KCOE@SVC

The Ideal Condition for Lean in North America

2010-06-28T15:21:00.001-04:00

(This is the sixth part of this series on the condition of "lean" in North America. To see the other five parts, check them out in the Archive for this month and last (May). Thanks for the comments you've sent and the various tweets and comments on Facebook!)

Do you recall the last major emergency your top level team tackled? I’m talking about an emergency that spanned the entire top level team and required each one of them to dig in to help. Let’s think about that and try to answer a few key questions.

1. Were you all focused like a laser beam on the problem or issue? Were some of them distracted or focused on their own agendas? I would submit that they were not. In fact, during crises, we tend to align well, setting aside personal agendas and pet projects to pull together with the rest of the team.

2. What is the communication during this aligned "time" like? Is it slow and inaccurate and laze faire? Or, is it concise, rapid and robust?

3. How is morale during the crisis? Immediately after the crisis?

4. How was teamwork as it is expressed in cooperation, collaboration and mission attainment?

5. What happens when the crisis subsides? Again, I submit that when the crisis has run its course, the team aligns around personal, departmental goals and objectives and concerns.

From a human perspective the ideal for "lean" would be a culture of mutual trust and respect that is best represented by the way your team works in the midst of a crisis. They are cooperating, collaborating, communication and working for the common goal. Morale is high because they know what is important, the problem clarified their priorities for the moment. You have engaged and satisfied employees.

From an operational perspective, the ideal for "lean" is satisfied customers, satisfied shareholders and a satisfied community where you do business. Your processes run smoothly. As problems occur, the human and operational system stops to contain then remove the root cause.

A short summary might be something like this: engaged, satisfied workforce achieves company goals while company satisfies need of the workforce who achieve company goals...and so on. The community is a customer as it is the supporting player where your company exists. From the community, you get great employees who are smart and clever and happy with life. How can you expect world class if you aren’t working to make the supplier for your people better?

There are many examples of companies who fit the description above. They are, in my humble opinion, world class companies. I’ll just focus on two that are near and dear to my heart. The first is Toyota.

Recent days have seen a flurry of negative sentiment towards Toyota. Yet, the company just (in May 2010) posted their quarterly profit at $1.2 Billion. Ten years ago, they perfected a hybrid car that has seen three major enhancements prior to their competitors’ first release. While the landscape at the company has changed because of externals, the internal landscape never changes. They are consistent and steady. Bank on them.

One of their best competitors is the Honda Motor Company. Another consistent and steady force in the industry.

Both companies have lean production. But both companies have the culture of lean or operational excellence. When you compare them to the big three, the differences are stark. While GM and Ford have very lean production, lean is limited to the shop floor. In rare cases, lean is implemented in other process areas, but I think it is safe to say that the heads of GM and Ford have no standard work.

For an example outside of the automobile industry, I often turn to Starbucks. The business is iconic and started a movement towards coffee as an experience. From top to bottom, their mission is clear and their culture is strong. The result: consistent, stable, steady and excellent.

The hallmark of world class is excellence and stability. Shouldn't "lean" get you to THAT?

Next time I'll explain why I keep putting "lean" in quotation marks. Until then, pursue the ideal!

Current State: the problem with North American implementation of Lean

2010-06-11T15:29:00.001-04:00

(This is the fifth post in this series. If you've missed any of the previous posts, check them out by clicking on the "May" link at the right. We are thinking that there are some comments out there. Feel free to post your thoughts. We would love to hear from you!)

I’ve given you an idea for where our current state problem began, but let’s look at how it is manifested in our own organizations today.

The first thing we’ll look at is what a has become known in operational excellence circles as “event-a-holism”. This is characterized by people who are “event-aholics”. (Check out a some great thoughts by Jamie Flinchbaugh on this subject.) Maybe you can relate to this phenomenon. By “event” I mean the classic kaizen event. These events were formerly known as kaizen blitzes, but the concept of kaizen being a blitz or happening very quickly and intensely flew in the face of reason. So the practitioners re-spun this device into the kaizen event.

A typical event is arranged around five work days, normally Monday through Friday. The team, carefully selected to include the right stakeholders including a high level champion and a few token process workers, is given some review training on things like the eight wastes, how to construct a value stream map, etc. They take a day to capture the current state by observation, hopefully. They map the current state as best they can, but after all, they’ve included the guys working in the process. At least they’ll have captured the variations that those guys experience. Next they come back to dream about the future state. They identify some areas for improvement, make a plan to improve the process and construct a one page report. The team is then paraded up the food chain to “report out” on the progress of their week.

In concept, the event idea is OK and would work where the culture for continuous improvement is already formed. But as with so many good ideas wrongly applied, when you do events and track the number of events you are not really changing the culture much.

You probably can recognize the event system as a hybrid of the Womack and the TSSC pathways. Like the most on the TSSC pathway, you get some changes, but they are predictable:

1.   People like improvement events, but they report that soon after they return to business as usual it is - truly - business as usual.

2.   People and teams are aligned when in the event, but when the event is over, they return to the mis-aligned state: business as usual.

3.   Organizations place an emphasis on the event system calling it lean and saying that they are implementing lean manufacturing, but they are really just implementing a system of events. Because the events don’t get what we expect - full-scale cultural change - we move on the next best thing. Lean becomes, at that point, the flavor of the month or year.

4.   Processes are changed under the banner of improvement, but because continuous improvement culture is weak - there is no attention paid to the human and operations balance - the improvements rarely take into consideration the instability of the process. This problem is manifested in two ways. The process gets stable due to new standardizations, but the stability is short lived because the standards don’t address the full range of variability in the process. Or, the process causes instability in the processes up and down stream. The result is the human reaction: this didn’t work.

Another problem in the current state of our lean systems is our failure to embrace is fully. I call this problem the “...and lean (or OE)” phenomenon.

Businesses and organizations, like computers, must have a human and operational operating system in order to get things done. These operating systems organize the way we communicate, the way we execute, the way we navigate and the way we relate to external stakeholders. Most businesses have a distinct human systems that may or may not support the operations system.

It has been my experience in the region that most organizations have disparate systems. They adopt lean as a tactic as opposed to a strategy that would replace BOTH operating systems. The result is that their extant systems keep delivering what they were designed to deliver and we “do lean” things. We do our business as usual “and Lean”.

So, we may have a robust understanding of lean and getting some decent gains, but the gain seem to be isolated; the development seems arrested. The reason this happens is because there is no integration or replacement of the old way. We implement, probably feebly, kanban on the assembly floor without ever thinking that the whole business should be run using pull systems, right down to accounts receivable. We have standard work for the operator on the line, but we would never think to create standard leader’s work, especially for the Chief Executive Officer.

The result is usually predictable and easy to spot. I can walk on a floor and see lean artifacts but walk through the offices and see none. If you limit lean, you’ve missed the point.

One final problem in the current state is when lean is someone’s pet project. Top level leaders “buy” the idea of lean and give just enough rope to the local lean zealot who has read all 772 books that Amazon carries on the subject. The lean zealot through sheer will-power creates some gains. The top level leader adds more work to the zealot because we all grew up watching John Wayne movies and recognizing the hero when we saw him, right?

I could go on and on. I could connect each error in form and function to someone either subscribing directly to or being influenced by someone who subscribes to the Womack pathway or the TSSC pathway. Next up: the Next Generation of Ideal...

Toyota and the Georgetown Pathway

2010-05-25T10:43:00.002-04:00

(This is the fourth installment from a speech given at SMC Business Councils a few weeks ago. You can see the previous installments by clicking on the label "SMC Speech" at the end of this post. The result will give you all the posts.)

Around the time when Womack was publishing the first version of Lean Thinking, the seminal Toyota plant in North America, the one they built in Georgetown, Kentucky was celebrating its tenth anniversary. Some of its earliest leaders were moving on to different and new seasons and careers. Some of those early leaders went on to show organizations how to implement the Toyota Production System. Some even went on to teach and coach organizations how the system’s human side connected all the components. They began to teach and implement the things you couldn’t see through external observation of the Toyota system.

The advent of these former-Toyota practitioners caused a ripple in the fabric of the “lean” universe. While Womack was rapidly rising to fame and on his coattails a bevy of consultants and trainers claiming to know how to implement lean, these former Toyota leaders quietly began to create substantial and lasting change in their own and in other’s organizations.

The result, fifteen years later, is a set of three distinct pathways. The first, the Womack pathway, was marked by the attention to value and waste and eliminating that waste. The second, what I will call the TSSC Pathway (so named for the Toyota Supplier Support Center), was marked by rapid improvement to process through the implementation of a set of tools designed to get a pull system moving.

As an aside, the TSSC was an part of Toyota that “reached back” into its supplier base to make improvements to process. The goal was to get suppliers to produce “just in time” to the Georgetown, then other, assembly lines. The “carrot” for making the improvement was the chance to do business with Toyota and in the process, the ability to cut some cost from your process. If you take that model out of its framework, removing the impetus, it doesn’t always work. In fact, Jeffrey Liker documents its successes and failures in his game-changing book, The Toyota Way. Many consultants followed this pathway because of its neat and tidy business case: do a project, make an improvement, impress the heck out of the client, get another project, repeat the cycle. Unfortunately, clients who really wanted long-term change became disillusioned with this method because of its lack of ability to get sustained results.

The third pathway, what I’ve coined as “the Georgetown Pathway”, is one that gets sustained, tangible results, albeit with some hard work, real change and passionate leadership. This pathway has signposts established by names that are not-so-recognizable. Some thought leaders on this path have emerged on the scene and have become known to a small circle of learners and doers. For example, David Meier has co-authored two books with Toyota observer and researcher Jeffrey Liker. In both books, David demonstrates a deep understanding of the Toyota Way and the system. He also understands that it is a living thing and that it is fraught with paradox: standardization enhances innovation and others. Another prime example is Mike Hoseus, who also co-authored a book with Jeffrey Liker. Mike’s book, Toyota Culture, captures the essence of the human side of the system.

