka and share several Heijunka Boards as example.

What is Heijunka?

The Toyota House, or the TPS House, is a great metaphor for the Toyota Production System. The TPS House is based on the idea that “A House Divided Cannot Stand”, Citing the great Abraham Lincoln, who is quoting from the Bible. This means that every part of the house has a role and has a specific purpose.

The foundation of the house is critical. A block in that foundation is Heijunka.

Heijunka is a Japanese term to describe “production leveling”. The distinction between “leveling demand” and “production leveling” is important because we cannot control demand. What we can control is the rate of workload – information, material, raw good, finished goods in fulfillment, or actual production – enters the operation.

Here’s an example:

Not Heijunka

Suppose you run an operation where you make small widgets (11 A), medium widgets (9 B), and large widgets (7 C). You follow a production schedule that looks like this:

Notice that the forecast requirements are met with 11 A widgets, 9 B Widgets, and 7 C widgets.

This is classic batch production. In this example, the company forecasts that their orders will mostly be A, then B, and then C will probably have the least number of orders, which is why there are much fewer C production hours.

The problem with this approach is the following:

• Suppose there’s a big spike in C widgets on Tuesday. This means the customer has to wait until Friday for the order to be fulfilled.
• Suppose the firm decides that the customer shouldn’t have to wait, then the production schedule is changed and an expedited order is created. This creates an overburden on the employee, overtime pay, and instability in the system.
• Suppose the expected demand for C falls, then we end up with more C widgets than the customer needed – overproduction.
• Suppose we find a defect in production for A widgets on hour 5. This means we’ve produced 4 hours of defective products.

Yes, Heijunka

In this example, the forecast requirements are again satisfied.

Notice how the production schedule of A, B, C is dispersed throughout the week. This approach creates a stable and predictable production schedule, less burden on the employee, fewer instances of overproduction, and the ability to fulfill demand during times of uncertain customer demand.

Why Heijunka is a Foundational Block in Lean

We’ve seen from the non-heijunka example above that there are several wastes that come from a non-level production environment. If what I say is true, then much of continuous improvement will be limited if there is no level production. In fact, in that environment most of the mental and physical energy is trying to figure out what is going on. Heijunka is a critical foundation of any application of Lean.

The Challenge of Heijunka

One challenge of Heijunka is in its application. Depending on the industry and business you are in, the application will generally need to adjust. But the principle remains the same – to level production, create stability and predictability.

But to implement Heijunka, we need to first learn a little bit about the Pacemaker Process.

Why Heijunka is a Block in the Foundation of the Toyota House is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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When organizations first begin their Lean Journey, it’s often done through “events” either as small point Kaizen events or Kaizen events spanning several days. I’m a believer that Lean can begin from many different places, but this approach fundamentally doesn’t lead to the daily cultural changes we wish to see in organizations  in which we work.

Let me illustrate.

Suppose a department sets a goal to have 1 Kaizen event per month. That goal is honorable and is a good start. In actual practice and in all reality, what does that look like though?

What we end up with is a culture that relies on “events”, but following the event, it goes back to business as usual until the next event.

What Are We Really Teaching?

In this “event-driven” lean deployment approach, what we are really teaching is actually Business As Usual. Why? Because most days of the month are actually spent in Business as Usual than in the actual practice of lean.

This might be a fine place to start, but is not ultimately what will sustain long-term lean and respect for people behaviors.

So, what’s the countermeasure?

Well, there are three options:

1. Have more events throughout the month.
2. Same number of events, but do a better job in sustaining the behavioral changes post-event.
3. Or, get away from the notion of “event” and instead focus on daily practice of PDCA – which can even be described as many, many daily micro-events.

For the long-term success of lean at any organization, option 3 is the target place to be. The diagram above is a good way to judge how you’re organization is doing in its lean journey.

Manage For Daily Improvement

Option 3 above can be done in several ways. One way that I’ve applied it in supply chain, fulfillment, healthcare, software, and call centers is to have a daily practice that applies the concepts of Visual Management, managing to metrics, and applies PDCA in its daily work.

Lean Manager Series: Business as Usual is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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What might seem like an obscure topic is actually one in which we are all affected: The Science of Lines.

Reflect for a minute: We wait at the retail checkout line – in all stores in which we buy stuff. In retail, the congestion is worse at the end of year holidays. A line at an amusement park is likely busy during the Summer months. So on and so forth.

So, how does a customer experience waiting and what is the effect of waiting on commerce and buying?

Clock Watching

In general, once a wait last longer than 3 minutes, the perceived wait time multiplies with each passing minute. Shoppers who actually waited five minutes reported having waited twice as long. This is the Psychology of Queueing.

Impulse Buying

If customers have to wait, why not make it a revenue opportunity. That’s exactly what most of us experience at the retail checkout line. Need a chap stick? What about that stuffed animal you never would have thought of buying, but are now thinking about it while you have to wait in line. Oh, wait, what about those batteries you don’t need for anything – yeah, just buy some just in case.

That’s what retailers are capitalizing on: if you have to wait, then make the wait feel less so and make it a revenue opportunity.

Line Jockeying

If a line is short, it’s probably because of a customer or other circumstances that is making the ability to serve take longer. For example, today I was at Sam’s Club where I was in position #4 from the checkout. The customer at the checkout counter was arguing about something, making the line longer. So what happened? Customers on my line left to other lines that were perceived to move faster – not necessarily shorter lines, but lines that were perceived to have higher velocity.

Balking

Balking is technically the state wherin a person who would otherwise have entered a line, decides not to enter it. This is typically a customer who is about to enter a line and surveys the available lines. They consider the wait time, look down at what they’re buying, does a cost or benefit analysis on waiting versus the benefit of buying your items. Sometimes, the customer will put down their items and just leave the store, concluding that waiting isn’t worth it.

Reneging

The technical definition of Reneging in the context of Waiting Lines is when a person enters a line, then leaves it before being served. This is similar to Balking, but where the customer has chosen a line, but then leaves it after they do the cost and benefit analysis in their mind on whether the wait is worth it.

Below is a nice infographic on the Science of Waiting Lines ¹

Queueing Systems and the Shopping Experience is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Pete’s Note: Today we have a guest post from Robert Lockard, who has written for shmula in the past on topics related to Inventory Management. Today is his third installment where he focuses his article on what one can expect from applying the principles of lean manufacturing to inventory management. Enjoy.

In my last two posts I answered the why’s, what’s, where’s and who’s of inventory management. Instead of doing another question-themed post, this time I’m going to talk about the positive results your business can receive by using lean inventory management.

1. Less Waste

The food industry makes for an easy analogy. Restaurants work with products that have a short shelf life. If you order too many tomatoes, for example, then the extra tomatoes will go bad before you can use them and the money you spent on them will be wasted. Lean inventory management, by definition, means you have very little room for error. You can’t afford to hold onto products that don’t sell well or that you simply don’t need.

2. Higher Inventory Turnover Rate

This is the game of how quickly and accurately your supply can meet demand. Returning to the restaurant analogy, demand is what the customer wants and the supply is how quickly the kitchen can deliver their food. The waiter takes the order, gives it to the chef, and the meal is prepared. The waiter is busy taking orders and the chef is busy cooking, so who makes sure there’s always enough raw ingredients to prepare the meals? Because it’s hard for those in the trenches to see the inflow and outflow needs, the best way to keep a high inventory turnover rate is to have a lean inventory management system in place.

