Our objective is to leverage the collective knowledge, experience and motivation of the network to significantly improve the competitiveness and profitability of all our participating companies
GBMP is thrilled to launch The Lean Thinking Network community blog site. Along with our YouTube Channel and the Old Lean Dude blog, we hope to be able to provide participants with a plethora of places to access exceptional content on all things Lean & Continuous Improvement – plus several ways to network with a like-minded community of Lean practitioners. Don’t forget. In the interest of Continuous Improvement, please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any suggestions on how we can improve. (To subscribe to listen to them using I-Tunes, go to I-Tunes, select podcasts and then search for the “lean thinking network” and then subscribe.)
There are two types of podcasts we feature here: e2 podcasts and “sacs” podcasts.
1. e2 Podcasts are “twitter – like” – 5 minutes or less and easily digest. We call them “Dwight’s pwitters” focusing on the people side of continuous improvement.
2. “Sacs” (Scientific Application of Common Sense) Podcasts are short stories, told by continuous improvement practitioners, concerning complicated problems being solved by simple, effective and sustainable countermeasures.
Use the categories on the right to find what you’re looking for or just scroll down the home page to see what’s new. Interested in developing a regional network? We can help you keep everyone in the loop (See our PA Lean Network link.)
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Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
Gemba means “the real place”. I like to think of it as where the action is. The effective use of Gemba supports the “go see” principle.
The Gemba walk affords company leaders, managers and supervisors a simple, easy means of supporting overall continuous improvement and process standardization while helping to insure alignment of the efforts of all teams.
Let’s discuss the who, what, when, where and why’s of gemba
Who – Company leaders, managers and supervisors
Where – Begin at the last step of your value stream in your facility, then walk upstream through the process. This is a simple means of noticing key issues such as“pull” and “flow” and real priorities (or lack there of). We recommend one issue (two as a maximum) to maintain focus and alignment supporting stability and continuous improvement.
When – Everyday, to once per month depending on the “who” and “what”. Leaders may only need to gemba walk once per month, however, if you’re new to lean or there are significant problems the frequency needs to increase.
What – Your focus, if your company is just beginning lean, could be perhaps 5S, zone stability, quality, downtime etc; if you are more experienced you’ll likely focus on major problems, “red indicators” on your A3 report. It’s important to have a clear and obvious focus, don’t look for everything or you’ll likely accomplish nothing and confuse everyone as to priorities and overall alignment.
Why – If done regularly, with clear and obvious stated intentions it will consistently demonstrate commitment, alignment and support of the continuous improvement process.
In “Kaikaku, The Power & Magic of Lean” Norman Bodek writes the significance of noticing posted measures & charts and asking:
Who is responsible for updating them?
Do the employees look at the charts? How often?
What value do the charts have for employees?
Do customers ever look at the charts? Do suppliers?
Do you think the charts have an overall effect on operations?
In addition, Bodek offers the following:
The power of gemba lies in:
Selecting a theme for each walk
Questioning the supervisors about observed conditions
Listening attentively – a learning experience for all leaders, managers and supervisors.
Sharing what you learned during the gemba walk
Writing and posting a brief memo publicly sharing what you learned
Following up – monitoring the process
How do you get started? Some suggestions:
Leaders – talk with your lean champion(s) to determine the focus of your walk. Be certain to understand what is expected, when it’s correct and when it’s incorrect. Be noticed noticing.
Managers – Support your supervisors and lead people. Remember, “it’s the process” Toyata is kind to people but tough on the process.
Supervisors – you are likely very busy stabilizing and controlling your “zone”. Ask your manager and company leaders for help by being noticed noticing those areas you are stabilizing.
Like any new process, initially Gemba walks may be confusing, time consuming and difficult to perform. Plan>Do>Check>Adjust… don’t give up, stay focused and it will work for you and your company. Perhaps this information will help to reduce those problems and quickly make Gemba walks a critical and effective tool for your lean conversion.
Good luck! We look forward to hearing your feedback – successes, challenges, obstacles overcome, etc.
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Today Dwight interviews Tom Carey, a logistician from United Parcel Service (UPS) in the greater Boston area.
Many of us find logistics to be complex, time-consuming and costly. But, according to Tom, it doesn’t need to be. During this brief conversation, Tom shares real-life examples and solutions to identify scalable best practices and free, existing technologies to reduce the complexity, time and cost of logistics processes for any size company.
(Click on the image to listen, or if you can’t see the image, click on the post title to go to the website)
Timing is Everything
Thoughts on Supply, Demand and Synchronization
The need for coordinating efforts exists in many aspects of life:
Preparing a meal
Your morning routine
Catching a train, bus or plane
Dinner reservations
Movie times
Business Meetings
Business operations
Business deadlines
Traffic – rush hour
And many, many others
Another aspect of life where timing is critical is sports, such as football.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on the subject, more of an average fan, but the experts (on the NFL network, ESPN you know …….) tell us:
At the beginning of each play the offense has a bit of an advantage over the defense as they know when the play will start (when the center snaps the ball). They know the timing, direction and plan (the target condition) for each play.
