Northeast Lean Conference: Lean By Doing - Recap

Last week I was able to join GBMP’s 12th Annual Northeast Lean Conference in Worcester, MA. The theme was on the tacit nature of implementing Lean, the importance of tying together the technical and social sides of Lean, the significance of management’s involvement and the ability of organizations to sustain the gains.

I thought I would share a few highlights from this year's conference.

The first presenter was Art Byrne who was instrumental in the Lean transformation at the company where I work. Art has transformed many businesses over his career and shared his formula which he described in he book Lean Turnaround. He found Lean was a strategy to run a business focusing on eliminating waste to deliver more customer value. A key element in his approach was Kaizen which is still done today at Wiremold (25 years later). Kaizen is powerful because it is key training vehicle to teach new thinking and gets everyone on board. Art explained the importance of moving from batch to flow production (where you work to takt time, 1 piece at a time, using standard work, via the pull of customer demand). I really liked his comment to all these black belts today: "

We are running a company not a karate class."

Another great speaker was Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Healthcare, who shared a power message on strategy and Lean transformation. He claims many organizations spend very little time on the things that will really transform their business (ie. Strategy). Their are 5 points of emphasis in his approach:

1) Establish a pre-defined goal and then run experiments (kaizen)

2) Let the people doing work do experiments

3) Standard work leads to improvement

4) Transparency creates the necessary tension for improvement (share metrics and plans)

4) Framework for Performance excellence (how the management system is executed)

With the back drop of saving lives (healthcare) he shared a compelling vision for all.

LEI's John Shook shared the Lean Transformation Framework they use when working with companies, divisions, and individuals. Practice does not make perfect it makes permanent. Perfect practice can make perfect permanent. Deliberate practice explains a substantial amount of performance variance. We need to design the entire work experience that individuals experience. The framework consists:

1. Purpose – align around the problem to solve

2. Designing, doing and improving the work

3. Develop capability, develop people

4. Management system – leader behavior

5. Basic Thinking
Here is a video describing LEI's Lean Transformation Framework.

Mike Orzen gave a thoughtful talk on creating a path to Lean. He claims 90% of transformations fail primarily because:
• Leadership delegates change
• Middle management is not onboard
• Lack of shared vision
• Unrealistic expectations/little patience/time is not allocated
• Key systems that drive the right behavior are not in place

Mike took a look at the top 3 Lean models: 1) Shingo 2) Toyota Way 4P 3) LEI transformation model
to see how they compare.  All have in common:
• Foundation of culture, long term vision and value mindset
• Focus on continous process improvements
• Respect for people and development of capabilities
• Continuous learning through structured problem solving, reflection, and kaizen

This suggests a pathway to Lean that all can use to transform their company.


There were many more great breakout sessions and lots of opportunity to network and connect with many great Lean thinkers and implementers alike.  This is one of my favorite conferences.

Next year's conference will be held September 19-20, 2017 in Worcester, MA.  The theme is on the integration of tools and culture.  Mark your calendar so you don't miss out on a great opportunity.

Lean Quote: Innovation in the Work We Do

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> 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.

"I think of innovation along a continuum of 1) basic problem solving to keep the train on the tracks, 2) continuous improvement to make the tracks work better and better and 3) innovation to question whether tracks are needed at all." — John Shook

"Innovation is a popular – and important – concept," writes LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook. What is it?

An innovation is anything that is novel and valuable. Novel means new. Especially a new idea or method or something that has a “process” piece to it. Valuable – the link here with lean thinking is clear – means that someone, anyone perceives the new thing/method/process as having value. value from the perceiver’s perspective.

Lean thinking itself was an innovation (new and valuable) and an improvement over what preceded it (and what still exists in so many places) that contains within itself the means of further innovation and improvement. 

