Lean Quote: Using Lean As Only A Tool Will Leave You Disappointed

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.

"Using Lean as only a tool will leave you disappointed. It is much more than that." — Paul A. Akers, Author of 2 Second Lean

While reading Paul Akers book, 2 Second Lean, I came across this quote that really struck me. We all have stories of those you try to use lean as a tool to improve their business but fail. Those of us who have experienced the true power of Lean understand that it is more than that. My good friend Bruce Hamilton, aka Mr. Toast, says that “Lean it 10% Tools and 90% People.”

The most important thing for Toyota is people – teaching and training people in a culture of continuous improvement. Domo Arigoto, Vice President of Lexus

Tools do not solve problem but rather people do. It is not about the tools it’s how they are applied. A large number of organizations have failed to produce the desired results from the direct and prescriptive application of Lean tools. The tools themselves have been proven to work in many situations. The difference must then be in how the tools were applied, their appropriateness, but not the tools themselves.

Lean is a system of tools and people that need to work together. A single tool by itself, like 5s or value stream mapping, is likely to fail because its benefits are likely to be marginal or even negative.

Developing people means challenging people. But just issuing challenges isn’t enough. It would be disrespectful to not also teach a systematic, common means of developing solutions and meeting those challenges.

The best way to encourage employees is not to manage them. You need to coach them to success. This is a process of developing their skills and providing them specific feedback to meet high standards. Employees want to be on the same team with their bosses.

To get people across an organization to systematically work on improvement every day requires teaching the skills behind the solution. And for that to happen, their leaders and mangers also need to practice and learn those skills. Be their coach and lead the team to success!

Productivity Today, To Do List are Evil, Life is for Living

Productivity is a frequent topic for discussion here. I came across and interesting presentation on productivity. This talk was presented at Ignite Charlotte 2 on February 8, 2011 at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, NC. Flaviu Simihaian was speaker #13. Originally from Romania, now in Charlotte NC. Flaviu is obsessed with learning more about web development, design, open source, startups, and life.

Flaviu advocates eliminating to your To Do list in favor of scheduling your time on the calendar. He further recommends not checking email first thing in the day. Start your workday first.

Flaviu says hold on, it is more important to feel free than to feel productive. Life is for living not for living uptight. What do you really want? It is the small side projects that we are the most passionate about that we never get to that are the most important. Its those that will make you feel most accomplish, free, and productive. So do those now.



What do you think? Does he have a point?

Meet-Up: The Lean Office's John Smith

On the Meet-up today, I am pleased to introduce John Smith, who blogs on The Lean Office. John is fairly new to the Lean blogosphere. The mission of The Lean Office blog is to provide a place to share Lean Six Sigma examples in the office, and share thoughts and ideas of implementation of Lean Six Sigma in the office or other places your journey may take you.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is John C Smith and I am a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt for the U.S. Army. I lead a few enterprise level projects, mentor Green Belt and Black Belt candidates, and mentor Process Owners to use Lean Thinking in their organizations.

How and when did you learn Lean?
My first exposure to process improvement was when I served in United States Marine Corps artillery and change-over improvement was our focus. In 1997 a member of the Alabama Technology Network spoke at a local Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) chapter meeting in Huntsville, AL. They brought the Kanban simulation and it blew me away. I then realized that “automate everything” was not the answer. I then took Introduction to Lean as an on-line class through SME. In 2003 when I was at Boeing I was trained to be an Accelerated Improvement Workshop Facilitator and then a 3P Facilitator in 2005.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
I have been working with teams in a pure transactional environment for the last three years. We all know “process” is the same whether you are drilling holes, installing systems, or creating contract documents. I am on a team that teaches the Introduction to Lean Six Sigma to all employees and the students ask really good questions and want to see examples of flow improvement in their offices. Armed with this knowledge and experience I began writing about Lean Transformation in the information flow based on the model from the book Lean Thinking to try to reach people working in offices.

What does Lean mean to you?
Lean to me is a way we “do” business. It means the product flows through the system without stopping until it reaches the customer, we maintain a learning environment, and we help our employees grow where they want. It is not tweaking the edges of Batch & Queue.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
The biggest myth I have seen is that Lean is a program. It is something we do extra, along with creating, moving, reviewing and reworking documents, more moving and reviewing and reworking ad nauseum. Improvements in the product flow must be targeted to what is important to the customer, the boss, and the organization or there will never be buy-in with the actual people doing actual work.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?

My current passion is reaching young office workers with this “new” way of thinking about work. Today’s information flows at the speed light across many different economies, but our ways of responding are too slow and opportunities are missed. Waiting for, Reviewing and Reworking of information contains the highest levels of waste. So I teach and show what value is to make the information flow; 1) customer focused, 2) each activity transforms the product closer to the customer’s needs, and 3) is executed right the first time. At the end of the day, Flow is King.

