Lean Quote: Martin Luther King Jr - Making a Change Requires a Leap of Faith

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.

"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." — Martin Lurther King Jr.

This week we celebrate and recognize the life and achievement of Martin Luther King Jr. MLK as they say was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. His quote above has always struck me as paramount to change.

I am often asked when the best time to start your Lean Journey is. Well, the short answer is now.  There is never a convenient or inconvenient time for change.

The world is moving forward, swiftly and consistently. As industry leaders, if you stop taking a breath, you will be left far behind others, competing in the race. Change is inevitable as so is it a scary concept. To overcome this fear, try doing something new. Take risks, explore ways to overcome the disabilities and move ahead. It might sound easy, but it is no less challenging.

Sometime, I hear “we are not ready for lean”. This is a rather circular argument, because effectively what the management is saying is that business processes are too bad and therefore it can’t implement improvement. Of course this means that the business will never improve! I have never seen a business where the processes where too bad to start improving.

Making a change requires a leap of faith. Taking that leap of faith is risky, and people will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction.  Making a change takes lots of leaps of faith.

Many organizations are waiting for the optimum time to change.  Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes.  If you allow it you will always find another distraction.  There is never a better time to start than now.  We really must invest everyday in our future since you can't get back lost time.

Don’t spend your time trying to wait till things are perfect. Perfection is elusive. It is more important to get started. And it's better to get something done imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

 

Daily Lean Tips Edition #73 (1096-1110)

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 #1096 - Actively promote organizational effectiveness, reputation, values and ethics

Actively promote organizational effectiveness, reputation, values and ethics – Employees want to feel good about their leaders, where they work, the products they sell and the reputation of their company.

Lean Tip #1097 - Collaborate and Share on Problem-solving

When employees get the idea that their manager or leader is the one who has to solve all the problems, it takes away from their sense of empowerment, and ultimately is likely to decrease engagement over time. Encourage team members to take responsibility, and work through problems or issues on their own, or collaboratively. It’s not the manager’s job to fix everyone else’s problems.

Lean Tip #1098 - Taking Risks is Critical to a Culture of Innovation

Innovation can be a company’s best strategic advance, especially in today’s competitive and crowded marketplace. However, for the innovation to occur, most companies have to be willing to embrace the risk of potential failure. Actually, this kind of an approach across the company always has to start with the tone at the top – if employees see their manager taking risks and testing new ideas, they are more likely to follow suit.

As ideas cannot be shared without honest and open communication, encourage your employees to say a thing or two about company’s latest projects. Communication always takes time, so adequate time and place for discussion and meetings must be apportioned into the normal schedule.

Lean Tip #1099 - Give Employees a Voice

Encourage your employees to make comments and suggestions. You might even consider placing a comment box in the break room. By doing so, employees will realize that their thoughts and feeling matter. If there is a personal comment or suggestion that needs to be addressed, do so immediately. Otherwise, consider trying any feasible ideas that are suggested.

Lean Tip #1100 - Remove Blame Culture – Make Failure Acceptable

Innovation is one of the key ingredients in business success and if you want to create an innovative organization you'll need to motivate your staff to show initiative, think creatively and even take some risks. But, they won't do this in a blame culture environment where employees are castigated for failure and for trying something new; they will become afraid to think creatively and won't be motivated to innovate. Companies with a blame culture are disadvantaged in relation to creativity, learning, innovation and productive risk-taking. Replace a blame culture with one of learning from mistakes. Encourage workers to own up to mistakes but with a focus on what has been learned from it. Senior managers should lead the way by owning up to mistakes to show that it is OK to fail.

Lean Tip #1101 – Goals: Specific, realistic goals work best. 

When it comes to making a change, the people who succeed are those who set realistic, specific goals. "I'm going to recycle all my plastic bottles, soda cans, and magazines" is a much more doable goal than "I'm going to do more for the environment." And that makes it easier to stick with.

Lean Tip #1102 – Goals: It takes time for a change to become an established habit. 

It will probably take a couple of months before any changes — like getting up half an hour early to exercise — become a routine part of your life. That's because your brain needs time to get used to the idea that this new thing you're doing is part of your regular routine.

Lean Tip #1103 – Goals: Repeating a goal makes it stick. 

