Lean Quote: Problem Solving Begets Problems

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.

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem." — Martin Luther King Jr.

If you are seeking a quick and successful lean implementation, forget it. Quite simply, lean implementations frequently are referred to as lean journeys for good reason: They take time, and they are not always straightforward.

It is not unusual to observe the phenomenon of how solving one problem begets more problems.  BUT, is this a reason to not solve the problem at all?  No, we are all faced with problems to solve in our workday. The problem for most people is that they do not use a process to solve problems or to make decisions. Another problem is that people are not consistent in how they solve problems. They do not find something that works and then do it the same way over and over to be successful.

A simple, pragmatic problem solving methodology is the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) approach. It begins with a Planning phase in which the problem is clearly identified and understood. Potential solutions are then generated and tested on a small scale in the "Do" phase, and the outcome of this testing is evaluated during the Check phase. "Do" and "Check" phases can be iterated as many times as is necessary before the full, polished solution is implemented in the "Act" phase.

The PDCA cycle model is built as a continuous loop and this loop ensures that processes are frequently revisited. This is very beneficial to organizations because if something changes or isn't working to satisfaction it can be changed. It also reduces the chance of something that isn't quite working to be inadvertently overlooked.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of checking that your solutions do in fact address the root cause. When you solve problems in your business remember you are not done until the testing is conclusive. The beauty of the PDCA beyond its simplicity is the iterative problem solving cycle which if followed gets to the root of the problem.

Striving for excellence is an ongoing process that requires persistence. I often say that it is the Lean leader who must apply constant gentle pressure if they want Lean to be a success. Dogged persistence will assure that Lean actually happens.

 

Guest Post: The 5 Best Ways To Get Your Employees To Compete

Healthy competition among employees increases productivity and can even boost employee morale, but many companies have a difficult time effectively encouraging their employees to do their best work. Supervisors and managers of the past used to use threatening tactics to obtain high performance levels from employees, but that approach did not often result in the desired outcome. Sour working environments erode employee motivation, and studies have shown that motivated workers are the most productive. If you are trying to inspire your employees to produce their best work, remember that the key to good performance lies in creating and maintaining high levels of employee morale. Following are five ways to help your work force become more motivated. 

1. Create a Positive Work Environment 
People naturally work faster and better in a positive environment, and part of that involves allowing employees to personalize their work spaces. For instance, many modern companies forbid employees to place family pictures or other personal items on their desks. This creates a bleak working environment that does not serve to inspire optimal performance.

2. The Importance of Rewarding Success 
Setting reasonable goals and rewarding employees who successfully reach them is highly instrumental in fostering a work environment that is conducive to a good production output. If you are looking for inspiration for corporate gifts and reward programs, O.C. Tanner has achieved global recognition in the field of employee appreciation development.

3. Foster Teamwork 
Most people respond well to being a valued member of a team by putting forth their best efforts. Human beings are hard wired to work cooperatively with one another to achieve common goals, so keep remember that not all performance rewards need to go to individuals. Incentives can be provided to the team as a whole for working efficiently together to reach goals.

4. Let Employees Share in the Success of Your Business 
Offering a profit sharing program to employees is an excellent way to keep them engaged in your business in a positive way. People are much more likely to be motivated to do their best when they have an investment in the outcome of their labor.

5. Provide Timely Salary Increases 
Money frequently motivates people who work for a living more than anything. Although other factors do have significance impact on performance and morale, keeping good employees is dependent on financial compensation and benefits. Most people have no choice but to closely consider the bottom line when making career decisions.

About the Author:

Annabelle Smyth is currently a loving and caring mother of two children. She lives outside of Milwaukee, WI and loves cheering for the Bucks and Badgers. She is a blog enthusiast and loves writing, if she is not writing she is cleaning up after her two lovely angels.

Quality: Going Beyond To Bring Value Added Solutions To Customers

It appears my post last month on defining quality success has sparked some discussion from Paul Borawski on defining quality. Paul asks the influential voices of ASQ to define quality.

“What do you use as the best, most inclusive, and illuminating definition of quality?”

"Quality" means different things to different people. We use the term but the concept and vocabulary of quality is elusive. If you ask someone to define the word "quality", you will get a variety of answers.

The definition of quality often depends on the stakeholders. Stakeholders are, as the name implies, people with some stake or concern in the process. In manufacturing, the definition of quality can be fairly straightforward. Products should work as intended with a minimum number of faults or failures. This concept applies to services as well as products.

