The Lean Way Consulting

Just Like New Year's Resolutions Lean/Change Efforts Can Be Hard

2012-02-01T08:39:00.000-06:00

We Are Looking For Companies That Have Had a Slow/Failed Attempt at Lean for a Study

Change efforts typically succeed 25-30% of the time the first time you try. Here are the reasons why they fail:

Not Strategic
Attitude vs Behavior Focused
Agreement vs Alignment Focused
Procedures vs Outcomes Focused
The Change is Experienced as Disruption
Enforce Compliance Over Commitment

Typical results:

A Few Try to Convince Many That Change is Needed
Partial Responsibility/Ownership Mindset
Change is Perceived as a Disruption of "Real Work"
Pace of Change is too Slow
Breakdown at Implementation

What's Missing:

Attention to Stability-in-Change
Creating Positive Emotional Attraction at the Outset Making Change internally Driven vs. Perception of Being Forced To Change
Finding a Compelling Positive Future Image - Fosters Internal Drive vs. Perception of Being Forced to Change
Emphasizing Co-learning vs. Participation for the Sake of Making People Feel They Have a Voice

If you are interested in learning more about a new program we have to facilitate everything that is missing please reply to this email or go to the Contact Page.

The services will be part of a study and the first three qualifing companies will have little to no out of pocket expenses for services.

-Change Effort Not Working? Try Appreciative Inquiry And Changing The Culture

-How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

Services

Stop SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-18T07:48:00.001-06:00

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

If the latest version of SOPA - Protect IP Act (PIPA S.968) passes it would mean the end of the internet as we know it. It allows the government and the entertainment industry to shutdown sites just because they feel there are copyright infringements or there are links to sites that are copy write infringements. What this means is that bloggers like myself could get 5 years in prison just because a commentor left a link to a site the corporations feel is supporting copyright infringements. Such sites can include youtube, facebook, and others.

Please contact your representative and senator and tell them you oppose PIPA S.968

More information on what's in PIPA

The Money Trail - which representatives and senators are given money by pro PIPA corporations

What's Missing With Your Lean Initiative

2012-01-06T14:32:00.002-06:00

We are currently looking at new innovative ways to deliver services to folks that have superior value. We want to hear from you on what you would like to see from a consulting company that you don't see. It can be cost, product, services, or any other items but we want to hear from you.

Here are some of the ideas that are in the works:

-Distance facilitation
-Online coaching for managers
-Full package implementation (strategy, org structure, training, and some projects) at a single price point
-Strengths based problem solving

We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section or contact us directly.

Related Blog Posts:

Change Effort Not Working? Try Appreciative Inquiry And Changing The Culture

How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

Services

Lean in the Office

2011-12-14T10:19:00.002-06:00

You might think of a scene like the one in the picture when you think of a "non-Lean office." The fact is that Lean in the office is much more than just a 5s program. For those unfamiliar, 5s is a 5 step process to help organize the work space and more importantly you use 5s to help see where there might be opportunities for improvements. The 5s process is 1) Sort 2) Set 3) Shine 4) Standardize 5) Sustain. For more information please contact us.

A Lean office is an office that is designed to deliver the most value with minimal waste to a customer. 5s is a great place to start because it will usually lead to other findings which you can improve. We have found a slightly different way to approach a lean office. First step is to give everyone Lean training and teaching people to see what is value and what is waste. The next step is to look at what you are currently doing well and try to see how you can do more of it. An example of this is at an office I helped they were a a couple of people great at communicating with customers/clients. We decided to standardize as much as possible their process and train others on how to have good interactions with customers/clients. The training was done by the people who were thought to be the leaders in the area (a receptionist, a manger, and a technician). You can find what's working well by doing an appreciative inquiry.

After leveraging what you have working well then there is an opportunity to work on the problem areas. We usually like to do some mapping events to get a good feel for where the main opportunities lay. A value stream map or multiple value stream maps is ideal for this step. In an office setting value stream maps can get a bit hairy and may not be as clear as in a manufacturing setting. Don't worry that is ok just do the best you can in mapping. Once you've mapped out the current state for a particular area then design an ideal future state map. The difference from the current state and the ideal state will be the projects you will need to work on in your office. Don't worry if you can't get everything done this year, just prioritize and pick which ones you want to do. Just remember that this is iterative so if it's not perfect then don't worry you'll have another change to improve it. We recommend doing a value stream map at least once a year and doing both a current state and future state map.

From this point you can go in several directions but you will have multiple projects to work on through out the year. For sustaining and continuous improvement we find that daily management helps. This is a simple board with metrics and if the metrics aren't meet then we try to root cause the problem and solve it so it doesn't happen again in the future. It's a great way to engage all people and give them ownership in their work space. For more information on daily management, value stream mapping, or any other questions you may have please contact us.

Change Effort Not Working? Try Appreciative Inquiry And Changing The Culture

2011-12-08T10:24:00.000-06:00

This is the abbreviated post for the more detailed post on how to make change management work.

Many of my clients approach me because they want one of three things.
1) Process improvement
2) Strategy facilitation
3) Cultural changes

Mostly they ask for the first two choices because they are more concrete. When clients choose to do only process improvement or only strategy the gains from their efforts and the lean way consulting are short lived. Ultimately true sustainable change only comes from cultural change and that is not easy. Organizations fall into typically two categories.

1) An organization wants to do a process improvement effort like Lean and are excited to use the tools because of all the great things they heard Lean can do for their organization. While that is true they miss the critical element of the management and sustaining side.
2) An organization wants to do a process improvement effort like lean and understands it's more than a tool set but will focus on a problem orientation when implementing Lean.

The lean way consulting's system for process improvement is to integrate cultural changes at the beginning with an approach called appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is an approach designed to build on the strengths of an organization and address the weaknesses in the context of building on strengths. Normal Lean implementations are based solely on what's not working.

By looking at the positive side of things we activate the parasympathetic system which allows us to be more creative and able to solve problems easier (this is an oversimplification of the biological system of the PNS but the end result is still the same). It doesn't take much effort for people to be more positive and open to other solutions. Cornell university did an experiment where they asked physicians think out loud while they solve a case of a patient with liver disease. They found that when they gave physicians just a small bag of candy or some kind of small gift those physicians were better at integrating case information and less likely to become fixated on the initial ideas and coming to premature closure in their diagnosis. This is the type of thinking you want from every person in your company. You get less resistance, more buy-in, and a sustainable solution. Here is the basic approach the lean way consulting uses for a new change management effort:

0) Training (ongoing)
1) Start in a place where there is a need
2) Build out an area to experiment and grow momentum
3) Expand by creating tension to constantly move people out of their comfort zones
4) Integrate what you are doing in strategy

For more information please contact us oh where you can get started. You can also take our free assessment and we will analyze your current culture for free.

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy these:
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How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

How To Make a Change Management Effort Like Lean Stick

2011-12-02T10:30:00.000-06:00

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.
-Robert C. Gallagher

If you are involved in any kind of change management effort that is large typically it takes about 2-5 years to make the change sustainable(The Banks Report December 2005). A Lean implementation is no different and in this blog post I want to talk about the initial conditions you need to make a Lean (or any other change effort) sustainable in the long run. Before we get into how to change a culture let's look at all the factors that influence culture:

Mission/Vision of the company - ex. Nike's mission; "To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world."
Process controls - ex. role cultures have many rulebooks and power cultures relay on individuals to get things done.
Org. Structure - ex. decision flow, hierarchies, etc.
Power Structures - ex. where are decisions being made, are they made by groups or individuals, how concentrated is the decision making?
Symbols - ex. employee of the month pictures/parking, logos, designs, offices vs. cubicles, etc.
Rituals and Routines - ex. meeting schedule and how each meeting is run, reports that are more habitual instead of useful, etc.
Stories and Myths - ex. building up people and events to get a message across, GE's story of how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.
(source: Johnson, Gerry (1988) "Rethinking Incrementalism", Strategic Management Journal Vol 9 pp75-91)

A good change management program will tackle most if not all of the elements. In a Lean transformation you will typically change process controls, org. structure, power structures, symbols, rituals and routines, indirectly change the stories and myths and possibly the mission/vision statement. So why isn't every change management program successful? There has to be a driving force moving people out of their comfort zones. These forces can be either internal or external but it needs to be significant enough to drive people to change.

In designing systems Lean designs include pull systems. A pull system is designed so a product/customer doesn't move to the next step until the next step is ready and "pulls" the product/customer into the step. Please seen this wikipedia article for more information. The main question becomes how do you generate pull for a change effort. When ever we do change efforts we look at these factors:

1) Sponsorship support - What level is the sponsor that supports the change, are they the CEO or owner?
2) Support structure - Are there others who want the change?
3) Current situation - What are the current conditions like morale, productivity, turn over, etc? Is there opportunity to get a quick win in any area that is measurable
4) Resources - Does the company have the right people or do they have plans to either train, hire, or bring in consultants to help? Do they have time and money dedicated to the change?

If these 4 factors are in place then we move forward with the change effort. If they are not then we address them first before moving forward if we even move forward. Usually training is a good alternative to a change management program if you don't have the above 4 factors.

Ok now we're ready to start a change management effort like Lean, how do we start. Here is the traditional approach:
0) Training (ongoing)
1) Start in a place where there is a need
2) Build out an area to experiment and grow momentum
3) Expand by creating tension to constantly move people out of their comfort zones
4) Integrate what you are doing in strategy

There are many steps in between and it's not always this linear but it's like a pyramid where you start at the tip (small) and expand out. This process can be a lot of pushing to get changes made. If you want to generate pull start with upending the pyramid and start will the whole system. I want to introduce to you a new tool that is being taught at Toyota university and that's Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is different from a traditional approach:

Traditional approach:
1) Felt need/identification of problem
2) Analysis of Causes
3) analysis of Possible Solutions
4) Action Planning

Appreciative Inquiry Approach:
1) Appreciating & Valuing the Best of What Is
2) Envisioning What Might Be
3) Dialoging What Should Be

(source: David L Cooperrider;Diana Whitney. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change (p. 13). Kindle Edition.)

How does an appreciative inquiry approach get people excited about change? That is where the AI process is different from the traditional approach. AI focuses on strengths and and the foundation is in positive psychology. Positive psychology is not about being a cheerleader 100% of the time but it's about finding what's good, how to be resistant, and being aware of what could go wrong the negatives of a situation. What happens with appreciative inquiry is that we ask people what is right with the system and how do we do more of what is right. By appealing to people's positive emotions we have seen high levels of engagement with staff members and better sustainability with efforts. Below is an example of how appreciative inquiry can lead to results:

Roadway began holding Al Summits throughout its North American operations, realizing that to thrive in an industry in which net profit margins are less than 5 percent in a profitable year, each of its twenty-eight thousand employees must assume leadership responsibility. The results have been impressive. When the work began, Roadway stock was around $ I4 per share. In two years the stock rose to more than $40 per share, before any merger discussions with Yellow, whose stock was a much lower $24 per share. Following the merger in 2003, the combined company was valued at around $42 per share because of the strength of Roadway's improvements. But beyond stock prices, many other measures have steadily improved at statistically significant levels, including operating ratios (the lowest in years) and well-documented overtime changes in survey data looking at measures of morale, levels of trust, clarity in focus and priority vision, commitment levels, and confidence in a new and better future. Many of the changes occurred during an economic downturn in the industry and have been traced to the power and effect of the new culture of engagement fostered by more than twenty large-scale Appreciative Inquiry Al Summits. Jim Staley, Roadway's CEO, says he's seen tremendous employee involvement in task teams at terminals that have held Al Summits, and each team has produced results. "The Appreciative Inquiry approach unleashes tremendous power, tremendous enthusiasm, and gets people fully engaged in the right way in what we're trying to accomplish," Mr. Staley says. "It's not that we don't deal with the negative anymore," he explains. "But the value of Al is that, in anything we do, there's a positive foundation of strength to build on in addressing those problems.

(source:David L Cooperrider;Diana Whitney. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change (pp. 40-41). Kindle Edition.)

You might be asking yourself how do you integrate this approach with Lean? One way The Lean Way has found works well is to start your lean efforts with training everyone so they have a general knowledge of lean and how to think lean then start the whole system design approach of appreciative inquiry. This is an oversimplification of the process and each organization is unique so for specific questions please send questions to us from the contact page.

We have started the effort in a hospital system in Cleveland and we decided to tackle group performance. We wanted to make a better working environment for the PMO group so we decided to take the appreciative inquiry approach. During the process the team had comments like "This process gave me hope that things can be better" and "Wow this is great and I never thought of it this way." With the results that came from the effort the team decided to redesign the team building events for the upcoming year to foster a better working environment.

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Rethinking Value Streams In Healthcare

2011-03-30T21:47:00.000-05:00

Value stream maps are a great way to see your processes in a way that a customer or patient will see your processes. A typical value stream for a hospital might be a diabetic patient who is over the age of 70 and is coming in for chest pains. Another example might be a heart surgery patient. The granularity of what constitutes a value stream is variable and by improving one value stream you will improve others that touch those same departments. For example if you improve the flow for a breast cancer patient you will help improve the process for other cancer patients because you will help improve areas like chemotherapy, x-rays, and lab testing.

Traditionally that is how Value streams are done in Healthcare. We take existing processes and find how they align to patients. I would propose a new way of looking at patients. I recently had the a chance to hear Dr. Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right, and he mentioned a staggering fact. About 5% of the medical patients make up 60% of medical costs and the facilities that provide the best care are not the highest cost structure. If you can deliver better care to the 5% of the most expensive care patients it should improve the care to the other 95%. The 5% that make up most of the costs are also the more complex cases who typically visit hospitals for their care.

Instead of look at a value stream by hospital and patient type I propose looking at a value stream by prevention and management of diseases instead of treatments. With that you have to look at several more factors like how do you prevent more diseases as well as effectively manage current ailments so there doesn't need to be emergency treatment. The value streams becomes more of a value chain linking public health, in home care, primary physicians, and hospitals all playing a crucial role. Currently if you have a diabetic patient with heart disease most of the care they receive is through the hospital that would be able to handle their complex case. In this new model the patient is intercepted before coming to the hospital and focuses more on preventative care through in home care via an in home care person or program as well as a primary physician. If the patient has an emergency or needs some more specialization then they can come to the hospitals. Distribute the care away from hospitals and more at the source of the problems is the idea behind the healthcare value chain. Catch problems early and often.

A downside to this is that hospitals would see less revenue if they continue with the current model but patients would receive much better care. Not to mention it would bring down healthcare costs to treat patients since the rate of major (and more expensive) incidences would go down with proper management.

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Motivating Employees Without Money: The Carrot and the Stick

2011-02-22T09:25:00.000-06:00

I came across an interesting problem. How do you motivate employees to change their behavior after an event or project that changes their work. In my experience I've seen some interesting approaches. In a wire harness manufacturing company I saw the stick (punishment) being used to discipline people who were not following process. If you diverted from the new written processes during an audit then you could be written up. In a major hospital system I've seen financial rewards for performing the new behaviors. Patients in MICU needed to be turned to prevent pressure ulcers. The nurses who would turn the patients the most got a monetary reward.

So what works, the carrot, the stick, or both. The approach at the Lean Way Consulting is that it depends on the organization.

Here are the questions that are asked to know how to approach the changes:

1) Is there a process defined for the change well enough for anyone from outside your department to come in and audit the person doing the work on accuracy?

