Top 10 Posts of 2017

The end of the year is traditionally a time to look back and reflect. One way to reflect is to evaluate popular blog posts. I have been taking time to reflect on the year that was and as part of that reflection I have flipped back through the 150 blog posts I have written so far this year and compiled a list of my Top 10.

10. Express Your WARMTH When Communicating

Effective communication is everyone's job. It builds trust, teamwork, and high-performing organizations. If culture drives an organization, effective communication is the fuel.

9. Four Essential Elements for Creating a Lean Culture or Management System

You should build your Lean culture on the following essential elements: make the customer everyone’s business, standardize work for managers, have daily accountability and require discipline.

8. Five Functions of a Team Leader

As a team leader, one of your primary roles is developing the resources, specifically, the human resources of your department, business unit, or team. The tasks of a team leader are classically defined as those of planning, organizing, staffing, motivating, achieving, and evaluating results.

7. 7 Wastes Demonstration From Students

Students participating in an education program at IDEXX Laboratories made a video to illustrate the 7 wastes.

6. The Wasteful Effects of Micromanagement

The effects of micromanagement can be disastrous for a company’s culture. In the best situations, micromanagement is an impediment to progress and in extreme cases it can cause the organization to stagnate.

5. Kaizen Mindset: Key Principles of Continuous Improvement

Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement in which every aspect of the business can and must be improved. It is a process that engages the “human element,” while eliminating all forms of non-value added activity and waste.

4. Use a SIPOC to Scope Your Improvement Event

The SIPOC is a key tool to help the team understand and communicate the current state and the bounds of a given process as well as who might be critical to engage as the project develops.

3. 8 Wastes in the Lean Office

In the office environment, the 8 classic waste types of the Lean methodology manifest in different ways than we see on the factory floor.

2. Busy Does Not Equal Productive

Just because you are busy does NOT mean you are productive. In this post you’ll learn 6 differences between busy people and productive people.

1. 4 Tiers for Daily Accountability

Daily tiered meetings (a series of four brief meetings to review what happened yesterday and assign actions for improvement) are an integral element of daily management system.

What were some of your favorite Lean posts from 2017? Any recommendations for next year?

Thanks for your continued readership in 2017. I hope you enjoy the holiday season and go on to achieve Lean success in 2018.

Northeast Lean Conference - SIPOC - The First Picture of Your Process

This week I was fortunate to attend the Northeast Lean Conference. I met a number of great practitioners on their Lean Journey which I'll highlight in a upcoming post.  I also had the opportunity to present at the conference on a tool and how we use it for continuous improvement.  I wanted to share those slides here.

Whenever you are planning to start some process improvement activity, it’s important to capture an easily communicated picture of the current process first. A SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) diagram identifies at a high level the potential gaps (deficiencies) between suppliers and process inputs and between output specifications and customers’ expectations, thus defining the scope for process improvement activities. In this interactive session, you’ll learn to understand the fundamentals of creating an SIPOC diagram, demonstrating how you can dissect a process and create a workable improvement plan that can be applied in your everyday workplace. Armed with a detailed and shared visual understanding of how work actually occurs, the organization can more easily identify project ideas for improvement.

Northeast Lean Conference 2017 - SIPOC, The First Picture of Your Process from Tim McMahon

Speaking at the Northeast Lean Conference

Successful Lean transformation requires a deep understanding of the technical side of Lean supported by a culture that favors human development and broad employee engagement.


But which comes first: culture or tools...?

Come to the conference and you'll learn more.

I will be presenting at The Northeast Lean Conference in September in Worcester, MA on a topic I've covered here a few times.

SIPOC – The First Picture of Your Process
Wed Sep 20, 2017
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM

Description

Whenever you are planning to start some process improvement activity, it’s important to capture an easily communicated picture of the current process first. A SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) diagram identifies at a high level the potential gaps (deficiencies) between suppliers and process inputs and between output specifications and customers’ expectations, thus defining the scope for process improvement activities. In this interactive session, you’ll learn to understand the fundamentals of creating an SIPOC diagram, demonstrating how you can dissect a process and create a workable improvement plan that can be applied in your everyday workplace. Armed with a detailed and shared visual understanding of how work actually occurs, the organization can more easily identify project ideas for improvement.

Hope you can join me at this exceptional industry event for Lean practitioners in a few short weeks.

Use a SIPOC to Scope Your Improvement Event

In process improvement, a SIPOC is a tool that summarizes the inputs and outputs of one or more processes in table form. The acronym SIPOC stands for suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers which form the columns of the table.