The Georgetown Pathway is marked with a few key principles: human and operational balance, mutual trust and respect, community...wait, those don’t sound like lean tools, do they?

Lean is not Toyota

2010-05-24T09:47:00.001-04:00

(If you are just picking up this blog thread, don't forget to check out the first two installments in the series. Part One is here. Part two is here. This is part three in the series. This article is based on a speech I delivered at SMC Business Councils a few weeks ago.)

Where would one look for the things that we need to do to eliminate waste? Well, because Womack’s system was presumably extracted from Toyota, one has to look at the source.

In droves, we flocked to see what Toyota was doing. And we saw a lot, didn’t we? We saw cellular manufacturing, we saw the artifacts of pull systems - kanbans, we saw a pull cord that triggered a light and a sound to get the attention of supervisors.

So, we wrote books on lean tools, the things we could see when we looked at Toyota. We read the books and we ran off to put those things into place. We installed andon lights and pull cords. We established kanban systems and, through the wonders of modern technology, we added technology to them, producing “electronic kanbans”. We changed our assembly lines and made them into U-shape cells.

And what was the result? Well, in some cases, the improvements were real, dramatic and sustained. Some companies - the ones with a Toyota-like culture - received those tools like seeds and nurtured them to produce much fruit.

But, as with most of the newest and best management theories, many companies applied the tools, enjoyed a quick burst of improvement but quickly slipped back to the old way. This was the day of andons that went unresponded to. The day when kanban levels were set and never improved.

Time went on and when “it” didn’t work, “it” was retooled. This time we included something called Kaizen Events, eerily reminiscent of the Process Improvement Teams and quasi-QC-Circles of the 80’s when management theorists were imitating what they called “Japanese Management”. This time, though, they combined the “blitzed” improvement with the lean tools and the results were, well, better. But soon, the process slipped back into its old ways.

The idea here was fairly simple: go and observe what Toyota was doing. Figure out how to describe it and “implement” it. Get some improvement. Discover diminishing returns. Go back to Toyota and see what they were doing. And continue the cycle.

The problem endemic to this crazy little cycle is this: you can only imitate what you can see, and you can’t see the whole system. You can only see the externals. You can observe the artifacts of an andon system, but can you observe the heart of the team leader responding to the andon rapidly because he considers a problem a blessing?

And so the cycle went for the last fifteen years. Thought leaders spewed out the newest thing even though there is nothing new under the sun. Consultants built a business case around selling the latest and greatest thing. The thing’s usefulness slowed or stopped completely due to human neglect. Consultants’ business slowed and we’re on to the next best thing. The cycle continues. We can see the progression:

There was Total Quality Management, then Lean, then Six Sigma, then Lean Sigma. Think about the books circulating on the subject. I recently did a search on Amazon and found 772 titles with some form of “lean manufacturing” in the title.

So, let’s just pause for a minute and take stock: where are you? Are you following a particular method? Is it lean al a Womack and the value stream crowd? Is it six sigma, popularized by GE? Is it some hybrid mix like lean sigma, the version the US Navy “bought”, popularized by the aircraft industry?

Lean Leadership: the Leading Question

2010-05-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

We just finished a training session last week that focused on the leadership model for leading in a "lean" or Operational Excellence system. The essential question that every leader must ask - in or outside of the OE system is this: what can I do to help my team (member) succeed?

Your success is completely tied up in this question.

What you do, how you think, what you say all flow from the answer.

A second clear question is this: where do I need to "be" as the leader?

More on this later.

For now: evaluate the questions that drive your leadership thinking.

Where We Need to Go, The Way Ahead: What Lean IS and ISN'T

2010-05-17T11:14:00.002-04:00

This is part two of the series on Where We Need to Go...

What lean IS and what it isn’t

In 1996, almost 15 years ago, Jim Womack wrote a book. The book was a follow up to his first book, The Machine That Changed the World. This then new book, Lean Thinking, was really the book that would change the face of manufacturing for a long time. I credit Jim Womack with being the granddaddy of what we in North America call “lean”. Womack coined the phrase as he tried to describe how some really good manufacturers and one really great manufacturer did their business, particularly their production operations. Womack says that in 1987 he and his research team were sitting in front of a white board thinking about a name for the “new” business system that they had observed at Toyota and its emulators. One of the team suggested that they call it what is was: a way to serve the customer’s needs with less of everything...why don’t we call it lean? And, so, it began.

In various times and in various places, Womack reduced lean to a few key principles. They were:

Determine value defined by the customer
Create end to end processes to make nothing but that value (value streams)
If you are working with an existing process, eliminate the waste in the process

So, it follows, that seeing the waste in the value stream would be important, hence Value Stream Mapping. Once you find the waste, you need to do stuff to eliminate it, hence the onset of “lean tools”. The tools were the things that you could observe as you watched Toyota doing their thing. The tools were also easy to package up and sell to a willing and hungry public. One of the problems that arises, though, is that you can't see everything in a system, especially the hearts and minds of the people in the system...

The Problem With Your Lean System (probably) - a series on Where We Need to Go Next

2010-05-14T11:39:00.001-04:00

(Note: The following is part of a series written and delivered as a presentation to SMC Business Council's Manufacturing Group on 05.13.2010. I am sharing it with our blog readers to stimulate a discussion. Feel free to weigh in and give me your comments. I'll be posting it over the next few weeks to allow time for the discussion to evolve. A special thanks to Tom Henschke, newly appointed President at SMC for the opportunity to share the message.)

The Premise: Your Lean System Might Stink...

In order to produce world-class results, lean or operational excellence must be your primary strategy, encompassing the entire enterprise. Failure to replace your current “operating system” completely with a true “lean”, what I will call Operational Excellence, system, will only frustrate your organization.

The long range gains for sustained lean implementation include revenue growth, increases in productivity, increases in cash flow and a happier, engaged workforce.

The problem with not replacing the operating system wholesale is that, instead, we’ve added pieces and parts of a lean system - tools - to our existing, broken processes and systems. The result ranges from limited, localized successes to all-out failures. Frustrations abound: executives who are confused with the results and front line leaders and workers who have to make production AND do lean things, confused about which has priority.

Why you need a coach on your Lean / Operational Excellence Journey

2010-04-29T09:54:00.001-04:00

I'm a big fan of NBC's Tuesday evening show, The Biggest Loser. If you're not familiar with the format, the storyline goes something like this: obese person spend multiple weeks at The Ranch in order to lose 30% or more of their body weight. The draw of the show is the human dilemma in which we just can't make phenomenal change without the aid and support of other people. The contestants (it is a contest to see who will lose the most weight) are guided on this journey by Trainer Bob Harper and Trainer Jillian Michaels.

So, here's the thing: you can't go from 400 pounds to 210 pounds without the help of a trainer guiding you into what to eat and how to exercise.

And, you can't go from high levels of waste and inefficiencies and untapped creativities to "lean", innovative and world class on your own.

The contestants on the show don't start by running a half marathon, but by the end, many of them are doing a full marathon. In fact, they start with a mile "run" or walk and many of them are collapsing at the finish.

To believe that they could declare themselves to be pursuing a lower weight then achieve that lower weight in a short time and without a coach is ridiculous.

To think that you can jump into a lean system without working up to it is equally ridiculous. You can do some test and show some people how it works, but to try to create a system without a solid foundation is sheer lunacy.

The success of these contestants is simply amazing, but each one would tell you that without the trainers it would have never happened. All of them had tried various forms of weight loss only to be disappointed with results that start well but are never sustained.

So, what makes a good coach? How do you evaluate a lean coach? Stay tuned for more on the subject.

Leading Yourself - Quick Tip: Guard your Tongue

2010-04-16T13:58:00.001-04:00

I had to pull my teenage sons up short last night. They were just being teenage boys, but some part of that crossed a line or two that I had in place for their training and protection. The look on their faces when I confronted them was priceless: in the nanosecond of realization that crossed their faces I could see the thinking process. Should they fight? Should they rationalize? Should they try subterfuge? In the matter of a moment, they had a decision to make that would shape the outcome of their near futures and the flavor of their social life for the weekend.

Fortunately, they came clean and will not have to endure a weekend at home with Mom and Dad (although worse things could happen...).

Switching metaphors, I just learned this morning of an off-handed comment made absent-mindedly by a leader I know. The comment led to a breakdown in the relationship between the leader and key constituent. What was the leader thinking? Was the leader thinking??

The tongue is a powerful thing. Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles, so goes the Proverb...

Many of my leadership foibles are preceded by slips of the tongue. These are generally preceded by nothing. That is to say that I wish they were preceded by something...anything. But, unfortunately, it's usually NOTHING. In the plainest of words: I wasn't thinking. Had I been thinking (like those quick-as-a-whip sons of mine), I probably would have held my tongue. Instead, like the leader who lost a key follower, I mostly let the words out before weighing them and measuring them.

Take, for example, our current vice president, who has made more than a few verbal bungles. Recently, an open microphone picked up his sentiments regarding the recent signing of dubious health care law. He may be a smart guy, but his tongue has given him a little trouble.

So, what's a leader to do?

Remember that the most important leadership question to ask yourself daily is, "How can I help my team / team members succeed?"

Before the words get out, form the answer to that question.

Angry? Step outside and get composed.

Don't know what to say? Don't say anything!

Keep the faith.

Team-Based, Value-Stream-Driven Organization for Health Care

2010-04-12T13:15:00.001-04:00

A while back, my mother in law took ill. She has a list of maladies and presents as a very complex patient, regardless of the situation. As such, she requires the attention of no less than four specialists.

After days of disjointed messages from the specialists, spotty order writing, contradicting directions to the nursing team, my wife, a registered nurse took the "bull by the horns" and called a meeting of the specialists to get them all on the same page.