Consider the role of innovation in the work we do. We think of the iPhone as a tremendous innovation, like the internet, the automobile and now autonomous driving. But, the actualization of each of these, the underappreciated enabler that propelled them to change our lives was, first of all, the many technical innovations that preceded them (no iPhone without iPod, without Macintosh, without Apple II…). The innovation in the work to be done entailed in bringing these innovations to life is also important. 

Here’s an animation that tries to tell that story.

 

Lean Quote: Get Better Every Day

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.

"Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement. Get a little bit better every single day." — Brian Tracy

Continuous improvement is about small changes on a daily basis to make your job easier.  Small step-by-step improvements are more effective over time than occasional kaizen bursts, and have a significantly greater impact on the organization culture - creating an environment of involvement and improvement.

Making one small change is both rewarding to the person making the change and if communicated to others can lead to a widespread adoption of the improvement and the possibility that someone will improve on what has already been improved. There's no telling what might occur if this were the everyday habit of all team members.

In a Lean enterprise a strategy of making small, incremental improvements every day, rather than trying to find a monumental improvement once or twice a year equates to a colossal competitive advantage over time and competitors cannot copy these compounded small improvements. 

Paul Akers at Fastcap knows this better than anyone.  In a recent video he shows the power of the 2 second improvement.

How do you embrace small daily improvements at your company?

 

Respect for People is More than Being Nice

As a child our parents teach us to be nice to people. Treat people with respect. "Respect for People" is one of two key element in Lean thinking we have learned from Toyota. I have learned from my own personal Lean journey that many organizations fall short in this area.  It generally is not from a lack of trying but from fully understanding respect for people.  It is more than being nice.

Respect for people can be defined by the following 6 elements:

Don't Trouble Your Customer
- Your customer is anyone who consumes your work or decisions
- Relentlessly analyze and change to stop troubling customers
- Don't force people to do wasteful work
- Don't give them defects
- Don't make them wait
- Don't impose wishful thinking on them
- Don't overload them

Develop People and Then Build Products
- Managers act as teachers, no directors
- Mentor people closely, for years, in engineering and problem solving
- Teach people to analyze root causes and make problems visible; then they discover how to improve

Managers "Walk the Talk"
- Managers understand and act on the goal of "eliminating waste" and continuous improvement in there own actions and decisions - and employees see this

Teams and Individuals Evolve Their Own Practices and Improvements
- Management challenges people to change and may ask what to improve
- Empower the worker
- Workers learn problem solving and reflection skills
- Workers decide how to improve

Develop Teams
- Team work, not group work is part of culture
- Everybody is part of a team

Build Partners
- Form long relationships based on trust
- Help partners improve and stay profitable

From this definition or understanding of respect for people you can see it is much more encompassing.  There are a number of ways to show respect for people in your organization. A good place to start is with learning.  Knowledge and the proper application makes continuous improvement possible. Just be sure to practice respect for people in all your continuous improvement efforts.

Lean Quote: Reducing the Batch Is Advantageous

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 we reduce batch sizes by half, we also reduce by half the time it will take to process a batch. That means we reduce queue and wait by half as well. Reduce those by half, and we reduce by about half the total time parts spend in the plant. Reduce the time parts spend in the plant and our total lead time condenses. And with faster turn-around on orders, customers get their orders faster." — Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal

In the book Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones recount a story of stuffing newsletters into envelopes with the assistance of one of the author’s two young children. Every envelope had to be addressed, stamped, filled with a letter, and sealed. The daughters, age six and nine, knew how they should go about completing the project: “Daddy, first you should fold all of the newsletters. Then you should attach the seal. Then you should put on the stamps.” Their father wanted to do it the counter-intuitive way: complete each envelope one at a time. They told him “that wouldn’t be efficient!” So he and his daughters each took half the envelopes and competed to see who would finish first.

The father won the race, and not just because he is an adult.

Check out Gemba Academy’s "one piece flow" square off against "mass production” video.




