5th Anniversary of A Lean Journey Blog

Today marks the 5th anniversary of A Lean Journey Blog and as tradition here each year I take the opportunity to reflect. The act of "self-reflection" is called Hansei is Japanese. It is the practice of continuous improvement that consists of looking back and thinking about how a process can be improved.

I’d like to think that I turned my naive endeavor to share learning along my own journey into a successful contribution in the Lean community. As I have said before this labor of love has been a tremendous learning process both from the great fans and other colleagues online that I exchange with and from the process of distilling my own learning with you.

I love statistics, so with this milestone, here are some numbers from the blog:

Total Posts: 1001 (see my 1000th post)

Most read post:  DOWNTIME and the Eight Wastes (with over 18,000 views)

Least read post: Times is Money, Use it to Your Advantage

Number of countries/territories who have visited this blog:  209

Top 3 Countries with the most views:

1. U.S.A.
2. United Kingdom
3. Canada

Total views:  Over 580,000 and climbing

Unique visits: Over 425,000

Total comments:  Over 1,500

Total Facebook Fans: Over 1,000

Total Twiter Followers: Over 2,200

LinkedIn Members: Over 800

Top 5 posts this past year:

1. Top 10 Reason Why Lean Transformation Fails
2. The Right Order of MUDA, MURA and MURI
3. Lean Leadership Lessons We Can Learn From Geese
4. Poka Yoke: Mistake Proofing to Reduce Errors
5. Visual Management, A Status At A Glance

I would like to thank all the visitors and contributors to A Lean Journey Blog this past year.  It has been a successful Journey this past year. Please, share your feedback so that A Lean Journey can be even more successful next year.

My 1000th Post

Today’s post marks a bit of a milestone for me, as this post is the 1,000th one since I started this blog back in May 2009.

This is a big milestone for me as I’ve never seen myself as a writer and when I started, I wasn’t sure where it would lead.

This blog is dedicated to sharing lessons and experiences regarding Lean thinking, improvement practices, and leadership. I started this blog to share my perspective of Lean and to chronicle my own “Lean Journey in the Quest for True North."  I hope this has inspired, encouraged, and equipped you for your own journey.

This has been a labor of love and I enjoy the challenge of coming up with enriching content to share with all of you.

Here are the top 10 posts of all time:

1. DOWNTIME and the Eight Wastes
2. The Six-Step Problem-Solving Process
3. Draw a Pig to Learn the Importance of Standard Work
4. Ten Ways to Show Respect for People
5. The "Hot Stove" Rule of Discipline
6. Defining the Problem Statement
7. Free Online Process Mapping Tool For Value Stream Maps and More
8. Personal Kanban Kaizen - It's all Digital
9. Personal Kanban Kaizen
10. 10 Characteristics of a Good Measure and 7 Pitfalls to Avoid

Lean is not about the destination but rather the direction or path you take toward this idealistic place. It is about the constant, persistent, even relentless pursuit of improving your current situation. This improvement then brings you to the next current state and so on. ALeanJourney.com shares lessons and experiences along this journey to “True North” as a way to support learning and reflection, without which there can no lasting improvement. Lean is a "learning" process so sharing your lessons and opinions here are welcome.

A big thanks to everyone for your support so far, I appreciate every subscriber, reader and person who has taken the time to comment over the years.

You guys are a constant inspiration to me and I love hearing from you.

Lean Quote: Empowering is About Coaching Not Managing

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.

"Empowerment is all about letting go so others can get going." — Jack Welch

Empowerment may not be a new concept to you, but many organizations experience problems because they don’t know how to ‘live it’. Employee empowerment has been described and defined in many ways but is generally accepted as: the process of enabling an employee to think, behave, act, react and control their work in more autonomous ways, as to be in control of one’s own destiny.

Many managers feel that by empowering employees, they relinquish the responsibility to lead and control the organization. This is not the case. Empowerment is actually a culmination of many of the ideas and tenets of employee satisfaction.

The best way to empower employees is not to manage them. 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.