Naturally, the nursing staff was reticent about calling the meeting. On one hand, they were elated that a patient family member had the guts to call these docs to task. On the other hand, they were afraid of the responses they'd get either from the docs themselves or their minions guarding their time.

The meeting occurred. It was rocky at first. All parties were hesitant to dive in, especially in front of each other. (Note: they were quick to make orders and give direction in isolation.). My wife had called me in to "facilitate" (read: keep the peace). I did so and after getting folks talking and thinking together the TEAM made a great plan for getting my mother in law back on her feet.

This was NOT the normal process.

The three of the five doctors involved were visibly disturbed by the process.

One of the physicians, seeing the risk exposure, finally took the lead and began to coordinate orders and care.

If it wasn't for the concern of my wife, the guts she has, her familiarity with the broken health care system and good Providence, the outcome may have been terrible.

This is team-based care, where the DOCS are the team. I love it, but it will require a major change to the way we train up physicians. I advocate giving them lean / operational excellence basics including operations management and human leadership. They need to understand that teamwork WORKS.

I few years back I had suggested to a hospital CEO in our region that part of the change would require converting the whole organization into a team-based structure, using obvious value streams to align around. He nearly choked on his coffee.

If we want real change, we have to change both the operational side of the equation AND the human side.

If you have any good stories about team-based care, give us a shout. Also, check out this HBR article on the concept by Stephen C. Schimpff.

Three Must-Understand Things for Frontline Folks Regarding your Lean Strategy

2010-04-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

I just finished working with one of our clients on a communication package (a la change management) for keeping the steering committee informed of the way ahead. He is responsible for supporting the implementation of Operational Excellence along with his colleagues on the steering committee. He has done a great job to date with communicating the strategy to his front line folks. I wanted to share three things they did right:

1. Make the lean strategy a positive and uplifting thing. To often, organizations wait until they are backed into the corner to communicate the strategy. While you may be using lean and OE as weapon to fight bad times, you want to make sure folks see it as an offensive and active weapon, not a passive one.

2. Keep it really simple. Only share what you know for sure. Many of our clients try to outthink us and attempt to paint a detailed plan for the way ahead. That will come through master planning, but for now, your frontline folks just need to know that you are being deliberate and being transparent. Lean - in some areas of the country and the world - has a negative connotation that comes from "lean and mean" thinking, cutting folks, focusing on costs and numbers of projects, etc. Communicate the right stuff, simply.

3. Make sure folks know that the WAY you are doing business today WILL change for the better. Change will be hard, but if it is planned and managed well, it doesn't have to be painful. Avoid the (fill the in name of your company here) Way AND the OE/ Lean Way trap. The way ahead is only the OE/Lean Way. The old (company) Way has to go. Convey the singular purpose at this point in time to set the stage for the change.

How Will You Know When your Culture is Changing Positively for Lean / Operational Excellence?

2010-03-31T10:23:00.005-04:00

I just spent a few days with a client in Menominee, Michigan. It is a lovely little town sitting right on Green Bay, where the Menominee River forms an estuary with the Bay. The purpose of my visit was to conduct a checkpoint to see how the team there was progressing. This was the team's one month check up and they did a great job of demonstrating some basic stuff: a solid daily meeting, good problem solving development, a nice balanced scorecard, and a fantastic attitude.

As I moved around the plant for the day, I would scratch some symbols on sheet that I had prepared ahead of time. I had prepared what I call a mini-audit. The audit prompted me to go and see, looking for what we call "cultural artifacts".

The checkpoint is very visual and easy to do. I could complete it in about an hour, but I used the time to get to know the team better and to answer their technique questions.

Stay tuned as we talk more about using cultural artifacts to validate cultural change. For more on coaching technique, check out what Allan is saying about it here . You can also check out Steve's Video Blog for more thoughts on coaching.

Until then, here are three things to look for:

1. Problem Solving sheets that are filled out. We are looking for good attempts here, not solved problems.

2. The daily meeting flows following the standard for daily meetings.

3. The BSC is up on the wall and is accompanied by the problem solving board.

The key at the earliest stage is to work with small teams and fine tune the gross movements.

The Balanced Scorecard: A Homograph (ha-mo-graf)?

2010-03-25T09:59:00.000-04:00

So, I've been dialoging lately with a fellow in Brazil you picked up my Twitter feed somehow. I'm guessing he used search.twitter.com and looked for phrases like "BSC" or "balanced scorecard". The interesting thing is that when we began to converse, I realized that he was a BSC or performance management consultant, not an OE or lean guy.

Before you shut down, here's the point: the KCOE balanced scorecard is like the Kaplan balanced scorecard (the most-known form of a balanced scorecard) in NAME ONLY. They are homographs.

Here are three differences:

1. The KCOE BSC integrates annual planning cycles and day to day operations. Other BSC's seem to have much longer PDCA cycles.

2. The KCOE BSC is both a long range improvement plan to reach strategic goals AND a daily, weekly, monthly checkpoint for progress.

3. The KCOE BSC combines progress checks with prioritized root-cause problem solving.

The net result of the KCOE BSC is a highly aligned, fully engaged operational team pressing forward towards the goal, stopping to fix problems and making incremental and larger scale improvements along the way.

The conversation with the guy in Brazil was edifying - he is doing his part to help organizations coordinate performance with strategy. I'm thinking our way is more simple, more elegant and nets real culture change (if done with good coaching.

Just sayin'....

Three Ways to Spot Awesome Problem Solving

2010-03-22T15:47:00.001-04:00

Here are three ways to evaluate your problem solving acumen:

1. The problem statement tells you what was observed directly at the point of cause of the problem. Too many times, we start at the point of recognition without tracing the problem's pathway BACK upstream. Great problem solving starts with precise problem statements.

2. The root cause can be "checked" by asking "so" or "therefore" as you trace backwards through the five why's. The five why's should follow one another. The last of the five should be your root cause if your problem statement was tight (see number one above).

3. There is a solid visualization for checking to see if the problem is recurring. PDCA is in each component of the system. It's really embedded in problem solving. Problem solving is a tool that helps you PLAN for the CHECK. Good visualizations show when the problem is recurring and are interacted with frequently (short PDCA cycles).

How are you doing?

The Shrewd Servant and How Cutting Corners will Kill You

2010-03-22T09:06:00.000-04:00

I just had the pleasure and honor of speaking to the 2010 Bearcat Football team from right here at Saint Vincent College. Today marks "day one" of the season. The young men started at 0615 and pushed it hard right through the last whistle at 0715. My job today was to observe the team leaders and give them some feedback.

As they sat down, chests heaving for breath and sweat dripping on the hardwood floor, I decided to tell them a story. I told them the parable of the shrewd (and unethical) servant from Luke's gospel. To paraphrase: the master decided to question his head bean counter because he had heard some allegations that the bean counter was cheating him. The bean counter gets worried about getting fired and realizes he has no marketable skills. Panicking, he calls each of the master's debtors and cuts their debts in half, thus endearing himself to them and possibly paving a way for a future job.

He ripped the master off in the little things and ripped him off in a big way for his personal gain.

The moral of the story is that if you are faithful in the little things, you'll be faithful in the big things. The converse is true, as the story illustrates: if you cut corners on the little things, you'll be apt to cut corners on the big things as well.

The leadership lesson was simple for this morning: leader, are you cutting corners in the little things? Does your team cut corners on the little things?

As I watched those young men work out this morning, I was impressed with their precision as they executed each cycle of their drills. I didn't see any corner cutting. In fact, what I saw was a group of organic team leaders encouraging and exhorting their teammates down to the last man. If they can keep it up - if they can bring that level of intensity and execution - through each cycle of each drill, through each cycle of each lifting session and if they begin to lead within themselves, they may just see a few ticks in the W column this year.

What's happening on your team? Are they being faithful in the little things or are they cutting some corners? Take a lesson from these young athletes: you reap what you sow. Good job, Bearcats!

David

Applying Lean to Human Interactions: Three Actions for Better Meetings

2010-03-17T13:29:00.000-04:00

Our team is meeting to review some learning that originated about 12-18 months ago. The topic is "Meeting Facilitation". Like many things that have enjoyed a period of popularity, meeting facilitation is truly part of the Operational Excellence. As such - as a component - it is required to make the system function properly.

Do a quick evaluation: do you communicate better when you are involved in a team improvement activity or during normal daily operations?

(NOTE: if we were your coaches, we'd be driving the two together, so there would be no discernible difference between team improvement and daily operations)

What do your "normal" meetings look like? Is there a plan for each meeting that reflects on more than the list of agenda items?

If you answered yes then no, you may want to think about these three improvements for meetings:

1. PLAN your meeting: grasp the current situation and the future outlook. Plan for your objectives and think deeply about what might be getting in your way. Think about how to communicate and how to manage each possible conflict.

2. PLAN for creating value during the meeting. Move non-value work (recording) to non-working members of the team so they can focus on recording and not participating. Use a facilitator to keep your team on track.

3. PLAN from meeting to meeting. Most things require more than one meeting. Connect the meetings and use the connections to help you plan "movement" to the objective.

Try this for a month and see if it makes a difference. I bet it does.

David

Three Ways to Tell Your Team They are Doing a Great Job

2010-03-17T08:05:00.002-04:00

1. Visually. Make the team's process "talk" to them visually. Have it stop when a quality problem occurs. Have it alert them when production is slipping. Convert feedback to visualizations.

2. pdCA. Check and Act. Don't give pats on the back, give them support when you check and see problems. Get them out of the process (fill in for them) so they can do some problem solving. Your actions will speak volumes.

3. Roles + Responsibilities. Don't confuse them. Make sure they know their role so they know how to succeed.

Foundational stuff for changing culture...

