The need for "Lean lens" to remove waste

The question most Lean critics have is "If lean requires common sense thinking, why do we need Lean believers, Lean Practitioners to implement it?"

Lean concepts and principles are indeed easy to understand, lean tools are easy to apply to real world processes. But most people doing the work on a regular basis are usually not aware of the wasteful activities they are doing. In fact most people working the process are so busy doing the work that they don't have time to think about their way of doing it. They get so comfortable that they just stop thinking about what they are doing and why they are doing it?

Lean Practitioners help these people look at every process step with a lean lens. Using the Go See principle, practitioners walk the process with the people working it and map it on paper. When the people working the process look at the process map with the lean lens, it helps them identify value added and non value added activities in their process. Wasteful activities become obvious and every step of the process is looked at from the lean perspective. The lean lens looks at each activity in the process as value added or non value added. Everything is questioned and ways to improve the process are discussed.

Continuous improvement teams come up with unique ways to remove waste and focus only on value adding activities. Most of the times the teams see the wasteful methods they used all along. Teams often realize that they need to be working smart and not hard!

What motivates continuous improvement?

Continuous improvement programs are popular these days as all businesses are trying to find ways to cut costs by working smarter. Although CI programs are present everywhere they seem to deliver bottom line results only in certain places. Why?

If we analyze this logically you will see that it very simple. CI requires change in way processes work in an enterprise. It requires people working with these processes to change and think differently. Actually, it requires thinking outside the box.

We know that human beings by design are resistant to change. Researchers have proven that humans do not like change. So what would motivate change in a CI program?

Two key motivators for change are:
1. Threat - If people fear the consequences of not changing, then they would be willing to try to change. For example, fear of losing a promotion or job or a raise.
2. Reward - If the proposed change brings tangible rewards then people could accept change.

What strategy does your company use to make CI programs succeed?
Share your ideas at info@sybeq.com

What does "Leaning out a process" mean?

With the success of Lean Manufacturing, it is common these days to hear people say we are Leaning out the process. But do people really understand what Leaning out means.
I have come to realize that the phrase Leaning out means different things to different people. Here is the list of some of them...
- optimizing material movement
- removing obstacles in the process
- re-arranging the area
- re-arranging people
- removing clutter
- doing more with less

Although all of the above are good interpretation of the term "leaning out". I think most people undermine the true meaning of the term which is to remove all non value added activities in a process to improve flow. But why is flow important? And above all what should flow?
I think the term "leaning out a process" is used rather loosely at all levels of the enterprise without understanding the true meaning.

Have you heard the term "Leaning out"? What thoughts come to your mind when you hear this term? Drop us a line at info@sybeq.com

Continuously improve in 2011

The New Year has begun and every new year kicks off new projects/programs.
New programs in almost every function of the enterprise are planned for the entire year.And Continuous Improvement program also gets new goals, targets and plans.

Continuous improvement is tough in today's business climate.
Businesses are trying to do more with less. Less resources to take care of routine work. On top of this there is the CI program that needs resources too.
Most people devote time to CI projects after taking care of their routine responsibilities.

So how do you plan for Continuous Improvements in 2011?
1. Simple tools like 5-Why Analysis, PDCA, Cause and Effect diagram are easy to understand and use.
2. Create a learning environment where everyone learns by applying.
3. Encourage people to just try a new tool or technique for improving a process. Sometimes the best solution is to Just do it.
4. Plan for Continuous improvement with the end goal in mind. Sporadic improvements here and there are useful but won't get the CI program far.
5. Link each CI activity/project to financial benefits.
6. Communicate the progress of the CI program to all levels of the enterprise. Leadership needs to know what has been achieved and the goals for the CI program.
7. Periodically Measure how the CI program is actually doing compared to the goals/targets.
8. Tweak the program if it is not achieving the set goals but never give up on your CI initiative.
9. Know your CI toolkit and update your skills to use the tools in your improvement projects.
10. The key is to persist inspite of the challenges and never stop continuously improving your processes!