When we work with small batch sizes, each batch makes it through the full life cycle quicker than a larger batch does. We get better at doing things we do very often, so when we reduce batch size, we make each step in the process significantly more efficient. 

There are very good reasons why batch size is important. Some of these benefits are:

1) Improves Quality (reduces defects). Making 1 piece at a time prevents a pile of scrap when issues are caught on a single piece versus a batch.
2) Reduces Inventory. WIP (work in process) inventory is reduced when manufacturing one piece at a time.
3) Improves Safety. Less inventory means less clutter and safer work environments. It takes less effort to move 1 piece than big batches.
4) Increases flexibility. Less inventory, rework, and scrap make short cycle times possible providing more opportunity to react to customer demands.
5) Requires less space. With less inventory more space is available for value added activities.
6) Increases productivity. Most of the 7 wastes found in typical batch and queue processes are eliminated or reduced with single piece flow.

Reducing the batch size in manufacturing is therefore a desirable goal: it improves the speed of response to the customer, whilst improving the ratio of value-added to non value-added work. A silent productivity killer, batching is an extremely difficult mindset to overcome and, as a result, numerous Lean initiatives have been destroyed by it.

 

Lean by Doing: Accelerating Continuous Improvement

We’re only a few short weeks away from GBMP’s 12^th Annual Northeast Lean Conference. This year’s conference in Worcester, MA October 4 – 5, 2016 emphasizes the tacit nature of implementing Lean, the importance of tying together the technical and social sides of Lean, the significance of management’s involvement and the ability of organizations to sustain the gains.

This conference features exceptional keynote and breakout presentations, expert panels, peer-to-peer discussions, hands-on simulations, interactive learning and sharing, and unlimited networking opportunities.

The keynotes include Art Byrne, John Shook, Eric Dickson & Steven Spear. I have only met one on this list (worked for same company, you’ll have to guess who) so I am looking forward to their message.

It is one of the best conference I go to.  It is very well organized and wonderful event for learning and sharing knowledge.  You can find my reviews from other years here. If you can attend you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 

Lean Tips Edition #100 (1501-1515)

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 #1501 - Display Your Sincere Commitment to Company, Team, and Personal Goals.

Management spends valuable time creating goals and objectives. At times, employees resist buying into these objectives, sometimes vocally. Leaders develop commitment to achieving goals. By displaying in word and action that you have committed to management and personal goals, you are showing your peers that you are a leader.

Lean Tip #1502- Become a Source of Positive Energy and Motivation at Work.

Energy and enthusiasm are highly contagious. Leaders show emotion, passion, energy, and enthusiasm for everything they do at the workplace. Others usually need no further encouragement. Co-workers typically jump on the leader’s train heading toward higher performance.

Lean Tip #1503 - Problem Solve; Avoid Procrastination

Successful leaders tackle issues head-on and know how to discover the heart of the matter at hand.    They don’t procrastinate and thus become incredibly proficient at problem solving; they learn from and don’t avoid uncomfortable circumstances (they welcome them).

Getting ahead in life is about doing the things that most people don’t like doing.

Lean Tip #1504 - Properly Allocate and Deploy Talent

Successful leaders know their talent pool and how to use it.  They are experts at activating the capabilities of their colleagues and knowing when to deploy their unique skill sets given the circumstances at hand.

Lean Tip #1505 - Be a Great Teacher

Many employees in the workplace will tell you that their leaders have stopped being teachers.   Successful leaders never stop teaching because they are so self-motivated to learn themselves.  They use teaching to keep their colleagues well-informed and knowledgeable through statistics, trends, and other newsworthy items.

Successful leaders take the time to mentor their colleagues and make the investment to sponsor those who have proven they are able and eager to advance.

Lean Tip #1506 - Hold a Daily, Quick Company Meeting

While meetings are generally considered a necessity, they can carry on to the point where they eat away at the work day. Shorter, more efficient meetings, which cover the basics in 10 minutes flat can be beneficial.