Applying the spirit of KANBAN

2010-03-16T15:52:00.000-04:00

For too many years, lean consultants and amateur leanists (yep, I just made that one up) have pursued kanban for kanban's sake. You have to admit the gains have been remarkable. We've seen amazing application of the TOOL. But, as usual, I have to wonder if we are applying the spirit of kanban.

Before you click away, let me explain what I mean by the spirit of kanban. Kanban is the stuff that you do to make a pull system work. You can pull for material at the process level or you can pull a product or service through from process to process. The communication system is kanban.

To keep this simple, let's just look at the process level material flow that uses kanban to manage the pulling. When we create kanban, we set the resupply levels based on what the process is consuming (and a couple of other things). I'd like to think that all of the processes we know and love out there are really stable, but the truth is that they are not. Because the process is variable, the consumption is variable. So, you really just take a snapshot and hope that your base number (the demand rate, takt, whatever you label it) is close to being real. You do your calculations diligently from that point on, but inside you realize that your base number is not great. You've probably used the the wrong unit of time; in fact, you probably made the unit of time too small, thus accentuating the process variability.

You get your system up and running and the invariable happens: stock out....a blessing!

Now you can do some problem solving, determine the point of cause, the problem statement, etc.

There: that was the spirit of kanban.

Did you miss it?

Kanban caused a problem to surface. In this short (but realistic) example, the point of cause was clear back upstream in the kanban level calculations. If you did some direct observation, you probably would have noticed that the process demand was variable. If you watch it long enough, you might be able to see a smoother demand. If you watch it even longer, you might be able to see some of the waste that is causing the variability.

Without the problem, there is no improvement.

There is was again: the spirit of kanban.

I hope you saw it that time.

The moral of the story: don't implement a tool for the tool's sake. Implement a tool to make and sustain continuous improvement. Oh, and you better be sure your organizational culture is ready for it...

PS: How would you solve the example problem?

The T.E.A.M. Continuum

2010-03-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

When a team first comes together, they behave as individuals. They don't know how things will be for them on the team, so they are tentative in the way the communicate and they way they work. To move to the next stage, this group of individuals must begin to communicate meaningfully by navigating to facts (the three Gs).

Once a group begins to communicate freely, individuals feelings may get bruised. The team becomes emotional. The team is still functioning as a bunch of people that think mainly of themselves, but their identity on the team is forming, so they are moving to "we". To move to the next stage, the team needs consensus. More fact management (three Gs) but now the team is bonding, so we need the three Ps: people, passion and patience. Realize the vast range of human behavior and embrace it. Realize that passion means suffering for what you value. And, realize that you will be needing a whole lot of patience to keep things moving.

When the team moves closer together, they align and as they do, they begin to attain their mission or goals. Communication is flowing freely. Mutual Trust and Respect make consensus happen readily. To move to the next level, the team needs consistency. When they are able to repeat successes and improve steadily, they will move on.

The final stage is mastery. The team is now an "us". When they fail, they fail forward, learn, improve and move on.

This is a continuum, because we don't just move forward, we frequently move backwards. In fact, because we are human and constantly changing, we are never motionless on the continuum. We are either moving forward or backward.

Great leaders move up and down in the organization to advance on the continuum.

Where is your team today and what do you need to move forward?

Three Foundations for Continuous Improvement

2010-03-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

1. Plan - Do - Check - Act. The venerable PDCA cycle can be found in every component of the system. When a process seems to be underperforming, look for a broken or shunted PDCA cycle. Look mainly for missing or weak Checks.

2. Visual Management. There is a lot written on the subject, but for me it reduced simply to this: create visualizations to you can see problems occurring. This applies to processes you can see and even ones you can't. Stop managing by wandering around and start auditing some clear, simples visuals to see how your processes are doing.

3. Roles and Responsibilities. Sure there are job descriptions, but R+R, as we affectionately have dubbed it, speaks to the roles and responsibilities IN THE OE OR CI SYSTEM. In the system, you are always some form of team leader or team member. As the leader, ask yourself, "How can I help this person or this team succeed?" As a team member, as yourself, "How can I support Safety, Quality, Productivity, Human Development and Cost?"

Top Three Principles for Leading Through Conflict

2010-03-09T22:42:00.002-05:00

1. Just the facts...Use the three Gs: go and see, get the facts and grasp the situation. Drive mercilessly to facts only. Comprehension and judgment will be vital for sifting through the mess. Build systems with transparency. Make it visual.

2. Bite your tongue till it bleeds...listen twice as much as you talk. Define the target condition for all things human. Use the three Ps: people, passion and patience. Remember that passion means suffering.

3. Be swift and just...if you can arrive at win win get there. If not, declare the loser and move on. People are drawn to this kind of decisiveness like a moth to the flame. Work at all costs for mutual trust and respect.

What Makes a Great Coach?

2010-03-08T11:37:00.000-05:00

Allan here, Trainer for the KCOE. I wanted to put up a brief note about the concept of coaching and then apply that concept to Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement. Ok, here we go:

Close your eyes and picture a coach, mentor, director, or teacher who impacted your life. Maybe you're on the field, smelling the grass, warming up before a game and he gathers your team up for that final talk before kick off. Maybe you're pacing the hallways before the next round of debate, scratching your head as you try to remember your counter arguments, when she walks up to you, pulls on your arm, and tells you its time to go. Or maybe you just finished your last lap, collapsed on your teams bench, and he flashes you that big smile because you just broke your personal record. Can you see your coach's face? Hear his voice? Remember her lessons?

If no one has ever filled this role for your before, I'm sorry. There is something special about the relationship between student and teacher, team member and coach, cast and director, mentor and disciple. It's a mix of hero, parent, friend, guardian, advocate, and fearless leader all rolled in to one.

Now, I'm going to make two assumptions. If you're reading this blog then you are 1. Interested in continuous improvement and 2. Interested in leading organizational improvement/change, etc.

If those assumptions are true, AND you've had a great coach, then you have no excuse. You need to model those characteristics that you know made you coach a great one. What are you waiting for? Was your coach selfless with her time? Was your director both challenging and encouraging? Did your mentor model the behaviors he wanted you to exhibit?

If you've never had some one fill this role for you personally or professionally, let me paint a brief picture. There's this guy named Don and he has coached youth soccer for almost 20 years. His back, knees, hips and ankles are torn up from time on the field. His children are grown, but he is still present for his niece and nephew and the rest of the kids in the club that he helped to start when he couldn't find a program that pursued excellence. When he's working with a U10 player, this business leader, father, and local soccer legend still gets down on one pained knee, grabs a kid's shoe and shows him how to position it on a ball. He winces as his back tweaks when he goes to stand up, watches the kid run away, and knows that he'll probably have to keep correcting the kick for a couple weeks before the kid gets it.

A great coach gives of himself or herself, gets down, eye to eye, with his player and teaches, models and encourages the techniques that will make the team successful.

What about you? Are you an organizational leader trying to practice continuous improvement? Do you model the behaviors you want to get? I know that I struggle to, everyday. Do you give of yourself for the success of the team? Are you patient, knowing that change takes time? Are you passionate about seeing a brighter future for your team, organization and community?

If you've struggled to be the coach/mentor/director that you want to be, make one small kaizen, on small improvement in your coaching today - for your team's sake.

- Allan, Trainer, KCOE

"Plucking" the Values that Drive Actions

2010-03-05T15:46:00.001-05:00

I had the great opportunity to speak to a gathering of civic leaders last night. I gave a familiar talk about values driving mindsets and behaviors and how world-class leaders understand how to create "resonance" in their teams by "plucking" the value system.

Day to day, we have the opportunity to exercise our values around the framework of the OE system: in daily meetings, in problem solving, in 5S+1, in suggestion systems, etc.

Every once in awhile, a wise leader can appeal to the organization's value system to evoke a response. This is "plucking" the value.

On 9-11, Al Qaeda terrorists killed thousands of US citizens in a blatant attack against the US on US soil. I get a little angry about that when I stop to think about it. The situation plucked my values.

Last night, a wizened fellow who was on the other side of eighty asked me, "How can we pluck values?"

Appeal to the heart of your team. If the value is Customer First, demonstrate how the current situation may be violating that world-class value. See what kind of response you get. As a leader, you need to learn how to communicate to the heart.

More on that topic next time.

Happy Friday!

David

Exercise Your Values, Every Day, in the Little Things for World Class Performance

2010-02-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

Consistency.

If you could just do what you planned to do, each time you planned to do it.

So many things get in the way! Where should you start?

This past Friday, I taught a group of senior leaders the single key to being a Culture-Changing Leader for World Class Performance. It is simple, but not easy!

Here it is: Exercise your values, every day, in the little things.

Hey, that sounds great, but where and when and what are the "little things"? Enter, the OE framework. Each time you add a component to your OE system, you've added another place to exercise your values in the little things.

You started with a daily meeting, right? What a fantastic place to exercise the values: every 24 hours!

A quick reminder on the values:

HUMAN
customer first
teamwork
continuous improvement
pride

OPERATIONAL
safety
quality
productivity
human development
and
productivity
...IN THAT ORDER

Problems come up at your daily meeting? Here's your chance, leader, to exercise some of those World-Class values. As the leader, you are thinking quietly to yourself, "What does this team need to succeed?" Maybe the problem solving sheet isn't so great. Why not put Bill - the guy who really understands problem solving - with Joe to improve his skills? There: you've just exercised that team work muscle. Maybe Joe did a great job, implemented a solution and left it at that. You encourage him to put the solution on a suggestion and hand it in. There: you've just exercised the continuous improvement muscle.

More reps, more muscle.
More weight (more difficult situations), more muscle.

Keep pumping!

World-Class is...

2010-02-18T08:33:00.001-05:00

I watched Shaun White secure the Gold Medal last night. What an awesome sight. He clenched it in his first run so his second run was simply a victory lap. Still, he thrilled the crowd with his newest trick...and landed it. That is character and class.