First, a quick review of the elements of a SIPOC:

S (supplier): Entity that provides input(s) to a process
I (input): All that is used (mostly as variables) to produce one or more outputs from a process. It is worthwhile to note that infrastructure may not be considered as inputs to a steady-state process since any variability induced by such elements remains fixed over longer periods of time. 
P (process): Steps or activities carried out to convert inputs to one or more outputs. In a SIPOC, the process steps are shown at a high level.
O (output): One or more outcomes or physical products emerging from a process.
C (customer): Entity that uses the output(s) of a process.

Whenever you are planning to start some process management or improvement activity, it’s important to get a high-level understanding of the scope of the process first.  It has three typical uses depending on the audience:

• To give people who are unfamiliar with a process a high-level overview
• To reacquaint people whose familiarity with a process has faded or become out-of-date due to process changes
• To help people in defining a new process

Several aspects of the SIPOC that may not be readily apparent are:

• Suppliers and customers may be internal or external to the organization that performs the process.
• Inputs and outputs may be materials, services, or information.
• The focus is on capturing the set of inputs and outputs rather than the individual steps in the process.

To construct a SIPOC diagram, begin with a high level process map, usually consisting of four to five steps. Then list outputs of the process, followed by the customers who receive the outputs. Then turn your attention to the front end of the SIPOC, with a listing of the inputs to the process and their suppliers.  

By completing the SIPOC prior to beginning a project, the team prepares for the project by collecting examples of input and output reports, gathering forms used in the process, etc. SIPOC diagrams also help to confirm the scope of the improvement project. Most of the initial project work revolves around understanding the current state process. The SIPOC is a key tool to help the team understand and communicate the current state and the bounds of a given process as well as who might be critical to engage as the project develops.

Guest Post: Lean Tools Exercises

About the author: Andy Trainer works for Silicon Beach Training, leading providers of resources and courses in business skills including Six Sigma, Lean and project management techniques like PRINCE2.
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Here at Silicon Beach Training we regularly run Six Sigma courses for all levels as well as a range of Lean courses. Over the years we have noticed that certain tools are more popular than others, and that our delegates enjoy using our custom diagrams and examples!

In this post I’m going to share 3 of my favourite Lean tools and provide you with exercises to try them yourself.

1. SIPOC Diagram
We ask our Black Belt delegates to bring their own SIPOC diagram to the course so they can work on an example appropriate to their role.

SIPOC stands for “Supplier – Input – Process – Output – Customer” and is a tool used towards the beginning of a Six Sigma project for examining existing processes.

SIPOC diagrams are useful for clearly defining the elements and requirements of a process.

The SIPOC diagram is relatively straightforward and can be used by anybody to break down a process. It is best compiled in a group, filling the box under each heading as much as possible.

Here is an example SIPOC diagram for making coffee:

Exercise: Choose a business process and run through the steps to create your own SIPOC diagram.

To create a SIPOC diagram you must first define the process in a sub-diagram (as above). This should be kept simple with no more than 5 steps and a simple description for each.

The next step is to fill out the inputs and then work out who supplies those inputs.

Inputs can be anything from physical items to data and tools, and you should have a supplier for every input.

After establishing the inputs, define the outputs of the process, along with the customers who will receive the outputs.

2. Customer Requirements Tree
The Customer Requirements Tree (also known as the Critical to Quality Tree) is a Lean tool that allows you to break down hard to measure customer needs into easy to measure requirements.

The final stage of the tree involves defining upper and lower limits for requirements, which are easier to measure and maintain.

As with the SIPOC diagram we are using coffee as an example for our customer requirements tree:

Exercise: Choose an important customer requirements and run it through the Customer Requirements Tree.

Begin with a very basic customer requirement such as “I want a coffee that is good”. As a business you must define what the customer means by “good”. A customer requirements tree is a good way to do this.

Start by establishing the drivers – what the customer might use to decide on what makes a good coffee. Then define an upper and lower limit for each driver – these are your critical to quality requirements.

Once completed you will have a better idea of what your customer wants, and will be able to measure your product or service so that it meets the customer requirements.

3. The 7 Wastes
When thinking Lean, you should always be thinking about waste.

The tools above are for defining your processes and customer requirements. This tool will help you actively decide on your business wastes so that you can reduce them.

Each business potentially has 7 Deadly Wastes according to Lean thinking.

The 7 wastes are:
• Defects
• Overproduction
• Transportation of product
• Waiting
• Inventory
• Motion of people
• Processing

These can be applied to specific processes or to the business as a whole (more likely if you are an SME).

Exercise: Pick a business process and run through the 7 wastes. Fill in as much information next to each waste.

Once you have completed the table, you can run through your wastes and work out which are the priorities to reduce or eliminate.