Customers aren’t going to wait for you to have the right ingredients; they expect you to always have them. Your inventory management system needs to track past trends and monitor current inventory levels. The warehouse manager needs to see all inventory levels at a glance and make decisions accordingly. Your inventory management tool shows the “pulse” of your inventory.

3. Lower Costs

Ever heard the advice “don’t shop for groceries on an empty stomach”? In the manufacturing world this translates to “don’t order what you don’t need.” Stockpiling surplus goods is lazy inventory management and wastes the company’s money. A lean inventory management approach keeps reorders accurate and lowers costs by preventing inventory overstocks.

4. Faster Operations

When you dedicate yourself to making your business lean, you’ll have to turn your inventory management system into a well-oiled machine. This means just-in-time (JIT) deliveries, accurate re-orders, and precise inflow and outflow. Inventory software can do wonders for speed and accuracy. The faster the warehouse manager gets accurate data, the faster he can make smart warehouse decisions.

5. More Flexibility

How fast can your warehouse adapt to a sudden spike in product demand? A “fat” warehouse can’t move as swiftly as a lean one. Your warehouse needs to be flexible and adapt to changing conditions. If warehouse A needs more of a product that warehouse B has, then the warehouse manager needs to know that warehouse B can fill the need and transport the inventory in a timely manner. Your warehouse needs to be a lean and mean “supply and demand” machine.

About Robert Lockard

Robert Lockard works at Fishbowl, the maker of the No. 1 requested inventory management solution for QuickBooks users.

Robert Lockard is a copywriter at Fishbowl, the maker of the No. 1 requested inventory management solution for QuickBooks users.

Robert is a prolific writer, having written more than 600 blog posts, hundreds of Web pages and dozens of news articles. He studied public relations at Brigham Young University and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 2006.

He has written on a variety of subjects, such as real estate, online marketing, QuickBooks inventory management and film reviews. Robert lives in Orem, Utah with his wife and two children. He loves running, biking, reading and watching movies with his family.

Lean Inventory Management: 5 Results You Can Expect is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Leave it to the Harvard Business Review ¹ to regurgitate an old debate on the relationship between continuous improvement and innovation. Here’s a great recipe for effective regurgitation that gets the media’s trousers all up in a wad:

1. Have a reasonable title that draws in the reader.
2. Then, zap them with a first paragraph oozing with a doomsday tone to get them scared, angry, or outright interested to read the rest of the article.
3. Go down the march of history and explain the debate, various points of views, but don’t dare be conclusive. Keep it open ended.
4. Then, close the article with questions, keeping the reader interested enough to comment on the article, write an article as a response, tweet the article to their followers, or just give the reader something to think about – as if the reader has nothing else better to occupy their minds and thoughts with.

Using this approach, Ron Ashkenas does a heck of a job. Except for one thing:

He’s Wrong.

What Tangled Webs We Weave

When one brings up an old debate, rehashes old stories of companies that failed, fell, or are otherwise now forgotten because they implemented some form of misguided Lean, Six Sigma, or, in general, Continuous Improvement, be sure to also highlight how those companies implemented continuous improvement.

The HOW matters.

For example, if a very dogmatic approach and a broadstroke was made to implement a very rigid version of Lean and to do it everywhere – then the fruits of such approach clearly will lead to a bad end.

But that’s not the fault of Lean of Continuous Improvement.

Lean Doesn’t Kill Innovation, People Kill Innovation

Using an old Gun Rights mantra of “guns don’t kill people; people kill people”, we can apply the same logic to the debate:

Lean doesn’t kill innovation – people kill innovation.

What do I mean?

Lean, as properly understood and applied with wisdom, is actually very flexible and very practical. There’s actually little or no dogma at all. Indeed, it’s all about “practice over theory”. But, when dogma enters the scene, that’s when bad things happen to good companies.

So, how can one wisely implement Lean Thinking, meet the goals of Lean, and yet support Innovation?

Be Wise.

Yes.

I even described this dogmatic approach in the continuous improvement world as Sith-like.

Okay, it’s not that easy, but seriously, be wise; focus on practical aspects, be pragmatic, and use your common sense.

Here’s a few examples of where this has been done to support innovation and to also do so in the spirit of Lean Thinking:

1. Ideo: Yup, Ideo is the Innovation 300 Pound Gorilla. And, when you look at their Innovation Process – it uses many, many tools and approaches straight from Toyota.
2. Clayton Christensen: Yes, the Innovation Guru and Juggernaut and pre-eminent author on Innovation. He quotes me in his new book “The Innovator’s DNA”, wherein he describes the 5-whys approach as central to innovation.

So, let’s put an end to this debate. Instead, let’s shine a light on all the Lean and Six Sigma dogmatist and their unwise approaches. Anything done to the extreme is really contrary to the spirit of lean. That’s what we need to address.

Lean and Innovation: Regurgitated Variations of an Old Debate is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Here’s an interesting video that shows Lego characters – lego minifigures explaining several principles in Lean Manufacturing. It’s amusing, but it might be also be instructive. It’s certainly innovative and novel.

The video explains the following lean principles:

1. Total Productivity Maintenance
2. 7 Wastes
3. 5S
4. Just in Time

And explains Quality, Productivity, and Visual Management.

It’s amusing to be sure. I’m not sure if it’s instructive, but give it a chance I suppose.

Oh, and if you are a Lego enthusiast, check out this Lego Factory Tour.

Lean Principles Explained By Lego Movie is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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As part of an exercise competition at my work, each of us was given a Fitbit. Until I received one, I had never heard of it. And, after using it for about 1.5 weeks, I’m loving it.

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure

Most continuous improvement professionals have a mantra: You Can’t Manage or Improve What You Don’t Measure. Little did I know that that statement would be so true in my own personal life.

Buy Fitbit HereLike most readers and Lean Thinkers of this blog, I’m pretty interested in data. Data helps me to make decisions and learn how a process is performing. I’m ashamed to say that I had never thought of biological processes such as exercise and sleep as formal processes. But, they are. Fitbit helped me to realize that by literally turning my body into a data stream. Now, what I do everyday such as walking and sleeping is tracked.

Now, I can see how I’m performing the processes of exercise and sleeping.

What is Fitbit?

Fitbit is a really smart pedometer. Fitbit tracks steps, your sleep pattern, stairs climbed, calories burned and it uploads all that data wirelessly to your Fitbit account. I’m telling you, it’s pretty amazing.

Fitbit Setup

The Fitbit was very easy to setup. Here’s what I did.

1. Open the box
2. Connect Fitbit USB to my computer
3. Then I followed the prompts from there
4. Done

Below are the images that show how I went through the Fitbit setup process.

1. Fitbit Setup Instructions

2. Fitbit Pairing Number

3. Fitbit Installer

4. Fitbit Setup Done

5. Enter Personal Information

At this point, the Fitbit installer opens up a web browser and you create your account already paired with your Fitbit and you enter some information.

