The Benefits of Trystorming

A recent fortune cookie fortune reminded me of an important Lean lesson. The fortune says:

“The best angle from which to approach any problem is the TRYangle.”

I’ve learned at Wiremold, originating from Art Byrne, the fundamentals of trystorming. This method consists of, “Rapid cycles of real-time experimentation, used to test and adjust improvement ideas before establishing standard work or implementing processes broadly.” In plain language this means – try it out! Try Storming incorporates physical actions that can engage other senses and give testers a better sense of whether an idea is viable or not.

Trystorming is different from brainstorming in that it encourages the rapid development and test of an idea rather than merely thinking about the possible solutions. It allows people to visualize, touch and further improve on an initial idea. It also models action rather than talk. Often in our desire to design the perfect Future State we forget that the best way to build a process that works is through the iterative process of trying, adjusting/correcting, and trying again.

The process is built on three basic principles:

• It is not important to create perfect solutions.
• Be action-oriented.
• Keep solutions simple.

These principles work hand-in-hand to develop effective solutions. When implemented correctly, Try-Storming can be used to continuously improve any business process.

One of the key reasons to utilize trystorming as part of any process design activity is that it models action rather than talk. By leaving the conference room and actually trying ideas during the course of the work, your team will quickly realize that your activity is more than just a meeting or an exercise in theory. 

In addition, taking action typically increases the level of idea generation and team engagement exponentially. By mocking up and trying concepts the team will be able to visualize their ideas and transform plans into tangible improvements quickly. While trystorming requires much more energy than the traditional design approach, use of this methodology will significantly reduce the overall time needed to reach a workable solution.

Lean Quote: Spend Time on Root Cause Analysis

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 spend more time and energy going around problems than trying to solve them." — Henry Ford

When it come to problem solving some like band-aids and temporary solutions rather than to solve the root cause. Root cause analysis is the process of methodically gathering and ordering or ranking data about the causes of counter-quality within an organization, then identifying and assessing prevention options for implementability and effectiveness.

The following definitions are important to understand when finding the root cause.

A PROBLEM is the situation that you are primarily concerned about. Example: copy machine malfunction.

A SYMPTOM is the result or consequence of the problem. Example: blurred copies.

A CAUSE is the reason you have the problem. Example: a worn out part.

A SOLUTION is what you decide to do about the problem. Example: replace the part.

Keep in mind:

Corrective Action - Addresses the PROBLEM at hand

Root Cause Analysis - Addresses the RECURRENCE

Preventive Action - Addresses the OCCURRENCE

Root cause analysis determines the underlying cause(s) that need to be addressed to effectively prevent or to lower the probability of a recurrence of the problem. If we do a poor job of identifying the root causes of our problems, we will waste time and resources putting band-aids on the symptoms of

the problem.

Symptom Approach                     Root Cause

• “Errors are often a result of         • “Errors are the result of

worker carelessness.”                   defects in the system.

                                                       People are only part of the 

                                                       process.”

• “We need to train and                  • “We don’t have the time or

motivate workers to be                   resources to really get to the

more careful.”                                 bottom of this problem.”

• “We need to find out why this      • “This is critical. We need to 

is happening, and implement         fix it for good, or it will come

mistake proofs so it won’t              back and burn us."

happen again.”

Root cause analysis helps us reduce turnbacks and frustration, maintain customer satisfaction, and reduce costs significantly. Put your time and energy into solving problems by identifying the root causes and preventing them from occurring. 

 

The Consequences of Not Doing Jidoka

Jidoka is very popular with the product quality inspectors, who check items at the end of the production process. That’s because Jidoka ensures that a defect is identified and corrected immediately and not at the end of the process. This, therefore, reduces the pressure on a process engineers relying on final inspection.

So what happens if you don’t employ Jidoka? Here are four consequences of not doing so:

1) Risk of Overproduction
Take a factory not using the Toyota Production System. The machinery maybe is state-of-the-art, but as the company hasn’t embraced Jidoka, there is a risk that it may produce more parts that is actually needs to.

Why? Well, imagine that a brake crank case assembly line develops a tiny defect. The problem is so small that it doesn’t stop production, but at the same time the machinery can no longer be relied upon to produce quality components. Worse still, because the machinery is not programmed to identify faults, the issue only comes to light after stringent testing at the end of the production process. All the components that have been produced have to be consigned to the bin at considerable cost to the company.

2) Lost Labor
There are other costs to consider too. Not only has the company lost money on its defective stock, it has also had to pay machine operators to carry out the work, which is additional waste.