When the offense is not synchronized to the snap of the ball a 5 yard penalty is called for “false start”, or even without a penalty, a mistimed play frequently results in nothing good such as a loss of yardage or sometimes ball possession.
Each play is meticulously timed and practiced again and again to synchronize efforts. The offensive line delays real blocking when a screen pass is called, a draw play as well to draw the defense past the runner, thrower or receiver and essentially out of the play.
Most pass plays are based on timing, plays in which a receiver and quarterback need to be in sync. The receiver makes his cut and the quarterback releases the ball synchronized to within less than a second to maximize the separation between the defensive player in coverage and the receiver. If the ball is thrown too early or too late, results are often poor for the offense.
Do you sometimes feel like you threw a pass too late to your shipping department? They were “open” but insufficient attention had been paid to synchronizing efforts, the result being, missed shipments and worse an unhappy customer.
Many of us realize the importance of operations being in sync with customer demands but are we working towards improving this all-important synchronization? What are we doing to improve this synchronization? Do we know when you’re in our out of sync to customer demand? Is your company a playoff team, or do you fail to make the playoffs, year after year, being eliminated by your competition?
Today, did production produce what was scheduled to ship?
Do our customers always wait for service?
Do delays due to lack of coordination create problems, rework, mistakes?
Did we ship on time to our customers or have many “false start” penalties?
Are we oversold and therefore struggling to ship on time?
Do we have an expeditor or two?
Do we frequently interrupt production to insert an expedited order?
How do we decide what is and what isn’t “an expedite” and which of the expedites is most important?
How many times a day does the “most important order” change?
Are our subassemblies, tooling, materials, people and machines coordinated with our actual production needs?
Did our cell, line, department, plant have a good day? Why or why not?
It could be that your business needs to constantly work on balancing our capacity to our customers demand.
It is possible to increase capacity by synchronizing the flow of parts, materials and information, but without some measure of pace, it is extremely difficult.
Takt time, or the tempo of customer demand, is a tool critical to effectively coordinating your supply to your customers demand. Perhaps takt time could help your business.
Many companies, maybe yours, have monthly sales that, when graphed, look like a hockey stick, 10% the first week, 15% the second week, 25% the third week and 50% the forth week of the month. This uneven demand on capacity creates problems as capacity is underutilized in weeks one and two, week three more closely matches demand to capacity and week four brings massive stress on all systems. Stress means mistakes, frustration and higher costs. So why is the hockey stick so common, normal in fact to many of us?
Well:
Corporations, banks etc. carefully scrutinize monthly figures, short-term goals, forcing management to do what it takes to make every month a good month, while turning a blind eye to long-term stability.
Sales commissions are frequently paid monthly causing a push to maximize monthly sales
Some customers require shipment windows with deliveries at month’s end.
Our teachers speak of the identification and elimination of waste as one of the primary functions of a continuous improvement culture. We all know the 7 wastes referred to as “Muda” but what of the last two of the Toyota Production Systems “Three M’s”, “Mura”, waste created by unevenness and “Muri”, waste created by overburdening people or equipment? If the objective of continuous improvement is to make our processes and systems easier, better, faster and cheaper why do many of us ignore the negative effects of uneven demand and overburdened people and equipment?
Why can’t we level load demand to better align with capacity? What would it take to make some related improvements? Would this help lower costs, improve quality, reduce finished goods inventory, and reduce stress on your people and systems?
What is the root cause or causes of your sales hockey stick?
How would level loading your resources improve your conditions?
How frustrated are your people living with the ups and downs of a “we can’t do anything about it” (hopelessness) culture? What about you?
Why not create a weekly shipment graph for the last two years? Then if the hockey stick frequently appears decide to get to the root cause (especially those internal ones), and fix them. The benefits, both financial and psychological may be a pleasant surprise. More profits, a better working environment and more opportunities to enjoy your work and have fun await you.
This is a special Guest Blog by Andrew Bishop, Continuous Improvement Consultant, Lancaster, PA. Enjoy!
The fourth rule implied in the work observed by Spear and Bowen at Toyota (from “The DNA of the Toyota Production System”, Harvard Business Review) says that all improvement should proceed as close as possible to the front line, using the scientific method and under the guidance of a teacher. That’s great if you work at Toyota and your manager is a teacher of the Toyota Way… or if your company is already doing really well, so you’ve got a pile of cash to hire consultants to help you improve… but what about the rest of us, out on our own with little cash to throw around?
Reading books and blogs, taking classes and going to conferences is great (tremendous in fact – it’s the only way I know many of my teachers), but learning that isn’t IN gemba isn’t ABOUT gemba. You’ve got to go see. You’ve got to be there with a teacher.
Fortunately for me, coming from a cash-strapped organization and trying to boot-strap lean, I came upon a structured network of lean thinkers in our region early on in my lean learning. It has made all the difference.
We talked to each other, we toured each others work sites, and we talked some more. We shared stories of progress and frustration, and shared lessons learned and topics of interest. And while I learned a lot visiting other network members’ sites, some of the best learning came after the group toured my OWN operation and offered constructive feedback – support and criticism. The things they saw and told us about, the best practices and the problems, have helped us along the way.