I've been watching the Olympics carefully this year. First, I love winter sports. The danger and the skill capture my heart. But the real reason I've been studying them this year is because they are a study in world-class-ism (to make up a new word).

Each country sends its best to the games. Each athlete competes with the best from other countries. Regardless of whether they medal or not, each athlete at the games is a world-class athlete.

I'll keep this short today: what do you think it took for them to get there? Do you think they could "play" at their sport, or have they made it their occupation (perhaps even their preoccupation)? In plain words, do you think Sean White is a part-time snowboarder?

Nope.

This is full commitment. This is full-tilt, all day long, single-minded, purposeful, passion-driven , life-living commitment.

One more note: have you noticed who is with these athletes at every "cycle" of competition? Look over their shoulders as you watch them. Who do you see whispering in their ears? Who do you see debriefing them after each event? See the picture below? Know who that intense guy is beside the masked Sean White?

The Coach.

Just sayin'...

Womack Distancing from Toyota: Opinion or Fact?

2010-02-17T12:26:00.000-05:00

Today I got an email from Jim Womack, author of Lean Thinking, who currently has a corner on the market as a thought leader in "lean". In today's email, he joined the "lean" thinking community "leadership" who have been giving their opinions on what is ailing Toyota.

For example, recently, Jeffrey Liker offered this on this Harvard Business Blog:

Somewhat lost in the media's account of president Akio Toyoda bowing deeply and apologizing was what he said about the longer-term response. After the immediate containment activities, the next step is to do hansei which means dig deeply to find the root cause of the problems, put in place countermeasures, check what happens, then make further adjustments as you learn. Toyoda will personally lead this, getting help from outside quality control and safety experts.

We do not know what additional problems will emerge in the coming months. But for Toyota, repairing its reputation will be a marathon and not a sprint. The Toyota Way is the only way out of the mess. Akio Toyoda seems intent on doing hansei the right way — turning over every stone, finding any weaknesses, and improving virtually every function of the company. I will continue to teach the management principles I have learned from Toyota. I also vow to reflect before I leap into the fray of assuming I know everything about Toyota and have answers to all their problems.

What I like about Jeff is that he, like Toyota, is a humble guy.

What I can't get about others, including Womack, is the hubris to think they know exactly what is happening at the deckplate ("at the gemba" as they seem to say, jargonizing their way into stature).

Today's email from Womack says,

Only a month ago I wrote about going beyond Toyota. And in light of the last month's events, I suppose that must seem prescient. But actually it wasn't because I wasn’t writing about Toyota. I was writing about the path ahead for our Lean Community.
I want to continue that thought process this month, based on your feedback to my request for responses. But first I do feel a need to pay brief attention to the current situation by suggesting that we all keep two points in mind:
As I said last month: Toyota will be fine. I believe that around the turn of this century the company made a very human error by deciding it wanted to become the biggest auto maker quickly, a goal of no interest to any customer. Then it worked backward to do what it took to rapidly become the biggest, surpassing the "do not exceed" speed that every organization has on its instrument panel.
By stomping on the gas Toyota briefly lost touch with the core values and rigorous methods that had worked brilliantly for solving customer problems over the preceding 50 years while permitting Toyota to prosper. The result has been some bumps in the road to the future. And there are likely to be further jolts in the near term as every journalist, regulator, legislative committee, and trial lawyer in every country pores over Toyota's product safety performance.
There's not much to be done about that. But what Toyota can and will do is hansei (critical self reflection) and organizational rework to get back to basics and move on. This requires root cause analysis and testing of countermeasures that will seem agonizingly slow to outside observers. But surely we have learned that quick fixes based on incomplete knowledge with no rigorous testing aren't durable. So let's all be patient. (And, let's hope that government regulation becomes a robust, consistent process as well.)
Emotional heijunka is really useful in a crisis. It's amazing how the media oscillate effortlessly between over-the-top-praise and outlandish criticism of companies. Toyota wasn't quite as good as many thought and it isn't nearly as bad as some now believe. But within the Lean Community emotional gyrations of this sort are as distracting as the failure to level demand (that is, to practice heijunka) while managing any process. So let's all calm down and get back to work on our own problems in creating lean enterprises while Toyota deals with its problems.

OK, so let's do a little direct observation "at the gemba" or for those of you following us, let's go and see to get the facts to grasp the situation.

Take a look at Toyota's vision. In fact, browse around a little and look at the message from top leaders, the guiding principles, etc.. Can you find anything about Toyota becoming the largest automaker quickly? Indeed, I see their stated goal as this:

Continuing in the 21st century, we aim for stable long-term growth, while striving for harmony with people, society and the environment.

So Womack's opinion, in my (obvious) opinion, is a shaky one. Where is he getting his intel? Or, is he simply distancing himself like a few other well-known thought leaders. The funny thing about leadership is that it requires follower-ship. I'm opting out of Womack's emails. He's a brilliant thinker and author. I will continue to read his books and recommend them for understanding lean TOOLS. As a thought-leader, though, I'd caution that there is nothing new under the sun (even Toyota's Way) and that pride goes before the fall.

Rather than parrot, Jeff Liker, today I simply want to point at what others are saying - even some who have made a living by imitating Toyota - and caution you to get the facts. Watch the propagandizing press. Last week a student handed me an article that compared Toyota's (then) 4.7 million vehicle recalls to Ford's 4.5 million. The "journalist" called Toyota's 4.7 million "knee-wobbling". The journalist omitted any adjective embellishments when stating Ford's number.

If problems are a blessing (and they are when you are in the business of survival), then Toyota is doing what they do best - responding to the crisis of the day.

Here is one more interesting discovery. Toyota lists crises and reforms as part of their tradition. What does that tell you about what they are doing right now?

Lean (the Way you Know it) is Wrong

2010-02-17T11:22:00.001-05:00

Lean is wrong. At least the way most of the rank and file world thinks about lean is wrong.

Today I got an email from a consultant :

...in the email, the consultant markets a free (right) white paper and offers a bunch of other stuff for me to buy. They say, "What is Lean? The goal of Lean is to produce the right amount of high-quality products or services, at the right time, with the least amount of time, effort, and cost. The customer defines what the right product or service is, when they need it, and how much they want of it.

OK...not so much.

First, which lean are we talking about? Is is Womack's (evolving definition of) lean? Is it limited to a production system? Are we applying it to a management system?

Confused? You are in good company! What a mess we have on our hands.

Let me apply some simple logic:

If "lean" - as this consultant and as many "think" about it - is really the production system application of the term...

And, if this consultant is being serious that the "goal of lean" is to do what the consultant opines...

Then, this consultant and a great many well-intentioned people are wrong.

The goal of lean is to surface problems. If I can see a problem as it occurs I have a chance to solve the problem, learn from it and improve towards what Mike Rother in Toyota Kata calls the "target condition". The target isn't kanban. The target is flow...and that being one of many ideal condtions...

Implementing lean (tools) without problem solving (and a myriad of other system components) is like mashed potatoes without gravy. It's just...

WRONG!

Post-Script: the email I received, while well-intended and understandable in marketing terms, was neither what I wanted nor when I wanted it. What does that tell you? Stop "Selling Lean" as part of a bag of tricks. It is a component in a system. When you take it out of the system, it doesn't work quite right.

Strategic Leadership for Continuous Improvement Systems

2010-02-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

I keep getting a similar question from all sectors - manufacturing, healthcare, service: starting with daily meetings and scorecards and problem solving seems tactical; is there a strategic "place" to start implementing Operational Excellence?

The answer is fairly simple; so simple that I often forget to review this with teams I am coaching. Start with visiting your personal, then organizational values. Check them against this list of world-class values:

customer first
team work
continuous improvement
pride
safety, quality, productivity, human development and cost - in that order

How do you compare, personally? Do you believe that EVERY interaction you have - even the one with your lowliest employee - is a customer interaction with THEM as the customer? Do you have pride in the organization or only in yourself?

How do you compare organizationally? Do you work in teams notionally or do you really work as a team, flexing to and fro like a highly choreographed ballet? When the going is rough, do you stay focused on safety and quality or do you default to managing costs?

Check for alignment with these values. If you aren't aligned, determine whether you've got the personal fortitude and the right team to get aligned around them.

Exercise these values in the little, everyday things. Ideally, because you are working with a new framework or system (the OE System), you will have plenty of opportunities to work the system to exercise the values. Imagine the opportunities you have for reinforcing customer first (both the human and operational sides) in things like a daily meeting or by coaching someone through a problem solving sheet!

If you exercise these in the little things, when that tsunami comes along, trying to wipe you out, the strongest things remain: your values.

Let's hope you are exercising the RIGHT ones...

David

Point of Recognition: This Car is STUCK!

2010-02-11T09:14:00.001-05:00

So, I didn't make it to my 0900 meeting today. One of the family vehicles found its way into a high snow drift and promptly got stuck. 45 minutes later we had shoveled most of the snow in Ligonier out from around the car and got it moved.

We did some Five Minute Problem Solving: the point of recognition was the car getting stuck. If we move upstream we see the point of cause: the car began to slide out of control when the unnamed (its the process not the PERSON!) driver drove off the plowed pathway. Some three Gs: the road is a 13% incline and the vehicle was traveling downgrade.

The target is to get down the hill safely.

Containment: get the car unstuck

Why was the vehicle off the plowed pathway? Because the driver lost his ability to see.
Why did the driver lose his ability to see? Because the windshield was covered with ice and fog.
Why was the windshield covered with ice and fog? Because the driver did not scrape the windshield per the standard (target condition: windshield free of ice and fog)
Why didn't the driver scrape the windshield? Because the driver felt he didn't have time as he was running late for an appointment.
Why was he running late? He hit the snooze button three times.

Countermeasures:

Disable the snooze alarm.
Ask for some assistance in getting out of bed per the plan.
Go to bed earlier.