Say your goal out loud each morning to remind yourself of what you want and what you're working for. (Writing it down works too.) Every time you remind yourself of your goal, you're training your brain to make it happen.

Lean Tip #1104 – Goals: Pleasing other people doesn't work. 

The key to making any change is to find the desire within yourself — you have to do it because you want it, not because a girlfriend, boyfriend, coach, parent, or someone else wants you to. It will be harder to stay on track and motivated if you're doing something out of obligation to another person.

Lean Tip #1105 – Goals: Roadblocks don't mean failure. 

Slip-ups are actually part of the learning process as you retrain your brain into a new way of thinking. It may take a few tries to reach a goal. But that's OK — it's normal to mess up or give up a few times when trying to make a change. So remember that everyone slips up and don't beat yourself up about it. Just remind yourself to get back on track.

Lean Tip #1106 – Create New Habit: Commit to Thirty Days

Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time to commit to a change since it easily fits in your calendar.

Lean Tip #1107 – Create New Habit: Start Simple

Don’t try to completely change everything in one day. It is easy to get over-motivated and take on too much. For example, If you wanted to study two hours a day, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes and build on that.

Lean Tip #1108 – Create New Habit: Make it Daily

Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. If you want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days. Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities you do once every few days are trickier to lock in as habits.

Lean Tip #1109 – Create New Habit: Run it as an Experiment

Withhold judgment until after a month has past and use it as an experiment in behavior. Experiments can’t fail, they just have different results so it will give you a different perspective on changing your habit.

Lean Tip #1110 – Create New Habit: Be Imperfect

Don’t expect all your attempts to change habits to be successful immediately. It took me four independent tries before I started exercising regularly. Now I love it. Try your best, but expect a few bumps along the way.

Guest Post: Lean Out Your Equipment

Lean manufacturing often focuses on the processes and employees. True lean manufacturing takes the entire facility into consideration. You cannot achieve your goal without looking at the equipment you are using. Here are some tips for optimizing your plant and leaning out your store of equipment.

Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)

The principle behind SMED, developed by Dr. Shigeo Shingo, is eliminating all wasteful procedures when changing equipment over from one process to another. Without a quick-change ability, manufacturers would run all batches of one unit before changing tooling over to the next stage of the production process. While this does save time, it can create an inventory excess that detracts from lean operation.

With SMED, the external and internal tooling processes are separated into two sections. While many tooling changes, the ones included in the internal category, can only be performed while the equipment is idle, external changes can be ready and waiting. Everything needed for a changeover will be ready and in place.

Implementation may involve having a second employee ready the tools while the operator is finishing the batch in process. Having additional sets of tooling, that account for a size or tolerance difference, will improve the changeover speed. Standardizing both the equipment and the tooling improves the ability to simply remove and replace components as the work procedure changes.

Maintenance procedures to limit failures

Regular maintenance is critical to keep equipment operational. How you go about the maintenance will depend on your production choices, but the work must be performed. Some facilities will schedule set out-of-service times; others will shut down production for up to a week every few months.

In addition to following your set maintenance schedule, have all equipment inspected on a daily or shift basis. At the first sign of a problem, take the equipment out of service and have it repaired. Continuing to operate a piece of machinery showing signs of failure can lead to more damage and higher repair costs. You may also sacrifice the quality of your product, leading to a higher cost in waste.

Purchasing the right equipment

When you purchase equipment and replacement products, take the time to make sure that you are buying the quality you need. For example, replace worn wires and cables with ones designed to withstand harsh operating conditions.

If you can expect a 50 percent longer life span from a cable designed with a high-flex life and superior resistance to abrasion and chemicals, you are not only saving on the cost of the cable, but also on the labor involved in replacement.

Simply put, any breakdown of your equipment is costly. Consider the cost of the labor needed for repairs, the cost of the parts and the loss of production. When you look at it this way, the equipment you are using becomes a larger part of your lean manufacturing goal.

About the author:

Scott McNeill is the Director of Operations at TPC Wire & Cable Corp. in Macedonia, OH. TPC Wire & Cable is a leading supplier of wire, cable and connectors used in manufacturing. TPC’s products are designed and engineered to withstand harsh conditions including extreme temperatures, constant flexing and abrasion.

