Leaning on my Soapbox

When I was 11 years old, I went with my classmates on a school trip to London. We saw the usual sites:  The Houses of Parliament, London Zoo, The Science Museum and a show. Sunday morning we were taken to Hyde Park, where there is Speakers Corner. I was fascinated that anyone is allowed to come to Speaker’s Corner, complete with a soapbox and talk about any subject on which they have passionate beliefs. I wandered about listening to all the different arguments, wondering if I would ever grab a soapbox and start speaking about my beliefs.  Well my time has come! Welcome to my version of speakers corner and I am on my soapbox and ready. And what am I going to talk about? It’s Lean.

 Why? Well, firstly, let me explain my background. I am a Mechanical Engineer by training and education. I began my working life in a traditional Engineering company and was appointed as a Quality Manager and spent several years implementing quality systems such as ISO9000, Total Quality Management, Quality Circles and business process re-engineering. Although they made improvements, I never felt that they made fundamental differences to the business and if the program stopped, then the businesses would revert back to they way they had been before. It always seemed that we were "doing it unto them" with the way that changes were implemented with the staff. These programs were not becoming part of everyday business, part of how we worked.

In 2000, I moved into the Electronics industry and started working for Solectron. In 2003, after the trauma of the dot com bubble bursting, Solectron decided to start on a six sigma lean journey. It began, as most corporate programs do, with a period of communication, employee awareness training and specific training for some key individuals at each site. We then started with 'kaizens', looking for 'muda' (waste), started to value stream map, looking for 'flow' and 'pull'. For the first year, many manufacturing based kaizens took place, all manufacturing cells were changed into flexible cells, and the operations team were re-structured into value streams. However it was only after the first year that we started to see business results start to improve. It had taken that long for all of the individual kaizens to make a business-wide impact that could then be seen in the business results. From that point on we didn’t look back. Lean was extended to the Supply Chain and other office based departments. Accounting, HR and Quality held kaizens on their processes; we included our customers and suppliers in the kaizens and the business results got better and better. So I tried to understand why there had been such great success with our Lean journey. Well, as usual there were several factors that contributed to its great success. First, there was very strong committed leadership from the absolute top management. This extended right through the organization down to the site management. For us, Lean was not an option, it was mandatory. Second, there was heavy investment in good training, ensuring that there were sufficient black and green belts in place to facilitate and guide as necessary. Third, we were able to get quick wins and instant local results. This, combined with longer term improvements, gave powerful results and motivated us to continue. Fourth was the power of the kaizen, and I want to dwell on this subject a bit longer.

• The kaizen team. This should consist of:-
• The kaizen leader, who owns the area to be improved,
• Subject matter experts from the area being improved i.e. operators, technicians, buyers, planners etc. These are the people who do the jobs every day, and who know where all the issues are hidden. They are also the people who will be responsible for working in the new improved area after the kaizen has finished.
• Facilitator - someone who has been trained in lean theory and techniques and will ensure that the kaizen runs smoothly, stays on track, and delivers the results
• Fresh eyes. These are key individuals. They know absolutely nothing about the area being kaizened, but can ask all the obvious questions, challenge the status quo, and think outside the box.
• Technical support staff. These are people, who generally are on standby, and can assist in physical tasks such as line layouts, plumbing, electrical tasks, setting up IT equipment, Health and Safety etc.

The key point about this team is that they are 100% released from their day jobs for the duration of the kaizen. This means that they are fully committed to focusing on the problems/solutions.

• Targets/Objectives. The kaizen must have clear business relevance, and defined statements of the problems and objectives. This will ensure that the kaizen team fully understand why they are there and what they need to achieve. I am often asked how big should be the target improvement and my response is that the target should be a major stretch goal. A basic rule of thumb that I use is that the kaizen team should double the good and half the bad. For example, in supply chain kaizens typically targets may be to half order processing times, half order entry mistakes or double the first time pass through of invoices etc.
• Structured event. The kaizen should be structured so that it has:-
• A start  - a kick off, where the kaizen team present the problems/objectives and targets to senior management.
• A middle - the kaizen tasks undertaken by the team
• An end - a closing meeting where the kaizen team re-state the problems/objectives and present decisions/actions taken or planned to the senior management.
• Current/Future states. The kaizen team’s first task is to understand completely what the current state position is. By mapping, gathering data, observation and interview, the team gather a full picture of what all the issues are. From this clear current state, a future state can be determined, and decisions made taking into account all the issues.
• Kaizen decision. This is the brave bit for management. Whatever the kaizen decides to change during the kaizen is accepted by management. Of course, there are some exceptions such as where significant capital investment is required. However, for 99% of all decisions, the kaizen team decides. They must be able to present their case, the data collected and the logic used and this will be discussed at the closing meeting. In my experience, the vast majority of kaizens have been proven to make the right decisions. I would even suggestthat kaizen teams have a better decision making track record that a group of senior managers!

So that’s my take on kaizens. If they are properly harnessed by a company in a kaizen game plan, taking into account business needs, objectives and resources then they can produce powerful results. For the individuals, they can make changes to their areas, make decisions which affect their work for the better, see areas of their business that they would not normally see or be involved in and have some fun at the same time. Because it should be fun to be on kaizens.

At eKNOWtion, we are convinced that Lean techniques can be applied successfully to all aspects of the business, not least within the supply chain. The amount of opportunity available when working together with your supply chain partners is almost limitless. This is my first newsletter article since joining eKNOWtion and over the course of the next few editions, I intend to take particular aspects of Lean and discuss in more detail. So if you have an area that you would like me to talk about please let me know. I welcome your comments or stories as well as counterpoints. If you don’t agree with me, I would love to debate it with you! Finally, check out our new Lean page on the website, which describes some of the offerings in this exciting area.      

For direct contact with our Lean Blackbelt:  simon@eKNOWtion.com