6. Fitbit Greeting

Then you give your Fitbit a greeting – mine of course is Shmula.

Now, Just Use your Fitbit

7. Fitfbit Pedometer

8. Fitbit Sleep Tracking

This is one Fitbit feature that really amazed me. Up until the Fitbit, I had no idea how I was sleeping at night. And, we know that if you no measure something, you can’t manage it. Well, sleep is a process that I was not managing because I had no idea how my sleep cycle was performing.

It turns out that I don’t sleep very well. In sum, I fall asleep fast, but I wake up several times at night and my sleep is constantly interrupted. Now because I know this, I’m doing some things differently to see if I sleep better.

So, over time, Fitbit also tracks my Sleep Efficiency – a metric that I didn’t know of but now I can track to see if the changes I’m personally making can positively impact my Sleep Efficiency.

9. Fitbit Sleep Efficiency

I highly recommend Fitbit. Go get one now.

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure: Fitbit Review is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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One uncommon approach in Lean is the framework of ECRS – Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, and Simplify. This article explains how to apply the framework followed by a downloadable Work Analysis Template.

Fundamental to understanding any process and eventually generating practical ideas for improvement is to ask the 5W’s and 1H. So, here’s the definition of the 5W and 1H.

What are the 5W?

Put simply, the 5W’s are:

• Why?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Who?

For example:

• Who is responsible for this process?
• What is the purpose of this process?
• Why do you do that?
• When does x happen?

What is the 1H?

Of course, it is:

• How?

Such as “How is that done?”

These questions, while seemingly simple, are critical to better understanding the process and also the potential opportunities for improvement.

What is ECRS?

In generating practical ideas for improvement, a common and practical framework I’ve used in the past is called ECRS, which stands for the following:

• Eliminate
• Combine
• Rearrange
• Simplify

Eliminate

In this step, it’s important to identify the steps that can be quickly eliminated. Where possible, eliminate the details of work.

Combine

When work cannot be eliminated, then seek to combine them. In this step, the Combine phase addresses the Who, Where, and When.

Rearrange

Work can also be rearranged.

Simplify

And, a good rule of thumb regardless of the situation is to simplify anyway. Of course, we want to Eliminate first but, if not, then Combine, Rearrange, and Simplify will be helpful.

The template below shows the following:

1. Work Element
2. Safety, Distance, Dimension, Quality, Ease
3. Why, What, Where, When, Who, How
4. Improvement Ideas
5. Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, and Simplify

Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange, Simplify: Work Analysis Sheet Template Download is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Most Lean Leaders manage through influence and not authority. This is especially true when just starting out. This can be challenging and learning how to effectively and sincerely influence an organization to learn to adopt the Lean worldview and also its practices requires that we demonstrate empathy in a genuine and sincere way.

In a recent article on FastCompany, empathy is described as “the most powerful leadership tool” ¹. I’d have to completely agree.

The article describes what each lean practitioner knows all too well:

• People don’t have to follow us.
• People don’t have to listen to us.
• People don’t have to believe in our ideas.

This is true because most Lean practitioners often start out with no authority, but only through influence. This means that literally nothing can be exerted onto people. But this also means that we have to exercise true leadership by bringing people together, to believe in a vision, to march toward the same direction – that is the essence of leadership.

And, empathy is a key ingredient in the process of influence.

Become The Other

To increase our influence, the author of The Zen Leader suggest that we need to “become the other.” What the author means is this:

To become the other person is to listen so deeply that our own mind chatter stops; to listen with every pore on our body until we can sense how the other’s mind works. To become the other person is to feel into her emotional state, see through her eyes, think like she thinks, and see how she views us, our proposition, and the situation at hand.

This is also a practical approach because once we understand the other person’s perspective,

influence becomes a matter of showing how our idea connects with those interests.

And the upshot of this approach can be incredibly powerful:

Extending this empathetic approach, person by person, group by group, through your world, you can see where your actions start to be informed by an ever larger context. Consequently, your ideas, actions, and direction will start to resonate within that larger context. You can start making big things happen, not by controlling, but by connecting; not by making war on them, but by becoming the people whose interests are served by those big things.

For Lean leaders, Genchi Genbutsu is an application of demonstrating empathy.

Practical Advice

As practical steps to take to become a more empathetic leader, the author suggest taking the following steps:

1. Deeply understand your own needs and interests: Go beneath the surface to unearth what you really want and why.
2. Become the other. See through their eyes, think with their mind; sense its patterns. Consider what is truly in their interests.
3. Go from there. Show how your idea is in their interests, either directly or through an exchange you offer.

Not only is this advice good for leaders in general, but it’s especially important for lean leadership and lean managers.

Below is a framework ² for empathy and how empathy can support Respect for People as well as be very strategic in your lean journey.

Lean Manager Series: Demonstrate Empathy is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Pete’s Note: We’re pleased to have Gary Netherton provide a guest post for us today. In this post, he shares a dialogue between operators around how to balance a line, which inevitably leads to an educational lesson on the Theory of Constraints, and methods for line balancing such as reducing cycle time, doubling, and moving work elements.

Enjoy his post and learn more about Gary after the article.

Ever have processes that need fixed but the team seems to have their own ideas about which processes need fixed first?  As a result, you end up “fixing” problems that seem to create problems elsewhere.  It seems that you end up right where you started.

“How did you manage to do that?”

It is actually pretty simple.  You don’t choose your best target for improvement.  Or, as Eliyahu Goldratt would say, you don’t identify and attack your constraint.

“How do you do that?”

Well, that is actually pretty simple, too . . .  if you take the time to do it correctly.  This often means more than walking the floor and looking for a buildup of inventory between operations (though that is a very good start).  One of the best ways to start is by mapping the process.  Some might suggest a value stream map while others may say a process flow diagram will suffice.  Either is a good option, but I recommend choosing the one that works for you.

After you have a picture of what your process looks like, pull out the old stopwatch.  Take about 10 cycle time measurements for each operation that you’ve identified on your flow diagram.  When you are done, average them out and create a Pareto diagram of the operations.

The first, tallest bar on your diagram is your constraint.

Complete a detailed review of that operation.  Look for opportunities to speed it up or pass off some of its activities to another operation (that’s called “line balancing” . . . an important part of eliminating constraints).  The idea is to either speed up that operation (if possible) or to “share” part of that operations activities with other operations.  In the end, the goal is for all of the operations to take about the same amount of time (except the last one . . . it should be your fastest).

But what if I can’t speed it up OR share with other operations?

Well, there is one more option, but this is a last resort.  In the event that an all-encompassing operation cannot be split up or sped up – like, for example, some kind of functional test – you might need to consider doubling that operation.

Doubling?

Yes, doubling the operation is the equivalent of putting a fork in the river.  Operation “C” can either feed station “D-1” or “D-2”, whichever is free.  By having two “D” stations, you essentially reduce the overall cycle time of that operation.  Then either of the “D” stations can feed the next operation.  Granted, this operation may be a bit capital-intensive, but it can pay for itself in increased productivity if done correctly.

Using the Theory of Constraints – the equivalent of a chain is as strong as its weakest link – the team can attack items in a sensible order.  And once that is complete, the cycle can start all over again (like PDCA).  Restudy, re-graph, and research the weakest link (slowest operation).  Attack that constraint and watch as the team starts to see improvements.