: - )

Back From Montreal

2010-01-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

We have some great folks up in Montreal! The team there was enthusiastic and they REALLY care about their employees. We could all learn a lesson from these guys. We were able to get their daily meetings and balanced scorecard 'tweeked', but these guys are doing great.

Here are some key lessons I learned:

- training and coaching are radically different. I'm a coach and a trainer, but my passion is coaching.
- having daily meetings with a phone-in component is difficult. Teams need to use some speaker phone protocols (like polling each telephonic attendee for understanding).
- Montreal in the winter is best experienced underground!
- geographic cultures and language have little to do with implementing OE. OE becomes a common language and introduces a common set of shared values.
- make sure your carry-on bags fit in that little rack thingy!

Bon Jour!

Road Trip: Montreal

2010-01-20T15:30:00.001-05:00

I am currently enroute to Montreal to give SFK Pate / Pulp some coaching on the BSC, daily meeting , and their master plan.

Weather is great so far. I will keep you posted on our progress as well as share my thoughts as I read Mike Rother's Toyota Kata.

So far, Rother's thoughts are right on. There is nothing new to KCOE or our clients, but his description of the current state of those pursuing a Toyota-style system is worth considering.

Emerging Leadership Tip #4: Get Some Courage

2010-01-19T09:29:00.001-05:00

When I was a Rat at the Virginia Military Institute (a really long time ago...), my company and I were forced to run a couple of miles to a cliff that overlooked the Maury River. The Maury meanders through the generally sleepy foothills between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies. The cliff was probably less than a hundred feet above the river and was mostly a sheer face.

Like generations of cadets before us, we were being tested: physically and mentally.

I can remember standing on the edge of that cliff for what seemed like a half an hour. My buddies assured me that it was less than a minute before I shoved off and the soft, fuzzy zipping of the rope announced my descent.

It was terrifying. I hate heights. The mix of peer pressure (challenges to our virility are powerful things) and of the cadre corporals screaming to shove off was enough for me to overcome my fear.

Fast forward five years: I adjusted my seat harness and nervously sprung the clip on my carabiner. The hum of the chopper's blades was a bland background for my thoughts. We were now hovering at 200 feet above the deck (the ground). A Marine staff sergeant was barking out the safety orders, but I really couldn't hear him. His diatribe over, he smiled and pointed at me. I was first up. I walked to the end of the ramp and waited for the staff sergeant to tie me in. He grabbed my shoulders and walked me backwards to the edge of the ramp. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he gave me a thumbs up and I shoved off.

I descended about thirty feet before I slowed myself down to a stop so I could enjoy the view. As I swung back and forth under the 17,000 pound CH 43, I took in the amazing view. Above me the heat the of the helicopter and the smell of aviation fuel burning blew over me. Below, a lance corporal belaying the line was waving me down. I eased off the line and took two descents to get to the deck. It was over in less than a minute.

Courage isn't something that you can teach, but it is absolutely required for a leader. You can't teach it, but you can develop it. My first experience on that cliff was harrowing, but by the time I hit the ground my fear was gone. I raced up the hill to get a second turn. By the time I had the chance to rappel out of the back of a CH 43, the fear was minimal. It was there, for sure, but it was controlled and managed. That is what courage is: the ability to control your reasonable fear and act in spite of it, not letting it control you.

OK, so I made up that definition, but it works.

As an emerging leader, you need to face the fears that cause you to be paralyzed, the fears that stop you from being able to execute.

Think about them today. Write them down. Keep them in front of you. Control them, don't let them control you. Walk through them and execute!

David

Emerging World Class Leader Tip #3: Get Some Coaching

2010-01-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

Imagine having never picked up a golf club and trying to play the Masters.

Pretty ridiculous, right?

Now, imagine setting or creating the vision to play in the Masters.

You still have never picked up a golf club. What would you do next?

Well, I have it on good authority (my own) that many people would go out and pick up a golf club and start swinging. They'd realize there is a bit more to playing golf. They'd realize the vast distance between where they are and where they thought they wanted to be. Soon thereafter, they'd quit and go back to whatever it was that they were doing, forget the vision and become mediocre (or remain mediocre).

So, lately, and at great risk, I've been using Tiger Woods as an example. No, I won't be talking about his indiscretions. Rather, I wanted to share that Tiger Woods has a swing coach. That's right, the golfer who has won so many tournaments and is undoubtedly a world-class golfer has a coach just for his swing.

So, what does all of this mean to you, the emerging world-class leader? Assuming your vision is to be a world-class leader, and assuming that you aren't one right now, what will you do next? Will you go out and lead, willy nillly, without having someone observe, advise and COACH you?

Don't. Find someone today.

Andon for the Office

2010-01-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

We used to work with a company that had their team working in a little "cubicle farm". The farm was three rows wide by five columns deep (that's 15 people if you are still doing the multiplication in your head).

We introduced the concept of the specified call for help within a specified amount of time to keep the process moving (the andon). They were excited because their business case productivity was based on the number of pages they could process per day.

We are big proponents of small incremental improvements and we coach our clients that way. When you are adding a "tool", it is OK to add it in a way that respects the organizational level of Operational Excellence development. While we shoed them what andon boards and lights looked like, we wanted to keep the tool simplified. We suggested that they focus on a short standard sequence and some sort of simple visual signal.

Human creativity is an amazing thing. The next time we visited, we noticed something new attached to each cubicle. Looking like a kindergarten arts and crafts project, we found tongue depressors on each cubicle, clinging heroically to the frame of the cube with a little magnet glued carefully to the stick. Each tongue depressor looked different because each person was encouraged to decorate it however they wanted. Of course, one guy had not decorated it at all; I loved the simplistic style...

The idea was when the processor had to stop because of a problem, they turned the tongue depressor UP. The team leader was prompted to scan the cubicle farm every five minutes. When he saw a stick sticking up, he responded to either resolve the problem or take the document "off the line" for further troubleshooting.

It was a neat little way to apply a simple (in-process) andon and have some fun doing it. Of course, they went on to develop more sophisticated standards for the andon, but the team enjoyed some good early learning using this simple application.

Open wide...

Emerging World Class Leader Tip #2: Get a Definition

2010-01-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Exactly what is a world-class leader? Good question!

Tell me what you think DEFINES world-class leadership.

Emerging World Class Leader Tip: Get a Framework

2010-01-05T10:16:00.000-05:00

I've been working with some of the student athlete leaders these past few months. A circle of my friends and I have detected a gap in leadership development in our culture today. A leadership framework that used to be transmuted by parents and coaches and other youth group leaders is not being offered young folks today. Specifically, I am talking about what we in the military would call small unit leadership. The result of this phenomenon is that we have a society that values success at all costs over solid leadership moving a team towards a virtuous goal.

I won't go into a deep definition of of small unit leadership because it tends to be self explanatory. It is generally learned tacitly, but as with all learning cycles, even tacit ones, there must be an introduction of the concept, and an illustration of the concept.

To overcome this gap, I've been toying with a framework that would overlay some basic small unit leadership tenets across potential tacit learning situations that involve hard work, crisis, interdependency, etc. - the stuff of the small unit, if you will. The tenets I chose come directly from something I was exposed to as a young Seabee officer by a salty old USMC gunnery sergeant who was my battalion's military advisor. The Fourteen Leadership Traits are coupled with the two leadership objectives (accomplish the mission + take care of your people) and the ten leadership principles. I picked the traits because they tend to be reflective. In fact, the gunny once told me that it was more important for his Marines to memorize the trait rather than its definition, so the Marine was forced to reflect on the traits meaning.

So, what has this to do with you, the emerging leader? First, if you are younger, you may have suffered the phenomenon I mentioned above: no one has offered and trained you up in a leadership framework. Chances are that you patched one together. Chances are that you've been inoculated into the fallacy that success at all costs is virtuous, and mediocrity should be praised (for a glimpse into what this looks like, visit your community's youth soccer program on a Saturday morning and observe Mom and Dad screaming for victory while praising little five-year-old Johnny's efforts at kicking the ball and missing the goal). If you find yourself wondering, "What is my framework?" you probably don't have one or you have one that has been cobbled together indiscriminately.

Or, perhaps you are older and you know of these leadership frameworks that I've spoken of. Perhaps you served in our nation's armed forces and have been on the sharp end of a drill instructor's correction. Maybe you've had other reason to develop a leadership framework. If this is you, perhaps you've noticed that while you understand the need and what I am talking about, you've noticed that you haven't been using your framework. In fact, it may have been a really long time since you used that framework.

Fear not, I have some ideas for both scenarios:

Bone Up on Small Unit Leadership

You can do some reading on it. If you need some recommendations, let me know. You can watch some contemporary films that capture it well; again, let me know and I will make some recommendations.

Make of List of the Leadership Traits you Admire

Take some time to write out a list of the top 10 or 15 traits that you admire the most in the leaders you have experienced. Or, take a look at the USMCs fourteen traits and see which ones would make your list. For a great article on the traits, take a look here.

Get a Framework

Decide what your framework will look like. Try it. Adjust. Try it again. You get the idea.

In summary, there is a gap. We need to fill the gap. Get a framework and start putting it to use wherever you are leading. You will grow and develop. Your people will benefit from it. Society will benefit from it. Do it, today.

Good Emerging Leader question: What About Situations When Leaders are Being Changed Quickly

2010-01-04T13:10:00.001-05:00

One of our Twitter followers asked a great question last week after I posted on Emerging World Class Leaders. He asked:

@commanderadams How can an emerging leader influence a workforce that is tired of change in leadership?

I really appreciated this guy's question because he is in a company that is changing rapidly partially due to poor revenues last year and partially due to their unfolding understanding that lean alone (lean without cultural change) won't work unless the extant culture has elements of the Operational Excellence culture. The upshot is that middle managers were getting moved out and around, some folks exited the company leaving gaps, etc..

Let's set up a realistic scenario: you've just inherited a team that has seen a lot of leadership change, both at the team level and the higher levels of the locale where you are working. What are your first moves?