The American Society for Quality Releases The Lean Handbook

Latest manual is a collaborative effort on the part of the lean industry’s most passionate professionals.

The American Society for Quality announced the recent release of The Lean Handbook: A Guide to the Bronze Certification Body of Knowledge. Several authorities on lean technology were carefully selected to contribute to the most comprehensive resource on lean to date. The following are the contributors authors of Lean handbook: Christopher Abrey, Andy Carlino, Adil Dalal, Grace Duffy, David Foxx, Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, Bruce Hamilton, Pat Wardwell, John Kendrick, Matthew Maio, David Mann, Anthony Manos, Brian Maskell, Timothy McMahon, Dr. Mark Morgan, Frank Murdock, Mike Osterling, Bob Petruska Govind Ramu , Rama Shankar , Mark Paulsen, Gregg Stocker, Chad Vincent and Jerry M. Wright.

Lean has been described by its proponents as an effective growth tool capable of transforming any organization by optimizing strategies, systems, and processes through the elimination of waste. The Lean Handbook is an encyclopedia on quality and efficiency, serving practitioners on their path to certification, while also providing an invaluable resource for experts in applying their craft in the field. Tony Manos, the handbook’s co-editor, says, “We only approached people that we trusted had the knowledge and the real-world understanding, along with writing experience that would enhance the readers’ experience”.

Frank Murdock, incoming Chair of the ASQ Lean Enterprise Division, described the manual as the industry’s “living document”, and elaborated on the handbook’s role for practitioners in implementing Lean. “What is exciting about the new Lean Handbook is that it is built upon the Lean Body of Knowledge which has been gathered from the best practices of hundreds of practitioners through the efforts of the SME, the AME, Shingo and the ASQ. “

The book is currently available for purchase at ASQ website: The Lean Handbook (eBook).

This has been very exciting as this is my first participation in writing a book.  It was a wonderful project working with all these experienced and well known practitioners. A special thanks goes out to Tony Manos who got me involved and of course led the editing of this book.

Green MBA: Lean Manufacturing and Sustainability for the Future

Today I am pleased to welcome Linda Forshaw, who is providing a post on A Lean Journey today, where she discusses Lean manufacturing and its correlation to sustainable business practices.

Linda Forshaw is a freelance writer and published author from Liverpool in the UK. She is writer for DegreeJungle.com and specializes in social media, marketing and technology. Contact her on Twitter at @seelindaplay

“The principles of this philosophy are about streamlining processes and making flow more efficient.” - Six Sigma, Aveda Business Institute

Considered a philosophy as much as it is considered a process, Lean Manufacturing is built on the tenet of waste elimination. With an underlying concept of value, the method seeks to add value to a finished consumer product via the elimination of things like time, materials and personnel. Often referred to simply as “Lean,” the method may also focus on providing internal benefit to a company by reducing cost and investment in inventory. The desired result is to maintain a steady production schedule to deliver the optimal quantity of quality goods at the best time and place. In practice, this method of manufacturing is often seen to be mutually beneficial; to create profit and enhance end product quality.

The core ideas surrounding Lean Manufacturing can be traced back as far as the 1800s when Eli Whitney perfected the concept of interchangeable parts. In 1910, Henry Ford took the idea a step further when he arranged all of the elements required for manufacturing the early Model T automobile into one continuous system. His innovation and ability to see that everything from people and machines to tools and products should work together harmoniously has often led Ford to be declared the first practitioner of Lean Manufacturing. The retooling of Ford’s plants for war production saw the Willow Run Bomber plant famously build “A Bomber An Hour.” This notable feat caught the attention of the Toyota Motor Company in Japan. The Japanese industrialists refined Ford’s practices in order to develop the Toyota Production System, commonly referred to as the “Just In Time” system.

By the 1980s, American manufacturers had started to realise the benefits of such a production system. Various acronyms such as World Class Manufacturing (WCM), Continuous Flow Manufacturing (CFM) and Stockless Production have been used, but they essentially all use the same concepts as those seen in the Toyota system. The term “Lean Manufacturing” was first introduced by James Womack in his 1990 book, “The Machine That Changed The World.” The concept has now captured the attention of thousands of manufacturers, with lean implementations in production environments now commonplace. The experience and knowledge base surrounding the technique continues to expand rapidly, helped in part by the growing interest in sustainability and green manufacturing techniques.