3) How much does the staff want to make the change (level of desire)?

4) What is the level of competency of the team to execute to the idea (able or unable to do the task)?

If you answered No to the first question then don't bother going further until you can answer yes. Without clear expectations it's very hard to change behaviors. If you need to know how to do that for a process please leave a comment or send me an email ankit@theleanwayconsulting.com for more information.

Once you have the first element now gauge your team's desire to change and their ability. For simplicity we'll use the following values:

High desire

Low desire

High ability

Low ability

If your team has low ability and low desire to change then the carrot methods for motivation will not work. You will have to dictate how the work needs to be done and use more of the stick approach. For example you may want to discipline people not following new processes. Once your organization starts adopting the new changes then you can consider rewarding good behavior.

If your team has low ability but high desire then you need a mix of motivational tools. You need to praise the good behavior but at the same time you need to correct the bad behavior but maybe not in a harsh way.

If your team has high ability and low desire I've seen all methods work depending on the environment. If you use a carrot method then having a friendly competition to see who can do the new process best can work. A mix of process discipline maybe needed as well. One of the main differences in this scenario is that you can have your team help come up with their own ways of solving the problem of sticking to the new process. What I've found that works well is to get the team into a meeting and ask how can we accomplish "xyz" goal in the new process.

If your team has high ability and high desire then you will need minimal effort to have the change take root. In this scenario be careful not to do anything that will hinder the change.

If you are thinking about giving a monetary reward as your carrot I would caution you. Sometimes giving monetary rewards will lead to behavior changes as long as you keep paying. Once you stop paying then the behavior goes away. That is exactly what happened to the MICU once they stopped giving a financial reward. If you punish too much with out some reward or recognition then in the long run you can get demoralized employees; this is what happened at the wire harness company. The key is to find the right balance.

Fastest Way To De-motivate Employees: Don't Train
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Lean For Haiti

2011-01-13T15:58:00.005-06:00

All,
I want to share with you a message I recived from a friend and a collegue Mark Graban.

Dear Friends-

Today marks the one year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010.

Last year, I was fortunate to meet a special person - Russell Maroni, an x-ray tech at Akron Children's Hospital. He volunteered in Haiti for 15 days in February 2010 as part of the earthquake relief efforts. He was unexpectedly, and necessarily, pressed into service in a medical role, not only caring for patients, but also using his formal lean training from ACH to help improve processes and radiology patient throughput at a field hospital.

Russell wrote a very compelling, and very personal, journal during his time in Haiti. He and his colleagues took many pictures. We are sharing this all in a PDF eBook that we are freely distributing - to share the story and to create awareness for Haiti relief needs. We are asking people who read the book to consider donating to the Friends of the Orphans, which runs an orphanage in Haiti.

The journal isn't mainly a "lean story," although it does include his hand-drawn A3 plan. It's a very personal story, of his own prayer and contemplation of the trip, and his experiences in the midst of that tragedy.

I hope you will consider spreading the word about this project to your readers and/or listeners - on blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, radio, etc.

To read more, go to http://www.LeanForHaiti.org, which has links to the PDF and our social media sites. If you have ideas for helping promote this, to hopefully make it "viral" in the Lean community, please let me know. We can kaizen the site and the book itself.

If you can help support this online, please share a link to any blog posts, etc. and I'll list you and your site on the "Supporters of This Project" page on our site. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Mark

I first want to thank Mark for the email and taking initiative on spreading the word. This is my small way of trying to help any way I can.

I would also like to note that Lean is a great system to help non-profits and to help with deliver of services to people who need it most. Let's do what we can to help people who need it most.

Here are some other places to donate besides http://www.LeanForHaiti.org :

Friends of the Orphans

http://www.nphhaiti.org/

Lean For Haiti Facebook Page

If you have any questions please let me know and I'll make sure we find an answer.

Thank You,

Ankit

How To Get To The Root Cause Of A Problem

2011-01-03T09:37:00.005-06:00

First off Happy New Year to Everyone and I hope 2011 is a fantastic year for you all. Now for how to get to the root cause of a problem. I was working with a client who plays in the IT recruiting space and they have started some great activity around strategic alignment and policy deployment. One of their big hangups is when is a slip on the schedule when is the slip up caused by an accountability issue and when is there something else that might be the root cause to the slip. Now initially everything was an accountability issue and there were many fingers being pointed in all directions. After talking with the team and we decided to change some items around in the meeting.

1) Always dig deeper into issues. No longer will "I didn't have time" or "I was waiting on XYZ" be an acceptable answer to why we are missing on our dates.

2) Ask the 5 whys to get to the root cause of the problem. The source of most of the problems can be easily traced using this methodology correctly.

Problem: I missed my due date on an action item
Why: I had an emergency come up with a client

Why did we miss even though we had the emergency: We didn't have enough people properly trained to do what needed to be done so my efforts were diverted to the emergency

Why was there no one trained to do the other items: We didn't have a standard around how we deal with the emergency or standards on how we do daily work so any emergency that comes up will cause this same issue in the future

Containment plan: Realize that this is an issue moving forward and work on the solution plan

Solution: Standardize daily process and emergency processes as much as possible so there is agreement on what and how we do business.

The solution is much deeper than just an accountability issues; it is a systemic issue at the company that if not addressed will cause problems again in the future.

In this example the people understood their process and systems pretty well but what about a much larger organization where an employee may not see all the moving parts. How would you find root cause there?

In the healthcare world Hospitals are the perfect example. I was working with a catheterization (cath) lab on their patient turn around times. We started digging into the reason why the turn around time was taking so long and there were multiple reasons and here is one of those lines of reason:

Problem: The turn around time in the cath lab is longer than expected.

Why: Some labs just have lazier workers
Why: They are just lazy
Why: Because they just are
Why: That's the way they were raised
Why: What is the point of this? They need to be held accountable.

So the line of reasoning was that we just need to hold people accountable and that is fine but the what the folks didn't understand is the root cause. The source of the problem wasn't that people were lazy or inept; it was that there is nothing in place to hold people accountable. There was not standard where a manager could come in and say you are not doing your job to your work instructions because there were no work instructions.

The folks in the cath lab didn't know enough about the processes and the system to understand that the root cause of the problem wasn't accountability but was the lack of standards. Fixing that lack of standards fixes all the issues in this one problem set for turn around time and in fact we did see (if all other variables taken out) 40% improvement in the turn around time by just standardizing and we expect to see a reduction in infection rates due to the fact that we are now standardizing the preparation of the patient to sterilize completely and consistently.

The summarize:

To fix the root cause ask a lot of questions and make sure you understand the system. One way to know if you fixed a root cause is that the problem dosen't and has no chance of coming back in the future. Ask the right questions to get to the right solutions. This is a bit art and science. Ask for help if you need it when it comes to finding the root cause.

Factoid Friday - The Market Has Changed... Where Were You?

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Markets are always changing but companies don't always recognize the changes. According to Harvard Business Review Daily Stat 1/4 of all households now only have a cell phone and no land line. How have you seen the land line market change because of this shift in the market? How do you see traditional land line companies changing their business models to accommodate a higher rate of cell phone only households?

What if your business had such a shift? How would you respond? How does your business system adapt to a changing market? Is your business system able to :
1) recognize a change in the market quickly
2) change your operations to meet the demand
3) deliver a high quality product/service
4) deliver the product/service at a competitive rate
5) fosters a flexible work group to deal with changing demands and day to day operations

If your business system cannot do all of those items listed above then what are you going to do when the next market shift happens in your segment?

How Do You Know What To Standardize In Your Business

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you have read the E-Myth and in the book it talks about having a system put in place to be able to duplicate and expand your business. To do this you have to standardize processes. The biggest question I get is what to standardize. The question usually comes from the belief that what is being done is unique. The perception is there is a scale ranging from 100% repeatable to 0% repeatable. The more repeatable then more standardization can be applied. The reality is that you can actually standardize just about anything.

To get started on how to standardize you can first breakdown a process into 3 categories:

100% repeatable - These are tasks that are the same every time and we can easily standardize the process. Example: Installing a screw into a panel.

0% repeatable - The task is diffrent every single time with no elements that repeat. Example: I have never experienced a 0% repeatable process

<100%, >0% repeatable - Most tasks fall into this category. Example: Checkout process at the grocery store.

Once you take an inital look at your processes and determined which catagory they fall into then you look at to see if you can maximize the repeatable elements.

What every you can repeat make sure everyone is does it the same way and what ever cannot be repeated then standardize as much as possible. An example of a non standard process is diagnosis of a problem on a computer. Fixing a computer once you know what is wrong is a standard process but trying to find out what is wrong is not a standardized process. One way that your business can standardize something like a computer troubleshooting is to come up with a flow chart or a decision chart where it will help everyone start the diagnosis process.

The biggest obstacle to standard work is the thoguht that "I'm unique and my work cannot be standardized." Try to fight the urge to think that way and instead think about how you can standardize your business.

For more information or any other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
"I Want To Do It My Way And Not The Standard Way"

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - What is IQ and EQ

2010-08-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

EI (EQ) is tactical or immediate functioning, Cognitive (IQ) is strategic or long term capacity. IQ accounts for 4-15% of work performance, EQ averages 27% and can be as high as 60%
source: MHS UK

EQ can be broken down in to 5 areas:

1. Intrapersonal Skills
2. Interpersonal Skills
3. Flexibility
4. Dealing with Stress
5. General Mood

These skills translate directly to communication, trust, alignment, and productivity for your company. Do you know any companies that focus on these factors? How does your company address EQ elements? Please leave comments.

Factoid Friday - Word Of Mouth Matters

2010-08-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

Word of mouth is no longer just an intimate act: Consumers post product reviews online and disseminate opinions through social networks. McKinsey research indicates that in developed markets, word of mouth has its biggest impact when consumers decide which products to consider and when they're actively evaluating products — at those moments, 18% and 19%, respectively, see it as the single most important factor influencing them. In developing markets, WOM is most significant at the moment of purchase (46%). In both kinds of markets, word of mouth is the only factor that ranks among the top three at every stage.

Source: McKinsey Quarterly via HBR Daily Stat

Word of mouth is generated by the level of service and level of satisfaction with your products. If you are in a developing market then how do you you are providing the best level of service and product quality? Do you get feed back from your customers to? Do you design process around the customer or do you just design processes based on what you think is best to run that operation? Please leave your comments.

Layoffs Are Like Liposuction

2010-08-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

As a company when you traditional companies think about removing waste and "weight" they will commonly use layoffs or a reduction in force as a common tool. But that doesn't address the root cause that gave rise to the need to shed employees. Here are some of the more common reasons that are given for layoffs:

-Lack of work aka lack of demand
-Down turn in the market
-Changing cost structure to stay competitive

To be honest unless there is a sever downturn in a market the real underlying cause is usually poorly run company. I like to equate layoffs to liposuction. You have a lot of fat but instead of fixing diet and exercise (removing waste from operations and adding more value) you get liposuction (layoffs) and the root cause that caused you to get so big in the first place isn't addressed. Not to mention there might be long term effects of liposuction that can't be seen yet but the long term effects of layoffs are a little better studied. Layoffs can lead to :

-the organization moves towards less risk-taking and innovation
-destructive conflict tends to increase
-internal competition for resources increases
-individual staff members devote less effort to working together and more attention to doing things that will protect themselves.
-general listlessness and lethargy
-decreases service levels and increased public hostility

Focus on the root cause problems and learn to see waste and value. Next time you are on your work floor look for things that are wasteful and how you can change them. Little change now can make a big difference down the road. How do you see waste?

For more information or any other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - Fatal Medication Mistakes Spike Every July

2010-07-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

In the month of July, the number of fatal medication errors jumps 10% in U.S. counties with teaching hospitals, according to David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker of UC San Diego. Each July, medical residents get new or increased responsibilities for patient care at the beginning of the academic year.

Source: Society of General Internal Medicine via Harvard Business Review Daily Stat

Moral of the story is don't get sick in July. What are some ways to combat these mistakes? Leave thoughts in the comments.

Kaizen and Kaikaku (Breakthrough Kaizen)

2010-07-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

You may have heard of Kaizen which is incremental continuous improvement. It is a great way to make improvements consistently in any organization. The idea behind Kaizen is to just be a little better than before. Over time Kaizen can lead to significant changes.

Another concept that doesn't get talked about as much in a Lean Business System is Kaikaku. Kaikaku is a major breakthrough also known as breakthrough kaizen. What does that mean? Well a picture is worth a thousand words:

What tends to happen in reality is something more like this:

Kaizen improvements will take you so far then you need a breakthrough improvement (Kaikaku). Kaizen would be like a 5s program where Kaikaku would be a line design project that converts your entire front to back process from batch to single piece flow. Going from cell build to progressive build can also be an example of a Kaikau.

How do you know when to use Kaizen and when to use Kaikaku? I like to use these rules:

1) Define what success looks like for your operations. In manufacturing you might use delivery time, % of operation that is waste, or even defect rates. In the service industries you may use number of customers, wait times, or even employee turnover.

2) Do Kaizen activity until you start hitting a glass ceiling with your improvements. This is when you start seeing diminishing returns on your improvements.

3) Test your breakthrough idea thoroughly before large scale implementation with cardboard mock-ups and an iterative design process.

4) Continue to Kaizen the new design.

For more information or any other questions please contact us.

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - What Is A Star Performer

2010-07-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

A 1990 study concluded that a star performer is 85% more productive than an average performer in jobs of medium complexity (sales clerks, mechanics). A star performer is 127% more productive than an average performer in the most complex jobs such as insurance sales, account managers

Source:Hunter, J. E., Schmidt, F. L., & Judiesch, M. K. (1990). Individual Differences in Output Variability as a Function of Job Complexity. Journal of Applied Psychology

Do you have a plan in your company to create and foster star performers? If you have a star performer how would you keep them on your team? Do you know what keeps star performers motivated? Please leave responses in the comments section.

For more information or any other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - How Well Do You Remember

2010-07-16T13:43:00.003-05:00

The human brain can hold about 7 (+/- 2) pieces of information in short term memory.
Source: Memory Article on Wikipedia

Many of you may already know this fact but do you apply it to your work? How many items do you juggle at one time? Maybe 5-6 work items and 4-5 personal items. Do you ever "drop the ball" on any of the items that you are working on either personal or business related? You may want to try a principle called standard work.

For more information on Lean Business Systems, standard work, or any other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

The One Who Bid's The Lowest Get's To Bleed

2010-07-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

I meet with a metal stamping company today and the CEO said something every interesting to me. He said "We don't go after the high volume lower margin products like automotive, we go after what no one wants to do and we do that. The one who bid's the lowest on the high volume jobs get it but many times they are just bleeding slowly from a financial perspective."

Two thoughts came to mind when he said this:

1) It's good that you've found a niche
2) How do these companies differentiate them self other than price?

Find a niche:
To find a niche you have to know the industry but there are a couple of factors that repeat themselves across most industries. Highly customizable short run products are a great niche market. If you do go after this market then you have to be aware of not only price but deliver times, quality, and very high complexity. A Lean Business System can address all three of these needs and is highly recommend if you are expanding to new markets.

What differentiates you:
How do you set yourself apart when you bid on projects? Is price the only thing you have to offer? The one unique part of you company that cannot be duplicated is your people and your culture. How is your culture different form the competitions? Is your culture a by product of focusing just on the bottom line? Do you have a culture that fosters growth, new ideas, and innovation? How you you differentiate form the competition?

