Meet-up: Beyond Lean's Matt Wrye

Matt Wrye is the creator and prominent voice behind the blog Beyond Lean.  He is frequently highlighted in the monthly round-up and has been a frequent guest blogger. Now you can learn more about Matt from our Meet-up.

The goal of Meet-up is provide you an opportunity to meet some other influential voices in the Lean community. I have asked the following series of questions to which he has responded:

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Matt Wrye. I am a internal lean consultant for a large consumer goods company. I am part of a group that is responsible for driving results for the company through lean thinking while transforming other areas of the business to lean thinking.

How and when did you learn Lean?
I started learning about lean in 1996 when I was doing an internship during college. My manager had me read "SMED" by Shigeo Shingo. My degree is in Industrial Engineering so there was a lot of lean concepts and tools I began to use. In 2001, I started working for an automotive supplier. The company's new President declared we were going to be lean. Three of us started reading and learning as much as we could and then went to the floor to try it. We made a ton of mistakes but had the opportunity to correct them. In 2007, when I switched jobs and was responsible for starting the lean initiative at a new company. At that time, I met Jamie Flinchbaugh. Jamie has been my coach for the last 5 years and during that time my understanding of the principles and thinking have developed to go along with the understanding of tools and concepts. It has been a long road.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
I had two purposes when I started the blog. 1) Help get the message of lean out through the eyes of an implementer and 2) Improve my writing skills. I started by writing 3 or 4 guest blogs for Mark Graban at the Lean Blog. I couldn't stick to it though, so I took the plunge and started Beyond Lean to give more rigor to achieving the two purposes I outlined. I have found I really enjoy helping others learn. I hope I can provide them with information so they won't have to make the same mistakes I did.

What does Lean mean to you?
What a tough question. Lean is so big it is hard to capture what it really is or means, but here is my best shot about putting it into words. Lean is a way of thinking. It isn't about tools or concepts. It is about doing the right thing to add value for the customer in the least wasteful way while developing and respecting people.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
Lean is not about eliminating waste. It is about adding value for the customer in order to grow revenue. In order to grow revenue and remain profitable though you want to eliminate waste so you can free up resources to use for new opportunities without having to add more resources/capital.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
My passion is developing others' lean thinking. I really enjoy seeing others start to understand things through a lean lens.

Lean Quote: Survival Is Not Mandatory

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." — Dr. Edwards Deming

I always liked this quote from Dr. Deming. I thought it really highlighted the importance of change. 

The point is that you don’t have to change, but it is key to survival. Over time everything changes and you must be able to keep up with the changes and adapt or change also. If you don’t, things will pass you up and eventually you won’t survive. 

This rarely happens overnight. GM is a great example. For decades, they did not change a single thing about there management, accounting and manufacturing practices. Finally, after the turn of the century Toyota caught and overtook GM as the #1 car manufacturer. Profits are higher. 

Quality is higher. Even with the stumble by Toyota a few years ago with the quality issues, they maintained their profitability and continued to change. 

There comes a time where every company needs to change its practices in order to survive. In some cases, it may take years or decades to feel the pressure (GM) and in some cases it may take a few months (tech companies). 

Of course, you don’t have to change, because there is nothing to say you have to survive.

About the Author: Today's Lean Quote is brought to you by Matt Wrye, blogger at Beyond Lean. Matt has a been a good friend through my online Lean trials and tribulations. With Matt's 10+ years of lean implementation and problem solving experience, he is able to draw on his successes and failures to tackle new challenges by presenting fresh perspectives and results-driven solutions. His cornerstone belief is that all levels of the business unit should be educated on lean thinking and principles. To this point, Matt diligently challenges his own lean knowledge while working with all business levels ranging from human resources, accounting and the manufacturing floor to senior managers, executives and presidents. By adhering to this continuous learning philosophy, Matt is able to focus his lean efforts to provide continuous improvement. 