Gary Netherton is a multi-certified quality professional with project management experience in leading quality and manufacturing efforts from product and product launch to problem-solving using Six Sigma, PDCA, and other quality tools. His expertise is advanced product quality planning as well as data collection and analysis. He currently reside and work near the Seattle area of Washington.

The Weakest Link is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Floyd Mayweather is fighting Miguel Cotto on May 5, 2012. As public relations for that upcoming fight, there’s been a series of features on each fighter – on Mayweather and Cotto – all over CNN while I watch the news.

One I recently watched on CNN was an interview held by Michael Eric Dyson with Floyd Mayweather on HBO 24/7. While Mayweather typically focuses on money, fame, and money again, but in a real moment of honesty, Floyd Mayweather reminds us of the little things.

“Me and my dad have never been bowling. Me and my dad have never been to dinner. We’ve never sat down and talked as father and son. Me and my dad’s relationship has always just been boxing. Nothing else. Just boxing. If it wasn’t about boxing, then it wasn’t about nothing. I try to be outside of the box and break the cycle.”

For a guy worth hundreds of millions of dollars, he’s longing for a childhood where he could have spent some meaningful time with his dad – dinner, movie, and bowling.

This is a good reminder to all of us in our daily hustle and bustle of work and other responsibilities: the little things are indeed the big things.

And, no, I’m not a Mayweather fan. I’m all for Manny Pacquiao. But it was refreshing to hear from Mayweather in a way that wasn’t so full of ego.

Floyd Mayweather Becomes a Little Child and Reminds Us of the Little Things is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Continuing our series on Lean Management, another aspect that goes along with the skill of Lean Manager’s Ask Effective Questions during a Gemba Walk is that effective Lean Managers listen to words, but they also listen to feelings.

This post is not meant to be “touchy feely” – there’s a very pragmatic and practical reason why we should listen to feelings: Words and Body language and Feelings gives us greater insight into the operation and the opportunities for Kaizen in that operation. And, this goes to the fact that a lot of process problems almost always have to do with leadership and people problems. And, thankfully, Lean as a strategic approach to operations is a very good approach to solving those types of problems.

So, as you talk with the associates and operators in your daily Gemba Walk, take notes in what they have to say, but also watch and be perceptive of how they feel. Then, validate them, sympathize with them, then help them and their leadership engage in Kaizen to help them improve their operation.

Below are a list of feeling ¹ words to watch out for.

Lean Manager Series: Listen to Feelings is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Here to slap down more knowledge, making sure we pick up what puts down, The Most Interesting Lean Guy in the World has graced us with his presence.

He is interesting because, through many years of study and experience, he has amassed a treasure-trove of knowledge on Lean Manufacturing. And, because he is the most interesting Lean Guy, he is ready to impart that knowledge weekly here on Shmula.

After having shared his thoughts on One Piece Flow, he decided that there’s more to teach us.

Today’s version is the Value Stream Map Edition.

Most Interesting Lean Guy in The World: Value Stream Edition is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Creating a culture of excellence requires systems that are inclusive of all employees. Indeed, Respect for People must make its way into formal and informal systems within an organization. One formal way demonstrate the Respect for People principle is to have a formal and effective Employee Suggestion Program.

One critical item in that suggestion program is the actual creation of the suggestion form – the venue by which the employee will submit her idea for continuous improvement. And, you can also download a FREE Suggestion Program Template here.

Creating a channel by which employees can submit their ideas for improvement is a cultural enabler of continuous improvement. Put plainly, it’s a formal system that the organization can use to solicit ideas and listen to the thoughts and concerns of employees.

Making this form is both a science and art form. We must design the form to accomplish the following:

1. The format of the submission card must encourage critical thinking and reflection – not just a complaint.
2. The format of the submission card must be self-selective; that is, the submitter must put in some work, resulting in fewer submissions, but the submissions will likely be of higher quality.
3. The format must be easy to understand and quick to complete.

Here’s one example of an Employee Suggestion Program Card:

This 3×5 Index Card has the following sections:

1. Name
2. Submission Date
3. Safety, Quality, Productivity, and Costs (SQDC)
4. Describe the Problem
5. 5 Whys and Root Cause Analysis
6. Countermeasure (your idea for a solution here)

Notice that all of this is on a 3×5 card – and, yes, it is effectively a Mini A3 Problem Solving Form.

Also notice how much work the submitter has to go through to be able to place a card in the box? The thinking involved in completing a card is the manifestation of Respect for People. Why? – now we are moving from a complaint box to a Employee Thinking System. Encouraging employees to think in this simple but systematic way drives involvement and excellence.

How to Create an Employee Suggestion Card

Here are the steps:

1. Buy Avery 3×5 Blank Index Cards
2. Download the Microsoft Word Employee Suggestion Program Index Card Template

And that’s it.

Next in this Employee Suggestion Program series, we’ll look at the metrics necessary to measure and hold accountable the program.

Employee Suggestion Program: How to Create the Idea Submission Form is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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As we move from isolated Lean “events” to Lean Management, producing Lean Managers becomes more and more critical. Part of managing a lean organization, however, requires that our lean managers know how to manage, coach, and teach. A critical part of teaching is knowing how to ask the effective questions.

Asking questions is a skill and, when done well, leads to effective leadership and good management of a business and people. But, the opposite is also true: when wrong questions are asked, then that leads to poor management and bad leadership.

Before going into examples of effective questions, below are ineffective ways to ask questions:

1. Positioning: “I know I’ve been working here for 2 months, but . . .”
2. Avoidance: Ignoring the obvious elephant in the room.
3. Posturing: “The VP listens to whatever I say. So, why . . .” – in other words, projecting an “I’m in charge” or “I’m better” image prior to asking the question.
4. Speaking in Jargon: In general, use clear and plain language. One litmus test I use is whether my Filipino Immigrant mother will understand what you are saying. If the answer is “No”, then let’s try to explain more clearly.
5. “No Question” Question: This is confusing. Making a statement, but using an intonation that makes it sound like a question. It’s another way of making a statement, but pretending it’s a question. For example, “When I managed this department, we always met our monthly metrics. It wasn’t even hard, right?”. If you notice, this is really a statement about how good this person managed the department, but it’s couched as a question.
6. Casual Question: All questions have context. So, there’s really no casual questions.

The above are common errors we fall into in asking questions. Knowing the above is good so that we are careful in how not to frame our questions.

So, how do we frame our questions? That’s a topic for our next article. Stay tuned.

Lean Manager Series: Asking the Wrong Questions Leads to Poor Management is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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I’ve been on a recent search recently for an iPhone App that conveniently calculates the cycle time of an operation. I found one that looked interesting and helpful enough. So, I decided to take it out on a test drive while sitting at local McDonald’s Franchise – in this case, I’m measuring a critical process step in a restaurant operation.  

To my surprise, the iPhone App did more than I expected. I was able to calculate Server Time at Point of Sale (Cycle Time from order beginning to paid), and the iPhone App then calculated an Individuals Moving Range (IMR) Control Chart as well as a Run Chart. Pretty cool. And, to have the ability to do on-the-spot time studies like this is invaluable for me – while at the Gemba, I can do a time study and have the data calculated and visualized for me immediately. Very helpful.