A Lean Business System is a great way to both address a niche market opportunity and to differentiate yourself from others weather it's through online delivery, innovation, continuous improvement, or just lower employee turnover rate. Are you just slowly bleeding when you get low margin jobs? How do you deal with the competition?

For more information on Lean Business Systems or other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - Poor Planning Leads To Most Dangerous Roads In India

2010-07-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Road deaths in India rose 40% in five years to more than 118,000 in 2008.

Source: New York Times

The New York Times sites poor planning and a surge of drivers as the factors for the rise. The lack of planning and proper driver's education seems to be the root cause of the problem. Most places will spend more time with road planning and have a better budget. Do you have a process in your work environment that are like the roads in India? Poor planning and training leading to a poor process? How would you fix the roads in India? How would you fix your processes at work?

Hierarchy Of Lean Business Needs (TM) Communication, Trust, Alignment, Productivity

2010-07-07T08:26:00.014-05:00

When first starting Lean companies tend to jump to the productivity piece but Lean is not about the processes but about the culture. Lean culture is the cornerstone to a Lean Business System. The aptitudes of communication, trust, and alignment are the building blocks to reach productivity.

Communication:
Studies of business cultures indicate that one of the most pervasive problems is communication. It is a simple fact of life that the more human interaction there is, the more opportunity for conflict. This is not surprising since most people never receive training in this area. This leaves companies of all sizes and descriptions two options: One option is to try to make communication work. The second is to simply ignore the issue hoping it will go away. The former generally does not work because most managers do not place enough of an emphasis on communication to truly do what it required to improve. The latter does not work for obvious reasons. Thus, it is a wise leader who is willing to hold the organization up to the mirror to look at all the imperfections,and then do something about it.

Trust:
The level of trust directly impacts how effectively the entire company operates. It is based upon many factors that each individual contributes. If the trust level is high, there is an ability to address and resolve issues. If it is low, problems escalate, negatively impacting how people interact and address problems. Every individual in the organization is responsible for building trust. Without a doubt it takes courage to have trust in others, and to open oneself up to criticism while maintaining a demeanor that builds trust. Without trust, no organization can achieve its full potential.

Alignment:
When you go to the airport to board a plane, you expect the pilot to know exactly where the flight is headed. Furthermore, you expect that the pilot and everyone else on the plane are planning on going the same place you are. Unfortunately, the same cannot always be said of a company‟s work force. All too often members of a team do not seem to have a common destination guiding their actions.

Alignment in a company ensures that everyone understands the direction that it is headed, and how this is going to be accomplished. Additionally, alignment provides for every individual understanding her/his own role in the process. Without alignment, resources are being misspent taking the organization away from the desired result.

Productivity:
There is a fine balance between people and production concerns that a leader must consider. If, for instance, the balance tips in favor of production, the people in the organization suffer and begin to feel unvalued. This causes them to lose interest in the success of the company, and their work suffers. This typically takes on a snowball effect in that the more the “boss” demands production, the more the employees rebel and production suffers.

On the other hand, some managers go the other extreme. They assume an exaggerated paternalism. They cater to staff members to make them happy at the expense of the business. This can lead employees to begin taking advantage of managers. In both of these scenarios, neither management nor the staff is engaged in moving the company forward. A leader finds a balance between people and production requirements. He or she is able to harness the energy, creativity, and desire to be an integral part of the organization in order to bring out the best in the team. The leader includes the team to assist in maximizing the production in a continually improving manner. This will typically preclude either people or production being sacrificed for the benefit of the other.

With any Lean Business Systems be sure to include communication, trust, alignment, and productivity in your changes. By including these four factors into a Lean Business System you increase the chances of success dramatically.

For more information on Lean Business Systems, the hierarchy of Lean Business Systems, or other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - Corporate Cost Cutting Fizzles

2010-07-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Only 10% of cost-reduction programs sustain their results three years on, McKinsey research finds. Sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs are particularly unyielding: While manufacturing efficiencies have helped S&P 500 companies reduce the median cost of goods sold (as a percentage of revenues) by about 2.7 percentage points over the past decade, SG&A(sales, general, and administration) costs have remained at about the same level.

source: HBR daily stat

It's interesting to note that corporate cultures will peak with cost cutting initiatives at 3 years and the initiatives don't go further than direct operations. When starting a Lean initiative or any other initiative I always ask what are you doing to make sure you going to keep seeing gains? With Lean the driver can come from the top level strategy as well as pursuing efficiency outside of direct operations. HR is a great place to start your Lean transformation. IT is another support group that can benefit greatly form Lean. How does your company deal with sustaining changes? Where do you start your improvements?

If you are interested in knowing how to sustain Lean please contact us.

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study

2010-06-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

I came across an article that talks about how emotional intelligence is used in the implementation of lean. CIBA is specialty chemical company whose Italian office decided to go Lean. The main difference in their transformation that's normally not done is the focus on the organizations emotional intelligence and EQ (emotional quotient) score.

Some notable results from their transformation include:

- productivity increased by 18%
- reducing complaints by 73%

They credit their success to consistent application of emotional intelligence along with Lean implementation. The two are not separate but hand and hand. Many of you know what Lean is or at least have an idea but you may not know what or how to make your organization emotionally smarter. Emotional intelligence is defined by four factors:

1) The ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others entails identifying internal cues of emotional experience and emotional information in facial expressions, voice, music, designs, and other stimuli.

2) The ability to use emotions to facilitate thinking entails integrating emotional information with ‘cold’ cognitive processes.

3) The ability to understand emotions entails appreciating emotional dynamics and blends of emotions and how these influence thinking and behavior.

4) The ability to manage emotions entails regulating emotional experience in oneself and in interpersonal situations to attain personal goals and adaptive outcomes.

The good news is that you can change your organizations emotional intelligence just as you can processes and the combination of the two changes leads to a permanent culture change. Just like Lean transformations, increasing the emotional intelligence of your organization is not going to be easy because you will run against deep seeded feelings and emotions. With one organization we did an emotional intelligence baseline and unearthed some issues of communication, trust, and respect before even starting a Lean transformation. The project is still on going but the culture is improving and once we can clear up any communication, trust, and respect issue we can move forward with a full Lean implementation.

How does your company tackle it's emotional intelligence? Do you have a baseline test? If you would like a baseline test please contact us.

Related Posts;
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - What Motivates Employees
Motivating Employees Without Money
Motivating Employees Without Money - The Psychology Of Behavior Change

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - Culture = Profits

2010-06-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Source: USC Marshal Business School

Culture is defined as any values, assumptions, and artifacts (symbols, stories, texts, ceremonies, rituals, etc) associated with the company. How well the company adheres to culture and how well the company culture promotes growth, improvement and a suitable work place determines cultural strength. There is a clear correlation with culture and return on capital and even though it's only at .51 (out of a possible 1.00) this is higher than most single factor regressions. The study takes samples form companies in various sectors but in general for every 1% improvement in the cultural environment of a company we can expect about a 3% increase in return on capital. The good news is that there is a way to systematically increase your culture and if you are interested please Contact Us.

Related Posts;
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - What Motivates Employees
Motivating Employees Without Money
Motivating Employees Without Money - The Psychology Of Behavior Change

Just Breathe - Tips To Lower Your Stress Fast

2010-06-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Stress is something that will deteriorate your work environment and health quickly if you don't control it. Stress in short bursts can be a good thing because it forces us to get things done in a certain time line. It's also very useful if you are running away from a pack of wild dogs. Chronic stress over the course of months and even years is very detrimental to your health and well being. You don't learn as well and you will eventually have worse performance than if you are not stressed.

I recently asked a friend of mine, Curtis Simpson, who teaches meditation if he had any techniques that I can give to my readers to help with managing stress. He told me how to do heart-focused breathing. Here is what he says about heart-focused breathing:

Heart-Focused Breathing is a simple yet powerful technique that is being taught by
doctors, nurses, clinics, and meditation instructors throughout the world.

This practice will reduce stressful feelings, and increase feelings of well-being,
balance, and energy.

It can be done anywhere and anytime. This can be done sitting down with eyes closed or standing up eyes open.

· Shift your attention to your heart (heart-focus)

· Think of your breath flowing in and out of your heart (heart-breathing)

· Breathe more deeply, rhythmically and slowly but don't strain

· In addition, as you breathe through your heart area try to recall a positive feeling- a time when you felt good inside-and try to re-experience it. This could be a feeling of appreciation or care for someone or something (heart-feeling). Try to maintain this feeling while heart-breathing.

So remember the basics: heart-focus and heart-breathing, and heart-feeling.

Doing this practice will help you get into a more positive and effective emotional
state. Then, your thoughts will become more balanced. Relaxation will occur and mental focus will improve.

In a Lean Business System you have to make sure that stress is not prolonged because of the effect it has on the creativity and productivity of your employees. Implementing small free items like heart focused breathing are a great way to start.

For more information about Curtis or heart-focused breathing see his page on Heart-Coherence.

For more information on Lean Business Systems call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - 3 Ways To Motivate Board Members

2010-06-18T09:50:00.002-05:00

The Lean Way Consulting works with Non-Profits and has to work with board of directors who do not get paid. Motivating them can be challenging but here are some ways to motivate board members who work on a volunteer basis.

1)Pose provocative questions. Spend a significant part of each board meeting wrestling with critical issues and asking your board to think through the toughest challenges facing your company.
2)Share the stage. Minimize time spent listening to prepared presentations. Be sure the conversation isn't dominated by one or two members.
3)Spend time one-on-one. Find out about members' individual interests and how they might translate to helping your company in a unique way — for example, by coaching an executive or attending a critical in-house meeting.

source: http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/managementtip.php?date=061810

How do you motivate your people?

Add Value Even When It's Free

2010-06-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

As you know I live in the Nashville TN USA area and we recently had a flood that was the worst non hurricane flood in U.S. history. With about 1.1 billion in damages and over 30 lives lost it was a very tragic event.

The Lean Way Consulting is currently working with Caudle Veterinary Clinic and while Caudle wasn't hit by the flood the neighborhood the clinic served did get hit hard. The Lean Way Consulting does an exercise with our clients where we ask two questions; "what can you do that will help your clients" and "if you were a client how would you like to be treated." Caudle did this exercise after the flood and came up with great ways to help the community. As a result Caudle Veterinary Clinic started doing several things the other veterinary clinics in the area did not do.

They boarded flood victim pets - These pets that were either separated from their owners or pets that did not have a known owner. They did this free of charge until the owner was found or there was someone that was willing to adopt the pet.

They kept their community informed - They made daily postings to the community online forum and their Facebook page to update pet owners on the latest from metro Nashville.

They helped out the police - Caudle Veterinary Clinic helped metro Nashville find homes for dogs that were abandoned.

They became a resource for information - When there were questions about pets Caudle Vet Clinic was the place to go to find out information. The manager even gave some people her personal cell phone number to help them during off hours.

All these the things that Caudle Veterinary Clinic did cost them time and money but they did it for free. They did it because that's what the customer found valuable at the time. It was hard enough for people to deal with the lose of their homes and property and Caudle made it easier for people and their pets to reunite.

How did this effect them? Caudle has been featured on local news at least two times in the last month since the floods. The entire community now sees Caudle as the preferred veterinarian in the community. And their business for this month is tracking over 30% better than June of last year.

By doing what adds value to the customer even if it's not making money it is almost always the right decision. How do you add value to your business? What have you done for your customers recently? If you could provide more value to your customers how would you know?

World Cup 2010 Friday Factoid

2010-06-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

World Cup Refs Run More in Games Than Players

Most of the referees in the upcoming FIFA World Cup tournament have day jobs, such as office work, and train on their own time for the grueling games. Though they're often twice the age of the athletes, refs tend to run 12 miles during a single game, five miles more than players. And there are no substitutions.

Source: CNN Health

Let's go USA! My heart is with the US team but Spain is probably going to win. Chile is my dark horse pick to win it all. Who's your team that you are cheering on? Leave us comments on your team.

The Lean Way Business System - Practice What I Preach

2010-06-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

In a Lean Business System you will operate differently than a regular business system. Some of the key differences are:

-Creativity over capital
-Action over analysis (where it makes sense)
-Understand the entire system and not just the local problem

I want to share with you my story. Since starting my work as a consultant my schedule has been pretty hectic and let's be honest I haven't been exercising like I should. So this is what is valuable to me:

-Weight Maintenance
-Work Productivity

If I were to go to the gym to work out I would spend a great deal of time just in transit, stretching, warming-up, cooling down, and showering after. That would kill my productivity. If I work all the time then I gain weight. How would I solve the problem? In a traditional business system here is what would probably happen:

-I should buy gym equipment and keep lots of it around the house costing $$$

This way I can work out and still get some work done because now I've cut my travel time. I may keep my weight under control but the productivity could be better.

Here is my Lean Business System solution:

I walk on a treadmill all day while I'm on the computer. This way I get lots of exercise while I'm working. You might say it's distracting but according to neurologist John Media in his book brain rules the brain actually performs better when it's moving. I'm making myself smarter by walking and working at the same time.You might be thinking "but Ankit the treadmill and table together must have cost you a few hundred dollars." The treadmill,table, WD-40, and some screws is all I needed to make the project work cost me under $79. The treadmill I got off of craislist.com for $50 and the table I made myself for about $24. So yes it can be done.

I thought about the problem AND the solution creatively
I decided to just try it and from concept to implementation too me about 2 weeks. I will make changes as needed but so far so good. I'm actually writing this blog will on the treadmill.
I took a look at the entire endocrine system to see what type of exercise was most effective for fat burning; it's walking. Walking also while working helps the brain process information better so it's a win win.

Imagine if you had an entire workforce that was even more nibble and quick thinking. Imagine how many of today's issues would no longer exist because your team has already taken care of it. If that sound interesting you might want to consider a Lean Business System.

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

How Can I Motivate My Employees To Motivate What I Want Them To Do?

2010-06-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is the most popular request I get in some form or fashion. There is a sentiment of "I need better employees" and I always ask have you ever had the right employees? The answer is almost always "Ted and Jell are a great and if I had 100 Teds and Jills I'd be unstoppable."

So how do you get your army of Teds and Jills? You can have the majority of your workforce be Teds and Jills and the answer is simple. If you were in their position how would you want to be treated? Would you want to be given commands or would you want someone to engage you, educate you, and ask for your opinion on a matter once you have the right experience? Employees aren't motivated by just monetary factors and in fact in most cases it is easier to motivate employees without money. Here are some basics on where you can start:

-Train your employees on how to problem solve correctly (yes there is a right and wrong way)
-Set expectations that once trained they will be required to solve their own problems
-Give them the tools, time, and resources to fix any problems that arise
-Don't say no to very many of their ideas at first because if you do the motivation will go away quickly
-If you do say no give explanations why.

This is a great way to give people control of their work environment. Having control over your work gives people a sense of well control that puts them at ease.

This is just one way to motivate employees without money and there are many more but I'd be interested in how you motivate your employees without money. Please post comments and thoughts in the comments section.

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Friday Factoid - Emotional Intelligence Helps With Leadership

2010-06-04T10:07:00.002-05:00

Socratic Method - A Great Way To Motivate Employees

2010-06-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Socratic Method is when you use questions instead of statements to facilitate learning. It is a great way to manage. Taking orders is a great skill set for the military but in most business management situations the Socratic method is a great way to train and get tasks accomplished. Here is an example of an actual situation:

Situation:
A team member at a veterinary clinic makes a mistake by filling a patients file incorrectly making it difficult to find the file next time.