Lean manufacturing and sustainability can be seen to go hand in hand. Growing ecological responsibility and an increasing commitment to preserve precious resources for future generations have seen the introduction of many green MBA programs at educational establishments across America and the globe. Until Spring 2012, the Aspen Institute conducted a biennial survey known as Beyond Grey Pinstripes. The resulting data produced a list of the highest ranking green MBA programs in the world. In the 2011-2012 survey, three US universities featured in the highest ranking five establishments. The Stanford Graduate School of Business took top place, with the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame taking fourth, and The Yale School of Management coming in at number five.

Individuals seeking a better understanding of the concept of Lean Manufacturing and its correlation with sustainable practices may wish to undertake the free online course from the Aveda Business Institute. For a limited time Six Sigma White Belt Certification is offered free of charge. This offer represents an excellent opportunity for those interested in Lean to benefit from free online education.

Lean Quote: It Can Be Difficult, Perilous, Even Uncertain Leading Change But Six Elements Can Create Success

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.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." — Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)

Many think culture creates successful results but the contrary is true. Changing the culture of an organization requires effective management. There are six C’s for effective change management that anyone who has influence and accountability for team success should possess:

Commitment – Empathy and support from the top levels with the ability to persevere through the inevitable resistance to change. The willingness to assign good personal and the time and money required for the improvement effort.

Communication – The skill to communicate to the entire workforce on how, when and why change is going to occur, combined with the ability to gain their input, ownership and buy-in. Clear and frequent communication is the key to dissipate uncertainty and fear.

Consensus – An agreement on the best path to take forward for success. Involvement of the people concerned to create ownership and alignment of vision. The greater the connection to the change the greater the willingness to change will be.

Consistency – People need to understand that this is not just a fad that will pass, but that you are serious about sticking to it. Repeated desirable thinking, behaviors, and practices form the basis of an organization’s culture.

Cultivation – Encourage and foster learning and teaching at all levels in the organization. Refine the culture of the organization as needs and opportunities change. Make the change relevant to everyone within the organization

Constantly – Regular uninterrupted activity is required for all people in the organization for all the C’s above. Always looking to improve all aspects of what we do to add value and eliminate waste.

The effectiveness of change (E) is the product of the quality of change (Q), time the acceptance of change (A) : E = Q x A. Excelling in either quality or acceptance is not all it takes; both factors complement each other.

There is no quick solution for changing the culture of an organization. With effective management to focus on the quality of change and the six C’s to aid in the acceptance of change you will be well on your way to transforming your organization. Having the ability to master these six characteristics is the embodiment of a highly effective and successful leader.

Manufacturing Day, A Day to Celebrate the Importance of Manufacturing

Manufacturing Day is a time set aside to highlight the importance of manufacturing to the nation’s economy and draw attention to the many rewarding high-skill jobs available in manufacturing fields. This year, Manufacturing Day will be held on October 5, 2012.

The Manufacturing Day effort is co-produced by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA), the U.S. Commerce Department’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and The Manufacturing Institute, and has earned the support of dozens of regional and national manufacturing organizations. A Lean Journey Blog is proud to endorse this years Manufacturing Day.

Through open houses, public tours, career workshops and other events held at participating facilities on Oct. 5, sponsors hope to introduce as many people as possible to the important role played by manufacturing both in local communities and for the nation. The grassroots events will also introduce manufacturers to business improvement resources and services delivered through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) a network of more than 400 affiliated centers across the country.

Studies by the nonprofit Manufacturing Institute and others show that almost 80 percent of Americans believe manufacturing is important to our economic prosperity, standard of living and national security. Yet only 30 percent would encourage their children to go into manufacturing as a career.

With the gap growing each year between the skills students learn in school and those they will need on the job, it is increasingly difficult for manufacturers to find and hire qualified employees. By promoting Manufacturing Day, manufacturing associations and other organizations led by MEP centers and the FMA said they want to remove some of the myths surrounding manufacturing. For example, manufacturing is a solid, long-term career choice for qualified candidates—including the young people who will form the workforce of tomorrow, and it is a vital part of our economy.

“Manufacturing Day will be the ‘coming out party’ for U.S. manufacturers all across the nation,” said Ed Youdell, president and CEO of the FMA. “October 5th is dedicated to celebrating the great work and innovation of the 12 million men and women who make the United States the world’s largest manufacturing economy. FMA and MEP centers are encouraging their members and manufacturers to open their doors to their local school kids, community college students, press, and job seekers so that they can see firsthand the safe, high-tech and innovative work environments that await the best and brightest who pursue careers in manufacturing.”

To learn more about Manufacturing Day, log on to www.mfgday.com or call 888-394-4362. Organizations that wish to become involved as official sponsors of this program should call 888-394-4362 or email info@mfgday.com.