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.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
”If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.” -- John W. Gardner
In the end Lean is all about people. The power behind Lean is a management's commitment to continuously invest in its people and promote a culture of continuous improvement. The Toyota Way can be briefly summarized through the two pillars that support it: Continuous Improvement and Respect for People.
Jim Womack, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) explains showing respect for people in a lean company means more than always congratulating people.
Adam Zak, an executive recruiter specializing in lean, operational excellence and sustainability leaders, wrote a great article on respect for people on his blog Lean Connections. In this article Adam highlights 5 points that gets to the essence of getting people engaged and energized throughout an organization:
1. Everyone needs to know and feel that he or she is needed.
2. Everyone wants to be treated as an individual.
3. Giving someone the freedom to take responsibility releases resources that would otherwise remain concealed.
4. An individual without information cannot take responsibility.
5. An individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility.
With the recent passing of John Wooden, famous basketball coach, I think it appropriate to end with one more quote:
"Respect a man, and he will do all the more." - John Wooden.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Scrap Market: A Place for Defects
Quality problems usually appear in the form of loss (defective items and their cost). It is extremely important to clarify the distribution pattern of the loss. Most of the loss will be due to a very small number of causes. Thus, if the causes of these vital few defects are identified, we can eliminate almost all the losses by concentrating on these particular causes, leaving aside the other trivial many defects for the time being. This is the basis of the Pareto Analysis method.
A number of Lean techniques utilized in problem solving are really methods to visualize and control our work. In new product development quality is not always as well understood as we would like. Despite our best effort to understand and exceed our customer's expectations sometimes a long the way Murphy's Law comes into play. The adage is "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." There is a technique that can help identify defects so they can be solved quickly called a scrap market.
You have probably heard of a supermarket or even used one in your organization. As defined by LEI's Lean Lexicon a supermarket is a location where a predetermined standard inventory is kept to supply downstream processes. In this context a scrap market is a simple visual control where parts are identified as scrap or that could be suspect are categorized by the type of defect found.
The following visual is an example of a scrap market for a new assembly cell. Several red bins (universal visual for defects) are labeled with defect types that can occur in the line.
This provides real time feedback to those in the cell where the defects are occurring. Now the team can work to eliminate the root cause of the defects by starting with the highest impact defects. The bin with the largest quantity of defects has the highest contribution to poor quality. This is essentially a visual pareto chart where focusing on the vital few is possible.
As you can imagine this visual technique has a number of advantages but where I think it has a large impact is launching new manufacturing processes. When you develop a new product and you transition from prototypes to a large scale production cell a number of new challenges can arise. The scrap market is a great way to capture those opportunities for improvement so they can be addressed promptly.
Don't let quality problems affect your products. Your customers depend on it. Nothing concerns a customer more than defects on a new product they are trying to launch. Defects have a negative effect on market acceptance of new products.
A number of Lean techniques utilized in problem solving are really methods to visualize and control our work. In new product development quality is not always as well understood as we would like. Despite our best effort to understand and exceed our customer's expectations sometimes a long the way Murphy's Law comes into play. The adage is "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." There is a technique that can help identify defects so they can be solved quickly called a scrap market.
You have probably heard of a supermarket or even used one in your organization. As defined by LEI's Lean Lexicon a supermarket is a location where a predetermined standard inventory is kept to supply downstream processes. In this context a scrap market is a simple visual control where parts are identified as scrap or that could be suspect are categorized by the type of defect found.
The following visual is an example of a scrap market for a new assembly cell. Several red bins (universal visual for defects) are labeled with defect types that can occur in the line.
This provides real time feedback to those in the cell where the defects are occurring. Now the team can work to eliminate the root cause of the defects by starting with the highest impact defects. The bin with the largest quantity of defects has the highest contribution to poor quality. This is essentially a visual pareto chart where focusing on the vital few is possible.
As you can imagine this visual technique has a number of advantages but where I think it has a large impact is launching new manufacturing processes. When you develop a new product and you transition from prototypes to a large scale production cell a number of new challenges can arise. The scrap market is a great way to capture those opportunities for improvement so they can be addressed promptly.