When we don’t have mentors inside our organizations, lean leaders who already know the moves, to whom do we turn? Study what you can find and seek out teachers, of course, but don’t neglect the practical impact of networking with others practicing lean.
Welcome to GBMP’s “Everybody, Everyday” Podcast – “Don’t Give Me Data, I Want Facts”.
I am sure you have heard this before.
Years ago my consulting business focused on shop floor control. Back then (mid-1980’s) most companies did not have sufficient or timely information to effectively manage their business and/or make good decisions fast.
With scarcity of data as my opportunity and means of collecting more data my selling point, I would help business with their informational needs with the objective of having accurate and timely data to make better decisions. My personal objective was to become the local expert on shop floor control and eventually bar coding.
Years later I worked for a mid-range, Manufacturing Software company demonstrating the software up and down the east coast. Data again, was the sales focus and through this process I became more and more an advocate of less data was better.
Quite a transition from more is better to less is better. Now let me tell you my story as to how and why I developed this new thinking.
I have witnessed or heard the following:
We can’t have single piece flow, we would have to get up after every piece to enter the data into the production control system.
“I spend more time punching the clock than I do making toast” Bruce Hamilton from GBMP’s“Toast Value Stream Mapping” video
A experienced data entry operator will make one error in every three hundred key strokes. How many unintentional mistakes do you or your people make?
Our perpetual inventory control systems is out of control, I have to get up, walk to our materials department and check what we actually have, before I can answer a customers question.
Every time we have to make a substitute from our standard bill or materials I have to do two additional transactions…..1) add the standard part back in and 2) deduct the substituted part. Sometimes I just forget to do it, or don’t have the time. Hey my job is to get the parts to where they are needed when they are needed. The stupid system can wait.
I have learned that frequently, the more data you collect the more errors you collect. If you won’t bet a weeks wages on the precision of your data, then perhaps you should rethink your data system and needs.
What is your experience?
What is too much data?
When do you have enough data?
How accurate is your data?
Does your work-in-process move so slowly that you need to track each status change?
How much time do your skilled operators spend walking to and from the computer/bar code station and entering data?
“Meet” Tom McDevitt, Quality, Safety & Continuous Improvement Manager at the Rose Corporation in Reading, PA.
Dwight’s interview with Tom provides a compelling argument for the use of standardized work, even in a one-of-a-kind/engineered-to-order environment. The 8-month value stream mapping and standardized work project enabled them to increase throughput to keep pace with customer demand. As a result, they achieved a 20% reduction in cycle time (which had a big impact on their bottom line).
Tom and Dwight also discuss Rose Corp’s success overcoming employees’ concerns about implementing lean and creating a culture of continuous improvement.
We hope Tom’s story will inspire you to share yours. Please use the comment section below to join the conversation.
Part 3 of 3: “Communication Kata: The PDCA cycle for communication and measuring success.”
In this installment, Meryl discusses making the distinction between true north and target conditions. Transitioning from theory to action can cause confusion. Communication Kata follows the same structure as Improvement Kata using a plan of action (PDCA) to avoid such confusion. But how do you measure the success of your communication? Meryl says her philosophy – “Say what you mean, mean what you say and don’t be mean when you say it” - has evolved as a result of her introduction to Toyota Kata. Her philosophy now includes accountability, trust and sincerity. And to take it one step further, she adds that communication should be dynamic. It should spark and inspire others to their best potential. Successful communication is collaborative, where ideas cross-pollinate, and result in unexpected discoveries and surprises.
Listen in on Dwight’s 3rd and final conversation with Meryl Runion, creator of The SpeakStrong method, to hear all about it, and visit www.speakstrong.com to learn even more about Meryl, The SpeakStrong philosophy and her books.
Part 2 of 3: Inclusion, and the challenge of creating a different way of thinking
Do you practice lean the way a doctor practices medicine or a lawyer practices law? What is the significance of changing the words you use when communicating with your team from declarative to generative terms (practicing lean versus doing lean)? Listen in on Dwight’s 2nd conversation with Meryl Runion, creator of The SpeakStrong method, to hear all about it, and visit www.speakstrong.com to learn even more about Meryl, The SpeakStrong philosophy and her books.
Stay tuned for Part 3 next week: “Communication Kata: The PDCA cycle for communication and measuring success.”
Part 1 of 3: What gets in the way of creating new habits?
Meryl Runion writes about how to speak strong and lean – how to communicate in a way that is pull based, collaborative, efficient and customer-focused. The true value of her method is in the thinking behind the phrases. Lean and continuous improvement also involve creating a vision of perfection to strive toward. The SpeakStrong Method is based on universal principles of effective communication with practical applications and specific phrases for the challenges of today’s business world. It is lean-aligned and kata-based for continuous communication improvement.
And, once you crack the code and develop the magic ear and eye, communication excellence becomes simple, easy and natural. Learn more about Meryl, The SpeakStrong philosophy and her books at www.speakstrong.com
Stay tuned for Part 2 next week: The Kata mindset – Inclusion and the challenge of creating a different way of thinking