We would like to hear about your CI program in 2011. Are you planning for new tools you would try in your CI projects?
Drop us a line about your CI plans for 2011 at info@sybeq.com.

How to level the load in production?

The concept of load leveling requires careful analysis of production volumes and schedules so that production makes same quantity of parts both by volume and product mix everyday.

The steps for leveling the load include:
1. Take the total volume of customer orders in a period by product type.
2. Determine the quantity of parts by product so that the same volume needs to be produced by product type.
3. Analyze the time required to make a part by product type and time required for changeover.
4. Plan a stable production schedule so that plant floor doesn't have to deal with fluctuations.

The goal of leveling the load is planning to work at a consistent pace in production making a mix of parts so that the equipment and people are working at the same pace without stopping or being stressed.
Because of this production is not rushed for deliveries giving production folks enough time to implement standard work and avoid errors.

The key to find the mixed model that works for your process/line. Once the mixed model is determined, production has to make the same quantity, mix of products and repeat it everyday.

Load leveling presents many challenges:
- The concept of load leveling is counter intuitive to batch manufacturing where the focus is to run a batch of same product as long as you can and run it efficiently. Load leveling on the other hand says it is okay to changeover from one product to another. In fact load leveling encourages multiple changeovers in a day or a shift.
- Due to the mixed model approach, there may be some amount of finished goods inventory when implementing load leveling. This may make some Lean experts unhappy as they view inventory as waste.
Ultimately it is important to look at the risk of carrying some inventory to satisfy customer demand or make the customer wait for the product they need.
- Load leveling won't be successful without having quick changeovers i.e. reducing changeover time.

Taiichi Ohno explained this with the story of the race between the tortoise and the rabbit. The slow and steady tortoise wins the race. Ohno said it is desirable to be slower but consistent tortoise as it causes less waste than the speedy rabbit who races then stops to rest.

Load leveling is key to becoming lean

The last few posts on our blog focussed on Value Stream Mapping and other lean tools used for waste removal.
Removing waste is the main focus of lean manufacturing.
Value Stream Maps allow lean practitioners to get a true picture of activities done in a process. These maps make waste visible so that it can be removed.
Waste can be removed using lean tools.

In today's world, production volumes change based on customer demand and customer demand fluctuates. Plants practicing Just In Time start producing only when the customer signals for parts. Plants cannot possibly respond to such high variations in demand. So they carry some buffer stock for finished goods.
There may be raw material inventory or WIP necessary to prepare for such demand fluctuations.

Carrying enough inventory is the key to meet customer demands. If plants carry too much they are creating waste and hiding problems.
That is why it is important to level the load so that plants produce at a uniform pace without causing stress to equipment or people. Stressing the equipment could cause breakdowns and stressing people may cause errors or accidents.

But what is load leveling?
Load Leveling is the process of producing the same quantity and mix of parts without responding to every fluctuation in customer demand. This reduces unnecessary stress on equipment or people working in the plant resulting in fewer breakdowns and errors.

The question is how to level the load?
We will try to answer this in our next post.

VSM makes problems visible

Lean principles talk about making problems visible so that they can be solved. Value Stream Mapping focuses on charting activities as they happen in the process. The main goal of VSM is to make problems/waste visible.

But what happens next is equally important. Problems need to be acted upon. Lean practitioners need to identify what how to resolve problems or remove waste.
The following approach may help practitioners with problem solving:
1. Identify the list of problems in your area.
2. Measure the impact of the problem on external and internal customers and the organization's bottomline.
3. Prioritize by impact of the problem.
4. Undertake root cause analysis using 5 Why analysis or cause and effect diagram.
5. Identify root causes and corrective actions that can be implemented.

Problems are everywhere. Sometimes very prominent staring you in your face and other times hidden. The key is to find them as soon as they appear and fix them.

This actually resonates with what Philip Crosby said "It isn't what you find; it's what you do about what you find".

What problem solving technique do you use in your workplace? How do you identify problems? Send us your comments at info@sybeq.com.