Lean Practiced at Your Home Away From Home

Many Lean practitioner remark about the examples of Lean thinking they find in their travels.  I recently had a trip away from home for training (USA hockey Coaches training) where I found some examples worth sharing.

Here is a good example of a simple poka yoke and standard work posted at point of use. So first of all the black disc is heavy like paper weight so it keeps the cord on the desk where you want it.  They slide a simple rubber grommet over the connector to prevent the cord from sliding through the hole in the black disc.  The disc has the instructions printed on it so that you can easily connect to the internet.

Here is an example of a kanban signal.  Hotels try to conserve energy and water by reducing the number of laundry runs.  They do this by giving the hotel guest the option to use their towels and linens  multiple times if they stay multiple nights.  So in this case you place this card on the bed if you want to tell the hotel maid to change the linens or towels.  It signals replenishment from their inventory of clean linens.  On the back of the card (not pictured) are the instructions explaining this process.

Here is an example of point of use storage and standard work instructions.  Next to the coffee machine in the room are the coffee supplies.  Everything you need is neatly stored in one place.  All coffee machines are different so the hotel has printed and placed instructions for operating this machine locally to avoid confusion.

The last example is that of a visual indicator.  This placard can be put on your door to indicate that you are still sleeping in your room and you don't want to be interrupted.  By placing this signal on the door the maid knows to skip your room and go to the next available room.

These examples which are common in many hotels certainly make traveling and staying away from home easier.  You can also see how it helps the hotel provide the service you need during your stay. As a Lean practitioner I am always interested in examples of Lean thinking. They can serve as great learning opportunities.  We are often surrounded by them but struggle to recognize them. Can you recognize Lean thinking around you?


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Lean Quote: Cure the Fear with Learning

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.

Most people would rather live with a problem they can’t solve than accept a solution they can’t understand." — R.E.D. Woolsey and H.S. Swanson

Fear of unknown, consequent failure and complacency are some of the major reasons for resisting change. There are some people out there who have no fear of the unknown, and who can simply decide logically what they want to do and do it, but for the rest of us, we have to make the unfamiliar feel familiar.

This fear can be diffused through open discussion and successful improvement events. Employees will go along with change more readily if they feel responsible for its implementation. Few people oppose something they helped develop. Employees’ involvement in successful endeavors will motivate others in the facility to join the journey and begin to implement change on their own. Ask employees for their time, ideas, and suggestions to make certain that a positive environment for change is created. Change is best done through reasonable increments and initial successes. Let people be active participants and become responsible for the new way of doing things.

People are normally very open to new solutions which they are familiar with or which they know they can easily understand and learn, but are averse to the opposite. Make the unfamiliar familiar through effective learning. You will find this is not dependent on how hard or easy the solution is to learn but how well the solution and method for learning/embracing is presented. One of the best ways to bring this about is to involve the people in the solution finding process, being receptive to their feedback on the problem, and the prospective solutions they are looking at.

Going ahead with implementing a solution that the people don't understand will not do anyone any good. Forcing them to accept and learn it will only make them rebellious and resentful. Consequently, they will rather live with the problem than work to resolve it.

I have learned the fear of the unknown is natural and we must overcome this fear through learning and understanding.


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Teaching Kids Standard Work in Our Schools

I am not sure how many of you have elementary age kids but I have 3 lovely kids that age. Every time I visit their classrooms I notice all the visuals. They use visuals throughout their learning process. Whether it is learning the alphabet, weather, time, dates, reading or whatever else the topic it is visual. Elementary classrooms are run very much like or Lean factories with regard to visuals and organization. The use of labels help the kids learn new words but also keep the classroom organized. Everything in a classroom has a home and everything is in its place. All the children know this very well.

A recent trip reminded me of the importance of establishing standard work. If you want people to behave in a certain way or do something in a particular manner than you need to use standard work. Here is an example of standard work at my son’s 2nd grade class.

It is mounted on their desk in the top right corner clearly visible. The kids don’t have to remember all the steps in the morning routine because it is right in front of them. It gets the kids organized and ready to start learning without wasting any time.

Standard work is highly effective at establishing a means to do something that everyone can follow. It also makes it easy to identify when someone is not following the process. Where is standard work used in your daily life to create a routine?



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Lean Simulation: Your Source for Lean Games and Training Tools

There is a new blog within the Lean community called Lean Simulations.  This is the creation of Martin Boersema, a Lean practitioner from the Toronto area.
  

The goal of this site is to create a resource or repository for training simulations, videos, and other tools for sharing and learning.  Martin explains this in his own words: 

As an industrial engineer implementing Lean at a manufacturing facility, I found plenty of Lean resources on the Internet. However, when I looked for simulations to use for training and during kaizen events, I discovered that free stuff was difficult to come by. I needed simple lean games to demonstrate the basic concepts of Lean and TPS to shop floor employees. 

He also encourages other to share their know-how:

The focus of this site is Lean training material, ready-to-use and FREE. I am searching the web for lean simulations, lean games, presentations, and real world examples. Please feel free to email me your material and I will link to it or post it.

Martin told me he started this site as a way to capture online Lean resources as he was trying to develop a Lean game to teach his coworkers. Now he has interjected some thoughts on training and these resources.  A recent discussion covered the question of improving employee morale from team building.

This is a new blog but I think you will find this a useful resource. With help from the Lean community sharing their knowledge the value of the information can grow substantially.



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Remembering Service

Memorial Day is a time to remember former and present service members.

I want to wish everybody out there a wonderful Memorial Day. 

Hopefully, everybody can spend some quality time with their families and the people they love and remember what this holiday is about.

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” -Winston Churchill

A special thanks to all those men and women who have so bravely and honorably served this country. The courage and sacrifice of all who died in military service will not be forgotten.

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Lean Quote: When You See a Job To Do, Just Do It

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.

"The thing about the Navy is when we see a job to do, we just do it. That’s part of who we are. It’s always been that way. It always will be that way and it’s that commitment, drive, focus on mission, and focus on making things better for those that are going to come after us that make all the difference in the world. And the United States Navy does it better than anybody else. " — Unknown, US Navy Quotes

There is a comical little story that goes along with the premise of this quote:

This is a story about four people named; Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did.

Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!!!!!!!!!!

The moral of the story is for you to be somebody that everybody loves, anyone would respect and nobody will forget! Expect to be a leader. Effective leadership is critical in business  - if you go first the rest will follow! You must believe in yourself and focus on your strengths.  Like the Nike commercial says "just do it".

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Customizing Lean Your Way

It is important that you apply Lean thinking to solve your own problems. Since every business and industry is different the problems are also different. While we can all learn from each other we must customize our solution if we want the countermeasure to be effective and sustained. A common area you see custom solutions is in material handling.  This usually involves storage, transportation, carts, racks, work stations, and jigs or templates.

The Creform System, employed worldwide for over 40 years, has combined all of the elements of efficient material handling, elements that are today recognized as critical to success in the global market place.


From their website:

Today’s manufacturers are challenged to increase productivity while lowering manufacturing costs. Properly employed, the dynamics of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing can result in a 10% increase per year in productivity by eliminating non-value added waste. Our sales engineers are all trained to assist our customers implement continuous improvement and lean programs as well as the five-S ideology and elimination of non-value added waste using the Creform System.

Here is a video demonstrating the wide range of applications for this product which highlight a number of great Lean ideas:




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