Traditional solution:
Reprimand the employee and give them a lecture on how they need to make sure they file correctly.

Result: Errors keep happing

Socratic Method:
Ask why the error happened and what are possible solutions.

Result: Errors eliminated with a new filing system that is friendlier to the filers. Because it was the emplopyees idea they made sure the system works as it's supposed to. When it's "your" idea you become invested; when it's someone else's idea then you may not care.

Here is another situation and I would like to know how you would solve it.

Situation:
An Accounting firm has several employees and one of their star employees has a consistent complaint from other employees of being immature. How would you approach him to change his behavior with his coworkers?

Please post thoughts in the comments section.

Friday Factoid - You Need A Vacation

2010-05-28T07:00:00.001-05:00

For Every $1 U.S. companies get back from employees skipping vacations, they lose as much as $7 in costs related to worker burnout.

Source: Go Away, Just for the health of it by Dr. Mel Borins

For those of you working this weekend you may want to consider turning off the computer and phone and just enjoying some get away time. With your company don't be shortsighted. The companies that I work with I try to get them to pass a vacation mandate where they have to take their vacation (the companies where I have projects are in states that do not require vacation rollover). This is just one of many things you can do to show respect for your employees and here is evidence that shows that it can actually help your bottom line.

Thoughts/Questions/Comments please posts to comments.

Friday Factoid - EQ Is More Important Than IQ

2010-05-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

In an analysis of 181 competence models, 67 percent (2 out of 3) of the abilities thought to distinguish the best performers were emotional competencies. Compared to IQ and expertise, emotional competencies mattered twice as much. This held true across all categories of jobs, and in all kinds of organizations in what sets stars apart from the average worker.

Source: Goleman: Working With Emotional Intelligence, 1998

If you have ever tried to implement Lean you know how high of an EQ your organization has. The higher the EQ the easier to implement Lean. Fortunately EQ for an individual and organization can be raised in a very systematic way.

For more information on how to raise your companies EQ call at 615.852.LEAN[5326] or email
ankit@theleanwayconsulting.com

A Waste Walk: A Lean Practitioners Best Friend

2010-05-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you were ever to ask me what is the 1 tool that helps me the most with a Lean journey I would tell them it's a waste walk. I like it for several reasons.

1) There are lies, damn lies, and statistics and numbers - Numbers and statistics don't always tell the complete story so don't trust the numbers or the data. Go see for your self with a waste walk.

2) Find out root cause - When you go on a waste walk you can actually see problems occurring and find how to address them easier than just being in a cube. Go to where the work is being done to find the source of your problems.

4) It's the culture dummy - By changing your habits you'll change your mindset. Changing the way you think about problems and the way you manage problems is the #1 factor to making a lean transformation work.

It's important to note that there is no one way to do a waste walk. It is situation dependent but here are some examples and situations where you can use it.

Safety - Having a reoccurring waste walk to look for safety concerns is highly recommended. What you want to do is look at all the safety concerns you might see during your walk. This is great for manufacturing area.

Quality - Similar to the safety waste walk we look for quality issues. Where in the process are we likely to introduce potential defects. At first this will seem overwhelming but as you and your team continue to resolve the root cause it will become more manageable.

Process - This is usually the most common type of waste walk. During this walk you are looking for any kind of issue that can be a process waste.

Missed Opportunity - This is applicable more in the services industries where you walk a process and look for missed opportunities to add value to a customer.

The waste walk is a powerful ally in the fight against waste. Use it correctly and reap the rewards.

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Current ER Wait Times For Skyline Medical Center Posted On A Billboard In Nashville TN - Will This Help?

2010-05-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this sign a few days ago and it caught my attention. The sign tells you how long the ER wait time is at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville TN (click on the link to see their current wait times on their website). The basic idea is that every 4 hours the ER wait time is updated and their goal is to communicated to the public how "well" they are doing. They are shooting for a time less than 30 minutes but that time is measured from entry to greeting. By putting the times out to the public the Hospital hopes to increase visibility to the process and hopefully keep improving.

I applaud Skyline Medical Center in Nashville Tn for the effort but there are good, bad, and ugly qualities about the sign.

Good
-Visibility to Skyline Medical Center in Nashville TN
-Visibility on the door to greet time
-Effort is being made to improve the processes around customer care

Bad
-The focus is only on door to greet time. I have no idea how long it will take me to get through the entire process on average
-Since Skyline Medical Center is publicly being measured around the door to greet time that is what they will focus on improving. Risks are high that there will be workarounds just to bring the door to greet time down.
-I have no idea what they are going to be doing to get me treated faster or even if they will treat me faster. Wait time doesn't include potential wait time to see a doctor or specialist.

Ugly
-They maybe fast but I really don't know if they will fix my problem. Going to the ER I would care about 2 things: 1) speed 2) fixing my problem. The sign puts complete emphasis on speed but I haven't seen anything about quality yet.
-The 4 hour window tells me nothing about current conditions. Decisions about which ER to go to are probably not going to be made while driving to the ER so a 4 hour window is appropriate as an information sign and not a decision making tool.
-I've driven by the sign twice and both times the wait time was at or above their goal time of 30 minutes (first time: 30 minutes second time: 45 minutes).

Will Skyline Medical Center continue to improve their operations past the door to greet time or will they do what many companies do if it doesn't work and just give up? Or worse will they see slight improvement and not keep improving? I do not know their operations plan but it will be interesting to see where Skyline Medical Center and other medical centers, hospitals, and private practices in Nashville Tennessee will do in light of the billboard.

For more information on call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Don't forget about our Free Webinar May 17, 2010 at 7:00 pm Central Time on why Lean Transformations fail.

Resources:
WKRN News article

Related Articles:
(Not So) Lean Medical Practices
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Transformations Need Grassroots Input

Friday Factoid - Transformations Need Grassroots Input

2010-05-14T08:20:00.001-05:00

Employee engagement is a key success factor for organizational transformation. In a recent McKinsey survey, nearly 100% of respondents who characterized their companies' change-management initiatives as extremely successful said employees could contribute ideas to shape the efforts. And nearly a quarter of the extremely successful transformations were planned by groups of 50 or more, compared with just 6% of unsuccessful transformations

source: Harvard Business Review

This point emphasizes how crucial people are to any transformation especially a Lean transformation. How "grassroots" is your Lean effort?

Webinar On Why Lean Transformations Fail

2010-05-10T21:40:00.002-05:00

I'm hosting a free webinar on Monday 5/17 at 8:00pm Eastern Time (7:00 pm Central time). I'll go over why culture is so hard to change and what can be done to help it along to make sure you're Lean transformation goes smoother. Register below (max of 20 participants):

Friday Factoid - What Type Of Intelligence Is Most Important?

2010-05-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence

2010-05-06T11:51:00.005-05:00

Lean and Six Sigma have a public relations problem. Their problem is that they are both viewed as tools by the majority of the world. Six Sigma can arguably be a set of tools and a way of managing a project but Lean is much more than just reducing waste. Lean is a way of thinking - build your business around your customers, add value, make your products/services "flow", and respect for people. Six Sigma is great for reducing variation on a process and together Lean Six Sigma is a powerful methodology to address most business problems. Personally I've always seen improvements of 30% or better when Lean Six Sigma is applied on a company level. The one caveat is that you have to change your company culture to have these great sustained successes.

If it's so grand then why do man Lean Six Sigma implementations fail? The fact is it's easy to pick and choose the tools that you like but it's very hard to make a cultural change. Many organizations have heard of IQ (intelligence quotient) but not many are familiar with EQ (emotional quotient) aka emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined by 4 traits:

1) Ability to perceive emotions - Emotions within you and others based on verbal and non verbal cues.

2) Ability to use emotions - Decision making process takes into account emotional information along with the numbers and data.

3) Ability to understand emotions - Perceiving emotional dynamics, blends of emotions, and how they influence behavior and thinking.

4) Ability to manage emotions - Managing emotions internally and with others adapting to get to an outcome.

EQ is the respect for people part of Lean Six Sigma. If you can successfully manage the four points above then you can manage a Lean Six Sigma transformation. Incidentally when you look at correlations, EQ is a better predictor of success than just IQ. However unlike IQ, EQ can be changed and improved well into adulthood. For every 1 percent improvement in the service environment (i.e. the EQ of your business), there is a 2 percent increase in revenues. If you really want a Lean Six Sigma implementation to succeed or you want to take your business to the next level you may consider first improving your organizational EQ. You need to do a base line first of where you are then then create an action plan to bridge the gap of where you are to where you want to be when it comes to the organizational EQ. Once you have better communications and trust built within the organization then you have a foundation for a Lean Six Sigma transformation.

For more information on EQ call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don't forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Motivating Employees: A Look At Maslow

2010-05-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Building a good team is the corner stone of any management system and is especially crucial with a Lean Six Sigma management system. From personal experience at businesses ranging from fortune 50 companies to a small business, teams and personnel usually have to be coached and trained with the right system to work at the highest level. Motivating your employees and your teams can be one of the biggest challenges you face. Most businesses don't have much of a budget so they have to find ways to motivate employees without money but money can be an issue and Maslow's hierarchy of needs explains when money is an issues and when it is not.

Maslow's theory can be represented by the following graphic:The message from the representation that is applicable to your business is that your employees need to have basic necessaries covered. What I tell most employers is to pay a little more than market wage or pay enough where the employee can earn a decent wage. That usually means paying more than minimum wage. When you do that, money is off the table and the issue of pay is not as relevant.

When the first 2 levels of the pyramid are meet then how do we get employees to work at their best and ascend through the pyramid. Businessweek published a report in 2008 that gives factors that motivate employees:

-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future

You want to make sure that your management systems will address each of these factors above and if you have a Lean management system you will address all these.

Empowerment to make decisions - Autonomy is the expectation in a Lean management system. Before having people just go and fix their own problems you have to train to make sure everyone is solving problems correctly.

Opportunities for Growth/Development & Variety - Instead of having 1 person do only 1 job have them cross-trained. This not only give opportunities for growth/development & variety but it also helps alleviate attendance issues.

Mutual support and respect - Respect for people is a cornerstone for a Lean management system. What does it mean? The best way I can think of describing this is use the golden rule. If you were in that situation how would you want to be treated? Would you want your ideas at least listened to instead of ignored?

Sense of purpose - It's important to have goals and objectives but goals and objectives that actually make sense. I've been in many businesses where the projects the people on the line did not match the goals of the company. Having strategic alignment is important and helps with having a sense of purpose.

Desirable future - Lean management systems are designed around growth. No one wants to be at a company that is reducing headcount. This is a mistake many companies make when adopting a Lean management system. Focus on growth instead of cost reduction.

For more information visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; call 615.852.LEAN[5326], Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

related articles:
Factoid Friday - Motivation Doesn't Come From Commissions, Money, Or Compensation
Motivating Employees Without Money - The Psychology Of Behavior Change
Motivating Employees Without Money
Hurry Up And Wait - Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly?

Factoid Friday - Happiness Leads To Higher Income

2010-04-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

Greater happiness is associated with higher future income, research shows. A one-point increase in people's assessment of their happiness on a five-point scale was linked to a 3% higher income five years later, according to a study cited by Saatchi & Saatchi S.

Source: Small Actions Big Impact: Foundations of the Personal Sustainability Project

Do you think it is happiness that causes higher income or the higher income that causes happiness?

Lean Survey

2010-04-28T07:04:00.005-05:00

Today I want to hear from you. Here is a short survey about your company and your Lean progress. The information will not be shared with anyone and is only for research.

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Attracting Generation Y Employees And Keeping Them Motivated From a Gen Yer

2010-04-26T07:06:00.000-05:00

Being that Generation Y makes up about 25% of the US population your business will eventually need to attract and keep generation Y employees. Generation Y are people born from about 1981-2002(dates vary depending on the source) and are also called the millennial generation, millennials, or echo boomers.

All the research shows what the value:
-Work life balance is must
-What higher levels of autonomy
-Flexible
-Socially responsible
-High work ethics; especially entrepreneurial
-Open work environment with lots of feedback

-The most diverse generation to date in the U.S.

I look at these traits and there are many overlaps with a Lean culture. In a Lean culture there is real respect for people. This means giving people the autonomy to work in their work area but give them guidance and training when needed. Respect for people is also respecting the fact that we all have families and a life outside of work; reducing or eliminating overtime is a win-win for the company and the employees.

Having a traditional management system that is managed from top down, mistakes are viewed as a people issue instead of a system issue, subordinates do what they are told, etc is a sure fire way to alienate a huge talent pool. Your business has to change with changes in customer demand as well as a shift in the talent pool. Make sure to implement a management system that works. Here is a quick summary of a Lean management system:

5 Points:
-Respect for people
-Add value/remove waste
-Make your product or service "flow" - Your processes should be a well oiled machine
-Start it now - Experiment early and often
-Continuously Improve
All these principles put the customer at the center of focus. What management system are you using? Is it attracting or scaring away potential employees? If you got a great employee how would you make sure you kept them with your company?

Factoid Friday - Changing Font Size Saves Money?

2010-04-22T21:15:00.000-05:00

To reduce ink use and save money, the University of Wisconsin Green Bay's IT department has changed the default font for Outlook to Century Gothic, which it says requires 30% less ink in printouts than Arial, the most commonly used default font. Ink accounts for about 60% of the cost of a printed page, the IT unit says.
Source: University of Wisconsin - Green Bay via Harvard Business Review

Small changes can make a big impact. See related article:

Little Changes Can Mean Big Profits

Thinking Thursday - How Does Adding Value Increase The Bottom Line?

2010-04-21T21:15:00.004-05:00

Many times I run into a situation where the business think they understand what it means to add value and remove waste but don't see how it will help their bottom line quickly. In larger companies it's an easy argument to make that you will reduce costs, lower turnover, have a happier workforce, and save on the cost side of the business. In small and medium businesses their operations are not usually very large and may not see benefit of maximizing value/reduce waste on the operations side of the business.

I ran into this issue working with a veterinary clinic. The owner and employees didn't think they would get much benefit to the bottom line by going through exercises that maximize value for operations but we still did the exercise.

When digging into the different value streams we found an interesting nugget. Over the past few years 20% of the animals in the area were diagnosed with heartworm. When your dog or cat gets heartworm it's easily a $1000+ procedure that is painful for the animal, it's not 100% guaranteed to work, and the animal will die from heartworm if not treated. Heartworm prevention is about $20-$30 a month which makes it much cheaper to prevent heartworms vs. treat for heartworms.

The employees came back with the idea of including a heartworm test with annual exams. This adds value for the clients in many ways:
1) They are informed about the risks of heartworm
2) Their pets are tested even if they are on prevention. Prevention is not 100% and if the animal has heartworms then the prevention company will pay for the treatment.
3) Since they are informed they now get heartworm prevention.

The results were better care for the patient and it has increased the sales of heartworm medication by 50% in the clinic. This is a win for all sides. How do you add value in your business?

The Holy Grail - Changing Company Culture

2010-04-18T18:00:00.001-05:00

When running a business there a a whole list of issues. No matter what industry you are in there are some common themes: motivating employees, increase sales, and save money all without money.