 

Lean Quote: Opportunity is Dressed as Hard Work

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

Today's Lean Quote is brought to you by Matt Wrye, blogger at Beyond Lean. Matt has a been a good friend through my online Lean trials and tribulations. With Matt's 10+ years of lean implementation and problem solving experience, he is able to draw on his successes and failures to tackle new challenges by presenting fresh perspectives and results-driven solutions. His cornerstone belief is that all levels of the business unit should be educated on lean thinking and principles. To this point, Matt diligently challenges his own lean knowledge while working with all business levels ranging from human resources, accounting and the manufacturing floor to senior managers, executives and presidents. By adhering to this continuous learning philosophy, Matt is able to focus his lean efforts to provide continuous improvement.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work." — Thomas Edison

I found this quote awhile back and have kept it close ever since. It is one that reminds me that if I want to make a difference I need to work hard for it.

From a lean lens, this means digging in and finding the true root cause of the waste. Not putting a band aide on the issue or treating just the symptom of the problem. It is hard work to take the time to dig deep and find the true root cause. It is hard work to have patience to continue to understand the problem when everyone around you is jumping to conclusions and solutions without understanding the problem. It is hard work to do things right.

But if we do put on those overalls and do the hard work, in the end we create better change and better improvements. That will also help us standout from the crowd who mostly is looking for the easy, shiny, magic silver bullet so they don’t mess up their clean suits. That can be very rewarding. That is what can keep us motivated and moving along.

Guest Post: Second Try at My Personal Kanban

Today I am pleased to share a guest post from my friend Matt Wrye who blogs at Beyond Lean. With Matt's 10+ years of lean implementation and problem solving experience, he is able to draw on his successes and failures to tackle new challenges by presenting fresh perspectives and results-driven solutions. Through his exposure to multiple business operation facets in divergent industries that include aluminum, electronics, auto, HVAC, and consumer goods, he is able to provide real-life lean solutions to everyday business challenges.
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His cornerstone belief is that all levels of the business unit should be educated on lean thinking and principles. To this point, Matt diligently challenges his own lean knowledge while working with all business levels ranging from human resources, accounting and the manufacturing floor to senior managers, executives and presidents. By adhering to this continuous learning philosophy, Matt is able to focus his lean efforts to provide continuous improvement.

Matt has a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering. Among his other accomplishments, he is a certified Shainin Red X Journeyman and is certified in Statistical analysis and Kepner-Tregoe problem solving methodology. He is proud to have played a large and significant role in starting the Smith County Lean Consortium in Tyler, TX.
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As I look for ways to improve, I am inspired by other lean thinkers and bloggers. I see what they are trying and look to how that might work for me. I try and experiment with things in order to make my job easier and to feel more in control and organized. 

I decided to start a series that will be based on what I have tried in order to make my work better. It may be small or large things and most likely it was an inspiration I got from someone else. I hope that by passing along what I have learned that it may inspire others the way others have inspired me.

About three months ago, I posted a blog about my first attempt at a personal kanban. It was not successful at all. With some encouragement from fellow blogger Tim McMahon, I reflected more on why it didn't work and then learned more about how to apply personal kanban. "Personal Kanban" by Jim Benson and Tonianne Barry was a helpful resource for me.

At the end of my previous post, I talked about digitizing my kanban board. I almost fell prey to a common error.....looking for a technology solution when a process has not even been established. I was tempted by the dark side, but resisted. A digital format may be what I need in the future but first I must establish a process that works.

The second try at a personal kanban board has been very successful. Here is a picture of my board. It isn't very clear, but I think it will help with the discussion.

My value stream is Ready (my queue of work), Doing (what I am working on), Pen (items I have worked on but waiting for input), and Done. I have set my max for Doing and Pen at 3 items. I move items for Ready to Doing after I have moved all items from Doing to Done or Pen. This prevents one thing from sitting in the Doing column for a long time because I move the other two items and avoid the third.

Down in the bottom right-hand corner I have a color key. The color of the Post-It notes is related to a specific area of work.

Also, I have blog posts that I do weekly. It doesn't matter what day the posts are written but I would like to write 3 a week. It would get monotonous if I used Post-Its for writing three blog posts every week. Instead of using Post-Its, I put up three check boxes. I put a check after in th box after I finish a blog post. The section below it is a place I can put an idea for a blog post. When I want to write a post, I can grab one of the ideas from that section.
The board has helped me keep track of my work and made it visual to my boss all that I have going on. It has helped my boss understand where I am spending most of my time.