Don't let quality problems affect your products. Your customers depend on it. Nothing concerns a customer more than defects on a new product they are trying to launch. Defects have a negative effect on market acceptance of new products.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Simplicity: When Details Matter
According to Occam's razor, all other things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely to be true. A simple solution always takes less time to finish than a complex one. So always do the simplest thing that could possibly work next. If you find something that is complex replace it with something simple. It's always faster and cheaper to replace complexity now, before you waste a lot more time on it.
I came across a TED Video by Rory Sutherland that illustrates the need for simplicity within problem solving in a compelling and humorous way. It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers.
Some noteworthy highlights from the video:
Based on this backdrop Rory suggests a simple 4 way approach to looking at problem solving:
Rory asks, "what do you call this fourth quadrant?" I would call this "simplicity".
He suggests that every business needs to add a Chief Detail Officer to be in charge of the tiny things that don't cost a lot but if successful have a big impact. I wonder if this is not another name for the Lean leader in your organization.
In my experience with problem solving in a Lean environment it is often those simple creative solutions at the source of the problem by those who do the work that are the most effective. Lean leaders understand this well and work to create a culture that fosters and develops the use of this ingenuity. A focus on what I call the three e's: education, engagement, and empowerment are effective at establishing that culture.
I think it was Leonardo da Vinci that said it best "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
I came across a TED Video by Rory Sutherland that illustrates the need for simplicity within problem solving in a compelling and humorous way. It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers.
Some noteworthy highlights from the video:
So there seems to be a strange disproportionality at work, I think, in many areas of human problem solving, particularly those which involve human psychology, which is the tendency of the organization or the institution is to deploy as much force as possible...
Our own sense of self-aggrandizement feels that big important problems need to have big important, and most of all, expensive solutions attached to them. And yet, what behavioral economics shows time after time after time is in human behavioral and behavioral change there's a very, very strong disproportionality at work. That actually what changes our behavior and what changes our attitude to things is not actually proportionate to the degree of expense entailed, or the degree of force that's applied...
What is completely lacking is a class of people who have immense amounts of power, but no money at all.
... what is happening in the world is the big stuff, actually, is done magnificently well. But the small stuff, what you might call the user interface, is done spectacularly badly. But also, there seems to be a complete sort of gridlock in terms of solving these small solutions....
Based on this backdrop Rory suggests a simple 4 way approach to looking at problem solving:
Rory asks, "what do you call this fourth quadrant?" I would call this "simplicity".
He suggests that every business needs to add a Chief Detail Officer to be in charge of the tiny things that don't cost a lot but if successful have a big impact. I wonder if this is not another name for the Lean leader in your organization.
In my experience with problem solving in a Lean environment it is often those simple creative solutions at the source of the problem by those who do the work that are the most effective. Lean leaders understand this well and work to create a culture that fosters and develops the use of this ingenuity. A focus on what I call the three e's: education, engagement, and empowerment are effective at establishing that culture.
I think it was Leonardo da Vinci that said it best "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Lean Quote of the Day, June 11, 2010
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.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
"The causes of defects lie in worker errors, and defects are the results of neglecting those errors. It follows that mistakes will not turn into defects if worker errors are discovered and eliminated beforehand" - Shiego Shingo, 1986
Instead of simply inspecting for mistakes and eliminating bad parts or using SPC to improve the processes, a different approach is to use devices or designs that will help to prevent mistakes in the first place. This approach of trying to make it difficult for the worker to make mistakes is called poka-yoke and is credited to Shigeo Shingo.
A poka-yoke device is any mechanism that either prevents a mistake from being made or makes the mistake obvious at a glance. Poka-yoke is Japanese for mistake-proofing. These devices are used either to prevent the special causes that result in defects or to inexpensively inspect each item that is produced to determine whether it is acceptable or defective.
Everyday poka-yoke examples are all around us in our daily lives. We benefit from mistake-proofing everyday whether we are aware of it or not.
Poka-yoke can be implemented at any step of a manufacturing process where something can go wrong or an error can be made. Shigeo Shingo recognized three types of poka-yoke for detecting and preventing errors in a mass production system:
1.The contact method identifies product defects by testing the product's shape, size, color, or other physical attributes.
2.The fixed-value (or constant number) method alerts the operator if a certain number of movements are not made.
3.The motion-step (or sequence) method determines whether the prescribed steps of the process have been followed.
Shingo argued that errors are inevitable in any manufacturing process, but that if appropriate poka-yokes are implemented, then mistakes can be caught quickly and prevented from resulting in defects. By eliminating defects at the source, the cost of mistakes within a company is reduced.
John Grout offers mistake proofing help for those who want to learn more. John is a Shingo Prize winning author and researcher on the human side of mistake proofing. If you already think you know something about mistake proofing then test your knowledge with this quiz.
Don't allow defects to occur in your processes by neglecting to prevent mistakes in your work. Use poka-yoke to make the work easier and mistake proof your process.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
"The causes of defects lie in worker errors, and defects are the results of neglecting those errors. It follows that mistakes will not turn into defects if worker errors are discovered and eliminated beforehand" - Shiego Shingo, 1986
Instead of simply inspecting for mistakes and eliminating bad parts or using SPC to improve the processes, a different approach is to use devices or designs that will help to prevent mistakes in the first place. This approach of trying to make it difficult for the worker to make mistakes is called poka-yoke and is credited to Shigeo Shingo.
A poka-yoke device is any mechanism that either prevents a mistake from being made or makes the mistake obvious at a glance. Poka-yoke is Japanese for mistake-proofing. These devices are used either to prevent the special causes that result in defects or to inexpensively inspect each item that is produced to determine whether it is acceptable or defective.
Everyday poka-yoke examples are all around us in our daily lives. We benefit from mistake-proofing everyday whether we are aware of it or not.
Poka-yoke can be implemented at any step of a manufacturing process where something can go wrong or an error can be made. Shigeo Shingo recognized three types of poka-yoke for detecting and preventing errors in a mass production system:
1.The contact method identifies product defects by testing the product's shape, size, color, or other physical attributes.
2.The fixed-value (or constant number) method alerts the operator if a certain number of movements are not made.
3.The motion-step (or sequence) method determines whether the prescribed steps of the process have been followed.
Shingo argued that errors are inevitable in any manufacturing process, but that if appropriate poka-yokes are implemented, then mistakes can be caught quickly and prevented from resulting in defects. By eliminating defects at the source, the cost of mistakes within a company is reduced.
John Grout offers mistake proofing help for those who want to learn more. John is a Shingo Prize winning author and researcher on the human side of mistake proofing. If you already think you know something about mistake proofing then test your knowledge with this quiz.
Don't allow defects to occur in your processes by neglecting to prevent mistakes in your work. Use poka-yoke to make the work easier and mistake proof your process.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Is Disorganization Holding You Back?
Many of us think we are organized and are not aware of how the contrary affects us. It is not always obvious how disorganization is affecting the quality and efficiency of your work. Let's try is this short test to see if you are disorganized:
1. Do you spend a large part of your day looking for things, rummaging through piles, files, and drawers?
2. Do you forget important appointments and important tasks?
3. Do you spend less than 60% of your day focused on your most valuable tasks?
4. Have you missed deadlines or been late with responses to requests?
5. Do you complete lower priority task first?
6. Have you led a meeting without sending an agenda or missed to follow-up with minutes?
7. Do you have action items on your To-Do list that have been there for a while?
8. Have you discovered papers that needed your attention ages ago and now it is too late?
9. Do you have trouble retrieving files easily when needed?
10. Does it take you a while to find a key contacts information when you need it?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions then disorganization may be causing poor job performance. Being disorganized affects job performance and how others perceive you. Being disorganized can cost you and your company money, time and customers.
You've probably heard the saying, "Time is money." Let's consider the cost of disorganization for you and your employer for a moment. For example, suppose you are just spending one hour a day looking for things and your pay just $20 an hour. In one week you have cost $100 and over a yearly period of 50 weeks (with two weeks off for vacation) the cost to your bottom line is $5,000. Now, if your business has 100 employees and each of them is wasting one hour a day for 50 weeks of the year your bottom line is impacted to the tune of $500,000. Wow, that is a lot money!
There are other costs to you and the organization like buying duplicate and triplicate of things you can't find now only to locate them later. Missed deadlines can result in customer dissatisfaction, missed product launches, and lost revenues. Time is probably the largest impact to you and your company since it can never be replaced.