Many people think that these are all independent and not related but there is a common underlining cause. It's your companies culture; changing your company culture will actually help you in all 3 areas. Here are two examples of what it means to have a different culture:

1)Traditional businesses are managed from the top down, work is managed in silos (ex. engineering department, painting, welding,shipping) instead of by your customer (ex. 2 door sports car line, heavy duty truck line, minivan line).

2)Traditional businesses the responsibility for change falls on managers and engineers in traditional businesses instead of the people doing the work on a day in and day out basis.

The changes that come with culture are mostly small incremental changes but it can have a snow ball effect. Continuously improving and removing waste will reduce your costs. Standardizing the sales process and testing new ideas is crucial to increasing sales. The most important and most difficult part is when you get the culture right you have lower turn over due to higher job satisfaction. Employers with the most engaged employees will have increase earnings per share by 28% year to year (*2007 Towers Perrin survey, 18 countries, 40 companies, 90,000 employees). After money employees value these factors:

-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future
(*2008 Businessweek article)

Lean addresses all the elements above and you can read further on "Motivating Employees Without Money". Some results that I've seen have been 30-50% reduction in costs. 55% increase in revenue due to increased sales volume, and 19% turnover rate to less than 3%

To save money, motivate employees, and to increase sales try changing your culture. It can be difficult but it is well worth the effort.

Friday Factoid - How Stress Impacts Performance

2010-04-15T20:17:00.004-05:00

Studies have shown that people with high stress levels perform 50% worse on cognitive tests than people with low stress.

Source: Brain Rules by John Medina

In today's workplace where high stress is a norm, how much productivity are we loosing due to too much stress? How many hears off our lives are we taking when we have prolonged high stress? If you really have respect for you're employees and people are you stressing them too much?

Thinking Thursday - Little Changes Can Mean Big Profits

2010-04-14T19:27:00.003-05:00

Often times in the business world we want to hit the home run. Heck at every company I worked at there were awards for hitting “home runs!” But what about all the base hits and sacrifice fly balls? I'm not trying to confuse the business world with baseball but the fact is companies reward big wins. The question is that how effective are all the small wins? Can it really add up to big profits at the end of the day?

The question about profit is a common question that I get when I talk to small and medium size businesses. They say "I’m too small for those type of changes to matter" and I tell them absolutely not. I work with a veterinary clinic which has 6 people on staff plus 1 doctor and they have seen tremendous improvements on their bottom line with just daily practices that are easy and simple to implement.

1) Marketing is a daily process - The receptionist have a daily call list to schedule appointments and remind patients of upcoming visits. Facebook is updated daily so they have a sense of community forming in their local area. They also reply back to emails and voice mails first thing in the morning. There are monthly or weekly calls to big clients like the city to maintain relationships.

2) Mistakes are reduced with standard work - Mistakes on the check in process were reduced over time and continue to reduce. They started at 4 hours a rework down to 3 hours, to 2.5, and currently the average amount of rework is down to 30 minutes over the course of 2 months. They are continuously training and implementing check sheets which seem slower at first but save time in the end and it actually trains them as they go.

3) Product sales are practiced and standardized - Depending on the pet that comes in the customer will be offered certain products available for sale. The information that is communicated to the client is practiced and tested for accuracy.

4) Customers are made aware of the location - In a veterinary clinic one of the factors a client will look for is the proximity of the clinic to his/her house. We will put a waver dressed in a dog or cat costume on Saturday's to make people aware the clinic is open and available to serve their needs. The clinic is currently evaluating opening on Sunday to serve the clients better. Currently there are no clinics in the area that are open on the weekend.

5) Employees are in charge of making their work area better - Each person is in charge of making their work area better so they are constantly making daily improvements. One example was that bath times went from 1 hour per dog down to less than 25 minutes per dog.

The clinic was projected to grow at a rate of 10-12% based on the growth rate for the local market. The clinic is currently grown 23% and is tracking to grow 30-40% year over year with the same staff just with these simple changes already in place. These changes were all low cost or free and only take minimal time out of the day.

How do you improve daily?

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My Take Tuesday - GoDaddy.com Customer Support

2010-04-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

I recently had to call into GoDaddy.com technical support to resolve an issue. The issue is irrelevant but the experience I had with the techs was fantastic and something you don't see from many companies.

I needed to call into customer service twice (due to my own issues not theirs) and both times I went through the same intro:

1) Domain name
2) Access code
3) Phone number in case we are disconnected

The techs seemed to be based in the US which is nice because they understand the local customers they are serving and the unique technical issues that might exist in the US and not in other locations.

I was able to describe the issue and in a matter of just minutes they diagnosed and addressed the issue without having to transfer me to a more advanced tech. They also explained to me in clear terms what the issue was and how to resolve the issue with minimal impact to my business.

When was the last time you had a great (Lean) customer service experience with tech support?

Factoid Friday - Motivation Doesn't Come From Commissions, Money, Or Compensation

2010-04-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

Scientist Sam Glucksberg once conducted an experiment where he divided a collection of participants into two groups, assigning both groups the Candle Problem. He gave one of the groups a cash prize incentive if they solved the problem faster than the average person who took the test. Surprisingly, members of this group took three and a half minutes longer (on average) to complete the task

Source: Drive by Daniel Pink and Wikipedia

Modern management techniques tell us to motivate by the carrot and stick but the carrot and stick method doesn't work unless it's a simple task with a simple outcome. The more complex a task the less successful the carrot and stick method become. For more simple solutions and known outcomes the carrot and stick work great like routine left brain activity that can be easily outsourced or done by computer programs. Today's problems are more complex and have unknown solutions. Rewards will narrow our focus and limit our possibilities and aren't effective with today's problems we see.

In a 21st Century work environment where cognitive ability is highly prized and intrinsic motivation works much better than extrinsic motivators under these circumstances. Daniel pink talks about his model of autonomy, mastery, and sense of purpose. Give people autonomy to do what they want and when they want (see ROWE), teach them how to master what they are doing and give them a "why you are doing it." The combination of these three factors is encapsulated in a Lean approach of giving people autonomy to solve their own work environment, constant training to perfect skills of problem solving and strategic planning, and a teach "why" instead of saying "do it because I say so" approach. You can watch the highly recommend video by Daniel pink:

How do you motivate your employees? Do you motivate without money?

Related posts:
Motivating Employees Without Money - The Psychology Of Behavior Change
Motivating Employees Without Money
Hurry Up And Wait - Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly?
Friday Factoid - What Motivates Employees
My Take Tuesday - (Not So Lean) Medical Practice

Thinking Thursday - The Real Story On What Makes Us Fat

2010-04-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

Today's topic is about being lean but not about being "Lean." It's a topic that hits very close to home, your gut and health. Besides being a Lean propoment in business, I'm a nutrition coach at my local gym CrossFitCFT. I have to say growing up I was always the "big boned" kid who was picked on for being fat. My whole life until November of 2009 I was a vegetarian and initially that was because of religious reasons. My parents are Hindu and didn't keep any meat in the house and they always packed my lunch so it was pretty simple not eating meat.

I got into martial arts and sports as a young teenager and slowly the pounds began to shed but I never had a strong physique. I ran cross country in high school and wrestled but endurance was all I had. Then came college. And over the course of 5 years (I cooped so it too me an extra year) I put on 60 lbs. of weight and was a very big 230. After college I decided I needed to get my act together and started eating better and exercising but still wasn't loosing the weight.

In 2009 I was introduced to the Paleo Diet. The diet has four tenants:

1) Keep your body insulin sensitive by not giving it too much insulin in the first place. In other words watch the carbohydrate intake and no dairy because dairy protein will spike your insulin dramatically. Lower carbohydrate intake isn't too much of a problem if you follow principle 2.

2) Prevent gut lining damage. There are several foods that can cause the intestinal walls in your stomach to be damaged. The worst of these is gluten but this also includes beans, legumes, peanuts, rice, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant.

3) Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio should be 1(omega-3):3(omega-6). If the ratio isn't correct your body can become systemically inflamed and while I'm not going to go into the details but it has to do with too much production of arachidonic acid and other factors. The modern diet is approximately 1(omega-3):20/30(omega-6).

4) Acid-Alkaline balance. You want your body to be close to a Ph of 7(neutral) as possible. Meat, dairy, and grains are acid producing and vegetables and fruits are alkaline producing in the body.

So what actually makes us fat? It's insulin regulation. Yes total caloric intake is a factor but not the primary factor and definitely not the only factor. Insulin is a hormone that tells your body to use or store the food you just ate. If you eat a meal like pasta and garlic bread you have a very high insulin response (and a very fast insulin response) so your body gets all this fuel that it doesn't need and puts it in storage. Conversely since your insulin levels spiked up they will come crashing down making you hungry again in a few hours even if you had a 1000 calorie meal.

What to eat? Basically lean meats (grass fed/wild/free range), vegetables, fruits, and some nuts and good fats. Next time you're at the supermarket try to only buy food from the outside of the store and not processed junk on the inside aisles. The more processed a food is the more it will spike your insulin.

Wiki Wednesday - Is Transparency Always A Good Thing?

2010-04-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"Is transparency always a good thing in business?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

I would say that transparency is a good thing but only when it's used to make corrections. With transparency come error being shown to the world and that can be a good thing. Only if they use the information else the information the transparency provides is almost useless.

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Small Business Lean - New Podcast On Business901.com

2010-04-06T10:31:00.003-05:00

Joe Dagger (@business901) was gracious enough to have me on as a guest on his podcast series talking about Lean Six Sigma in small and medium size businesses. You can find the pod cast at www.Business901.com

Fastest Way To De-motivate Employees: Don't Train

2010-04-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever worked a job and you were given little or no training, expected to perform at a high level, and when you make a mistake you are reprimanded. I've been on both sides of this situation and I can tell you that you that it will demoralize your employees very quickly. I my work with a veterinary clinic sometimes what's missing is the basic blocking and tackling. I'm training the manager on how to be a Lean manager and we are currently working on standard work. One of the questions I had were what is the standard way to check in and check out a client. The manager had one response and the three other people at the reception desk has 3 other responses. This surprised manager but didn't shock her. She knew that they made mistakes and the inconsistencies were not out of the blue. I asked how do you train the people. "They've all been here for over 4 months to over a year and should know the process by now."

I challenged her to run through some dry run scenarios with the folks. During a slow time walk-through examples by pretending you are a client and see what they do and them correct them as you go. Initially she was she thought it was a waste of time but after the first walk-through she was absolutely shocked on all the errors and mistakes they were making.

At this point we then had the conversation about how the lack of training is de-motivating her staff and causing customer service issues. This is an easy fix of training a little bit at a time every day. It only takes 60 minutes at fist and as they learn and get faster the training session will be as short at 10 min a day. The important thing to remember is that you are always training.

As a result the manager went from spending 1.5 hours a day in rework for miss entered information in the computer to less than 30 minutes in just 1 week of training. The goal is to be down to zero by the end of the month.

Here are more articles that are related:
Motivate Employees Without Money
Hurry Up And Wait: Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly?
Friday Factoid - Why Employees Leave A Company

Factoid Friday - The Layoff Myth

2010-04-01T22:21:00.003-05:00

40% [of companies] reported that downsizing did not result in reduced expenses and more than 60% did not experience higher profits after cutting staff

Source: Estok, D. (1996, June 3). The High Cost of 'Dumbsizing.' Maclean's 109, 28-9

Why are companies so quick to pull the layoff card? My thoughts are that it's because of the short term thinking of hitting the quarterly numbers.

Thinking Thursday - Why Doesn't McDonald's Sell Hot Dogs?

2010-04-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Thinking Thursday is a day to think about something besides lean, business improvement, six sigma, or the usual items discussed. Sometimes topics can relate to the business world and other times it's just plain fun.
I came across this question just surfing the internet and I thought it was something noteworthy. Why doesn't McDonald's sell hot dogs? Sure you could go the case study type answers like "it's not their branding" or "the supply chain costs don't justify the potential benefit." I think the answer is a little deeper than that. This is just what I've heard but Roland had a heart attack and because he's on medication for his hear he can't have food with nitrates. What's in a hot dog you ask- NITRATES!

Of course eating McDonald's probably didn't help in the first place but hey you got to support your own company. I can't prove that I'm right but according to talk radio since you can't prove I'm wrong I must be right! Other thoughts welcome.

Wiki Wednesday - VSM For The News

2010-03-31T08:00:00.001-05:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"If you were doing a VSM for news reporting how many customers would you have and what would be the value that is delivered?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

You would have a few customer bases:
1) The government interest
2) The tech interest
3) The business interest
4) The international news interest
5) The local news interest
6) Casual fan

With all of the markets the value would come from objective information from all sides of the argument, consistency in the way news is reported, and speedy delivery (news trifecta) of information. Each market may have a different other items that are valuable:

1) Government - news trifecta, government related news and happenings (tv, radio, online, phone)
2) Tech - news trifecta, tech related news and multiple access points (tv, radio, online, phone)
3) Business - news trifecta, business related news, multiple access points (tv, radio, online, phone), market watch and how the news effects the markets
4) International - news trifecta, international news, multiple access points (tv, radio, online, phone), 24/7 coverage
5) Local - news trifecta, local related news and multiple access points (tv, radio, online, phone, how the information will effect them directly in their communities and lives
6) Casual - Looks for news to reinforce his/her beliefs (aka MSNBC, Fox News, etc.), Entertainment/shock value in news (catchy headlines and commentary like "death panels" and "war monger"), higher value on quick news without having to do more research

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Motivating Employees Without Money - The Psychology Of Behavior Change

2010-03-29T10:00:00.001-05:00

I wrote a blog post recently on Motivating Employees Without Money where I talk about different techniques you can use to motivate your workforce without giving out money. You have to understand how to motivate people from a psychological standpoint.

Motivation comes from several factors but how do you keep behaviors going after motivation fades? Motivation does fade but habits are more permanent. You have to make tasks that are done through motivation into a habit. For example: your staff goes from having a staff meeting a day where you just make excuses about issues to having 2-3 shorter staff meetings where you find root causes and fix the root cause instead of ignoring the problem or putting in a band-aid. How do you make sure you make these behavior changes permanent because it is hard to fix root cause issues?

Here is a simple model to use: Behavior changes = Attitude changes & Attitude changes = Behavior changes. What this means is that if you change your behaviors your attitude will eventually change to match your behaviors and if you change your attitude your behaviors change to match your attitude. This can be a powerful tool for you if you have behavior and/or attitude changes due to motivation to change.

What I have noticed is that you have to keep the behavior going and If you can you will have a much easier time to make changes permanent. Here are four ways to make the transition easier:

1) Standardize = Make your changes permanent by making it the standard. Tasks are performed in an x,y,z manner.
2) Make changes visible = Making things visible makes people accountable. If you are not fixing root causes to your problems it is much harder to do than band aid a process. To make sure you keep fixing root cause have a tracking board that is reviewed daily with status updates and owners.
3) Measure the right things = People respect what you inspect. It depends on what you want to change but you may consider going from machine utilization as a metric to total facility processing type.
4) Provide quick and accurate feedback = The longer you wait to teach after a mistake the less effective the feedback. Feedback should be as close to instant as possible to drive true change.

For more information or any other questions please contact us.