Here’s the Point of Sale distribution at the McDonald’s. Each unit is a paying customer and I calculated their time from the beginning of giving their order to the time when they received their receipt.

Here is the same data, but the iPhone App calculated the IMR Control Chart, showing Upper Control Limit (UCL) and Lower Control Limit (LCL). I’m not sure how useful this is for the operation I was measuring, but it’s pretty cool that the iPhone App conveniently does this.

And, here is the run-of-the-mill run chart for the time at the point of sale.

And, below is the table of the data and the cycles I was able to measure.

Technology is amazing. What I normally would have done with a stopwatch and then plotting that data in Minitab or Microsoft Excel I was able to do on my iPhone. What do you think? Do you think an iPhone App like this is practical and helpful?

McDonald’s Franchise Queueing Study is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Few of us think of eating as a process, but it is. And, just like any process, there are wastes that can be categorized into the 7 Wastes.  For example, one could even commit Overproduction – in other words, eat more than is needed. The customer in this case is your stomach. Religious folks call this Gluttony. But, we’ll steer away from anything religious.

The point is this: if you’re eating more than your body needs, you’re overproducing and getting more calories than you need. The result? You’ll probably gain weight. Interestingly, Facebook knows all about this and has come up with an interesting way to mistake-proof the eating process ¹.

Facebook is growing and is in need of expanding their Headquarters. And, they’ve needed to look at their approach for providing free food to their employees, a perk that Facebook employees really love. But, how do they avoid the behavior that almost always comes with anything “free” attached to it, especially “free food”?

What do you see in the picture below? Or, more accurate, what don’t you see? Notice there is no tray — Facebook thinks you’ll eat too much unless you only carry a plate. In other words, this is a way to Poka-Yoke the waste of overeating.

What do you think? Do you think something as simple as not providing a tray will prevent the behavior of getting more food than you need?

Poka-Yoke for Overeating is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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If you look hard enough and try to be aware, you’ll see interesting things everywhere. In fact, you might see the Pareto Principle in practice in more places than you realize.

Here’s one example:

Have you thought about the sugar content in what you drink? In all honesty, that’s the least on my mind. But, recently, I stopped drinking soda and I’m finding that I feel better, more alert, and I actually have more energy than I did when I drank soda – and I drank a lot of soda.

So, the image below, which shows the sugar content in drinks, came at a perfect time. And, if you watch carefully, you’ll see the Pareto Chart in action.

Do you see it?¹

HOW MUCH SUGAR ARE YOU CONSUMING? Dr. Tim Mathew, Kidney Health Australia’s Medical Director, said research in the US had shown that one soft drink or sweet juice each day AT ANY AGE was associated with an 80% increase in the risk of acquiring diabetes in females. It’s really all about choices.

Sugar Content in Foods: A Visual Pareto is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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When you have 9 children with an age range of 14 years for the oldest and 2 as the youngest, the more they can do things on their own (self-sufficient) the better it is for mom and dad and, ultimately, for them. One goal we have as parents is for our kids to learn to stand strong on their own, which means we need to teach them life-skills now, not later.

One of those life-skills is learning how to brush their own teeth.

But, it’s actually not that easy. Learning to brush teeth is easy on its own, but when toothbrushes look the same, another unintended problem we have is this:

Whose toothbrush is it?

So, to solve this seemingly simple problem, I came up with a solution that my wife approves and the kids seem to appreciate.

See below. What do you think? Is it an effective use of Visual Management? How would you improve it?

Bathroom Visual Management: Whose Toothbrush is it? is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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A CDC report released on last week reveals that the rate of Autism has increased 23% from 2006-2009, or 1 in 88 children has a diagnosis within the spectrum of Autism. Most are quick to point out that the increase could be due to an increased screening, not necessarily an increase in prevalence of Autism or related disorders. But, at closer inspection, there might be more to the story.

The chart below shows the rate of increase over the last several years ¹:

By most accounts, the rate of increase is staggering, which has led many to question what is truly going on? Is Autism really on the rise? Or, is there something else happening?

Below are the hypotheses presented so far:

• The prevalence of Autism has actually and in truth increased.
• The definition for what constitutes Autism is murky ²:

“To qualify for the diagnosis, it’s a little bit murky,” Carey said. “It’s a pretty wide spectrum, it goes from very severely disabled kids to kids who are unusual, awkward, have social difficulties.”

Carey said he’s skeptical the report demonstrates a real increase in the rate of autism spectrum disorders. He cites financial support from the government as one of several reasons why families might push for their child to receive an autism diagnosis.

“Any time a very rare condition goes to very common, especially in these young kids, I think you have to be wary about what’s going on,” Carey said.

• Because of broader awareness, there is now more testing and screening of Autism. In other words, the prevalence hasn’t increased, just our discovery of the disorder.
• The definition of what constitutes Autism, while murky, has also changed, leading to an increase (but it is artificial). In other words, the Check Sheet and the Operational Definition used has changed mid-way in the data collection.

The last point above is important. If the diagnostic criteria for Autism has changed, then that materially can lead to a possible increase in the rate of Autism. In other words, if the criteria which was once narrower but is now broader, then children under the former criteria might not be diagnosed as Autistic, but under the new definition might be diagnosed as Autistic:

There is no brain-imaging test for autism, let alone a blood test or other rigorously objective diagnostic. Instead, physicians determine whether someone fits the criteria laid out in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM.

The manual has undergone significant changes over the years, including in the diagnostic criteria for autism. In its current version, someone must fit at least eight of 16 criteria, including symptoms involving social interaction, communication, and repetitive or restricted behaviors and interests.

The previous version was stricter, describing one diagnostic criterion as “a pervasive lack of responsiveness to other people.” In the current manual, that became “a lack of spontaneous seeking to share …. achievements with other people” and friendships that appear less sophisticated than the norm for a child’s age.

The earlier manual also required “gross deficits in language development” and “peculiar speech patterns” for a diagnosis, while the current one lists difficulty “sustain(ing) a conversation” or “lack of varied . . . social imitative play.”

Morton Ann Gernsbacher, a professor of psychology and autism researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and others have cited these changes to question the reality of the reported autism increase.

All of this points to Operational Definitions and how important it is to set clear definitions. Indeed, we’ve seen this before – when the diagnostic criteria was changed for Diabetes Type 2, we saw a significant increase in the rate of Diabetes. But, it turns out, according to many Epidemiological studies, that the increase in rate for that time period was mainly due to the change in the diagnostic criteria ³.

Rate of Autism Diagnosis: A Case of Operational Definitions and Check Sheet Data Collection is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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The other day I took the kids to our local grocery store – Kroger’s. After spending 30 minutes trying to manage my kids through the shopping experience, we were finally ready to pay for 1 Gallon of Milk, Bananas, and some Ice Cream. Yes – when you have a large family as I do, doing the simplest things take a long, long time to accomplish.