Empowering employees is the ongoing process of providing the tools, training, resources; encouragement and motivation your workers need to perform at the optimum level. When you show an employee you trust them, and give them timely information and the authority to find solutions, they will be able to solve problems and provide solutions more rapidly than someone without that empowerment.

 

Book Review: Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping is a foundational approach to visualizing your systems to optimize value through focused improvements. My good friend Karen Martin and Mike Osterling present a detailed guide to this approach in their book Value Stream Mapping.

Karen and Mike attempt to address 3 common gaps in value stream mapping (VSM):

1)    Unfamiliarity with VSM as a method to build an outstanding organization

2)    Under-utilization of VSM due to lack of understanding

3)    Misusing VSM and not reaping the full benefits.

They focus of the benefits of value stream mapping, how to conduct them, and how use them for improvement and sustaining gains. Karen and Mike provide tips (guidelines) from experience for impactful and expedient improvement.

Value Stream Mapping is primarily written for organizations in information-intensive offices, service, and knowledge work environments. They focus on processes in a wide range of industries and professions.

Karen and Mike include six examples of current and future state value stream maps drawn from the authors' real experience in across business environments as various as Outpatient Imaging Services, Purchasing, Repair Services, Shelving Systems and Software Development in the Appendices.

Many business people have an incomplete understanding of a VSM and treat it as a tool that is used once in a while with minimum results. This book explains how to utilize the VSM not just as a tool but as a way to manage business. Value Stream Mapping is an excellent step-by-step guide to doing them the right way.

Value Stream Mapping is a short quick read that is easy to understand for anyone. Karen and Mike provide a great resource to get the most out of your value stream. They go beyond the map itself to get sustainable improvement. This is an excellent book that you should read, practice, and implement.

 

The Role of the Lean Sensei

Last week on The Lean Edge authors were asked about the role of a sensei:

What is your experience of working with sensei, and what advice should we give executives seeking to learn lean deeply regarding senseis?

It is a very good question so I wanted to share my thoughts on the matter.

Lean manufacturing is a very broad philosophy for business improvement that has many tools/techniques to aid you in making your production or service more efficient and better at offering your customer a great value. Being able to successfully implement Lean across a company is not something that you can pick up from reading a few Lean implementation books, nor is it something that you can learn from a training course in your local hotel, to truly be able to implement Lean you have to have lived and breathed it for several years to gain enough experience.

This leadership role has many names.  Whether you call them a sensei, champion, coach, or leader; the role is no less critical for the organization to be successful.  I am not one that pays much attention to titles but for this post I chose Coach because it is so fitting.  A Coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a team or of individual.

The following characteristics are desirable for a good Lean Coach:

1. Active-learner open to new ideas
2. Natural problem-solving skills
3. Basics technical skills (comfortable with spreadsheets, graphs, data, etc.)
4. Keen Observer
5. Hands-on
6. Passionate about improving processes
7. Leadership skills
8. Strong interpersonal skills
9. Excellent communicator (writing & speaking)
10. Systems thinkers (able to understand process flows, etc.)

These characteristics alone don't make a Lean Coach.  The Lean Coach must have technical knowledge in the lean tools and tacit knowledge from experience.  Nobody is born knowing these principles and how to implement them.  Everyone has to learn them through practice, trial and error, and coaching.  Success is not based on who you are but rather on what you do. Behaviors can be learned and unlearned.

Being a teacher is the most important aspect for a Lean Coach.  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 Coach must be relentless in teaching and expecting learning through actual practice.

The focus of a Lean coach is to provide coaching on the principles and practices of Lean Thinking to individuals and groups of employees within manufacturing and service industries. A Lean coach can be advantage because of the following reasons:

Knowledge

A Lean coach brings a range of experiences from previous Implementations that can help you to ensure that your implementation will be smooth and efficient. They also have the experience of implementing the various lean tools in different situations so they will understand how to involve your people and guide them in achieving the best possible results. Most Lean coaches will also have people and organizations that they can go to gain additional expert advice and help, contacts in other industries and companies with whom you can share experiences and view successes.