A Daily Huddle is a quick 10-minute meeting to gather as a company. The meeting serves as a firehose of information that keeps everyone in the loop, including a roundup of our key performance indicators, the celebration of accomplishments, and the identification of opportunities to improve.

Not only is it a good way to keep all employees up to speed on any new developments within the company, keeping meetings short and sweet forces a streamlined meeting process, and reduces time wasted.

Lean Tip #1507 - Stick with the Established Process

If you have a project that is already underway, trying to speed things up can result in cutting corners. Stick with the process that is established. If we try to cut corners to speed up the process, something gets missed, which must be fixed later and costs time and money. Things go more smoothly if we stick to the process we started with.

But, if you’re changing a process, do so deliberately, not just on a whim or because you’re behind schedule. Processes can be changed, but they should be changed intentionally and with communication to the full team after the potential change has been approved.

Lean Tip #1508 - Embrace Feedback

Your employees have opinions. Encourage the entire company to embrace feedback, both positive and negative by creating an outlet for it. It’s a good idea to designate a general hub in the building for staff to communicate and make suggestions about the company. Many choose to do this through a specific website centered around human resource issues, serving as a one-stop-shop for work-related issues and updates. You could also use a bulletin board in a central part of the office as a place to share ideas.

Lean Tip #1509 - Keep Employees Involved.

Good employees are hard to find; yet they are an important element in your business. Check to see if they are getting what they need and make them part of the team. Help them understand the importance of their role in your business and how their job impacts the business as a whole. Review your relationship with your employees and find ways to keep your relationship happy and avoid costly attrition.

Lean Tip #1510 - Assess the Performance of Your Business.

Setting clear standards for your business allows you to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of your strategies. If you haven’t done so in the past year, start determining how much you are making per hour of work, how effective your advertising is, and some other measurements of where your business has been. Set some benchmarks and periodically assess how your business is doing. You need to know what you consider an improvement before you can start to improve on it.

Lean Tip #1511 - Involve and Work Through People for Improvement

Avoid being prescriptive with each step of your approach, rather opting to use a facilitated approach to get support and buy in from the teams involved. Always be open to a team using a different approach though still aligned to the overall objectives. Forcing things down people’s throats doesn’t really work well. Good facilitation should allow for a team to reach a pre-conceived conclusion on their own accord. On the same vein, allow the teams to decide what tasks and actions are to be done and offer to help rather than allocate tasks directly to the different people.

Lean Tip #1512 - Encourage Ideas From Anyone

Ideas should come from anyone and no ideas should be turned away. Make everyone aware of the criteria for setting priorities and what the targets are for the Improvement initiative. Assign responsibilities or sponsors who should stimulate the generation of ideas in their areas of influence.  There should always be a surplus of ideas waiting for implementation. Any ideas that are rejected or put on hold should be fed back to the originator, explaining the rationale for the decision.

Lean Tip #1513 - What Gets Measured Gets Managed.

Put in place a good monitoring system to track the number of ideas generated over time, the level participation of people at any one time and cumulatively during the process, the rate of implementation and the benefits. Tracking and showing a direct correlation between efforts and benefits is the best way to sustain improvement. Use agreed targets and KPI’s as your check.

Lean Tip #1514 - Keep Everyone Informed of Progress and Results.

The success of a good Improvement program depends on good feedback and communication surrounding progress. Reports on Progress can take many forms, as long as relevant and timely information is communicated. It’s also important to publicly celebrate any success coming out of the program. Lastly, where new records have been set and old Improvement Targets “smashed”, set new targets and make them known.

Lean Tip #1515 - Establish an Enduring Culture.

For continuous improvement to work, there must be a relentless focus on and commitment to getting things right. Adaptability and an action oriented leadership team are inherent components of a continuous improvement culture. Resistance to change exists in all organizations to a degree and it must be recognized for what it is, an impediment to improvement.