While waiting at the checkout line, I looked up and noticed something interesting – a large flat screen television that said the following:

• Lanes Open: 4
• Action Now: 4
• Next 30 Minutes: 2

From the sounds of it, it looks like a point of sale waiting line management system. It piqued my interest. A picture of what I saw is below:

So I came home and did some research and learned a few interesting facts about the point of sale queueing system at Kroger’s. Apparently, Kroger’s developed this system and is conducting pilot tests across several mid-Atlantic stores.

Here are a few details about the queueing system¹:

It consists of a flat panel television screen that displays three yellow circles and is placed on walls in front of the store’s lineup of checkout lanes. Inside these circles, changing numbers indicate to employees how many checkout lanes should be open immediately and how many should open up within 15 or 30 minutes.

Sensors are positioned over a store’s entrance and exit doors and above checkout lanes to indicate the number of customers who are shopping at specific times. These sensors send signals to a computerized monitoring system that registers the number of checkout lanes to open.

According to the same source, this new system is designed to create a better customer and a better shopping experience. They’ve branded this system “1-plus-1 queuing” and Kroger’s ultimate goal with QueVision is to have only one customer waiting in each line. By doing so, it allows the cashier at the point of sale to build a relationship with the customer.

I’m not sure how they can pull this off. There is a fixed cost to open a line. Managing that cost is a challenge.

But, there are clearly other reasons besides the customer experience at stake here. We’re talking about MONEY.

According to Progressive Grocer,

The front end of the supermarket represents more than $7 billion in sales and as much as 2 percent of a retailer’s total profits. The front area is the one department that every shopper visits. And it is the last chance for a retailer to make a good impression on consumers.

[The Progressive Grocer report goes on to state that] 75 percent of more than 1,000 shoppers interviewed said a positive experience at the front area of the supermarket makes their overall opinion of the store “much better,” while 80 percent also said the front-end experience makes them more likely to shop there again.

And, the checkout line and waiting time at the checkout counter also acts as a litmus test for whether a prospective shopper will shop at the store. According the report,

Concerns about checking out are so strong that many shoppers will, upon entering the store, glance at the front end and base the length of their trip (and therefore, the size of their transaction) on the conditions they observe . . .

And, regarding average wait time in a grocery store,

The average time spent in a grocery store’s checkout lane is 2 minutes 52 seconds, based on a survey of retailers in the report. But consumers often perceive the wait time to be much longer.

We know why the wait feels longer – the Psychology of Queueing is a play here.

Retail Checkout Counter: Waiting Line Management is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Many of you are familiar with the popular commercial brand campaign of Dos Equis meme called the “The Most Interesting Man in the World”. So, for fun, I thought I’d do my own version that I’m calling “The Most Interesting Lean Guy in the World” and join Mark in the fun.

He is interesting because, through many years of study and experience, he has amassed a treasure-trove of knowledge on Lean Manufacturing. And, because he is the most interesting Lean Guy, he is ready to impart that knowledge weekly here on Shmula.

Today’s version is the Single Piece Flow Edition.

Enjoy.

Most Interesting Lean Guy in The World: Single Piece Flow Edition is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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I was in a conversation the other day with a colleague where Design of Experiments (DOE) came up. During our discussion, we talked about the factors involved, controllable and uncontrollable variables, the number of levels or settings in the experiment, and the various responses for each trial. It was fun, until I realized quickly that we were definitely overthinking it.

Then, I quickly brought myself back from the clouds and remembered that, while it might be fun to conduct a DOE, it is likely that it would be overdoing and overthinking the problem. Most optimization problems can be answered much quicker, cheaper, and with much less effort than a traditional Taguchi Design of Experiments.

I find this analogous to the relationship between men and women – or, specifically, my relationship with my wife. On appearance, my wife seems very complicated, much akin to a sea of variables with different knobs, turns, settings, and levels. But, that’s just in appearance. In reality, there are just a few things I need to do to make her happy: listen to her, treat her well, be thoughtful, involve her in my life. You know. The basics.

Actually, sticking to the fundamentals probably solves most problems, eliminating the need to get fancy.

How have you been guilty of overthinking? Share your examples here.

Overthinking: Are You Guilty of Missing the Mark? is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Answering the question “What’s In It For Me” (also known by its acronym WIIFM, pronounced “WE-FEM”) is a common change management strategy. Often times the approach is to demonstrate how one method or another is important and how the application of that method will help the person you’re trying to persuade. Almost always, education is required and teaching must be done while you demonstrate the benefits. So, today, I’m going to attempt to persuade you to give Visual Management a shot.

What is Visual Management?

Visual Management defined is as follows:

• Visual Management provide real-time information on work place status by a combination of simple, effective visual information aids that allow employees to understand their influence on the organization overall performance hence allowing the employees to improve their performance.

How might you benefit from the application of Visual Management? Here are some ways:

1. Expose waste so that it can be eliminated and prevented from recurring making the workplace more efficient.
2. Make abnormalities in the 4Ms (Man, Machine, Material, Method) process inputs visible to everyone for prompt corrective action.
3. Enable trends in Quality, Safety, Delivery, Cost (QSDC) & abnormalities to be visible for timely preventive action to be taken.
4. Motivates everybody to improve by clarifying key performance targets.
5. Makes operation standards quicker and easier to understand by all employees so they can follow them.
6. Builds participation through shared information.
7. Creates flow in the value stream and allows pull to the voice of the customer.

In general, below are the 9 areas of Visual Management in business:

Interestingly, some of the most effective applications I’ve seen of Visual Management are not in business or operations; they are in the classroom.

Here’s one very simple but effective application of Visual Management to remove clutter in the classroom, but also to alert the teacher on the status of children’s birthday:

A simple birthday display board is incredibly helpful for a teacher and is simple, effective, and achieves the outcome for its design: to alert the teacher on which kids have a birthday that month.

What’s your experience on Visual Management? Have you seen or experienced effective displays of Visual Management in the workplace or outside of it?

Visual Management: What’s In It For Me? is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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We’re pleased to have Gary Netherton share with us his thoughts on quality control and quality audits. He takes a common sense approach, which I advocate, and stears away from any dogma or rigid approach, which some organizations blindly follow.

Read more about Gary after you read his thoughts on Quality Checks.

“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”  No, I am not singing an old REM tune… I am talking about quality.  More specifically, I am talking about dimensional quality checks.  I have a print with several characteristics labeled as “critical.”  I need to know how often I should be checking these parts.

Sound familiar?  One thing that I’ve learned in my quality journey is the importance of understanding critical dimensions and manufacturing’s obligations to ensure their correctness.  I recently experienced a situation where a manufacturer of a component had a drawing from the design folks that listed 23 dimensions as critical.  He was asking me to talk to the design team about reducing the number of critical dimensions to a more manageable number.

Being familiar with the product, I told him that there were that many dimensions for a reason . . . that the final assembly was very complicated and the component that he was supplying was critical to the final assembly’s functionality.

“But my operators only have three to five minutes, maximum, to check dimensions!  How can they check that many dimensions every two hours in three to five minutes?”

And so began my journey into confirming and explaining the significance of those “critical” dimensions.

In general, a dimension is “critical” because – if it is “out-of-spec” – the final product will not work in the best case and could violate regulations (Federal, state, or other) or  injure someone in the worst case (including killing them).  In some industries, contractual obligations dictate the frequency of inspection or the type of inspection or SPC that the supplier will use.  In many cases, however, it is strictly up to the supplier to “protect the customer” – to ensure that everything that he ships to the customer meets specification.