One of the keys is to choose the correct work chunk to put on a Post-It. Too small of a item is a quick to-do. An example of something too small would be to send an email or make a call. Too big of a chunk and nothing will ever move. XYZ Project would be too big. There is a middle ground. Breaking the XYZ Project into smaller chunks has helped me. Create charter for project. Study the current state of the process. Update action item list. These are examples of the middle ground that I have found.

I hope this helps others looking at trying a personal kanban. It isn't easy, but when it works it feels good and keeps the work flowing. Now I get to go check a box for blog posts!



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Guest Post: Standard Work Enables and Facilitates Improvment

Today, I am happy to be contributing a guest post on Matt Wrye's Beyond Lean Blog. Matt posed the question to his readers last month asking what topic they would like to see a series on.  In this series he would ask 4-5 people to write about the chosen topic posting an article a day for the week.  This is a great idea as you can get various view points on the subject to thoroughly understand it.  Standardized work received 33% of the votes resulting in the chosen theme.

Here is a short introduction to my post:

Standard work is a written description of how a process should be done. It guides consistent execution. At its best, it documents a current "best practice" and ensures that it is implemented throughout a company. At a minimum, it provides a baseline from which a better approach can be developed.

The definition of standard work is "the most effective combination of manpower, materials and machinery". Standard work is the method, and thereby you have the four Ms of manufacturing (manpower, material, machinery, methods). Standard Work is only "the most effective" until the standard is improved.

Standards to a company are like scales and sheet music to a musician. Our team members help develop and maintain standards, which are not static. Standards change as we get better, just as a good band will incorporate chord and melodic variations if they sound good. Thus, standards do not constrain creativity – they enable it, by providing a basis for comparison, and by providing stability, so we have the time and energy to improve.

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To learn more how standard work can enable and facilitate improvement continue reading here. Be sure to check out the other posts on Beyond Lean about Standard Work as well.

The Role of a Lean Leader

My Friend Matt Wrye recently wrote about his role as an internal Lean consultant. He talked about the struggle some management places on Lean leaders between just doing it and influencing change. This got me thinking about my own experience, why this struggle occurs, and what the true role of a Lean leader should be.

Like Matt, I too have found myself in both types of roles. I believe this struggle with how the role is defined has a lot to do with the level of knowledge by management. So let me clarify by knowledge I mean true understand of Lean thinking as a business or management process that goes beyond improvement tools to capture employee development and engagement. I say management because it is often not just one person but a collection of managers that share a similar thinking and approach.

The level of involvement in Lean by the management team often shapes the role of the Lean leader. In my experience the less knowledgeable the management about REAL Lean (Bob Emiliani’s term) the more they think of it as a set of tools the more they want you to just do it. These are the managers that are usually hands-off with Lean and want to see the short term gains to demonstrate they are improving the process. They are focused on the results and outcomes and not the means by which we achieve them. This task oriented approach to management unfortunately is only sustainable while the doer is doing.

However those managers who truly know Lean understand the benefit comes from developing people to think and improve their own process the more they define the role as influencing or coaching. As Mike Rother said in Toyota Kata management must focus on how solutions are developed. Develop, via practice with coaching, the capability in people to develop new solutions. In this view the Lean leader can have the biggest impact coaching or influencing the process of improvement to capture the ingenuity of those in the organization.

In my experience being a coach is the most important aspect of a Lean leader. They are not the ones to come in and do it for you. They are the ones to show you how to do it with confidence so that you will be able to do it for yourself. A Lean leader must be relentless in teaching and expecting learning through actual practice.

The best analogy of a Lean leader that I have heard is related to agriculture. The Lean leader is a farmer not a hunter. Farmers take the long view, and win in the long term. Hunters take the short view, get early gains but ultimately die out. Farmers are shepherds and Lean leaders should do the same.



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Meet-up: Beyond Lean's Joe Wilson

Joe Wilson, who blogs at Beyond Lean, is the subject of our Meet-up today.  Joe has been involved with Lean and continuous improvement activities for over a decade in multiple industries. He shares his experience and real world examples in his writing which makes it highly relateable.


Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Joe Wilson. I currently work for a pharmaceutical company and also have worked in the meat processing and automotive industry, mostly in a variety of Industrial Engineering and Continuous Improvement roles. I am also a contributor to the Beyond Lean blog.