As a background, I had tweeted this:
good question. Influence is immutable. Lead using timeless+unchanging principles so change has less effect.

and

think of leading on the battlefield: leaders die...quickly. What makes the next in line effective?

So, first, make sure your operating framework is based on timeless and changeless principles or core values. The example I gave my friend - the battlefield example - reflects this concept. The reason operational leadership in combat works is because each person on the team knows the core values and has been exercising them is the smallest stuff. Ever wonder why boot camp drill sergeants scream at the top of their lungs because a boot has a smudge on it? They are ingraining a value or at least a mindset: the details matter...attention to detail matters a lot. It pays off on the battlefield. When a leader is wounded or killed, the next man is ready to take his place. If that man goes down, the next one moves up.

Values drive their behavior, even when the situation is a pressure cooker.

Again: first check that you are operating on a solid framework of timeless and changeless values.

Second, don't make any radical changes to the "routine" for 6-12 months. What drives the timing? The timing is driven by the operational or situational need. Take this time to be an observer of both the operational and the human systems. The deeper you know both, the better your plan to improve them will be. Think deeply and act quickly: when the timing is right, pull the trigger on your plan. Remember, you may have to make some initial changes for stability's sake, but in general, don't disrupt the routine right away.

Third, communicate for understanding. What you hear from above, pass through to your team. Don't be a filter for information at this point. Roll with the punches. Remember that your operational framework is as solid as a rock if it is built upon immutable values like honor and courage. Let the waves of new information buffet your team while you confidently navigate forward.

I don't mean to make this things sound easy. They are not. Once, I was thrust into a leadership role in a crisis where the leader had been removed for cause. When I took over the team they were afraid, divisive and non-functioning. Because the safety of some pretty important figures was at stake, I had no time to read up on the latest management styles. All I had to operate from was a set of core values (honor, courage and commitment) and the mission. When I stepped up to "take the conn", one of my direct reports challenged me face to face, throwing some pretty foul stuff up to see how I would react. With the whole team watching, I fired him on the spot and had him removed from the area with an armed escort. For stability's sake, I fired the guy who would challenge my authority and destabilize the team. For effect, I had him removed from the area. Next, I got the team focused on the mission by having each team member report in and give me a current sitrep. My actions showed them the core values at work and gave them enough confidence to take the next few steps. Within the day, we we functioning and executing the mission.

When I had turned over with the next watch officer, I finally sat down and - completely exhausted - fell asleep. The stress had sapped my energy.

Keep yourself sharp. Eat right and get exercise, yes, even for the business of your business.

Emerging World-Class Leadership Tip: Understanding a Leader's Responsibilities

2010-01-01T12:22:00.002-05:00

Clearly understand the responsibilities that come with your new role. In addition to the expected stuff (administration, reporting, etc.), make sure you grasp your responsibilities to your team. Let's start with perhaps the biggest one: you are responsible for translating the organization's values, vision and mission into your team's day to day experience. World class organizations set the customer first, they take great care of their employees and they have their priorities straight: safety, quality, productivity, human development and cost, in that order.

So, how will you translate such abstractions as values and vision for your team? Here are a couple of ideas:

1. The Big Story. Your organization surely has a story or stories that illustrate your values and vision. Share these with your team. Tell them how the organization lives out the values and the vision.

2. Your Story. Tell your team how the values and vision have played out in your experiences both in and out of the daily work.

Saint Vincent College has a rich history that began with a simple monk from Bavaria who built the Benedictine presence in North America. Boniface Wimmer's vision was to serve the needs - spiritual and physical - of the community right outside the boundaries of the farm he purchased for his monks. Today, the Center's mission synchs precisely with his original vision, as we serve the organizations both in our local community and the broader communities of manufacturing, healthcare and service.

When you get lost in the weeds - and you will - lead your team back to the values, vision and mission to give them, and you, some clarity.

New Year: The Year of the Emerging World-Class Leader

2009-12-31T12:19:00.004-05:00

e·merg·ing (ĭ-mûr'jĭng)
adj. Newly formed or just coming into prominence; emergent:emerging markets; the emerging states of Africa.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Word Origin & History

emerge

1563, from M.Fr. emerger, from L. emergere "rise out or up," fromex- "out" + mergere "to dip, sink" (see merge). The notion is of rising from a liquid by virtue of buoyancy. Emergency "unforeseen occurrence" is c.1631. Emergent (adj.) was first recorded c.1450.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

I declare the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Ten, as the year of the Emerging World-Class Leader. I suppose I may not have any right to declare a year of anything, but why not? You young leaders out there have been fairly neglected. We've thrust you into leadership positions without really preparing you for it. Oh, we may have given you some exposure to various parts of the business, but we have truly neglecting your leadership development.

Along with my presumptuous declaration, I offer the following

1. I will share with you some of the most critical lessons a young leader needs to know
2. I will answer your questions
3. I will keep it short and sweet

What makes you a Emerging World-Class Leader? You are a new(ish) to your role: you may have been there for a dog's age, but you are becoming aware that this role requires you to LEAD and that LEADERSHIP is not based on your technical prowess. Rather, it is based on some timeless principles that drive organizations to greatness. You may have been just appointed to this new role of LEADER. You are emerging: newly formed, rising up from the rest to lead them. You have some ideas about leadership, but they are not formed into a system just yet.

Stay posted for more on this.

Resolved: to execute

2009-12-31T11:19:00.000-05:00

I've been writing here and there on the PDCA cycle and I normally spend most of my time talking about the weaknesses I see in the organizations we work with regarding the CHECK step. I would add my own team in this mix of folks who have difficulty making a plan to CHECK. Today, though, as I reflected on the past year, I realized that there is another ubiquitous weakness that I witness almost daily: the lack of execution.

In PDCA cycle terms, this would be the DO part of the cycle. Upon deep inspection, I see basically two phenomena:

1. NOT doing what we PLANNED to do. In other words, we make elaborate plans, but we fail to execute the plans. Perhaps there was a weakness in our comprehension and judgment as we made the plan. Perhaps we didn't fully respect the master schedule. Whatever the case, we see the result of this phenomenon when we return to our master plans or to do lists only to find several things untouched or unfinished.

2. FEAR. This is perhaps the more dangerous of the two. We can overcome weaknesses in planning that seem to cause a weakness in execution. But, can we overcome the fear of executing? In many cases, I have discovered a strong leader who has good managerial skills, but who lacks the guts to "pull the trigger" on his or her plans. Why is the fear there? What can you do to lead this person to success? So often we talk about the need to strive for mutual trust and respect. Trust forms when you as a leader cause your people to succeed in their endeavors. In this case, you should walk with the person directly into their fears and address them. Support your team the way you support a toddler taking his first steps: strongly at first then gradually easing off as he gets the hang of it. If you are the one paralyzed by fear, analyze the fear and get real with it. Drag it into the light of day and see if there is any substance to it. If there is, contrast it with the gains: does the fear outweigh what you stand to gain by executing?

So, here is a good resolution: execute. Don't wait for tomorrow to begin. Do it today. Do it now.

Blessings in 2010.

PDCA Cycles: keeping the merry-go-round spinning

2009-12-30T09:22:00.005-05:00

Plan-Do-Check-Act is a critical part - if not the most important part - of a continuous improvement system. People are critical, for sure, but it is their ability to navigate the PDCA cycle that adds potency to the system.

Most of the time when we discover a broken or weak PDCA cycle, we find a problem with the "Check". Often in my ramblings, I use the analogy of the playground "merry-go-round" to illustrate the PDCA cycle's Check. You remember being a kid and riding on one of these spinning metal plates, right? You probably remember that if you were the unlucky one who had to "push", it took some real work to get that thing spinning. But the faster you spun it, the easier it got (and the more the little girls who were on it screamed bloody murder, to your delight). You could give it a gleeful tap every so often and keep it spinning furiously.

Over time, the thing would slow down (Newton's First Law, I think). And, while it was really scary for those kids to go too fast, they complained even more that it was slowing down. You would dig in and get it moving again. This time, it required more work than your earlier "taps".

Pay attention now! Get your mind off of that monkey bar! Here is the real nugget: the longer the cycle of rotation (in time) of the merry-go-round, the more work it required to keep it spinning.

Now that your physics lesson for the day is over, here is the connection: the longer the PDCA cycle, the harder it is to control that which the cycle is "around".

Here are three things that will keep your PDCA cycles moving:

1. Shorten them. If you have a quarterly check, move it to a monthly one. If monthly, weekly, If weekly, daily. If daily, hourly?? Keep tapping the merry-go-round frequently.

2. Get them visualized. Make sure that your process is visual and that its safety, quality and productivity performance is visualized also. This will cause you to "keep an eye" on it, even when the check isn't scheduled. Don't wait for the kids on the merry-go-round to scream for you to keep it spinning, use the system's visual feedback and ACT.

3. Standardize them. We've seen some great visualizations out there in the field, but no one looks at them. They were great ideas when they were implemented, but now they are gathering dust. Only implement visualizations that have a standard attached to them: standard in terms of targets and standard work in terms of who, what and when. If you walk away from the merry-go-round, who will keep it spinning?

For more tips on pdCA cycles (yep, the "p" and "d" are little...), give us a call.

Some Basic Stuff

2009-12-29T16:29:00.000-05:00

Values and Value System

Things that Sustain Gains

2009-12-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

1. Make a visual standard. most of us are no where near being able to implement true "standard work" in the lean sense. There are some good developmental movements, though. Making a standard sequence is a good place to begin. Adding a photo or a diagram depicting the standard condition enhances each step in the sequence.