So, how often should we check a critical dimension?  That is up to you.  If, shortly after product launch, you collect a lot of data (which we all should do at product launch) and determine that the a certain dimension is always within specification, perhaps you should check it at shift start and shift end.  If it is a dimension that tends to vary throughout the shift, perhaps you should check it every two hours.

Another consideration is production speed.  If you are only making 10 per shift, then a 100% inspection might not be out of the question.  If you are making 10 per minute, then a sensible sampling plan (SPC anyone?) should suffice.

At the end of the day, the onus is on you to ensure that the customer is protected… that is, the customer receives exactly what they are expecting.

Gary Netherton is a multi-certified quality professional with project management experience in leading quality and manufacturing efforts from product and product launch to problem-solving using Six Sigma, PDCA, and other quality tools. His expertise is advanced product quality planning as well as data collection and analysis. He currently reside and work near the Seattle area of Washington.

Frequent Quality Checks is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Every year about this time in the United States, people scramble to get their taxes done. I’m no exception. But thankfully, with the help of tax professionals and Turbotax, there is plenty of help to decode and understand the convoluted tax laws that we have to abide by.

In the course of doing my taxes, I’ve found Turbotax very helpful in walking me through the process of what I need to report and what I need to do. In the workflow of filing my federal taxes, Turbotax has a nice feature that they call the “Audit Risk” results. This temperature gauge is meant to show the risk level of a potential IRS Tax Audit. Below is an example of the Audit Risk Result:

Visual Control

We know that the principles of Visual Management are the following:

1. Make Problems Visible
2. Make Problems Obvious
3. There Must be a Standard
4. In a Glance

In general, we want to make “normal” and “abnormal” easily visible. But, we must also make our responses to the specific abnormality standardized.

Given the Audit Risk Report, it dawned on me that it was a simple but effective mode of visual control. In fact, it was a type of Andon to alert the tax preparer.

What is Andon?

Andon (Japanese for lantern) is a tool for visual management and refers to a system of signals used to indicate the operational status (at a glance) of a machine or work center. It can be used manually or automatically. It also one of the principle elements of the Jidoka, or smart automation or automation with a human touch.

General Uses of Andon

In general, Andon can be used for the following:

1. Alerts management and other workers to quality or process problem.
2. Gives the worker the ability to stop production when a defect is found, and immediately call for assistance.
3. Indicates where the alert was generated, and may also provide a description of the trouble whether shortage of material or maintenance call or supervisor call.

The Tax Audit Risk Thermometer is an example of a visual Andon, which accomplishes the task of

• alerting the tax preparer that there’s a problem and
• specifies the next steps of how to respond to the problem

This goes to show that the principles of lean can be found everywhere, if we but learn to look and see.

And, yes, even in tax software.

Taxes Online: Tax Audit Risk Visual Management is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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There’s a story shared among lean practitioners that illustrates the dogmatic approach to lean manufacturing that, in part, has given lean the perception that it is detached from anything important to the organization. In other words, when a Lean Transformation doesn’t align to organizational purpose, it becomes a detached and misaligned effort. This leads to apathy, misunderstanding, and eventually, failure. The story that illustrates my point goes like this.

Heroic Act of Reducing Changeover Time

Supposedly, a few ex-Toyota folks were hired to do some consulting for a company. These ex-Toyota employees visited the facility to do a quick assessment and evaluate what exactly needed to be done and what the company expected of them. At the facility, they met with the companies’ internal lean office or Kaizen office personnel. During their Gemba walk, the internal Kaizen Office associates proudly took the Toyota visitors to a recent the team had facilitated.

A week previous, the Kaizen Office had wanted to implement SMED and found a great forum to apply Single Minute Exchange of Die. It turns out the facility had this massive machine where the changeover time was around 8 hours. After the Kaizen Office was done with it, they had reduced Changeover Time from 8 hours to 15 minutes.

Proudly and expectantly, the Kaizen Office associates waited to see the smiles and admiration from the ex-Toyota visitors. But instead of praise for the reduction in Changeover Time, the ex-Toyota visitors asked this question:

How often is this machine used?

Surprised at the question, the internal Kaizen Office associates answered reluctantly,

We’re not sure, but we believe about 1 or 2 times per month.

Then, the ex-Toyota associates responded:

Was this the best use of your time?

The Lesson

There are many lessons in this short anecdote:

1. The internal Kaizen Office associates began with the goal “how can we implement SMED?” That approach is very tool-focused and, that approach, leads to a very detached and disjointed application of Lean.
2. When the organizational purpose is poorly understood, it leads to spending time where it doesn’t count. This approach fundamentally means that we are either spending time in areas that are:
• High effort, but low impact
• Low effort, but low impact
3. While the application of an approach is, in itself, something to be celebrated, it also leads to a misguided approach in deploying and tranforming a company toward a lean culture.

It’s Your Turn

Is your application of Lean or Six Sigma similar to the story above? Are you spending time where it matters most to the company?

No Organizational Purpose: Lean for the Sake of Lean is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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We’re pleased to have Cliff Lowe as a guest blogger today and for him to share his thoughts with us on what many of us take for granted: floor visual management and the importance of that type of communication design for lean manufacturing. Enjoy his article and read more about Cliff after the article.

My best customers are from companies that practice Lean Manufacturing. So I started to ask, what is it about Superior Mark floor tape that these Lean guys love so much? I had tested my tape thoroughly and knew that it was the most durable on the market. Was it the durability? Or was there something more?

I started to research Lean and learned enough to understand the reasons why Superior Mark made so much sense in a Lean Manufacturing environment. It came down to three core concepts: Muda, Kaizen, and Kanban.

Every industrial workplace is required by OSHA to clearly mark aisles and passageways to guarantee that pedestrians have a designated walkway to safely pass. Forklift drivers must also be keenly aware of where their driving lanes begin and end. There are various ways to “clearly mark”, but as we consider the most common method, painting, keep in mind muda, kaizen, and kanban.  Let’s take an in depth look at the entire life cycle of a painted line on an industrial floor.

Paint does not like to stick to concrete, and so in order to use paint to mark a line, the floor must usually be prepped by bead blasting or etching to rough up the surface so that the paint will have something to grab.

In order to paint a nice line, two lines of tape are typically applied to create a clean border for the paint. The section of the facility is shut down to allow the paint to dry completely, which is usually several hours. Then both lines of tape must be removed. The entire process could take a few days and require areas of production to be shut down.

In industrial facilities, floor markings almost always need to be maintained. Due to the abusive environment, we have to consider the cost of any repair or maintenance that will be involved. In order to maintain a painted line to keep it bright and visible, basically the whole process has to be repeated.

If there was an alternative aisle marking method to painting, which eliminated the expensive floor prep, the extra taping, the shut down time, then the process of painting would be considered “muda” in comparison. Waste can be found in almost any process. When it comes to floor marking, consider the waste that can be incurred not only in the initial installation, but in the long term maintenance of the floor marking.