If you're always wading through clutter, misplacing key information or losing things in plain sight, then you need to start getting organized. An organized space is simply one in which the things you need the most are close at hand, the things you need often are easily found, and the things you need rarely are out of the way but easily retrieved when needed. The old adage often found in 5S describes an organized space as "a place for everything and everything in its place." You should be able to find things when you need them so you don't waste more time and money duplicating your efforts. That means that organization has to meet your needs, not some imposed notion of cleanliness.
Don't wait for something to happen, make something happen. Apply 5S to organize your life and work area to gain efficiency. 5S originates from Toyota
Sort (Seiri)
Set (Seiton)
Shine (Seiso)
Standardize (Seiketsu)
Sustain (Shitsuke)
5S is a process and method for creating and maintaining an organized, clean, and high performance workplace. It enables anyone to distinguish between normal and abnormal conditions at a glance. 5S can be the foundation for continuous improvement, zero defects, cost reductions and a more productive work space. The 5S methodology is a systematic way to improve the workplace, processes and products through employee involvement.
Staying organized will save you time and money and allow you to focus on your tasks effectively thus increasing your personal productivity. Don't let disorganization hold you back.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The Seven Wastes of Product Development
I recently had the pleasure to guest post on Shmula. Shmula, is the work of Pete Abilla, a proven Lean and Six Sigma practitioner. His blog is a reflection of his take on technology, business, operations, Lean, Six Sigma, and a few other topics. Pete started a series of posts under the tag 7 wastes which describe the traditional wastes of Taiichi Ohno in specific context. I took a look at the wastes that can be found in New Product Development processes.
The first step in eliminating waste from New Product Development (NPD), and thus improving the process, is to learn to identify the eight wastes. By closely examining the entire NPD process from a Lean perspective, the opportunities to drive out waste and increase value will become obvious...
For the rest of the post head over to Shmula.com by clicking here.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
The first step in eliminating waste from New Product Development (NPD), and thus improving the process, is to learn to identify the eight wastes. By closely examining the entire NPD process from a Lean perspective, the opportunities to drive out waste and increase value will become obvious...
For the rest of the post head over to Shmula.com by clicking here.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Lean Quote of the Day, June 4, 2010
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.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.” - John P. Kotter
In today's times the difference between urgency and change will result in either survival or liquidation. Executives need to recognize the difference between the two. Urgency creates a motivating force on results and teaming. Change is imposed from above, the subject of skepticism and numerous Dilbert cartoons.
Every organization needs to change, that is commonly understood. We have become complacent in our approaches to change management. Change has lost its potency. It's become routine and we have lost sight of its fundamental roots.
Kotter reminds us that the root of success involves a sense of urgency. Urgency is the highly positive and focused forces that give people the determination to move and win now.
Kotter says there are two kinds of urgency, good urgency vs bad urgency. The good kind involves relentless focus on doing only those things that move the business forward in the marketplace and doing them right now. The bad kind is panic driven and characterized by breathless activity that winds up producing nothing demonstrably new.
Many organizations struggle to create the change necessary and many more of them can not sustain the gains of their change. True urgency is the most important precursor of real change.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.
“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.” - John P. Kotter
In today's times the difference between urgency and change will result in either survival or liquidation. Executives need to recognize the difference between the two. Urgency creates a motivating force on results and teaming. Change is imposed from above, the subject of skepticism and numerous Dilbert cartoons.
Every organization needs to change, that is commonly understood. We have become complacent in our approaches to change management. Change has lost its potency. It's become routine and we have lost sight of its fundamental roots.
Kotter reminds us that the root of success involves a sense of urgency. Urgency is the highly positive and focused forces that give people the determination to move and win now.
Kotter says there are two kinds of urgency, good urgency vs bad urgency. The good kind involves relentless focus on doing only those things that move the business forward in the marketplace and doing them right now. The bad kind is panic driven and characterized by breathless activity that winds up producing nothing demonstrably new.
Many organizations struggle to create the change necessary and many more of them can not sustain the gains of their change. True urgency is the most important precursor of real change.
If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter. You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our facebook fan page.
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