3) Transportation Time
Imagine all the components that go into manufacturing a brake crank. Now imagine all the different journeys each defective component would have made before finally being scrapped.

4)  Re-Processing Time
Without a Jidoka system in place, it could be that the machinery cannot be used for a day or two until the original supplier sends one of its people to the plant to fix the faulty apparatus. Once back on line, there is no guarantee that the machinery won’t break again.

However, if the Jidoka method had been used, the facility project manager would have been able to access a database which would have helped him or her to identify why it malfunctioned in the first place, and when it is most vulnerable to break-down.

The sooner the problem is detected, the easier it is to fix and the smaller the impact.  Thus, one of the important parts of Lean is to be able to detect problems, raise them quickly, analyze and fix.
What are some of the other consequences of not using Jidoka to control quality?

Improve Quality Control with Intelligence (Jidoka)

Courtesy of Lean.org

There is no room for compromise in Lean when it comes to quality. Jidoka incorporates quality checks into every step of the production process by providing machines and operators the ability to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and immediately stop work. This enables operations to build in quality at each process and to separate men and machines for more efficient work.

The term Jidoka used in TPS (Toyota Production System) can be defined as "automation with a human touch." At Toyota this usually means that if an abnormal situation arises the machine stops and the worker will stop the production line. Autonomation prevents the production of defective products, eliminates overproduction and focuses attention on understanding the problem and ensuring that it never recurs.

It is a quality control process that applies the following four principles:

1. Detect that something has gone wrong.
2. Stop.
3. Fix the immediate condition.
4. Investigate the root cause and install a countermeasure.

Jidoka highlights the causes of problems because work stops immediately when a problem first occurs. This leads to improvements in the processes that build in quality by eliminating the root causes of defects. In this way, Jidoka is often used in conjunction with structured problem-solving tools.

The implementation of Jidoka relies on a mix of cultural concepts and Lean tools that are summarized below.

Developing a Jidoka mindset. Many people are trained to react to problems and to put in place quick fixes. The concept is to keep things running for as long as possible and work around problems as quickly as possible. A Jidoka mindset is different in that it says that, in the long run, efficiency will come from addressing the root cause of problems and that investing time in solving problems is a valuable investment.

Empowering staff to ‘stop the line’. Do your staff feel that they are empowered to say ‘stop’ when they see an unsafe act or a problem occurring? Many organizational cultures, through the words and actions of managers, disempower staff from stopping a process. Developing a culture where people feel that they are able to raise a real issue – and that far from being penalized they will actually be thanked for raising the issue – is very important in jidoka.

Installing andons. Andons are audible, or more commonly visual, signals that something has happened.  The aim is that andons quickly alert managerial and technical staff to a problem having arisen so that they can get to the source of the problem and begin to investigate it.

Solving the root cause. Quick fixes are typically just that. Jidoka relies on the implementation of an immediate fix to stem the potential damage and on the longer-term fix that comes through root cause analysis.

Utilizing standard work. Having implemented the changes it is vital to document what has been done and to carry out any training required on the new process.

Selective automation. Selective automation is about investing in technology to detect – and more ideally prevent – errors arising wherever there is a business case to do so. This means wherever there is either a high probability that things will repeatedly go wrong, or where a problem arising has significant impact (such as the ability to cause harm), then it means investing in sensors and other systems to enable you to control the process and detect problems as early as possible.

As you can see, Jidoka combines the concepts of mistake proofing, TPM, standard work, structured problem solving and the creation of a Lean Culture – the clustering of concepts under one heading is a feature of many higher level Lean tools and concepts. Jidoka is about quality at source, or built in quality; no company can survive without excellent quality of product and service and Jidoka is the route through which this is achieved.

Lean Quote: Enjoyment Should Always Be The Goal

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.

"Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it." — Eileen Caddy

Enjoyment should always be the goal. Work can be play.

We get so caught up in busyness that we forget to enjoy what we’re doing. Even when we focus on working smarter, we’re still often too focused on getting things done.

This should never be the point. Always ask yourself: What can I do to spend more time enjoying what I’m doing?

The goal should be to arrange your commitments in a way that you’re happy living out the details of your daily life, even while you’re working.

This may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s more possible than ever in today’s world. Be curious. Be open to opportunity. Know yourself. Embrace your passions.

Wonderful things will happen.