Quality must go beyond our product or service. We cannot add it at the end of the line or inspect it into the product. At best that is only a false sense of security. If we want a quality product it must be made with quality processes by quality minded people. A focus on quality must be intrinsic to the company culture and practices for the customer to take notice.

Manufacturing-based definitions are concerned primarily with engineering and manufacturing practices and use the universal definition of “conformance to requirements.” Requirements, or specifications, are established design, and any deviation implies a reduction in quality. In service industries, customer satisfaction is often the primary measure.

A modern definition of quality derives from Juran's "fitness for intended use." This definition basically says that quality is "meeting or exceeding customer expectations." Deming states that the customer's definition of quality is the only one that matters.

Quality is an ever evolving perception by the customer of the value provided by a product. It is not a static perception that never changes but a fluid process that changes as a product matures (innovation) and other alternatives (competition) are made available as a basis of comparison.

Excellence in quality is not necessarily in the eye of the beholder but rather in the standards set by the organization. This approach has serious weaknesses. The consumer’s perception of quality is equated with conformance and hence is internally focused. Emphasis on reliability in design and manufacturing tends to address cost reduction as the objective, and cost reduction is perceived in a limited way–invest in design and manufacturing improvement until these incremental costs equal the costs of non-quality such as rework or scrap.

The objective of “Quality" is to satisfy the ever-changing needs of our customers, suppliers and employees, with value added products and services emphasizing a continuous commitment to satisfaction through an ongoing process of education, communication, evaluation and constant improvement.

In manufacturing, a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects, deficiencies, and significant variations, brought about by the strict and consistent adherence to measurable and verifiable standards to achieve uniformity of output that satisfies specific customer or user requirements. ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs."

The Baldrige Criteria doesn’t mention the word quality because every activity and decision contained in the structure of the criteria must be a quality activity or decision. Under this assumption, quality is built in to the very fiber of the organization. This is the preferred way to conduct the business of the organization.

A quality organization understands that the realization of quality must be continually energized and regenerated. Successful implementation of a quality focused organization requires commitment and patience, but the rewards are substantial. Beyond the obvious practical benefits, organizations become empowered to solve persistent process and performance challenges while raising the expectations they set for themselves.

Excellence in quality improves customer loyalty, elevates brand position, reduces cost, attracts new customers, and draws the best and brightest talent. A strong orientation for quality helps to achieve business goals. Achieving excellence in quality provides significant momentum for the business and is a source of pride for all employees. A comprehensive quality management system is a key attribute to the longevity and success of an organization.

Quality is important to businesses but can be quite hard to define. The meaning of quality differs depending upon circumstances and perceptions. For example, quality is a different concept when focusing on tangible products versus the perception of a quality service. The meaning of quality is also time-based or situational.

Unfortunately, there are not enough organizations that understand that quality is the means to bring value to customers. As quality professionals and the like it is our responsibility to continuously improve how we bring value to the customer. Going beyond quality brings true, lasting value.


I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

Don’t Blame the Operator, Ask One More Why

Operator error is often used in corrective action as a cause of failure. Although operators can make errors, operator error is not an acceptable cause of failure because it is not actionable. It is very often overused by the lazy or those who don't know any better but human error can almost always be mitigated.

Processes must be designed to expect that operators wish to do the correct thing. Training and providing work instructions and procedures are not robust enough for repetitive processes. Poor training and / or work instructions are inadequate secondary choices to operator error. The real issue is the operator discovers errors made in the process design. The process designer / engineer must strive to engage operators into the process and help reduce the number of possible errors available for operators to find.

We must approach operator error by considering the interfaces of the process that the operator is engaged in. The process should be designed to permit communication between the process and the operator.

With the process interface in mind, we must ask why one more time to cascade from operator error, down to specific actionable topics. Here are some examples of these actionable topics:

Actionable Topics to Replace "Operator Error"

Work Station Design

• Bench/Table Height
• Organization of work tools (5S)
• # of tools and placement
• Component Positions
• Quantity
• Similarity
• Extended Reach (occasional)
• Lighting
• Comfort Features
• Foot rests/seat position
• Standing work bench position

Ergonomics

• Height and Reach
• Work type
• Weight
• Lifting
• Motion
• #of steps
• Degrees of freedom
• Work station interface
• Blind operation
• Posture
• Insertion force
• Static insertions
• Plastic deformation of end source
• Tool
• Vibration
• Tool design