Now, about Kaizen, or continuous improvement, which is a key tenet of Lean Initiatives. When a certain floor layout is designed in a Lean facility, it is designed with Kaizen in mind. Everyone is encouraged to always look for ways in which the layout can be improved. Hence the placement of objects inside the factory is never permanent. Marking the floor should ideally be done in a way that could be easily and quickly modified when a “Kaizen burst” or great idea arises that could improve efficiency. Painting lines does not allow for this flexibility, but using a removable floor tape does.

Finally, a well thought out floor marking design can create the equivalent of a giant Kanban board.  Sometimes it is difficult to clearly identify the WIP or Work In Progress Limits. The limits of the production capacity for an industrial facility have a limiting factor, and sometimes that limiting factor is space. Floor marking tape can visually organize the space to highlight the physical limitations. The best example of this I have seen from one of my customers was in an auto body shop. They had learned about creating a visual workplace, and had been applying Lean and 5S concepts to their garage, in an effort to make better use of their space. Once they installed clear delineating floor markings, they discovered that they actually had the space to work on twice as many cars as they previously could.

The method that a company selects to mark their industrial floors can have ripple effects on their overall operational efficiency. Choosing a method that is flexible (i.e. removable, and installs fast) yet very durable and long lasting, is the best bet for maximum operational efficiency.

About Cliff Lowe:

Cliff holds two patents in traffic marking materials and is the creator of Superior Mark aislemarking tape. He is the owner of InSite Solutions LLC and Stop Painting.com. When he is not busy perfecting the design of traffic marking materials, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids.

Floor Marking: Muda, Kaizen, or Kanban? is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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We know from the Theory of Constraints that every system has a bottleneck. The goal, then, isn’t to eliminate the bottleneck, but learn how to manage the overall system by effectively managing the constraint in that system. This is true in most cases. But, there are cases where purposely creating a bottleneck can obtain the desired outcome. Thus is the case with preventing Childhood Obesity and the Lunchroom.

A research cooperative called Smarter Lunchrooms is in the business of helping students make smarter choices by subtly changing their behavior. They use ideas from behavioral economics and psychology to guide better choices. One really interesting case study involves the wise implementation of a bottleneck.

The experiment looked at guiding the choice of regular skim milk versus chocolate milk and soda. So, this group partnered with a school to change the layout of the lunchroom and placed the chocolate milk and soda in an area where it was difficult to get to and only very few children could be there at any one time. At the same time, the school then placed the regular skim milk in an area where it was easily accessible.

Their findings: chocolate milk and soda sales went down and the sales of regular skim milk went up.

Here is an example where the implementation of a bottleneck led to better outcomes. And, the subtlety of the design likely went unnoticed by the children, yet they made better choices without even knowing they were making better choices.

The upshot?

Initiatives and approaches like this are wise, low cost, but effective ways at addressing childhood obesity.

Using Constraints and Bottlenecks to Prevent Childhood Obesity is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting

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Bypassing any expected change management effort or cultural transformation, nothing gets a group of employees moving than an executive order. That’s exactly what the Governor of the State of Washington did – has executed an executive order for government employees to apply Lean in their work.

I’m as surprised as you are. When I first read the executive order, I thought it was a joke, but it’s very real. On the one hand, I find it encouraging. On the other hand, the notion of an “executive order” feels a bit contrary to the spirit of lean. Either case, I find it as a positive event in the adoption of Lean in Government.

The Governor’s executive order has led to a Bill that is now up for a vote in the Washington State Legislature. The Bill is titled “Maximizing the use of Lean Strategies in State Government“.

What is more encouraging is that the Office of the Governor released a blog post, detailing the current successes of Lean so far in their application in government. In the words of Wendy Korthuis-Smith from the Office of the Governor:

Some positive examples include:

• Department of Social and Health Services reengineered its Community Service offices – moving more staff to the frontline to serve clients and consolidating 63 call centers into one statewide call center. Since then, DSHS saw a 99 percent reduction in wait times for community services – from 4 weeks to 5-45 minutes – and the number of dissatisfied customers dropped from 98 percent to less than one percent.
• DSHS increased its outreach to encourage more parents to use online resources to pay and obtain child support payments. As a result, more clients are shifting to online payments and distribution – saving the agency $600,000 and improving accuracy and efficiency.
• The Department of Corrections avoided spending $1.3 million in additional food costs by standardizing its menu at all 12 prisons across the state.

I find all of this as very positive. What do you think?

Below is the text of the Executive Order.

· · ·
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11-04
LEAN TRANSFORMATION

WHEREAS, our current economic climate with lower revenues and higher demand for services
requires state government to continue to streamline operational processes and prioritize limited
resources; and

WHEREAS, the citizens of Washington expect state government to deliver needed services with innovation, efficiency and integrity; and

WHEREAS, we must continue to transform government into a leaner, 21st century organization that is more effective and efficient, and put our state on a trajectory that ensures a strong financial foundation for years to come; and

WHEREAS, Washington, with a long-standing commitment of using tools to improve government performance, has already embraced the Lean philosophy with several agencies
reporting results which demonstrate it can reduce waste, eliminate delays, save money and provide high quality service to the public; and

WHEREAS, Washington has already established a strong performance management culture through Government Management, Accountability and Performance (GMAP), a management tool that relies on performance measures for a disciplined approach to decision making; and

WHEREAS, Lean builds on the GMAP program as a proven management approach used by a wide range of public and private organizations to increase customer satisfaction and employee morale, improve productivity, eliminate waste in processes and improve the quality of products
and services delivered; and

WHEREAS, government has partnered with Lean subject matter experts in the private sector to learn how to apply Lean methods and tools to eliminate waste, save time, standardize workflow, reduce backlogs and decrease process complexity; and

WHEREAS, Washington is already seen as a model for performance improvement practices that encourage innovative and responsible ways of providing goods and services; and

WHEREAS, it is necessary for state agencies to take additional steps to do more with the resources we have available.NOW, THEREFORE, I, Christine O. Gregoire, Governor of the state of Washington by virtue of the power vested in me by the state Constitution and statutes do hereby order and direct:

All executive cabinet agencies to begin implementing Lean by:

1. Learning about Lean principles, concepts and tools;
2. Completing a Lean project by August 31, 2012;
3. Deploying efforts to build capacity for Lean, while embedding Lean in the agency culture; and
4. Reporting Lean results and lessons learned to the Governor’s Office by August 31, 2012.

The Governor’s Accountability and Performance staff will work with internal and external
partners to:

1. Provide enterprise-wide guidance on initiating Lean implementation;
2. Provide resource options to assist agencies in Lean deployment;
3. Develop an enterprise roadmap for effective Lean implementation, including a
4. Lean learning path for leaders, practitioners, managers, supervisors and employees; and
5. Report progress and results of agency and interagency Lean implementation.
6. No later than October of each year, the Governor’s Accountability and Performance staff shall report to the Governor on progress made by state agencies in implementing the provisions of this order.

This executive order shall take effect immediately. Signed and sealed with the official seal of the state of Washington on this 15th day of December, 2011, at Olympia, Washington. By:

/s/

Christine O. Gregoire

Governor

BY THE GOVERNOR:

/s/
Secretary of State

Legislating The Toyota Production System: Making the Application of Lean the Law is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting