Transcripts
1. Course Introduction: I know you've heard about Lean. You have probably even
had some training or done some Kaizen continuous
improvement projects. But are you struggling to
get your team to adopt a lean mindset and continuous
improvement culture. My name is Matt Vogel
and this class is the first module of a multi-part series that
will help you understand, lean deeper than you ever have. But more importantly,
it will give you some simple tools
and the approach you will need to empower your team with a
new lean mindset. I am a lean operational
restructuring consultant that has successfully implemented a lean mindset and culture in my own organization, as well as helped many
other teams and companies, ranging from small teams
of factory workers in rural Thailand all
the way to cease. C-suite level executive
teams in Germany, in industries ranging
from hospitals and banking to automotive and electronics
manufacturing companies. Quite simply, this methodology works and I'm excited
to share it with you. If you enroll in my class, I will take you through a
brief but thorough explanation of the Lean methodology. We will discuss how you
can implement it in your organization
using the three levels of continuous
improvement process. I will walk you through
Lean models and give you tips on how to
develop a lean model for your own company to more
effectively communicate the objective of your company's continuous
improvement efforts to all employees. This course is
designed for everyone, whether you have experienced
with Lean or not. If you want your team
to be more lean and efficient and do it in a
fun and sustainable way. Then this is the course for you.
2. Introduction to Lean and the Toyota Production System: Before we dive into the
methodologies and tools involved, I want to explain
a little bit about the historical development
of the Lean methodology. Now before you skip
over this section, I promise I'll be quick and I think it will
be worth your while. As you may already know, the concepts used in Lean
were brought together at Toyota Motor Corporation in
post-World War II Japan. After beginning truck production
just before the war and after sustaining
significant damage to factories during the war, Toyota was hopeful to take an active part in the post-war
construction efforts. There was just one problem. The occupation policy of the
US at the time allowed for low tariff on imports of American vehicles
to come into Japan. Even prior to the war. There were already many US
automotive manufacturers. This created the situation
known as a buyer's market. When competition is fierce
and supplies plentiful, buyers are more or
less able to dictate the prices they are willing
to pay for a given product. This puts tremendous
pressure on companies trying to sell their products while
protecting their margins. This situation is in contrast
to a seller's market, often seen when there are supply constraints and the
producer is able to more or less dictate the
selling prices of their products based on the
cost plus desired margin. American automakers at the time, a significant advantage
with factories teeming with capacity left
over after world War. When car manufacturing
was allowed to restart in Japan in late 1949, how is Toyota to compete with
foreign car manufacturers? The solution was to actively
attack the only driver. They had control
over, which was cost. The system they developed
was a collection of ideas and tools taken from
a variety of sources, including a few ideas
developed in house. Let's start with the most
widely known concept attributed to Lean. Kanban. Kanban concept. Kanban is a concept
used in lean to prevent overproduction by
producing products only when the
customer requires it. This concept was adopted by Toyota after executives
were amazed by how American supermarkets
like piggy wiggly operated with the
customer selecting the items they wanted
when they wanted them, thereby creating a poll on
the upstream value chain. When they first observe
this concept at work at supermarkets in
pre-World War II US. They were surprised
because this was completely different from the
system they had in Japan, where the clerk collected
the products for a customer. While the customer waited
at the counter in a store. The Toyota executives saw
this concept as a way they could design their
production lines to make sure that the value-added processes always had the materials they needed for their jobs directly where and when
the materials were needed. Total quality
management, or TQM, is the combination of many
concepts in and of itself, including things
like Jidoka, Poka, Yoke, a PDCA, among others. The concept of Jidoka
or automation is deeply rooted in the origin story of the Toyota Motor Corporation. The company founder,
Tsukiji Toyoda, develop textile looms with a human touch that we're
able to detect when an error occurred
and automatically stop to prevent a defect
from being created. This concept, when paired with total quality
management taught by Edward Deming and others
in post-World War II, Japan became a pillar of the
Toyota production system. Another key concept
used in Lean is flow. Though use countless times in history before the invention
of the automobile, Henry Ford popularized
this concept in his almost entirely vertically integrated automotive
manufacturing factories in the early 20th century. When first introduced in
a moving assembly line, the flow concept reduced the Model T production
lead time from more than 12 h to only
1 h and 33 min per car. Another concept
adopted by Toyota from outside was quick
changeover or SMED. Toyota observed many
textile manufacturers with the ability to quickly change from one
product to another. On their looms.
Adapting the concept for the car body shop. The target was to change over the press dies and
fixtures in under 10 min. Hints coining the phrase single-digit Minute
Exchange of Dies or SMED. Many other concepts like
strict adherence for Standards and Training processes and total productive
maintenance. We're an evolution of
the ideas imported to Japan with post-war
consultants from the US, driven by the need for
Japanese companies to be incredibly efficient
in order to compete. The concept of tack time came to Japan from their allies
during World War II. The German aircraft industry
measured the frequency at which finished aircraft came
off the assembly lines. The word for tacked in
English is measure, as in a measure of music. Just like a drumbeat. Hookers aircraft
assembly was designed to supply aircraft
at a set frequency. This tucked system, as
taught by the Germans, was taught to
Mitsubishi aircraft by German engineers in 1942 and
was later adopted by Toyota. The final concept that lies at the core of how
Toyota implements its entire production
supply chain is agricultural thinking. Now, I know what
you are thinking. What does farming or agriculture
have to do with Toyota? Toyota specializes in automotive
manufacturing, right? This topic lies at the heart of the culture that Toyota seeks
to create in its company. When finding a suitable place
to build its factories. Toyota always picks a
location in the countryside, not out of the desire to find the cheapest real
estate available. Toyota picks these
locations to capitalize on the hardworking ingenuity of farmers that they will be hired, that will be hired to
work in their factories. Toyota strives to hire the
best self-starters with a keen sense of independence and creative I for
solving problems. These skills are most easily
found in farming communities where there is a strong work
ethic as well as always, as we'll always the
pressing need to get things done with the minimum
required resources. The actual word Lean, as it applies to the continuous
improvement process, was coined by John
crave chick and American engineer that studied the Toyota production
system at Toyota factories. And the term Lean
was popularized by James Womack in his now
famous book about Toyota, the Machine that
Changed the World, the story of lean production. I was surprised the first time I visited a Toyota factory, after a brief safety
introduction, they immediately took my group down to the shop floor
to get a close-up, get close up to the
production lines. The interesting thing about Toyota is that they are not
trying to hide anything. They don't consider
anything about TPS or the Toyota Production
System as proprietary. In fact, the factories in
Japan where TPS originated, toyota allows
hundreds of visitors each day to see their
processes in action. Just like in the past, Toyota is always trying
to learn from the outside and inside so that they
can become better. Every day. I asked a
sensei giving a tour wants if he was worried about sharing all of this
information with competitors, I was on a tour with some
automotive suppliers. He answered directly. No, of course not. We want everyone to
make improvements. And then he said with a
small smile, he said, besides, if you copy
everything you see today, then tomorrow we will still be different because we
make thousands of employees improvements
every day due to the strong continuous improvement culture
in our factory. So as you work to develop a strong continuous improvement
culture at your company, do like Toyota and learn from others from
the outside world. Never let yourself be
boxed into saying, no, that can't be done
in my industry, business or company
or department. If you find yourself
or others saying this, take your eyes off the tool. You are observing and think
about the underlying concept, which is the concept
of improvement, and how it can be
applied where you work.
3. The Toyota House: Many decades ago, Toyota
developed a model to help communicate the core principles of the Toyota Production System. This model is called the
Toyota house or the TPS house. Like any well-built house, construction begins with
a strong foundation. There are many depictions
of the Toyota house model, depending on the audience
it is presented to. If you were to visit a toy, the Toyotas website, right now, you would see a slightly
simpler version than the model we will
discuss together. The version of the model I will share is sometimes seen at Toyota production
facilities with more detail added for clarity. What do you think is the
core foundation upon which a successful and world renowned production
system can be built? Well, stability is
the correct answer. As we will discuss more
in the next modules, standards and improvements can
only be made when there is a certain level of stability in the demands placed on
the production system. Phi of S and total productive
maintenance, or TPM, are foundational
elements, fundamental methodologies that are
used to create stability. Phi of S is used to increase worker productivity and reduce
worker process variation. While TPM does the same thing, but with the emphasis on
machines used in the process. If your production is
complete chaos with huge variation in
output and capacity, then it will be nearly
impossible to implement Lean. You must first remove the biggest sources of
variation in your process. I worked with a customer wants
who in Thailand that had a huge complex machine
that produced over 40% of the overall
volume of the factory. It was a beautiful
German machine that no one at the factory had ever taken the time to
really understand. No one really knew
how it worked when the machine started to
not function properly. The maintenance manager, who
was a former Buddhist monk, would promptly visit
the machine with gold leaf paper and holy
water and begin praying. I'm serious. This is actually what happened. And I'm told that
the prayers did have a positive impact on the
performance of the machine. Don't ask me how
this was possible. But when the machine broke down, an external supplier,
usually from Germany, had to be called in fly-in
to actually fix the machine. And while I was working
at the factory, there was a catastrophic
failure that required a significant overhaul. The machine was down for six
months, waiting for parts, external machine experts,
and calibration. With this type of
process in place. There was absolutely no way this company could ever
successfully implement Lean. They needed to remove
the largest sources of variation which
probably required a combination of keeping some critical spare
parts on hand and training the machine
maintenance technicians on proper use and
maintenance of the machine. The next foundational element of the Toyota house is standards. We will discuss more in
the next module about standards and how to implement
effective standards. But as we all know, standards are used to
create consistency and dependability or stability
that is required to deliver. Or Dr. Kaizen or
continuous improvement. As Taiichi Ohno, the
father of TPS once said, without standards, there
can be no improvement. Notice that continuous
improvement or Kaizen is located as a foundational
element of the Toyota house. It is not the end result of a successful
production system, but a pre-existing
foundational element required in order to develop a successful
production system. Having Kaizen, Kaizen
mindset and a culture is critical for your
company's success in implementation of Lean. The final foundational element is a concept and tool that is often considered a more advanced tool for
Lean implementation. We will find out
in a later module that leveling and
heijunka is not as complicated as it sounds or as many Lean
practitioners say it is. But rather it is simply
a method of using inventory buffers and
production scheduling to compensate for
variable customer demand. Leveling like a pill of
medicine treats this symptom of variable production demand
by compensating for the abs and peaks in the
demand placed on production. But it does not solve
the root cause of the havoc created by variable
customer customer demand. As companies remove
more and more waste from their production processes, they will find that they are less affected by
customer variation. But depending on how
your production process is configured and how it is
linked to your supply chain. You will almost
certainly need to use some form of leveling for
your production processes. Once the foundation is built, we are ready to
build the pillars. The Toyota house is very simple. It has only two
walls or pillars. The first pillar is jidoka
or autonomy nation. Jidoka is a Japanese
word that is actually a combination of
the characters used for the word automation and the character used for human or automation with
a human touch. In English, it is called
a tonation or the combination of
automation and autonomy. Jidoka has two essential parts. First, machines are designed
to have the intelligence, the capability of stopping
when an error occurs. Errors lead to defects. So stopping when an error occurs potentially can
eliminate defects. Because machines
have this ability, it is now possible to implement the second
part of Jidoka, which is the separation
of man and machine. This means that operators
and machines are able to create value independently
while working in unison. Or simply put, operators
are not required to wait. For machines, and machines only require human intervention
when errors occur. The result is that operators can manage multiple
machines at one time. When I was working
at General Electric, a Lean expert from Japan
visited our factory. He was shocked to see
are highly skilled, highly trained
operators watching their CNC milling
machines through a small cut of fluid
drenched window, hours upon hours, every day. While the machines produced components for steam turbines. Though our process, it had
extremely high-quality. They were not based on
the principles of Jidoka. Even though both
the machines and operators were capable of
working independently, they were still they were still managed with one
operator per machine. When we began making
improvements in the fixturing programs
and machine layouts, we immediately saw over 70%
productivity improvements while also improving quality. Jidoka works. The second pillar of the
Toyota house is JIT, which stands for just in time. Even in Japan, you will
hear employees use the term JIT when they are talking amongst
themselves in Japanese. Why Toyota did not pick another Japanese word for
this pillar, I'm not sure. But just in time is the
term widely used globally. Jit is dependent on the three
Rs which are right product, right time, and right place. Right product can actually be expanded to include
right quantity, right product number, and
the right quality or price. Essentially, what this means
is that we want to do, want to deliver what the
customer wants when they want it and precisely
where they need it. Anything outside of
this specification creates waste or something the customer is not
willing to pay. Four. Now, we get to the crowning part of
the house, the roof. When we think about
the effect of each one of the pillars
of the production system. What is the result? Well, if we implement JIT, then we will see an improvement
in delivery performance. Our lead times will
decrease and we will be able to ship product to the
customer when they need it. On the other side of the roof, Jidoka will clearly improve
the quality of our product. Finally, the very pinnacle
of the Toyota house is cost. As we discussed in
the previous video, Toyota develop their
production system entirely for the purpose
of reducing cost. So they could be competitive with US automobile automakers. It is interesting that
they didn't reduce cost by cutting headcount or
blindly reducing inventory. Know, they reduce costs by painstakingly improving
the quality of their production
processes through jidoka and consistently improving
their delivery through JIT, which pillar is most
important, JIT or Jidoka. Most Lean experts will say improving quality
is most important. Because improvements in quality positively impacts both
delivery and cost. If we are producing
high-quality products, there's less unexpected
scrap and rework which will, which are always among the top reasons for
shipping missing ships, shipping deadlines, or
poor delivery performance. Also, I'm sure you have all seen the chart that shows
how cost grows exponentially when
a defect occurs or a defect is allowed to pass further down
the value stream. If the defect makes it all
the way to the customer, the impact is sometimes tragic. And at a minimum, it will be very costly. Just to put things in context
for those of you who have heard a bit about Lean prior
to taking this course. Smed, SMED or Single
Minute Exchange of Dies, which is a method used to reduce changeover times
EPI or every part, every interval, which is
a method of levelling, Kanban, pole, flow,
supermarket, inventory control, milk run, and material
replenishment are all examples of tools that
are used to achieve JIT. On the Jidoka side, TQM or total quality
management and on and Poka Yoke are just a
few of the many tools used to implement Jidoka
to improve quality. So now we have this beautiful, if not overly simple
model of a house, but we're still missing the most important
part of the house. This has to do with the
all-important why question. Why do we build houses? Well, we build houses
to protect people. What kind of people are
we talking about and what kind of protection
are we referring to? Well, Toyota develop the
Toyota production system to protect their employees,
customers, and stakeholders. Employees have extremely
high job security at Toyota. Even during the global
COVID-19 pandemic, when other companies were laying off employees left and right. Toyota reduce production
and temporarily suspended operations
at many locations, but they did not let
any employees go. Toyota also has a firm
commitment to customers, constantly trying to deliver
more value to customers. In the case of value
for Toyota's customers, it doesn't mean more
features and Trendy Designs, but value means
dependability and quality. Finally, stakeholders and
Toyota know that they won't see earth-shattering
financial performance or growth statistics. Rather, they will see tortoise like performance where they, where the slow and
steady wins the race. Key to this entire
approach and in providing protection to all
stakeholders is trust. And Toyota has the mantra. Trust is key. Without trust, the long-term sustainability
of the system will fail. Ultimately, the production
system is lead, operated and improved by people. Trust between all the people or all the stakeholders at
Toyota drives the desire to improve and to be better each
day with the knowledge that improvements will
be rewarded both in the short-term and
in the long term. Blood, sweat, and tears required to make difficult
choices and drive continuous improvement
in a sustainable way delivers value for
everyone involved. I hope that during the module, you picked up some more insights into how the mini pieces of lean that you have
probably heard of or heard about
before fit together. And why it is so important to understand Lean as a system, not as a collection of random tools used to
make improvements.
4. 3 Levels of Continuous Improvement Process (CIP): To explain the
right approach for a successful and sustainable
Lean transformation, we use the inverted
pyramid model called the three levels of continuous
improvement process, or CIP. At the core of Lean is understanding the
needs of the customer, business and our employees. Because sustainability
requires delivering more and more value
in these three areas. I apologize for my poor
drawing abilities. But hopefully the symbol I used here looks a little
bit like a crown. Just like in the old days when kings and queens
ruled over peasants. And all efforts in the
kingdom were subjugated or focused on fulfilling the needs and wants of the royal family. Continuous improvement must be focused on better
fulfilling the needs of all of our shareholders with our customers at the
very front of the line. If we don't have customers, we don't have a business. Even if we have
fantastic employees and well-informed and
supportive shareholders and business leaders. I will refer to all three of these groups collectively
as stakeholders. So what are some of the
needs of our stake holders? Well, our customers want
higher-quality, better delivery, lower cost, improved service, and more innovation
among other things. While at the same time, and sometimes through poor
planning or bad leadership, the customer needs are put in direct conflict with the
needs of the business. Ultimately, because we are
in for profit organizations, meaning we want to make money. At the end of the day, there is the expectation that profit is generated that can
be shared among all of the owners or
shareholders of the business. The business also wants to
grow or make more money. And doing this in a stable
and sustainable way. With social initiatives like the UN sustainable
development goals. Many companies are
also striving to make profit in a more
environmentally, socially, and economically reasonable
way or responsible way. Last but not least, Let's talk about the
needs of our employees. Our employees are the value
creators in the system. And therefore, if their
needs are not met, then improvement also cannot
happen in a sustainable way. Some common employee needs
include job security, safety. No one wants to go
home from work, missing part of
their physical body or with a disrupted
emotional state. And as we will talk about later when we
discuss motivation, a deep core need
of all humans is empowerment or involvement
in the improvement process. But where are we today in
our efforts to improve based on the stakeholder
needs we just discussed. To find this out, we need to make a
value stream map for manufacturing processes or a Maki gummy for
other processes, which will give us a clear
current state snapshot of how our processes
deliver value. Later in this module, we will go into
detail about how to effectively use these
tools to uncover waste in our
processes that can be eliminated to better meet the
needs of our stakeholders. Once we have created a current state
value stream map or Maki gummy as our baseline. And by incorporating the inputs or needs of our stakeholders, we are able to develop the value stream design or
future state Maki gummy, which visualizes
how we will meet the needs of our stake
holders better in the future. This future state design is designated by a target
implementation date, meaning we need to know when we will plan to achieve
the future state design. The gap between our
current state baseline and our future state design becomes the basis of our Lean strategy. Assigned actions
to close this gap are consolidated in
the lean master plan. Lean master plan is essentially a simple action item list with owners projects and
deadlines clearly defined. However, it is unique in
the case that each project closed brings the future
state into clear focus. Or the more projects we close, the closer we are to
achieving the future state. And when all
projects are closed, the future state design is what our process
actually looks like. You can see that this
process is cyclical. Once we have achieved
the future state, that is the new current state. And we need to design
a new future state. But we will go into
this more later. Lean managers initiate and drive the activities at this level
of the inverted pyramid. Actions identified on the lean master plan
are completed in Kaizen workshops and projects facilitated by a Lean expert. And these projects follow
the Lean principles. What is the key requirement
of any successful project? You may be thinking to yourself, cost-savings or
quality improvement, or some other directly relevant topic that you work on in, on a regular basis? The answer is standards. The result of each workshop and Project is an improved
or new standard. Standards include the
new way of doing things, the new layout where
those things are done, and the new requirements with
respect to time, quality, and cost that are required
to have the desired output. These standards are passed to the frontline employees of the organization for
direct implementation. These frontline employees
work at the Gemba. Let's talk about what
the gamba means first. The Gemba is essentially where value is created
for the customer. This can happen in the
office or on the shop floor. Wherever there is value
created for the customer, whether that be a service
provided or a product created. This is the Gemba. We will talk more about this later about what value means. But just keep in mind that Gemba CIP refers to
the activities that frontline employees in the
organization are engaged in that the customer
actually is paying for. For those of us who have been project managers
in the past, we all know what happens
once we've closed a fantastic project with
all sorts of benefits. People gradually start to go back to the old ways of working. And eventually any improvements that were made
completely disappear. What can be done to improve this discipline,
of course, right? No, this is what the
ineffectual lazy manager does. In order for the improvements
to be sustainable, they must be adapted
at the Gemba. First, the standards
need to be visualized. It must be readily apparent and easily understood with one of the five senses whether or not
the standard is being met. If it requires opening a
filing cabinet or worse, logging into a computer system. This is not effective
visualization of the standard. Once the standard is visualized, deviation management protocols
need to be defined and followed In the event
that the standard is not met or followed,
what happens next? This is the essence of
deviation management. It takes weeks or even
months for a deviation from standard to trigger the next
step of problem-solving, then there is no hope for the future livelihood
of that organization. Problem-solving at the Gemba is like a mini continuous
improvement project. Once a root cause of
the problem is found, the solution is
implemented to eliminate the root cause and a new improved Gemba
standard is implemented. This idea of Gemba standards
is very important. I would like to
try to illustrate the idea with an
experience that I had when working with a Kaizen team at a famous German
automaker factory, I was discussing the
idea of Gemba standards with a team of shop
floor supervisors and engineers and a process
engineer who was part of the team
interrupted and said, I don't see the point in
having gimbal standards. If shop floor employees follow the standards given by
the engineering team, there wouldn't be any problems. The engineering standards
are already good enough. So we decided to go investigate this idea
on the shop floor. There was one stage of
the assembly line where an insert was put around
the door frame of the car. We ask the engineer who made
the bold comment to follow the engineering
instructions himself during one of the tasks of
the assembly line. He started very confidently
by collecting the insert, walking to the car and on the assembly
line as it was moving. Almost immediately, he
began having issues because the clips were
not engaging properly. He said, we need to give the supplier of
these clips a call. They are not
functioning properly. In the end, he barely
finished just in time as the car was passing
into the next station. His face was covered in sweat. Next, we asked one
of the operators to do the same thing,
the same task. The operator also approached the task with confidence
and with ease. He was able to install
the entire insert with plenty of time to spare and without even
breaking a sweat. He even had enough time to chat with his friend on
the next station. Confused by the ease with which the operator
completed the assembly, the engineer asked,
how did you do that? The operator answered simply, there is a trick to getting
the clips to engage properly. You have to insert them at about a 45-degree angle and
they clip right in. If you try to push
them indirectly, they usually won't go in and it requires a lot more effort. When we reviewed the
engineering standards, we saw that they only said that the operator
needed to install the insert one clip
at a time starting at the top of the door
frame and working around. The operator followed a
Gemba standard or a standard developed known and inherent to the assembly technique
on the shop floor. This knowledge was not known by the engineer who wrote
the original standard. Gemba standards are practical
hands-on refinements to a higher level standard, most often written by engineers. The principle of
engineering versus Gemba standards is also
applicable to the office. I remember a time when my company hired a
new manager that was tasked with tightening up the cost structure in
the design department. This manager had
previously worked on a in a world-class consulting
company and had worked with many design departments
at various companies. He was confident that he knew
exactly what needed to be done to streamline and speed
up the design process. Being an expert in the process, he felt confident enough to pilot The design of
the next product. It turned out that all
of his general knowledge acquired by familiarity
with the design process at various other
companies was hardly helpful at all when dealing with the specific
design requirements and constraints that this design
team was working with. His initial results which were below target, were
quite embarrassing. This manager didn't understand the specific Gemba standards that the team used to optimize
their design process. The supervisor or
manager in the office, or the line leader or
honchos in the factory, leads to continuous improvement
efforts at the Gemba. They are the frontline
leaders working directly with team members to
improve the process through the refinement
of Gemba standards. The ultimate goal of this
connected chain of efforts is to increase the
value delivered to the customer, business
and employees. You can see now that
the chain is complete, needs are captured and
communicated through Lean strategic planning using a visual value stream
map or Maki gummy. Projects are completed to close the gap to achieve
the required needs. The employees at the
Gemba implement and refine these changes to make
them visual and measurable. You may be wondering why I
drew the pyramid upside down. Who in this whole
chain is actually producing value-added
work for the customer? Who in the company is actually
closest to the customers. And what they value. It is the people
working at the Gemba. Management and experts
are only supporting value-added activities by capturing the stakeholder needs, setting organizational
priorities to meet the needs, and providing the
necessary resources to make the changes. The inverted pyramid also emphasizes that all layers
of the organization, from the very few individuals at the top to the very
many people working at the Gemba need to be aligned in delivering more and more
value to the stakeholders. If one of the levels
in this model is missing or not
functioning properly, the chain is broken
and increasing value is not delivered to the customer,
business and employees. Without lean managers, there is no coherent or sustainable
strategy for the organization. Without Lean experts, there is no change leaders that are
empowered with the right tools and knowledge to
realize the vision of lean managers without
continuous improvement at the shop floor or Gemba, the company is missing the engine of
continuous improvement. Without an engine,
the company will go nowhere in their pursuit
of increasing value. One final comment, critical to sustainability is
processed confirmation. Process confirmation is
when a leader goes to the Gemba to verify that a particular standard is being followed, essentially an audit. This becomes part of
the daily work for managers following the
mantra, go and see. When all of the elements of this model work together
in unison like a gearbox, a Lean transformation
is successful.
5. Lean Implementation Models: Lean implementation models are an effective way
of communicating the objectives of your company's continuous
improvement initiatives to all employees. Just like we saw with
the Toyota house, it can be a very
effective communication and training tool. I would like to share
some examples with you to give you an idea
of how these models differ from company
to company based on the needs of the
shareholders or stakeholders. Here is an example of akron Children's Hospital
surgical services. This hospital is well-known
in the US to be one of the first hospitals to use lean to better meet the
needs of customers, as well as increased
productivity of the hospital. At the core of this model, you see surgical
services optimization for those who had
been through surgery. You know that you want the
surgery to be as quick, painless, and
effective as possible. This is not only
for the patient, but the hospital also benefits from services
optimization. Because the shorter time
that surgeries require, the more patients and the more money the hospital can make. Just outside the core is the Lean principles
indicating that the hospital expects to achieve surgical
services optimization through applying
Lean principles. The next ring is a
series of key events in the customer journey
through the process in which Lean principles
are applied. Around the outside are
some attributes that protect the core objectives like governance,
culture, and leadership. A very clear and simple model
that can communicate both internally and
externally the culture and objectives the
hospital wants to sustain. Next is an example from Yoko Galois and industrial
automation company. You can see that this
model is even more simple, capturing only four
main objectives for the company's continuous
improvement initiatives. What is the most important
for the company? Lifecycle excellence? I can imagine at a company that is on the cutting
edge of technology, delivering more and more
value to customers is one of the most paramount
targets for the company. If a company that is known for the latest innovations
suddenly uses dated, if they suddenly use
dated technologies and infrastructure, they will undoubtedly lose the confidence of
their customers. Therefore, production
excellence, safety excellence, and asset excellence at this company must be
aligned to increase life cycle excellence or ensure product life cycle management in a sustainable
and long-term way. Here's another example
that I like from BMW. Bmw is model looks like a wheel because they
make automobiles. What is core to their
competitive advantage? Flexibility. Bmw cars are not cheap when compared with
Toyota or forwards. But what makes them attractive
to their customers? Flexibility. I'm told that when
you buy a BMW, the options and features and
customizations are endless. In Germany, after you have ordered your customized car with pink leather interior and
bronze paint exterior, with the autonomous
parking add-on, you are able to
make any changes to that configuration
of your car up to two weeks before the
start of production. This is truly incredible when
you consider that some of the components come
from overseas to BMW. Being flexible and
adaptable is key to meeting the needs of the
company's stakeholders. You may know that
Western Digital makes data storage components. And this model comes from a factory that
makes hard drives. For those who have
ever opened up a hard drive to see
what is inside, you will see immediately
recognize the design complete with ARM assembly and platter
and interface assembly. Their model is more a
collection of the key concepts, methodologies, and cultures that are most important for their
continuous improvement. This example is from a Swiss specialty chemicals
company called clairvoyant. Their overall focuses on
operational innovation, all commercial and
people excellence. For each of these
areas of the company, they defined ten core concepts that are important for their
continuous improvement. You can see that the focus of operations is not the same
as the commercial team. I think this is
another example of a consistent approach
that helps communicate the objectives of the
continuous improvement program at the company in
a sustainable way. What about your company? Do you have a model that
is used to describe your Continuous
Improvement Program, aspirations and objectives. If you do have a model, your first assignment is to take a deep look at it and make
an interpretation of what, what are the key objectives of your business in meeting the
needs of the stakeholders? Maybe you have some ideas on how the model could be
improved or adjusted. Write these down as your
first quick assignment. For those of you who do not yet have a Lean implementation
model at your company, you have a blank
slate to start with. Challenge your artistic
abilities in coming up with an idea that
both encompasses the ideals of what
your company wants to achieve through
continuous improvement. A well-known Lean expert
named Natalie J. Sayers said, when forming your strategy, don't just copy
someone like Toyota. You have to follow
your own path, make your own adjustments, and find your own way. I look forward to
seeing what you create.
Matthew Vogel