Lean Quote: Leader Patience

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.

"A leader teaches with patience. A manager without patience is no leader." — Rafael Aguayo

Patience is a quality often lacking among today’s leaders. Society expects those in charge to take action quickly and decisively. True leaders recognize that patience enables them to take stock of the situation, to understand what is required, and wait while they build the capacity to take appropriate and effective action. Patience requires composure and character. Societal pressures for action may cause others to criticize and condemn a leader’s perceived inaction or lack of speed. People will first demand action. Then they will demand results. The greater the crisis, the greater the impatience.

By demonstrating patience, leaders reinforce the importance of focusing on the long-term outcomes. Patience doesn’t mean ignoring the interim milestones or short-term deliverable. It does mean keeping them in context.

Many tasks associated with leadership require patience (e.g., strategic planning, negotiations, people development, program management, etc.). The bigger the issue and the longer the planning horizon, the greater the patience required to remain committed. Strategic plans, for example, typically have a long-term time horizon and address big issues that affect an organization. It is easy for a leader to see the desired end-state and want to jump ahead without exercising the patience needed to succeed. Leadership means understanding that patience may require sacrificing short-term glory for long-term results.

Striving for excellence is an ongoing process; it requires a persistent attitude of excellence demonstrated by a continual focus on both the large and small things in our endeavor. Without tenacity, success is just but a far away dream. It is the force originating from within you that seeks to bring out the potential in you and drive you to your destiny.

 

Guest Post: Happy Habits

Most people believe that happiness arises from suitable conditions, and that to be happy requires one to find, for example: a good job, a nice house, a new car, etc. However, it is actually more effective to rely on intrinsic ways of finding happiness, rather than through these extrinsic, object-oriented ones. Being happy is actually achieved mostly through one’s behavior and outlook rather than material, situational means. This is why it’s important to start cultivating healthy habits.

Physical Well Being to Mental Well- Being

Often mental and physical well-being are thought of separately, but a healthy body and a healthy mind are inextricably connected. Taking care of your body will boost feelings of confidence and give your more energy. On the other hand, stimulating your mind and cutting back on stress will lower blood pressure and raise your metabolism.

Cut Back on Screens

It’s estimated that multi-screen individuals (for example, people who have a tv, smartphone and computer) in the US consume around 11 hours of media per day!

Although being connected to those you care about online can lead to greater feelings of security and lower stress, studies have shown that LCD screens can actually lead to feelings of depression and isolation when used over several hours. The light emitted from these devices can also cause insomnia if used before going to sleep. For better sleep and overall better health, it’s recommended to limit screen time to 2 hours per day. This will help you get the 6-8 hours of sleep per night that your body and mind need to stay healthy.

Live Longer

According to one study, four factors can lead not only to greater well-being, but a statistically longer life. These factors are

●     Exercising 30 Minutes per Day

●     Eating 5 servings of Fruits and Vegetables per Day

●     Avoid Cigarettes

●     Don’t Drink too Much Alcohol

These factors don’t necessarily guarantee a longer lifespan, but these are common traits found in centenarians, and are proven to cut the risk of stroke in half! If longer life isn’t enough of an incentive, these lifestyle changes will make you feel much better too!

Start Small

When adopting new habits, it’s always a good idea to start with small changes, and work your way up over time. For example, instead of starting an intense paleo-diet, start drinking a glass of water before every meal to increase metabolism. Or, instead of beginning a rigorous workout plan, start walking around the block a few times every morning. Small lifestyle changes will not only lead to bigger changes over time, they will come more naturally and will be much easier to adopt into your routine. Here are some more small, easy changes that will lead to better mood and health:

●     Floss Your Teeth- Flossing your teeth makes you feel cleaner, and is good for your heart.

●     Call a Friend or Family Member Once a Day- Connecting with people you care about makes you happier. Calling a loved one not only helps you, but others as well!

●     Use Your Lunch Break for Exercise- You obviously don’t have to do a full workout, but walking a block or two to get some healthy food is better than eating at your desk.