Related posts:
Combining Lean With Emotional Intelligence Case Study
The Missing Link To Lean Six Sigma - Emotional Intelligence
Friday Factoid - Culture = Profits
Motivating Employees Without Money

Call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - What Motivates Employees

2010-03-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

What motivates employees? It's not necessarily money. Here are factors that motivate employees from a Business week article in 2008:

Empowerment to Make Decisions
Opportunities for Growth & Development
Variety
Mutual Support and Respect
Sense of Purpose
Desirable Future

Find out more at an article Motivating Employees Without Money

Thinking Thursday - Does A Company Exist Just To Make Money?

2010-03-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

Every business school will tell you a company exist to make money. I think this paradigm will lead to very poor businesses. A business does need to make money but if you look at the most successful businesses their primary goals aren't to make money. In the book Build To Last the author talks about the secret to companies being successful. None of the top principles included focusing on share holder returns as a primary objective.

I would suggest a different paradigm. A company exists to fill a need, innovate, and be socially responsible. On top of that the people or person starting a company should be passionate about what they are doing. To me a company cannot last for a very long time if it doesn't have these qualities.

Caring only about money is partly what got us into the financial crises of 2008. I don't think there is anything wrong with making a profit but it should be more of a by product instead of the main objective. In a Lean company you care bout the customer and delivery superior value and the financial results will take care of themselves. In traditional companies too much emphasis is sometimes put on the bottom line so you end up with processes that aren't so good for the customer.

One of my favorite examples is collections. In most companies collections usually is a very painful process where you will never see that customer again. If you truly want to serve the customer either make collections customer friendly or do not have collections. The message is do the right thing and the profits will come. Look at HP, Toyota (post recall), 3M, Disney, etc.

Wiki Wednesday - Sustaining Lean in 140 Characters or less

2010-03-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"In 140 characters or less how do you sustain lean?"

Today's post was inspired by @LeanBlog on Twitter. I'll be posting the comments to twitter throughout the day and if you have a twitter account then please put @NAME first. Please keep everything you type under 140 characters. Also thank you to @TimALeanJourney for building on the idea

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

@AnkitTheLeanWay really good system with quick feedback, process adherence, and strategic alignment

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

My Take Tuesday - Visual Controls: The Decimal Speed Limit

2010-03-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I drove into a townhouse complex the other day and found a sign that said 9.5 miles per hour (mph) is the speed limit. My first thought was I am going to just go 10 mph. This triggered me to think about one of my favorite topics, visual controls. I consider a visual control anything you can see that is meant to inform, direct, and/or change you or your behavior. First thing I always do is ask what is the goal? In this case the goal is to have a safe neighborhood without having any incidents from vehicles. With the combination of speed bumps and a speed limit sign you have ways to slow down traffic.

Do the signs work? I ask 3 questions if visual controls are working:
1) Do you pay attention to the visual controls - YES I noticed the sign
2) Do the visual controls achieve the goal intended - YES I noticed the sign and made sure to slow my speed.
3) Will people notice the visual control after long term exposure - MAYBE I've been seeing odd speed limit signs since I've been driving and this one really caught my attention and may stay with me for a long time.

From the anecdotal sample size of one I would say the decimal speed limit sign is effective. How would you make a successful visual control where you work? Follow the three steps criteria from above, make it so easy a 3rd grader could understand what you are trying to communicate and experiment. I wrote a recent post about Occam's Razor In Business Problem Solving where I talk about simple solutions are usually the best. I wrote a post Keep Iterating Or Go For The Big Fix? Which Way Works Better? where I talk about how crucial it is to experiment and change often to find what works best.

Hurry Up And Wait - Are You Motivating Your Employees Incorrectly?

2010-03-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

At a recent trip to one of my favorite stores Costco I came across an interesting problem that you might also have in your business. Their checkout cashiers were rated on three factors: 1) How quickly they scan 2) How many customers they scan in an hour [minimum of 50] 3) Percentage of products scanned vs. key entered [minimum 98% scanned]. How did I know? They had it posted at the end of the cash registers. I first read it and thought wow this would have been helpful if I could know which cashier was in each lane and the board was placed on the other side of checkout.

As I checked-out and walked to the exit. Costco has a final check where you hand your receipt to a person at the exit and they check to verify you don't have too many items in your cart. The best I can tell is that it's there to deter thefts. I didn't walk very far until I was in another line waiting to be "checked-out" again by the receipt checker. How many places have you been where you have to wait in line to walk out of the business after you are done?

This made me think is Costco, along with most other employers, motivating their employees incorrectly? This is the classic silo approach to a problem where we want to manage by what is easier for the managers instead of by what makes most sense to the customer. If Costco had a metric like total wait time for the customer that would be a much more effective metric then scan times per employee. It may not motivate an employee to do anything more than be faster at scanning items. If they get good at their job then the lines go down during checkout but go up at the exit. Motivate your employees to find a way to have zero wait for the customer. Possible solutions include a flex model where you flex the number of people at the cash registers and the exit door.

This hits to the point that you measure what's important. By measuring individual scan times you are sending the message that the customer is not #1 but instead you are motivating the employees to be better scanners. What about adding more value to the checkout process? What if the cashier were to tell the customer about some specials that they could purchase at checkout? What about ensuring the customer has little no wait before checkout and after checkout? What about giving employees latitude to experiment with new ideas like an express checkout lane? Motivate your employees to do what's best for the customer and not what is easier to manage. Managing consistency and rate of scan is a concern and can be addressed by standard work and training. Motivating employees to do what's right for the customer is a bit more difficult but will give your company an edge over others.

Factoid Friday - Why Employees Leave A Company

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some statistics on why employees leave a company:

25% of respondents reported leaving employers because of ineffective leadership
22% cited poor relationships with their managers
21% said their contributions were not valued

Source: http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimComment?id=26632

We see all kinds of issues related to company culture. Employee retention is not only a big concern but it's very expensive for companies to hire and train new employees. Plus how do you know you are not going to have the same issues again? I wrote a post on motivating employees without money where I talk about the factors that motivate employees and some solutions on how to address the concerns of happy employees. If your employees are happy then they are much less likely to leave. What do you think are good ideas on preventing employees from leaving?

Thinking Thursday - Are We Asking The Right Questions?

2010-03-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love it when I see the news and they ask a question to a guest like "Do you agree healthcare reform or do you not agree with healthcare reform". This is a logical fallacy called the false dilemma. Giving a multiple choice (usually 2 options) and choosing between the two when there are really other options. There is actually the same problem with the way we are asking questions. Let's use 1 persons health and forget about the politics. Let's say someone has type 2 diabetes. When you are treated we usually go to the doctor and say "doc fix me." But are we asking the right questions? What about asking "Doc how did I get into this mess" and "Doc how can I fix this without drugs?" Sometimes we ask these questions but all the type 2 diabetics I know really don't care about the root cause and really just want to get on with their life.

The root cause of type 2 diabetes is from too much insulin production in the body. The insulin production is caused by a large spike in carbohydrates. If your type 2 diabetes gets really bad they give you more insulin. Heres another way to put it: If your partner had a lot of perfume/cologne on and it really smelled strong but after about 10 minutes with them you couldn't smell it anymore. If you wanted to smell it you could either put more of the perfume/cologne on or you could just get away from them for a few minutes. With the more insulin option you are just making your condition possibly worse. If you regulate your insulin by cutting out bread and get your carbohydrate sources form vegetables and fruits you can effectively do the same thing.

The point is are we asking the right questions. If we look at the root cause of the type 2 diabetes it's a combination of diet and exercise. Ask for the root cause and fix the root cause and you resolve your issue.

How do you ask the right questions?

My Take Tuesday - Lean PR (Public Relations)

2010-03-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

I was having a conversation the other day on Twitter with @LeanBlog and @flinchbaugh talking about St. Luke Hospital System's Lean efforts that were publicized. The article is a just a press release that is pretty much just bragging. Fellow Lean practitioners will attest that Lean is about serving the customer and adding value. How does barging about Lean efforts help the customer and in this case the patient?

My counterpoint is that it does add value for the patient but just not immediately. There is value in bringing the benefits to the lime light. When other hospital systems see the benefits they too will improve. By educating the marketplace you move the market to be more efficient just to be competitive with others. In the end a patient will be given better care at any given hospital.

Lean is traditionally found in operations but is very applicable in PR. What does the customer find valuable when it comes to PR? Here are some Lean PR ideas:

-Make yourself visible. If you are better serving the customer then let them know.
-Don't brag but educate
-Educate the customer how your operations will benefit them (less wait times, less errors, higher satisfaction)
-Get feedback from your press releases. By getting feedback you can change future PR campaigns.
-Above all put the customer first

What else would you suggest? How would you add more value to PR?

Occam's Razor In Business Problem Solving

2010-03-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

Occam's razor states that the simplest solution is usually the best solution. Occam's razor is in full effect with business problem solving. Do not over complicate a solution. I worked at a plant that assembled computers from computer parts that can be found off the shelf. The factory that was designed was very complex with lots of automation and miles of conveyor with an ASRS (automatic storage and retrieval system) to hold incomplete orders that were not complete. The productivity was roughly 1.5 computers per hour per employee. Not bad but most computer savvy people can replicate the same feet or better at home without all the extra equipment.

The company then when through a Lean transformation and Occam's razor came into full effect. If it wasn't the simplest solution we didn't use it. After gutting all the equipment, removing the ASRS, and streamlining the entire process the productivity shot up to over 3 units per hour per employee. By shifting to the simplest solution we were able to double productivity. With a Lean transformation productivity gains are not the goal but a by product of doing the right things. Perform a culturally correct Lean transformation and you will see positive results. This also translates to smaller everyday problems.

At a veterinary clinic we had issues with missing crucial steps when checking in patients that lead to rework the next day to fix errors. The fixes would typically take around 1-2 hours to fix. There were many solutions the staff came up with but the two that stood out were a checklist and a fully automated solution. The fully automated solution would require significant capital time while the checklist could be implemented the next day and costs virtually nothing. We decided to implement a check-in and check-out checklist to verify all the tasks were being followed. This simple solution reduced errors to virtually zero. It also allowed to help with cross-training other employees in the clinic and help train new employees quicker.

Keep your solutions simple but also implement your ideas. A partial solution implemented 100% is better than a full solution implemented 0%. With implementation you get information with information you can improve solutions. Keep your solutions simple and experiment with solutions.

Keep It Super Simple (KISS)

Factoid Friday -

2010-03-12T10:29:00.002-06:00

90% of consumers trust peer recommendations*
Only 14% trust advertisements**

*Source: July 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey

**Source: “Marketing to the Social Web,” Larry Weber, Wiley Publishing 2007

Why not spend more time on building customer satisfaction instead of spending time and money on advertisement?

Wiki Wednesday - What To Standardize?

2010-03-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"What do you standardize and how to you figure out what to standardize; how much is too much?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

The simple answer is standardize what makes sense. You have to balance flexibility with standardization. If you have a pretty predictable job then up to 80-90% of your tasks can be standardized. If you own your own business then you might want only 10-20% of your tasks standardized. Either way you should experiment with standardizing. Even creative types can benefit from standardizing. It makes sure you don't forget to do important things like fasten your seat belt, send out emails, or go to the gym. It may seem counter-intuitive but you can actually get more work done when you standardize your tasks.

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

My Take Tuesday - (Not So) Lean Medical Practice

2010-03-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

I few weeks ago I wrote an article on why being the best still isn't good enough talking about how a medical practice that is in the top 2% of the country still had room for improvement. The issue is that there is no motivation to change but as a patient it takes me an hour to visit the doctor for something that takes only 30 minutes. Medical clinics typically have three main concerns:

I) Patient Care
II) The Bottom Line
III) Quality of Life for the Doctor(s)

A Lean business system address all of these concerns. In a Lean business system you'll have a 4 prong attack to your problems:

1) Optimize Patient Flow
2) Remove Waste
3) Engage Employees
4) Continuous improvement

Optimize Patient Flow: Most clinics are setup up by departments. You have a font office (receptionist, assistants), nurses, and doctors. Optimizing patient flow comes from building around the patient. Find how patients can flow smoothly from one step to the next with little or no wait.

Remove Waste: Waste is anything the patient isn't willing to pay you to do. Some examples include waiting, come back in to the office because the diagnosis is wrong (this is a waste but because of insurance payments it may be more profitable to to have patients come back for revisits), excess walking for your staff. With removing wastes the small incremental changes make a huge difference in the long run.

Engage Employees: There is a lot of goodness in engaging employees. Engaging employees is a factor in motivating employees without money. If employees are engaged you are likely to have to come up with solutions yourself. You have the team come up with solutions after giving them problem solving training.

Continuously Improve: The goal is to be a little better today then you were yesterday. Small incremental improvements add up over time. In combination with optimizing flow, removing waste, and engaging employees you develop a business system that will put you far ahead of the competition.

For more information visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com

Motivating Employees Without Money

2010-03-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Only 1 in 5 employees go the extra distance to help a company succeed. There is a common myth money motivates people. The reality is that motivating employees without money is actually better and sometimes easier. So what are the factors that motivate employees? In 2008 Businessweek had an article that listed the factors that motivate employees:

-Empowerment to Make Decisions
-Opportunities for Growth & Development
-Variety
-Mutual Support and Respect
-Sense of Purpose
-Desirable Future

Money, while still being a factor, isn't the most important factor in motivating. A Lean business system that is implemented correctly actually takes care of all of the factors.

Empowerment to make decisions: In a Lean business system you not only empower your people to make decisions but actually expect they decide and come up with solutions. How would you feel if you couldn't change the things you knew were broken? It can be come very de-motivating and worse people tend to become drones instead of thinking productive employees.

Opportunities for Growth/Development & Variety: Cross training is a tenant of a Lean business system. Not only do you have a flexible workforce but you have a opportunity to grow your employees. How many times have you had attendance issues? How many times has that caused issues at work? By cross-training you eliminate the headaches of light attendance issues as well as provide a growth path for employees.

Mutual support and respect: Respect for people is a cornerstone for any Lean business system. A typical meeting would be an open forum where you list the issues and then everyone pitches in for solutions. Ideas are tossed around and when a fix to a root cause is found it's implemented. It doesn't matter where the solution comes from management other the front line. It does matter that everyone works as a team. From projects that I have done this factor was the most important when motivating employees without money.

Sense of purpose: Your goals are all aligned and there is a clear bar that is set to achieve. By giving a clear target employees and management have a sense of direction and purpose towards a goal. Sometimes ones purpose comes from providing for his or her family. If you provide a secure work environment motivating your employees becomes easier. Sense of purpose comes without money so find what is important to your employees by talking to them.

Desirable future: In a Lean business system you are positioning your company for growth. A prosperous company with lots of opportunity and a great culture that respects people is where people want to work. This ties into sense of purpose as well in the fact that you are motivating employees without money. As the company grows you can reward people as you see fit.

Motivating employees without money becomes easy with a Lean business system. There are many other added benefits of a Lean business system including lowered operating costs and more sales. For more information visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; call 615.852.LEAN[5326], Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Factoid Friday - The Multitasking Myth

2010-03-05T08:00:00.002-06:00

Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to accomplish a task and makes up to 50% more errors.

Source: Brain Rules by John Medina

"How do you prevent multitasking?

Wiki Wednesday - How Do You Engage People?

2010-03-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"How do you engage people in your company to be more than just a 'worker bee'"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

Number #1 thing to do is have respect for your people. Value their opinions and listen to their ideas. Implement ideas quickly and you'll see a more engaged workforce that wants to keep improving their work areas.