How and when did you learn Lean?
I guess my formal training started when I worked for what was then a Dana plant where I got to take part in a formal kaizen event. The event itself wasn’t that memorable, but I was fascinated because the training material seemed to codify a lot of the way I already thought. After that, I went to work for a company that was all in on Eli Goldratt and Theory of Constraints, so I got to see a different angle of the CI picture. From there, I went to work with Matt Wrye (not because of him, but that’s where we met) and had the opportunity to really go deep with being a part of a Lean conversion. I also got to work with somebody who later went on to a supplier development position with Toyota who was invaluable in helping to informally coach me and close some of the theory gaps in my mind. I had some evolution in my role there that allowed me to spend time developing my formal problem solving skills, including working with some incredibly talented Shainin Red X problem solvers and a passionate Six Sigma Black Belt. There have been some formal classes and certifications and thousands of hours of self study.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
Matt may remember it differently (and his version is probably right), but when he told me about starting up Beyond Lean, I told him to let me know if he wanted any help. He told me that if I ever wanted to contribute, he would let me guest post. That evolved at the beginning of this year to a more permanent role as an author. Unfortunately, because of some other time-sucking issues, my contributions have been a little more sporadic than I would like. For me, the writing is the easy part…it’s the editing part that kills me.

What does Lean mean to you?
Personally, Lean is that example that I can point to when I’m trying to make a point that other people can’t see. It is leverage in trying to change the way other people think about their work. It’s a community of people who allow me to validate or challenge my existing ideas about what’s possible. I don’t have a clue in the “chicken or the egg” argument of whether or not Lean makes me think this way or if I think this way and it aligns with Lean. I just know that Lean fits for me.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
It seems lazy, but I’ll fall back on the whole “Lean is not a collection of tools” line. Let’s be honest, when most people talk about “lean”, what they are talking about is the understanding of what Toyota has done. In that sense the discussion revolves around trying to study somebody else’s solutions to their problems. To me, breaking down specific tools makes for some enjoyable philosophical and theoretical conversation, but it often seems like a distraction when you are trying to actually do something.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
Professionally, I am focused on the concept and practice of how problems are defined. I don’t mean that in terms of an individual problem or for an A3. What I mean is, organizationally, how are we going to identify what is and isn’t a problem, what scale the problem is, and how we are going to dedicate resources to solve the problems. Toyota’s system became what it is because they made certain decisions along the way that shaped what they will and won’t do. I believe everything else (from a CI perspective) flows from that point.

Personally, I’m on a quest to see if there is such an animal as “Lean Six Sigma”. Although I’m “certified” in both Lean and Six Sigma, I have never been able to understand how the two could merge. So far, the closest mental model I’ve been able to come up with is a food truck. In theory, it’s mobile food service. In practice, it’s either a truck or it’s a kitchen. It can’t be both at the same time effectively.

Vacation Brings A Collection of Exceptional Guest Posts

Over the next several days I will be on vacation taking some much needed time with my family.  Every year for the last 14 years we head to New Hampshire for several days to take in the NASCAR race.  It is a great time for sun, fun, camping, and high speed action.

I have been fortunate to arrange a great cast of guest bloggers while I am taking some time off.  Here is a quick preview of what is in store for you next week:

On Tuesday, Matt Wrye from Beyond Lean shares the next improvement of his personal kanban system.  This time he adds in weekly repetitive tasks into his board. 

Then on Wednesday, Joe Dager from Business901 talks about how the Lean tools used in manufacturing need to be presented in a different way when applying Lean thinking in sales and marketing. 

Thursday, Dan Markovitz from TimeBack Management shares a personal kanban system with a unique countermeasure for dealing with email throughout the day.  His solution aims to keep him as productive as possible.

On Friday, Christian Paulsen from Lean Leadership provides the Friday Lean Quote covering the important topic of root cause analysis.

On Monday, Brian Buck from Improve With Me writes about excellence in healthcare with the patients experience as the means to judge the quality of service.

Then on Tuesday, Christian Paulsen is back to elaborate on Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle from the root cause analysis discussion.

I will be back soon but not before learning a little about quick changeover from the NASCAR pit crews like that from this post last year - Lean in the Fast Lane.

“The winner ain't the one with the fastest car its the one who refuses to lose” - Dale Earnhardt, #3  - Lean Quote, June 25, 2010: Desire


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Meet-up: Lean Leadership's Christian Paulsen

Today, we’ll meet-up with Christian Paulsen, who blogs at Lean Leadership. Christian has contributed several guest posts here. He started blogging shortly after me so we have grown through the process together. It has been nice to have someone to trade insights with and learn with.