Respect Your Body

Being healthy isn’t just about habits, it’s also about respecting your body. Studies have shown that those who are the most conscientious tend to live the longest. That means not only respecting yourself, but other around you. This leads to more social behavior (which makes you happier!), and also better physical health. Happiness is contagious, and by respecting those around you, you’re also making everyone else’s day better!

About the Author:

 Mark Kirkpatrick is a blogger and tech enthusiast in Los Angeles, California. He hopes to help his readers stay ahead of shifting technology trends, and maximize their productivity. Follow him on Twitter at @KirkpatricM.

Guest Post: Benefits of Kanban Card Board Systems In the Workplace

Just in Time (JIT), Continuous Improvement (CI) and Six Sigma are all systems that improve manufacturing quality and cut inventory costs. While there are loads of computer systems that are compatible with how these systems work, for inventory control, many companies prefer much simpler, manual whiteboard and card holder systems known as a Kanban system. Even large plants that could implement complicated electronic systems are opting to implement simpler Kanban Card Board Systems because they are easier to setup and use. 

Kanban comes from a Japanese word meaning “card.” Today the term is in use by those in manufacturing worldwide. Manufacturers use Kanban systems to control work in progress (WIP) on production lines. Manufacturers use a Kanban system for making almost any product from baked goods to software to automobiles. 

Kanban is a system that allows visualization of a task. Folks on the production line can see how they are doing. This feedback inspires and motivates those on the line. A Lean manufacturing coordinator in Lexington Kentucky uses Kanban boards and has high praise for its functionality:

“They are simple and effective for visual load leveling. We have them in our supply areas as well as each work cell. With the boards we always know which job we need to work on next … no time is wasted, we are always working the top priority order”

Kanban boards restructure and simplify the way communications take place on the factory floor. Hundreds of United States factories use the Kanban system, as excellent communications are an important part of any lean manufacturing process. Kanban Systems by Magnatag allows for simplified management of production and assembly tasks.

The following are some of the best advantages of using Kanban Card Boards

• Easy to setup, easy to use and easy to understand 
• Flexible format can be used to show job priority, inventory levels and load leveling 
• Card Colors can be used to designate different types of materials and/or jobs 
• Printable Cards can be customized to show lot numbers, job numbers, etc. 
• Large and small capacity boards can be “right” sized for different applications 

Prioritizing these tasks on the boards and in view of team members, contributes to efficiency, engagement, and team spirit – everyone knows the score in real-time as the tasks status are clearly visible as to status. In addition to managing production and assembly tasks, there are Kanban inventory boards, boards for job staging and much more. 


About the Author: 
Originally from the Cincinnati, Ohio area, Tom Shaw has an extensive background in working with both companies and individuals to solve scheduling, communication, productivity, and information display problems. After an extended tenure working with various manufacturers in Ohio, Shaw came to western New York to become a Visible Systems Specialist for Magnatag, a premier Whiteboard Source for over 48 years. 

 As a husband and father of two children, Shaw not only has an invested interest in communications and manufacturing, but also health and fitness, as he has a passion for running and training for marathons.

Lean Quote: Lean Isn't for Dummies

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.

"People tend to think that they need a process for everything, and once in a while you hear 'We're going to dummy-proof it.' But if you dummy-proof the process, you only get dummies to work there." — Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix

People are often concerned that Lean efforts, including standardized work, will turn them into unthinking robots. Many Lean methods are used so that abnormalities are clearly visible and therefore can be reacted to. It is not about mindless conformity. Lean creates a baseline so improvement can occur by freeing up mental capacity from doing the routine in order to think about how the process could work better.

A common myth about standardized work is that many think of a rigid work environment where workers aren’t required to think. This is totally the opposite. Operators are part of the creation of the work standard and then are challenged to improve these methods. The standard creates a baseline by which improvement can be measured. Ideas should be discussed with group leaders and considered depending upon the consensus and buy-in from other members and shifts. Once consensus is reached then experimentation can be done to determine the effectiveness of the improvement. If it is deemed an effective change then the standardized work can modified and everyone trained in the new method.

The worst kind of waste is the lack of employee involvement and creativity. Lean doesn’t work unless everyone is involved and has input. We must involve employees in the continuous improvement process because the people actually carrying out the job know how to do that job better. A truly Lean culture respects people and engages them in continuous improvement.