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

My Take Tuesday - Trader Joe's Checkout

2010-03-02T08:00:00.002-06:00

During my latest trip to one of my favorite stores Trader Joe's I got to experience their bell system. There is only 1 or two dedicated checkout lanes and then when demand increases the bell is run 1x alerting more people to the front each time. Ring it 2x and a manager will come help you at a lane. 3x means something as well but I haven't experienced it yet.

Talk about a Lean system! Cross trained employees adjust to changing demands and escalate right when there is a need and it's a clear signal. All in the name of customer flow.

Why not apply this concept in your business? The way you implement it might be different but here are the principles:
1)Cross train your employees
2)Have a clear signal to help guide everyone on their assignments
3)Have standard rules for operating

How does your business adjust to changing customer demands?

Starting Lean At A Small And Medium Size Business

2010-03-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

Traditionally Lean is rooted in the operations side of the business. In larger businesses this is a great place to look to start a Lean transformation but what about in small and medium businesses? Sales and marketing are an excellent place to improve business.

In small and medium businesses just like any other business you start where there is a need. From my experience revenue is usually a significant need for any business. Sales and marketing are great places to start if the process are not systematic. Here are some tips on getting started with Lean in sales and marketing and I'll use a veterinary clinic where I have done a project:

Marketing

Standardize your efforts: You can't see what you don't measure in marketing and you have to be consistent. EXAMPLE: At Caudle Vet Clinic in Nashville they were currently answering posts on a local online community group about pets. The responses were done on a sporadic basis and we changed to it to be done daily. They see 1 client every other day from just a daily 15 minute posting to the online community group. Caudle Vet now also tracks their efforts by asking the clients "how did you hear about us" or we can tell by the coupons they bring in. By tracking they can spend their marketing dollars wiser.

Sales
What does the client find valuable and focus on those items: Use the 80-20 concept of find the items that your customer base finds most valuable. EXAMPLE: Veterinary customers want their dogs to live a long high quality of life. At Caudle Vet Clinic in Nashville if the dog is older than 8 years old then they ask them if they want the "senior package" were we do some blood work to catch issues well before they occur extending the dogs life and quality of life. The acceptance rate has been 90% just by asking because it is a service that the clients find valuable.

These are just two quick ways you can start implementing Lean into your small or medium size business.

How do you apply Lean to sales and marketing?

Factoid Friday - Stress Related To Peformance

2010-02-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

Adults with high stress levels performed 50% worse on declarative memory tests (things you can declare) and executive function tests (the type of thinking that involves problem solving). Both are skills needd to excel in school and business.

Source: Brain Rules by John Medina

How does your company lower stress? Is the excess stress from overworked and overburdened people?

Wiki Wednesday - Is Lean Different For Small or Medium Business?

2010-02-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"Is Lean different for small or medium business?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

Lean is a very specific solution for business and I've implemented lean in many places with businesses of all sizes and really the only things you change are the way you implement. With small or medium businesses you may need to do more on the fly training and start with shorter Kaizen improvement events due to fewer people and having to possible be in front of the clients all the time (i.e. medical clinics, dental clinics, veterinary clinic, optometry clinics, etc.)

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Keep Iterating Or Go For The Big Fix? Which Way Works Better?

2010-02-22T06:00:00.001-06:00

Today's post is inspired by twitter user @business901 who talks about Boyd's Law applied to marketing. Boyd's Law actually comes from aircraft dogfights and says that the person in the dog fight that can make the quicker adaptation/change will have the best chance for winning even if the other person has better equipment.

Does it work in business operations? Here is what I've found from my experiences. I was doing work at a manufacturing company and noticed that there was in issue of how they took some of their parts out of the box. These parts weighed anywhere from 6 lbs a unit to 55 lbs a unit and the process was 90% manual. This one portion of their assembly process was the main cause of OSHA injuries on the site. The company had implemented about 3 solutions over 5 years and each solution was heavily analyzed by several people but the company still was not seeing the results they wanted.

We did a Kaizen in the problem area. The event took 1 week and about 2 weeks of follow-up but there was some progress. The new process was better but still caused too much injury. Just 4 weeks after the first event we did another week long event to iterate a new design for the problem area. In this event we still had the results from the last meeting fresh in our minds. We changed and added a few features such as a tilt table for a more ergonomic positioning and rotating employees more frequently. The new design and run rules we implemented actually turned the area from the worst performing area in terms of safety to one of the best.

The company spent 5 years with the same results because they didn't iterate very quickly. They waited for a perfect solution. The Kaizen team that we had took about 2 months to fix the problem area but iterating and trying out ideas quickly.

I'm sure there are situations were it makes sense to iterate slower but for most problems it seems that having a bias towards implantation and iterating changes seems to be a very effective strategy. Moral of the story - Change now and change often until you meet your goal.

Factoid Friday

2010-02-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors. Some studies report the difference at 200% or more.

source:http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/companyculture.htm

Why do you think the adaptive cultures are more profitable?

Thinking Thursday - Other Waste Besides TIM WOOD

2010-02-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

Thank you to those who responded to yesterday's wiki. If you didn't get a chance or want to expand on your thoughts please post them to the comments.

Yesterday's wiki post:

"What are other wastes in any other industry besides TIM WOOD (Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over processing, Over production, Defects)"

The wiki is a divergent wiki. A convergent wiki is looking for 1 "correct" response to a
question. A divergent wiki just asks give me all the answers you can think of for the question.

I've also launched a lean wiki site http://leanway.wikidot.com/ so please add articles and join in.

Responses:
1) From personal experience I would add lack of strategic alignment is also a waste.
From wikipedia: In services we add unclear communications and missed opportunity to build rapport with the customer.

2) The underutilisation of human potential is also a waste, when the development of people is left "for the better days" and know-how not transmitted to the future generations...

3) I'll add:
Underutilized people (not exploiting their talents and knowledge as well as not engaging them at all either on accident or as a by product of management arrogance.)
Complexity. It seems to me - I've only done this for about 8 years in 3 organizations - that historically improvement has been done with engineering and capital -- improvement by addition - this can lead to very complex machines and processes. The best problem solving is improvement by substraction. Find root cause and eliminate if possible not add something to correct a symptom.
I would suggest that from an academic standpoint my additions aren't really wastes in the same sense as the TIM WOOD wastes. They are really common causes that end up in a lot of 5 whys.
I would add you lack of strategic alignement as well. It could be a special case of underutilized people in that people are engaged on fragmented unaligned activities. They are utilized on stuff that isn't really important.

4)There is the waste of making the wrong product efficiently.

The waste of excessive information or communication - like emails.

The waste of time - like Covey's 7 Principles of Highly Effective People, Urgent vs important tasks.

The waste of inappropriate systems - liek how much software is on your computer or network that you don't use.

Wasted energy and water resources - think energy treasure hunt.

Wasted natural resources - Rocky Mountain institute estimates that 99% of original materials used in production in US becomes waste within 6 weeks of sale like paper.

Mura - the waste of variation

The waste of knowledge - simply letting knowledge disappear.

The waste of no follow through - like when yu save walking distance but don't do anything with the time saved, then you didn't really save anything.

Wiki Wednesday - Other Waste Besides TIM WOOD

2010-02-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"What are other wastes in any other industry besides TIM WOOD (Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over processing, Over production, Defects)"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

From personal experience I would add lack of strategic alignment is also a waste.
From wikipedia: In services we add unclear communications and missed opportunity to build rapport with the customer.

For more wikiing please contribute to
http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Go With The (Single Piece) Flow

2010-02-16T08:00:00.002-06:00

Working with small businesses I explain the concept of single piece flow and most of the time they don't they need it. So I show them this example:

If you wanted to write these sentences:

See Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot run.

If you were to do a batch and process you would type this way:
1) seespotseespotrunrunspotrun - Put all the letters together
2) seespot.seespotrun.runspotrun - Add punctuation
3) see spot. see spot run. run spot run. - Add spacing
4) See Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot run. - Add capitalization

How many of you write like that? But the reality is that we run businesses this way. In manufacturing we will assemble 1 piece on 100 units then we will assemble the 2nd piece then the 3rd. In a medical clinic we bring in enough patients to fill in all the rooms. The nurse will see all of the patients then the doctor will make his/her rounds.

Single piece flow is finishing as you go. Finish 1 unit completely before moving to the next. Make the patients and products flow where you are finishing as you go. In a doctor's office would not bring in another patient until the doctor is almost done with the previous patient and the nurse can start.

For a small business try entering expenses into your account software as soon as it occurs instead of waiting till they pile up. This way you aren't batching all of your record keeping and you have timely information about your spending.

How you use single piece flow in your lives or businesses?

Model For Change

2010-02-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Many people approach me and say that Lean works great in manufacturing but it won't work in my industry. I simply reply do you want to serve your customer better and remove waste from your business while making your employees happier and more productive?

They usually answer yes but they don't think Lean can help. Lean can help because it is not just a set of tools but a management style. I summarize by saying there are 4 points to lean:

1) Flow - add value and remove waste with respect to the customer
2) Remove Waste - reduce TIM WOOD (transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over production, over processing, defects)
3) Respect for people (visual factory, standard work, bottom up problem solving, leadership styles, etc)
4) Continuous improvement (kaizen, strategic planning, etc)

In any business you can use these 4 principles to start lean.

Do you think there is an industry that this model won't work? If so then why?

Factoid Friday

2010-02-12T09:26:00.002-06:00

Inventory to sales ratio reached 13-year high Q1 2009

source: 2009 NAM/IndustryWeek Manufacturing Index Q2 2009

Do you think manufacturers have learned from this fact? Do you think they will continue to store excess inventory?

Thinking Thursday - Toyota's Recall A Byproduct Of Lean?

2010-02-11T08:00:00.003-06:00

My friend Mark Graban is on Karl Waddensten’s “Lean Nation” radio show toay February 11th at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST for a live show to talk about Lean in hospitals an talk about his book "Lean Hospitals". Please call in to the show 401-437-5000 or 888-345-0790.

Thank you to those who responded to yesterday's wiki. If you didn't get a chance or want to expand on your thoughts please post them to the comments.

Yesterday's wiki post:

"Is Toyota's Recall A Byproduct Of Lean?"

The wiki is a divergent wiki. A convergent wiki is looking for 1 "correct" response to a
question. A divergent wiki just asks give me all the answers you can think of for the question.

I've also launched a lean wiki site http://leanway.wikidot.com/ so please add articles and join in.

Responses:
1)I realize the question isn't framed the best but this is honestly the way it is viewed in many circles. I say that Toyota got away from it's lean principles of being close to the customers. I would argue that the same brake pedals across different product lines is not lean for the same reason we see now. The defects are not on one product line but several.

2)I wouldn't call it a byproduct...
Pulling an andon cord is normal way of acting in Toyota. They pulled it late, that is the main problem. They didn't react as expected from someone who teaches managerial practices, principles and culture in the last 30 years or so.
I think they are coming back to ground right now and back to their basics. They probably considered themselves a little bit above the others in the last years, when they had become the n.1 and expanding all over the globe. And they've lived on their laurels thinking that nobody can beat them.
Now they have understood their mistakes and I wouldn't be surprised to see them dig very deep into themselves and come out much stronger then before, with new, updated, operating system in place which will teach us and give us advice in the next decades...

3)I don't think so.
On the contrary, I would suggest that one major premise of lean is to make abnormality obvious in real time. That certainly didn't happen given the scale of this problem across models and time.
Some people have suggested that there are value added function in the product development activities that didn't happen. That would seem to be a fair criticism given the facts as they have presented themselves.
Finally, I would suggest that no 'ideal paradigm' or model would produce the result that we have seen. Therefore, if this IS a 'by product' of lean then the model needs to change in a way that puts in place countermeasures against this happening again. So if it was a by product of lean then the system will be changed and it won't be a by product tomorrow and therefore can't be used an arguement against lean. Lean by definition improves as new stuff is learned.

4)I wouldn't call it a byproduct...either. Maybe, we are too infatuated with heroes, i.e Tiger Woods.

I think we put Toyota on a pedestal and gave way to much credit for everything good that happened from Lean. Like every methodology or even golf swings, they are modeled from the best in the world at the time. We forget that they are just models. These models need to be adjusted and/molded to our culture or as in golf our physical stature.

There will always be mistakes that are found after products are put into use. Though we have decreased these odds, it still will happen. When you are #1 in the world these mistakes are magnified and all areas will be overly scrutinized.

I think Bruce sums it up very nicely in his last paragraph. It may be a year or two before we know but if the TPS aka Lean is an effective methodology it will become stronger as a result.

5)No Toyota's situation is no a result of Lean. I think many of us would agree that Toyota lost is way in recent years while pursuing the #1 market position. I am not sure that really has bearing on this either.

Lean Thinking is not an absolution. No management system guarantees no problems. Lean Thinking is really a problem solving strategy by engaging the entire workforce. This approach as we have experienced greatly reduces weaknesses with organizations by attacking problems. It has a strong backbone in customer focus.

There are no guarantees in life or business. I believe Lean Thinking has been proving help organizatin be more effective in terms of safety, quality, delivery, and profitability.

Lean Thinking certaintly is not the cause of a defect. Whether in one product line or not is really a question of risk and exposure. To reduce risk you must out more effort to reduce exposure.

Lean Thinking also does not eliminate 100% of all problems because as you solve problems new ones can surface. The key to success is to constantly learn to solve problems in a timely effective mannner. I am sure Toyota will learn the most they can from this situation and be better off for it in the long run.

6)No, I agree with Tim. Toyota's problems are not a by-product of Lean. I believe, and this is only opinion since I'm not in any way an expert on Toyota or Lean, that Toyota's problem is that they stopped being Toyota.

What I mean by that is Toyota seems to have strayed from a core principle - respect for humanity. Toyota seems to have become what they (or really, we) said they were not - a Detroit automaker who wanted more and more market share at the expense of quality.

When did this begin? Hard to say, but problems with Toyota vehicles - serious problems in appreciable numbers - started in the late 90's and continue today. Not coincidentally, again in my opinion, is the fact that a Toyoda family member was not running Toyota from 1995 until this past June.

Are Toyota's problems a failure in leadership under the collective watches of Hiroshi Okuda, Fujio Cho, and Katsuaki Watanabe? Again, I don't know, but would they have run the company differently if there names were Toyoda?

7)Did you ever see the movie,, "Collateral Damage"? Toyota cared about safety when they were making a name for themselves, but when it became about being #1... it became a game about numbers. Sadly, I bellieve that they weighed their options, and few people dying, and a few lawsuits was decided to be the more fiscally responsible thing to do :(

8)Toyota was forced to cutback on costs as part of its growing orientation towards stock market performance - maintaining net earning/net income/profit performance especially considering severe drop in consumer sales that 2008-09 automotive industry absorbed in general...

Keep in mind - avg. seasonally adjusted FY sales for automotive was at 8 million units in 2008 (earlier) and fell down to lows averaging around 5 mill. units thats 37-40% drop in auto industry as whole. In securities - Toyota (NYSE:TM) held around $90-$100/share, in first half of 2009 that value fell down to $60 pps (33%-40% devaluation correlated to sales decline).
Find data here at WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html?mod=mdc_h_econhl

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TM
If you look at 1yr graph of Toyota- read the series of news feed company made in national media (cutback in production/ halting India's 2nd Factory launch/Repurchasing Stocks/Issuing massive amounts of CDO (collat. debt obligtns.) & bonds (all debt issuances) to raise funding. I would bet this is key turning point where Toyota made cutbacks in TQM (quality mgmt.) and loosened quality controls to suppliers such as CTS Corp. that made pedals for recalled models. Basically supporting Laura's theory - their huge fixed overhead costs and cost of maintaining massive infrastructure of 17% market share company was tumbling with economy (stock market) that was cut basically in half in less than a year.