The goal of Meet-up is provide you an opportunity to meet some other influential voices in the Lean community. I will ask these authors a series of questions:

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Christian Paulsen and I have been working in food manufacturing since getting out of the Navy in 1989. I have held several manufacturing leadership roles with Unilever, Frito-Lay, and Nestle and a couple smaller manufacturers. I am currently using this experience to help food companies optimize their manufacturing processes using Lean - TPM as an outside consultant.

How and when did you learn Lean?
My first experience with Lean was when I was a supervisor at Frito-Lay. We were not calling it Lean yet and it was really Dr. Deming’s Total Quality approach for those that remember TQM. I was not directly involved but started to see the benefit to Pareto charts and started to glean some knowledge. Within a couple years I was a Production Manager at Lipton (Unilever). We were serious about Continuous Improvement and TQM. The supply chain was going JIT and we had teams addressing one loss issue after another. Start up losses were being driven out by the start up team and SMED principles were used to cut change-over times in half several times. I was hooked when I saw how we could work with the team to drive out losses and make it a better place to work. It was classic Theory X vs. Theory Y management to me and I’d rather work with the team than have to fight them to make improvements. I have attended several seminars and courses like Total Quality, Root Cause Analysis & DMAIC, TPM, and Lean Six Sigma. These have helped strengthen my knowledge of Lean theory and to support the hands on experience along the way.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
I started blogging while in transition from my traditional manufacturing roles into consulting. It was a good time to establish a stronger presence on the social media scene and served as a great way to refine my thinking on a variety of topics. Tim McMahon (author of this blog) was a lot of help to me while getting started. He was kind enough to field my questions even though we didn't know each other at the time. Jamie Flinchbaugh was helpful while starting as well. Guest blogging for other Lean thinkers has been a great way to challenge my level of thinking on a topic. Several bloggers have been kind enough to have me guest blog. Tim at A Lean Journey, Beyond Lean (Matt Wrye), Gemba Tales (Mark Hamel), Gotta Go Lean (Jeff Hajek) and My Flexible Pencil (David Kasprzak). The Lean community is helpful and open with information. My blog is Lean Leadership. The name of the blog reveals the focus of that blog. I am also one of a dozen contributing bloggers at Consumer Good Club but I am the only one with a Lean focus there.

What does Lean mean to you?
Lean is all about a pursuit of excellence. While many of us focus on reducing cost by eliminating waste, it should be about being great at what we do. Pursuing excellence will maximize profits while eliminating waste and reducing cost. There is a big difference between just cutting costs and making sustainable improvements. Lean thinkers attack waste and optimize value added activities rather than slashing budgets and letting others deal with the consequences. Lean principles give the structure to make it sustainable rather than the flavor-of-the-month.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
You hear a lot of discussion in Lean circles about Lean being a way of thinking and not a set of tools. There is certainly a lot of misconception about that. I think that there is also a lot of misconception about the difference Continuous Improvement camps. I hear some people talk about Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, and even TQM as if they are mutually exclusive. There are books and courses about Lean-Six Sigma, Lean-TPM, and such that seem to imply that the different camps can somehow co-exist (There are some great manufacturing minds and Lean thinkers behind this material, so these comments are not intended to be critical of them). I'd suggest that there is more similarity between the methods and less differences than many people think. I grew up on Deming & TQM principles then got deep into TPM. I started to hear more and more about Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. I decided to start reading up on Lean and was very surprised to see that it was a lot of what we had been doing under the TQM umbrella. Then I decided I better read up on Six Sigma. Again, I was surprised to find more similarities than differences. Don't think though that I didn't learn anything in this process. I'm still learning with each new venture. To me, there is a lot of overlap and similarities. They are far from being mutually exclusive.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
I have been doing a lot of TPM work, mostly Autonomous Maintenance with a couple well known food companies which has been a lot of fun. It's great to see a teams come together and improve Safety & Quality while reducing downtime by 50%.

I am also working on a Kaizen initiative with another food manufacturer. This one is focused on eliminating the waste is a manual process. It's also fun to see the light bulbs go off as we teach the operators about the lean concepts.