Perspective

A Lean coach that is independent from your organization and not burdened by the internal politics or any pre-conceived ideas of how the place should work has a clear mind with a bias for action. They can challenge status quo and ask those hard questions to get you out of your comfort zone and to think of those out-of-the-box ideas you need.

Pressure

A good Lean coach should be continuously pushing your company. They will be able to focus on the specifics of the implementation and not be distracted by the other things that may be going on within your company. A Lean coach can apply the constant gentle pressure required for transformation to take hold.

Choosing the right Lean coach to help you make the move from traditional manufacturing to Lean manufacturing is very important. A successful Lean coach must have the ability to convince people at all levels of the organization. No matter whether you are using a Lean consultant or someone on staff, full company-wide support is imperative in making the changes work. Management will have to fully support the Lean coach in Lean projects, and employees will have to be convinced to implement the changes wholeheartedly.

Lean Quote: Communication is a Key Ingredient for Empowerment

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.

"If communication is not your top priority, all of your other priorities are at risk." — Bob Aronson, Communications Consultant

Communication is a key ingredient for empowerment. Give every employee equal and direct access to information. Many companies have developed a trickle-down style of communication that alienates those employees who may not be "in the loop." The more informed employees are and the more communication is open, honest, direct and complete, the more likely employees are to feel empowered and connected to the daily operations and overall goals of their company.

Open communication is at the center of Lean and Respect for People. Employees need to know what is expected of them and how they’re performing. Visual displays such as scoreboards, scheduling charts, team communication boards, and recognition displays all help to keep information flowing between employees, departments and upper management.

Communication is the glue that binds an organization together but do not assume that several announcements and a note on the notice board is sufficient to get the story out. Some say to communicate seven times and seven ways but that does not mean seven months apart. Develop and implement a robust communication plan and check to see if the total target audience has received the unfiltered message. If you want to know if your message is getting out clearly why not ask the most obscure person on the night shift if he or she heard the message? The day shift is easy but how about the rest of the folks?

 

Making Time for Improvement

A common question by those just starting down a Lean journey is how do you find time for improvement.

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.” – Charles Buxton (Philanthropist and Politician)

It is an age-old battle — production time versus improvement time. Two worthy rivals attempting to occupy the same narrow 24-hour space. The issue is not which is more important. Production is! This is as it should be: a company is in business to sell its products and services. It must first make them. And that takes time. Production time always comes first.

Too often improvement is left to chance and the ingenuity of the willing to eke out small pockets of time — and make magic happen. We all know these people. They see the vision burning brightly before them and are determined to make it happen. Time and again, these people prove — with their own mental, emotional, and physical health — the familiar adage: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Improvement doesn’t just happen.  It takes time, and in the pressure pot of our day to day activities, there is never enough time to improve our situation. The structure of Lean permits and requires time be set aside for improvement. If managers do not definitively provide time for the task of improvement, then people will know that they are not serious about making improvement a formal part of the work.

One of the most common reasons I hear when improvement activity stops is ‘there is so much going on, we’re too busy to find time for improvement. The predominant culture in many organizations is on of firefighting – implementing temporary fixed to problems. Ultimately, however, fire-fighting organizations fail to solve problems adequately. Firefighting prevents us from getting to the root cause. And if we don’t get to the root of problem we will be right back to firefighting soon.

Most of us don't set aside time in the day, much less the week, just to improve. Without an improvement time policy, however, the danger is that needed improvements will never happen. It doesn't take much time or skill, mainly just will. We need to be encouraged and reminded that it only takes a few minutes to do kaizen. Without assistance from management, people have no good way to make time for improvement within the workday.

Management’s job is improvement. They must remove roadblocks that hinder this achievement. If managers do not take the time and make the effort to incorporate improvement in their work they are not serious about the effort. It takes time and effort to make changes in the way we do things, but it takes the time to consider and implement those changes if they are to survive in the long run.