Documentation and Training

• Illustrations Process Documentation
• “A4” One page
• No Documentation
• Validation of Standard Work Practices
• Testing
• Demonstration
• Frequency of validation
• Training
• Definition
• Measurement of Success
• Complexity of documentation
• Labeling
• Legibility of work instructions
• # of pages
• Understandability (5 second rule)
• Fonts size and type

Assists and Tool Design

• Error proofing features (lack of)
• Tool calibration
• Pallet compliance
• Correct tool
• Multiple look alike
• Life of tool
• Wear out
• Fixture control
• Maintenance
• Clamp pressure
• Inadequate
• Too great
• Cycle completion/interruption
• Locators / proximity sensors
• Life expectancy
• Measurement instrument degradation
• Environment

Cognitive Attention and Concentration

• Audible Noise (Interruption)
• Environment
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Sensitivity to Interruption
• Repetition
• Motion
• Trance/Zone Inducement
• Sound Quality
• Harmonics
• Vibration/cyclical noise

Processes designed with operators in mind provide feedback to the process status. This process interface can be passive or active. Passive interfaces use visual cues, such as seeing parts remaining in a kitted bin or tactile feedback when installing a part or engaging a clamp. Active interfaces use logic, sounds, lights, process interruption or lockouts as feedback. Ultimately, Poka Yoke (error and mistake proofing) are deployed in order to eliminate or reduce errors discovered by operators.

Operator error is not actionable but the causes of operator error can be addressed by process and product changes. Don’t take the easy way out and blame the operator. Ask why, and then improve the process. Show Respect for People.

Lean Quote: Improvement Comes From People Who Feel Secure

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 economic losses from fear are appalling. To assure better quality and productivity, it is necessary that people feel secure." — W. Edward Deming

Managers have long used fear as a basic motivator. The obvious problem with using fear as a "motivator" is that workers eventually begin to loathe the object of their fear - the manager - and productivity levels begin to deteriorate rather than to increase. In the long run, workers who are afraid of the negative consequences a manager heaps upon them are likely to hate the supervisor and do little, if anything to follow the supervisor's directions. Using fear to start people on the road toward better behavior may work initially, but a wise manager will positively reinforce each improvement.

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.

Improved performance cannot occur unless workers feel comfortable that they can speak truthfully and are confident that their suggestions will be taken seriously. Managers and employees must assume that everyone is interested in doing his or her best!


 

Guest Post: A Leaner Me

Today's post is from a reader and follower of A Lean Journey Blog Kristina Ross, who has recently been on a kaizen kick. She has been learning all about Lean and trying to apply it in her work and life. She asked to share her story with you and as I like to promote learning and sharing I graciously agreed.

To me, lean philosophy was primarily academic endeavor – something I’d heard repeated a few times in my college classes, but never worth integrating into my own reality. B-school professors liked sneaking it into their lectures whenever Toyota was mentioned, but that was the extent of what I’d come to know about lean thinking. Essentially, I knew enough to check the box come finals week.

Now, a year or so post-graduation, that couldn’t be further from the case. Unknowingly, I came adopt a lean-centric mindset that thankfully landed me at the equally lean-oriented company I now work for. That’s a pretty massive jump, from general ignorance to full-on embrace, but it’s one I couldn’t have made if it weren’t for some bumps along the road.

In short, toward the end of my senior year, I felt like I was in a massive rut. I didn’t want to burden my parents by moving back in with them, but time was running thin and I didn’t have anywhere else to head after graduation. I’d applied for what seemed like thousands of jobs, some of which granted me interviews, but none of which granted me an offer sheet. I was running every which way, trying to find someone – anyone – who would employ me.

Sometime after I completed what seemed like my thousand and first resume drop, I realized something: I was working hard to get a job, but I wasn’t working efficiently. Simply put, I was going through a ton of unnecessary motions. By spreading my curriculum vitae far and wide, I thought I would catch the eye of some probing HR department, but that was the wrong way to look at things. I needed to condense my search and start focusing on the job openings that truly bonded with my skill set and interests. By eliminating my wasteful search efforts and narrowing the scope to only the companies I knew I could gel with, things took an incredible turn for the better.

Not but two weeks after, I scored a job as a blogger. Two weeks after that, I was all geared up in my new office, happy and ready to work. It was a quick, fortunate turnaround, and one that I totally attribute to lean-like waste elimination. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out, and I can only imagine where this sort of mindset can propel me as I continue to lay down my career path. Institutionally, lean thinking is invaluable – but it’s important to never underestimate the personal good it can do for you, as well.