 

The Missing M & M

In today's economy many companies are looking for cost savings.  Eliminating muda (waste) is the focus of most lean manufacturing efforts.  But two other M's are just as important to making lean work.  In fact, focusing on only the eight wastes of muda can actually hamper productivity.  Lean is about the elimination of muda, muri, and mura.

The three M's are:

Muda – Non-value-added activities associated with the 8
              wastes

Muri  – Overburdening people of equipment

Mura – Unevenness in your system

Focusing on muda is the most common approach to implementing lean because it is easy to identify and eliminate waste.  Unfortunately, those companies fail to understand the connection of the three M's.  Stabilizing the system and creating balanced flow is essential to eliminating the three M's

Unevenness happens when volumes move up and down temporarily.  This is created by changes in the production schedule, previous processes "pushing" material to the next process, or perhaps empty containers stacking up at processes.  Customer orders, machine breakdowns, quality problems, and large production lots are all causes of mura.  Leveling out the schedule, heijunka, is fundamental to eliminating mura, which is fundamental to eliminating muri and muda.

Systems that have starts and stops, overutilization then underutilization, do not lend themselves to quality, standardization of work, productivity, or continuous improvement.  Taiichi Ohno explains this point from the tortoise and the hare fable:

The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is much more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze.  The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoise.

You can start eliminating muri and mura in your process today through the same observations for eliminating muda.  As you watch your process try to understand what is happening to cause the fluctuations resulting in the unevenness.  Look for signs of overburdening people physically (muscles tightening, gripping tightly, straining, excessive reaches, and others) and mentally (watch employees' eyes, frowning, squinting).

As you look for more gains in your process don't focus just on muda but all three M's.  Hopefully with your new eyes for improvement you will not forget the other M's.  Muda, Muri, and Mura are all interconnected and eliminating all sources of inefficiencies will produce the most gain.  

Yokoten, Best Practice Sharing Across Everywhere

Yokoten is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as "across everywhere." In the Japanese lean system, it is used to mean "best practice sharing." Yokoten, the term Toyota adopted to capture the idea of horizontal transfer of information and knowledge across an organization. Yokoten encourages sharing of data across the organization.

To Yokoten is to spread across or propagate. This is like the multiplying of saplings in nature from a large tree to many new trees. The new trees will grow in the proper soil and weather conditions. However, each new tree will grow and adapt differently to their unique environment. They are not clones, but take on a life of their own. This is true of Yokoten as well. It is not just a “go and see and then copy.”

Yokoten is horizontal, or more peer-to-peer, with the expectation that people go see for themselves and learn how another area did kaizen. In Yokoten at Toyota there is an expectation that copying a good idea will be followed by some added kaizen to that idea.

Inside of organizations, there is so much untapped knowledge. To combat this, over the past two decades, companies have invested millions of dollars in knowledge management systems. The objective has been to capture the company’s knowledge. Yokoten is a form of knowledge management. It encompasses the methods of documenting and distributing knowledge about what works and what doesn't. As a knowledge management device, Yokoten makes knowledge organizational, not individual. Yokoten is a two-way street, requiring proactive effort from both those acquiring and developing the knowledge and those who could benefit from greater understanding of the requirements for success.

If others are doing well, people tend to be interested in what they are doing and how they're doing it, so that they, too, can be successful. Sharing best practices is a key part attributing to the success of any organization. Similar to the old saying, "Learn from other's mistakes," it's important to learn from individual experiences, but it's much easier and more effective to learn from the experiences, mistakes and successes of others.

Much of best practice knowledge is tacit - held in people's heads and not always easy to document. Therefore, most best practice programs combine two key elements: explicit knowledge such as a best practices database (connecting people with information), and methods for sharing tacit knowledge such as communities of practice (connecting people with people). Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. These two approaches are complementary. A database can provide enough information for a potential user of the best practice to find it and decide if it is worth pursuing further. However, the best way of sharing best practices is 'on the job' and so communities and personal contact with others who have used the best practice is key.

Yokoten is an essential part of long-term success in a lean culture, but can also have a big impact on short-term results. Yokoten is a success multiplier. Senior leaders must actively go see, recognize good work and require others to go see. Management must organize presentations of successful kaizen projects and invite colleagues to attend and learn. Team and department leaders must actively engage members in studying kaizen examples, motivating them to start kaizen on their own. Project leaders and continuous improvement professionals must put Yokoten on their checklists and follow up rigorously.

Regardless of your path on the Lean journey, focusing on the accumulation and transfer of knowledge and learnings as embodied in the concept of Yokoten can have a tremendous impact on the overall results and success of the Lean programs.