We'll never know, but we will know how a Toyoda reacts to this crisis. Akio Toyoda has a long road to hoe.

Wiki Wednesday - Toyota's Recall A Byproduct Of Lean?

2010-02-10T08:00:00.003-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"Is Toyota's Recall A Byproduct Of Lean?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

I realize the question isn't framed the best but this is honestly the way it is viewed in many circles. I say that Toyota got away from it's lean principles of being close to the customers. I would argue that the same brake pedals across different product lines is not lean for the same reason we see now. The defects are not on one product line but several.

For more wikiing please contribute to http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Lean In A Veterinary Clinic

2010-02-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

I recently made a comment on the Linkedin group Lean Learning Center when asked how to start lean in a non manufacturing setting. I am currently implementing lean in a vet clinic and I wanted to share some of the findings. and to get your thoughts. The very first thing I asked to the staff was where do you have a problem. Their answer: The filling system. This is how they currently file: Last Name, First Name, Pet's Name. they even have visuals on the side of the files to show what the first 3 letters of the last name are so they can find the names quicker but they still have problems with filling an searching for files. See the before state below:

The team came up with great ideas:

-Change to a number system- number would be done by the client number in the computer

-Make sure the color codes for the firsts 3 letters of the last name are all unique, currently several letters share the same color

-Go 100% electronic

-Put in quick find tabs that give us ranges of names for the more common last names.

The guidance I gave to the team was we need to implement something today so they decided the best option was to put in marker tabs. We would start in the high volume names (i.e. names that start with WIL or HAR, etc) and see how it works. Below is an example of their implemntation:

The points I emphasized where to just try something an if it doesn't work then change it. They love the tabs but they fin it gets in the way at times so they are changing the tabs to stick out vertically instead of horizontally.

The key points from the implantation:
1) Start with a need
2) Bias towards action
3) To start momentum go for low hanging fruit that everyone agrees is an opportunity an start there with out rigors data collection.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

As a reminder here are radio appearances that I have this week:

KBZNZ’s Business Genies hosted by Max Gregorich. We talk about lean in several industries and smaller businesses:
Friday February 5th at 12:00pm PST
Saturday February 6th at 12:00am PST
Monday February 8th at 1:00 am & 1:00pm PST
Wednesday February 10th at 2:00am & 2:00pm PST
Thursday February 11th at 10:00am & 10:00pm PST

Also on Karl Waddensten’s “Lean Nation” radio show Monday February 8th at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm PST for a live show to talk about Lean in the small business world. I'll talk about my experiences with Medical practices, Veterinary practices, and other small businesses. Please call in to the show 401-437-5000 or 888-345-0790.

Factoid Friday

2010-02-04T19:22:00.005-06:00

Before the Factoid I wanted to announce that I will be on a few radio shows over the next week:

KBZNZ’s Business Genies hosted by Max Gregorich. We talk about lean in several industries and smaller businesses:
Friday February 5th at 12:00pm PST
Saturday February 6th at 12:00am PST
Monday February 8th at 1:00 am & 1:00pm PST
Wednesday February 10th at 2:00am & 2:00pm PST
Thursday February 11th at 10:00am & 10:00pm PST

Also on Karl Waddensten’s “Lean Nation” radio show at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm PST for a live show to talk about Lean in the small business world. I'll talk about my experiences with Medical practices, Veterinary practices, and other small businesses. Please call in to the show 401-437-5000 or 888-345-0790.

Now for the factoid:
87% of your customers judge your manufacturing performance on quality.

Source: *2009 IndustryWeek/SAP Custom Research Survey; 270 US manufacturers

What are you doing to help your quality in your business?

Thinking Thursday - Differences with Lean and Traditional Management

2010-02-04T08:00:00.003-06:00

Thank you to those who responded to yesterday's wiki. If you didn't get a chance or want to expand on your thoughts please post them to the comments.

Yesterday's wiki post:

"What Are The Differences With Traditional And Lean Management"

The wiki is a divergent wiki. A convergent wiki is looking for 1 "correct" response to a
question. A divergent wiki just asks give me all the answers you can think of for the question.

I've also launched a lean wiki site http://leanway.wikidot.com/ so please add articles and join in.

Responses:
1)Traditional: Work organized based operations
Lean: Work organized on value stream operations

Traditional: Top down managed
Lean: Everyone works together, senior management removes barriers and operators in charge of solutions

2) That topic is certainly more like a book, not just a wiki, but if I had to give a quick answer:

In traditional management, the customer is the boss.In lean management, the customer is the team member.

In traditional management, my job is to solve problems. In lean management, my job is to develop systems that solve the problems.

In traditional management, my job is to manage the person as a resource and an asset. In lean management, my job is to develop the individual as a human.

In traditional management, my job is to hit the target or objective. In lean management, my job is to move the organization closer to the ideal state.

3)Big question. I'll add a couple thoughts now. Reflect some maybe come back add more later.

Cost - traditional absorption costing that requires costs, even fixed ones, to be absorbed into product and 'recovered' by PRODUCING not SELLING units leads to bad decisions. People will make and inventory parts not for current demand (overproduction) in order to 'recover' overheads per the plan that was made last November. This is rational if you are held accountable for overhead recovery. A colleague in anothoer company had a major piece of equipment break yesterday (a monument). Two days to fix it. They jumped through hoops to get materials in from other plants in order to keep downstream ops running in order to recover overheads 'per annual operating plan.' They have 101 days of FGs in the warehouse (probably not what they need if Ohno was right). I'll be nice and call that insanity instead of stupidity. the lean way synchronizes with pull and flow and allows for appropriate leveling (even seasonal if seasonal demand outpaces capacity).

Traditional management is top down. the lean way is both top down and bottom up. Hoshin Kanri allows the long term vision (call it strategy) to flow from the top down. This is a big, very general vision of what and WHY (purpose) and when out in the future. As that strategy is deployed lower levels in the organization get to fill in the specific whats, whens, whos, and whys. The higher level then agrees to the rationale and logic when they are comfortable with the plan and then there is some emotional ownership ACROSS levels (management by delegation not the management by abdication and 'accountability' model of the old way.)We did it this way in the Marine Corps. Big end state vision came from the 'head shed'. We grunts devised our own devious littler whats, hows, whens, and whos in order to comply with the commanders big WHY (purpose). We said command goes down and control goes up. In the lean way some stuff should goes from bottom up maybe outside the hoshin kanri system. It tends to do that when people are engaged.

4)There is soooo much to tell about this argument.
I can add some points:
Traditional: managers blame people for having problems
Lean: managers work with people on solving problems

Traditional: managers continuously fire fighting
Lean: managers follow standardized daily routine

Traditional: traditional cost accounting
Lean: target and kaizen costing

Traditional: silos and separate departments
Lean: value streams

Traditional: push
Lean: pull

5)Traditional: Independent
Lean: Interdependent, closely linked

Traditional: "Leave me alone"
Lean: "I work as part of a team"

Traditional: "I define my own methods"
Lean: Methods are standardized

Traditional: Improvement is someone else's job.
Lean: Improvement is everyone's job

Traditional: Results focused
Lean: Process/path of results focused

Traditional: Firefighting
Lean: Problem solving root cause analysis

Traditional: Do
Lean: PDCA

Traditional: Failure is punished
Lean: Failure is acceptable

Traditional: Operator Error
Lean: System Failure

If you have any thoughts or additions please post them in the comments section.

Wiki Wednesday - What Are The Differences With Traditional And Lean Management

2010-02-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"What Are The Differences With Traditional And Lean Management"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

This a large topic but here are some differences:
Traditional: Work organized based operations
Lean: Work organized on value stream operations

Traditional: Top down managed
Lean: Everyone works together, senior management removes barriers and operators in charge of solutions

Traditional: Keep equipment running at all costs
Lean: Run a level operations built around flow

For more wikiing please contribute to http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Real Value

2010-02-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

I saw this picture and it was funny but it made me think. The picture was probably Dell's or Window's attempt at viral marketing but you really have to think to yourself sure it makes a good point but why do I even want my camera to break in the first place? Has it gotten so bad that now we are relying on scare tactics to get the consumer to buy 1 product vs another?

How are things done at your company? Do you focus on what the customer wants? Here are some good questions to ask:
1) Do your process revolve around the customer or do they revolve around departments?
2) Are you more concerned about running equipment as long as possible or do you build around people and have the machine serve work for them instead of the other way around?
3) How many tasks do you do that are only for the company and not for the customer?

Here are some things you can do:
- Eliminate waste. TIM WOOD acronym is handy: Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over processing, Over production, Defects
- Map a process by it's customer not by the tasks. Find what types of customers you have and then map out all the tasks that need to be done to satisfy the customer. Record data like process times, wait times, and inventory levels and you have a Value Stream map.
- Get everyone involved in problem solving. The people working the process every day will be the best ones to help you with solutions.

Are you doing adding value for the customer?

Want Change? Do It Today

2010-02-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

Weather it's loosing weight, painting the house, or changing things in your business we all have moments of hesitation. Here are some of the common things I hear:
1) I/we don't have the resources
2) I/we don't have the time
3) I/we don't have the money
4) I/we will get to it later
5) It's too hard
6) I/we could never do that

I always tell people who want change two things:
1)Ask how you can accomplish what you want instead of saying why you cannot
2)Start something today

It is much easier to change the course of the airplane once it's in the air then it is to get it into the air. Next time you have something that needs to be done see how you can accomplish the goal and start towards that goal with even a small step.

If you want to make your business better start with just watching what goes on in your problem areas. Just by watching you'd be surprised what you'll see.

How do you start with change?

Factoid Friday

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

Only 10% of employees say senior management treats them as most important part of organization

Source: 2007 Towers Perrin survey, 18 countries, 40 companies,
90,000 employees

Why do you think that management feels this way about their employees? Do you think employees are the most important part of the organization?

Thinking Thursday - Are Lean And Six Sigma Compatible

2010-01-28T08:00:00.002-06:00

Thank you to those who responded to yesterday's wiki. If you didn't get a chance or want to expand on your thoughts please post them to the comments.

Yesterday's wiki post:

"Are Lean and Six Sigma Compatible?"

The wiki is a divergent wiki. A convergent wiki is looking for 1 "correct" response to a
question. A divergent wiki just asks give me all the answers you can think of for the question.

I've also launched a lean wiki site http://leanway.wikidot.com/ so please add articles and join in.

Responses:
1)I've used both and I use Lean as the over arching strategy, culture, and problem solving lens. I use six sigma to dive deep into one process and control the variation of individual processes when needed.

2)I think six sigma is a tool, only one tool that can be applied in an appropriate moment during the lean transformation or problem solving.
So for example you can apply DOE for seeing complex process problems or use different charts to visually display the state of the process. But lean thinking is more than just tools, it is a managerial philosophy, organisations management in all its parts, not only the relentless research for the best ROI in one process or for one specific problem.

3)I've been an MBB in GE and lived in the Lean world of Valeo. I have seen the merits of both, but there are clear differences as well.

The integration of the two is possible, but the way in which much depends upon the vision the company pursues.
In the report I've sent you, you can also read back how companies integrate Lean and Six Sigma in different ways.
For me the way you integrate both (if you desire to do so) is related to the essence of the two:
- Six Sigma is a project approach and leads to improvement projects. You can chose to integrate Lean elements into this approach but it remains a project-oriented approach to improvement, mostly executed by specialists with specific job titles like change agent, black belt, etc.
- Lean is not a project approach but does not contain elements that be used in such an approach. Most LSS approaches are project approaches with Lean elements. However, Lean in a broader sense is a system based upon principles in itself based upon a fundamental way of looking at the world. Can we integrate the project approach of Six Sigma and its tools into this system? Sure we can. But there is a big difference between Six Sigma with Lean and Lean with Six Sigma!

Put differently: is there a difference between continuously running improvement projects and continuous improvement?

If you have any thoughts or additions please post them in the comments section.

Wiki Wednesday - Are Lean And Six Sigma Compatible?

2010-01-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Wiki Wednesday is where we have 1 topic and several thoughts on the topic from Lean practitioners.

"Are Lean and Six Sigma compatible?"

Please leave your thoughts on the comments section. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

I've used both and I use Lean as the over arching strategy, culture, and problem solving lens. I use six sigma to dive deep into one process and control the variation of individual processes when needed.

For more wikiing please contribute to http://leanway.wikidot.com/

Being Comfortable - The 8th Deadly Sin

2010-01-26T06:00:00.001-06:00

You might think "what about sloth, isn't that the same thing?" Sloth refers to activity levels. Being comfortable means you are happy where you are and don't change. I played judo for a few years and I had a great coach one time tell me if you want to submit a fighter you have to make them feel comfortable. If they are comfortable they don't move and you can work your technique especially if the opponent is tired.

Much like judo, if you're too comfortable in business you will get "chocked out." I worked at Dell Inc in 2004 and they were the #1 most admired company in the US. Dell was very comfortable being at the top but 6 years later and they have lost the competitive advantages they had in the 90s and actually don't make anything anymore. Dell got comfortable and just let things go. I distinctly remember an executive was asked the question "What about Apple; how are you going to compete with their products?" The executives response was "What Apple makes in a year we make in a month, they really aren't on the radar."

The moral of the story is don't be comfortable with what you have. It's very easy to prevent being too comfortable and that's to constantly experiment and try to get better. The first step is to make sure senior management and even the top level guys at the company are ok with the idea. The next step is to give your folks a problem solving lens. Teach then the principles and the spirit behind Lean problem solving and design. Next let them experiment and encourage experimentation not successes. Obviously the experiments need to be thought out but if you are doing the experiments correctly you will get some experiments that fail. Don't worry you are on the right track. Make sure the experiments align with the company's overall strategy and you have a recipe for never being too comfortable.

How comfortable are you? What are some ways you can stop from being uncomfortable and encourage progress?

Why Being The Best Still Isn't Good Enough

2010-01-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

This past week I had an opportunity to visit a family medical practice to see if there was opportunity for improvement. The practice ranks in the top 2% of solo practitioners in the U.S. in terms of profit and volume so should the business be happy with with being at such a high ranking? I say NO!

My visit to the practice was a 2.5 day gemba walk of all aspects of the practice to see where there might be opportunity. I found that the average customer cycle time from when the patient comes in to when the patient leaves is 1 hour. One hour is a good number according to industry averages but 30 minutes of the time was waiting time.

The practice had an opportunity to potentially double their throughput but they made a decision not to tackle the opportunity. There were several reasons why but the root cause was that they were comfortable. Good is the enemy of great but great is the enemy of true north. True north is what is possible.

It is never good enough to be the best because there is always room to improve. The target that should be getting rid of the waste and adding more value to the customers not beating the rest of the competition. Trying to beat the competition leads to being just good enough and leaves the door open for outsourcing, government regulations, and all sorts of things that you don't want.

What are your thoughts on why being the best isn't good enough?

Factoid Friday

2010-01-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

42% say Top Management Commitment is #1 Challenge [to a lean implantation]

Source: 2006, The Lean Benchmark Report, AberdeenGroup

Why do you think it is such a challenge? What are some things that you do to get top management commitment?