About the Author:
Kristina Ross is a blogger with SaveOnEnergy.com. Outside of her lean revelation, she enjoys gardening, genealogy, psychology, and spending time with her loving husband and wonderful son. She also owns a lovable oaf of a dog named Buster.

Daily Lean Tips Edition #41

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #601 - Create a Model Line.

Develop a showplace within your shop where everyone can see how it should be done. Start small, but don't pick a project that has no challenges. Develop key measurements before and after the production line so that people can watch the progress of your get-lean initiative. Finally, create a future-state map that acts as your ideal value stream.

Lean Tip #602 - Learning takes place through the application of lean principles.

Learn as much as possible about a concept, then begin to apply it. A good example is 5S. When 5S is implemented correctly, it not only provides order and improved housekeeping, it also enhances equipment and improves efficiency.

Lean Tip #603 - Visit other successful lean implementations.

It is easy to find companies that will allow you to see their lean implementation. The difficult part is finding a successful implementation. A good way to do this is find a company hiring lean manufacturing professionals. If the implementation wasn't successful, they wouldn't be hiring more professionals.

Lean Tip #604 - Encourage creativity by thinking differently and rewarding good ideas.

If you want to hear the best ideas about your business, give an incentive to get them heard. Make sure you reward creativity and thinking differently, not just whether an idea will work or not. What you want is the culture that allows ideas and challenge – in that culture not every idea will be successful, but at least they are being raised.

Lean Tip #605 - Get out there, go to the gemba.

I say this to executives and to on-the-floor people alike. They must start their Lean journey with a trip to see what Toyota calls the three reals - the real place, the real data and the real problem. They must go and see for themselves, not just take the advice of a Lean committee!

Lean Tip #606 - Think about how to do it, not why it can't be done.

I often hear, "We tried that before and it didn't work." They may have had a good idea, but the chances are that they didn't include the accountability portion. Without accountability, you will not have sustainability. Make someone accountable and avoid the "flavor of the month."

Lean Tip #607 - Do not seek perfection. Do it right away.

Taiichi Ohno used to regularly nag at people not to let a quality problem "escape" to the next customer. You've got to stop what you're doing, put a countermeasure on it and do it right away.

Lean Tip #608 – We don't have bad people, just bad processes.

For the most part, this is true. By concentrating on the process and building continuous improvement there, you will have the culture change that you're looking for.

Lean Tip #609 - Question everything.

Ask "why" five times. A brilliantly simple root cause problem-solving tool, asking why five times becomes easier the more you do it. Adopting this as a default way of looking at things will aid, not only your problem solving, but other areas, too.

Lean Tip #610 - Get support from the senior management.

Lean's successes are 20 percent due to the tools. About 80 percent comes from culture change, which is driven by support from senior management. Without this, Lean will be just another fad. Take no action and nothing will happen. If you do nothing, nothing changes. Be aware of items that stall your action. It's better to have a 50-percent reduction in waste right away than it is to take no action and hope for a 100-percent reduction in waste sometime in the future.

Lean Tip #611 - Kaizen requires a bias for action.

Get your teams out of the conference room and into the gemba. From there, mandate a fast turnaround time, have them quickly do a value stream map and root cause analysis for their actionable items, and post their successes right away.

Lean Tip #612 - Kaizen starts with taking a look at the actual place of work.

Continuous improvement efforts must start with a trip to the gemba. The gemba might often be the factory floor, but people forget about Lean in the office, where half of the work starts out being late! It's easy to see waste on the floor, but it's harder (at first) to see waste in the office or other value streams. Going to the gemba will make it easier.

Lean Tip #613 - Do not spend money for kaizen.

All that proves is that you have a lot of money. It doesn’t matter whether you're in manufacturing or health care, you don't have "extra" money. Toyota says that they use their wits, not their wallets, for continuous improvement.

Lean Tip #614 – Take no action and nothing will happen.

If you do nothing, nothing changes. Be aware of items that stall your action. It's better to have a 50-percent reduction in waste right away than it is to take no action and hope for a 100-percent reduction in waste sometime in the future.

Lean Tip #615 - Show results, not action items.

It's terribly important that you post real results on your Lean board, not things that you're going to do. You must be able to point out your successes if you're ever going to convince the CAVE people that Lean works. (CAVE = Citizens Against Virtually Everything)