2. Put a pdCA cycle in place around the improvement. Note the emphasis on the C and A in the pdCA. What we mean, here, is to make sure the improvement has some form of a check and the ability to adjust or act (improve again!). We do a pretty good job of making up improved sequences, but we often forget to plan for Checks and improvements (act and adjust). Hopefully, your OE system has the framework for the Check and Act. Maybe your check occurs at your Daily Meeting (how many patients did we plan for yesterday and how many did we actually see?). Maybe you have a suggestion system that will encourage improvement (what if we moved the hyperbaric chambers closer together?). If you don't have these things, plan for both in your standard sequence (see number 1 above). And, don't forget to make the check visual by creating a "visualization" of the process outputs in terms of safety, quality and productivity.

3. Make sure everyone knows their new responsibilities according to their system roles (team member, team leader, group leader, etc.). Too often we see great improvements being made to process (an operational improvement) without thinking about the human dimensions: is the team trained up on the new standard; has the team demonstrated a grasp of the technique and good skill around the improvement; was the improvement planned and negotiated across shift lines?

Remember that these year-end times often bring some time to think and reflect. Don't forget to DO as well: get focused on sustaining the gains.

Sustaining - the big deal

2009-12-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

When I was a cadet at the venerable Virginia Military Institute, we had a name for every season. This season was affectionately known as the Dark Ages; with each passing day, the daylight gets shorter and shorter. Finally, sometime in December, you march to breakfast in the dark and you get back from your classes in the dark.

It was a trying time. I can recall plodding back to my barracks room after a long afternoon lab wondering when it would all be over. After a season, it ended. Spring sprang and life was - well - better than in the Dark Ages.

Sometimes on the OE journey, you hit the Dark Ages. You've made gains, things were going well, but you just keep plodding on. No improvement per se, just movement.

Fear not, friends! The Winter Solstice just passed (21 December 2009). Today it is less dark than it was yesterday. The light is getting longer. When I was stationed in Iceland, this was the very BIG deal. The nearly 24-hour daylight in the summer was amazing, but the nearly 24-hour darkness in the winter took its toll on many. Good news this week for Icelanders and those in the northern hemisphere alike!

As with the seasons of the year, this season on your OE journey will pass as well. Here are some tips for getting through:

1. Recognize that now is the time to sustain your gains. Have you standardized all that you could? Have the new processes created new problems? Are they being solved?

2. Now is the time to reflect. I used to teach the concept of using a Back Azimuth to illustrate the concept of reflection. When using a map and compass to do land navigation, every once in awhile, you need to do a back azimuth to check yourself. You use it to make sure you are where you think you are and to make sure you are able to go forward on the right heading. Metaphorically, taking a back azimuth on your OE journey has similar purposes. You should check to see if you are where you think you are. You should look forward to see the way ahead. Finally, do some celebrating for where you are. Dance a little.

3. Check your master plan: are you executing? Are you on track? Check your planning skill via the management cycle: how are you doing with comprehension, business awareness, judgment, problem solving and analysis?

4. Check your team: what can you do to help them succeed?

Have a great dark day - use it well!

Kanban is as Kanban does...

2009-12-21T15:17:00.001-05:00

“We have already have a kanban system!”

Yes, and I have bouts with delirium as well.

Many times when we conduct our free assessments, we encounter the proud plant manager or operations manager who contends that their material flows via a kanban system.

OK, so there are some artifacts of kanban: there are bins and there seem to be two bins for each part number, there are cards on the bins that tell the reader what, how many and where it goes (sometimes), and there are well intentioned folks who really try to keep it going.

But, when we probe a little more deeply...

“When was the last time you audited the kanban levels?”

Silence.

“Why are all the containers the same size? And, how did you size them?”

Silence.

“How did you determine how many of each part went into each bin?”

Our interviewee brightens: “We figured out how much would fit in one of those bins!”

“Right...and how are the bins replenished? “

Back to silence.

Having the artifacts of a kanban system doesn’t mean that your material is being pulled to the process. It does mean that you are imitating a powerful training tool that also lowers your inventory level. In order for it to accomplish both of those purposes, though, it needs a little tender loving care.

Know your demand and your demand for material to support it. Set up kanban quantities based on the demand, the resupply time, safety stock, etc.. Size the bins appropriately. They don’t have to be all perfectly fitted, but remember that extra space is waste also. Replenish the quantities using the card or the bin as a signal. The signal calls for - pulls for - replenishment.

Use the kanban system to teach the “dynamics” of a pull system. Use the same type of system - one that signals - to pull production through a process.

We’ve also run into some folks who equivocate “lean” and kanban. Know that kanban is a countermeasure in a lean system to control inventory and work in process inventory. Know also that the lean system is actually only one component of a broader operational excellence system, one that incorporates the right leadership and management principles to sustain and grow, leveraging tools like kanban and andon to achieve performance targets and promote learning.

Follow the KISS principle: don’t bite off too much too quickly.

Pilot, learn and expand.

Empty Waiting Rooms...Happy Team Members and Patients

2009-12-21T15:16:00.001-05:00

On more than a few occasions, I’ve heard some really good healthcare operations talk about empty waiting rooms in a positive light. They have grasped the idea of “pull” in lean and have been able to create level loading and signals that ensure a patient is pulled into a process when that process is ready for the patient.

So, how can that happen? Is it magic? Is it rocket science? Is it brain surgery?

Nope. It is pretty simple.

Your current condition for scheduling outpatients is probably not level. You probably don’t know how long the process really takes (especially the value-added work). You probably also don’t know what your demand is. The result is that you schedule without having the facts or grasping the situation. We’ve worked with some clients who have scheduled patients every 15 minutes. When asked why, the answer was: “We just thought that made sense. The procedure only takes 15 minutes.” True. But, what about all the waste around the process that stretches the lead time out to an hour? Three people wait while one person moves through the process. The result of your scheduling creates peaks and valleys - unevenness - which create even more ripples throughout the process.

Before you try to pull, though, get a grasp on your current condition, especially the demand. If you know the demand and the time available to the process, you can develop a takt rate. Using the takt rate, you can do two things: level the demand and schedule based on the processes capability (given its current labor resources).

Let’s say that you see an average of 10 patients on Monday, 32 on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, 8 on Thursday and your office doesn’t schedule patients on Friday, but uses that if you get behind during the week to make up slack. You see 53 patients a week. Your demand is 53 patients. Your office is open for eight hours daily, but the office closes for lunch, so you have seven hours a day or 35 hours a week available to the process. The takt rate is the demand over the time available, or, in our case 53 / 35. That is: 1.5 processes per hour. Another way to say this is that every two hours, three processes need to be completed. If nothing changes - if no resources are added or taken away - over the course of the day, your level demand is 1.5 processes per hour x 7 hours, or 10.5 processes per day. You can’t have a half a process of demand, so in this case, we would round it down to 10 cases per day. That is the level demand.

Chances are that in your current state, the team is working fairly well on Mondays then goes crazy on Tuesday. How is morale on Tuesday night?

Now, imagine that your scheduler has constraints that only allow him or her to schedule 10 processes per day to your team. What would happen? Well, first of all you would avoid that nasty peak on Tuesday that causes so much trouble among your team. You would also pick up the slack on Thursdays and probably on Fridays as well. If the demand goes up, you may be able to flow more human resources into the process. If the process is limited by equipment, however, that might not work. You would need to find the waste in the process to reduce the process time, thus increasing your overall capacity. If the demand goes down, you can free up resources to work in other processes. You may also have to so some resource leveling, especially if you find that your team’s real capacity is higher than you thought. Chances are that managers needed staffing to overcome the Tuesday rush, hired extra people on, then made up reasons why they needed those folks on the other days. If that is the case, perhaps look at leveling load across multiple sites or clinics.

What if the you have a mix of procedures? Learn the demand for each type of procedure then “level load” or load your schedule to almost fill your capacity each day.

These are some really rough measures, but it is a place to start. Imagine that someone showed up in the waiting room every 90 minutes, just as a patient was leaving. Less waiting room space, less expense, happy team members....

Nice.

Customers, teams and you - leading cultural change

2009-12-21T12:51:00.004-05:00

Three Leadership Tips for Leading in an Operational Excellence Culture:

1. Focus everything you've got on the customer. Remember that the customer is the person whom you are producing for (you produce things, care, service, etc.). Traditionally, we think of the customer as the end user (the car owner, the compressor user, the patient). In the past two decades, we've come to realize that the customer can just as easily be the person you are handing off to (the next person in the process: the final assembly group, the test group, the ICU team receiving the patient from surgery). Your final challenge is to think of everyone you interface with as a customer. When you are ordering the Big Mac value meal, as you race around gathering up last-minute stocking stuffers for the family, the scratchy voice on the other side of that drive through order speaker is your customer. You are providing the information they need. You are the customer to whom they will deliver the final order. The quality of your process (ordering) will determine the accuracy of their process (the order). Did you really want that super-sized??? As a leader, your team is definitely your customer. So, two key thoughts come out of this: a.) get your team focused on the customer all around them and b.) remember they are your customers as well. Which brings us to Point Two...

2. What does your team need to succeed? Remember that the quickest pathway to mutual trust and respect for a leader is to do the things necessary (and ethical of course) for your team to win. Good leaders think about this individually: what does Ethel need to succeed...what does Oscar need to succeed? Great leaders are constantly thinking about the parts and the whole. They would also be asking that team question: what do they need to succeed as a team? As I've suggested in earlier writings, take some time during this season of the year to reflect on these things. Check your team's scorecard. Check their problem solvings. What are you seeing as it forms in front of you? Remember those five circles (call us for more on that one) and keep the question alive.

3. Where do you need to work today? Does your team need you right alongside of them? Do they need you to be setting direction and making course corrections? Or, do they need you to be supporting their efforts by getting resources and knocking down barriers? Whatever it is, make your plan accordingly and check it when you've ended. Decide how effective you were. Check yourself against the management cycle (call us). Get some feedback from your team.

Leading in the OE culture is not for the feint of heart. Every day is a rip-snorting adventure. Imagine if you were able to drag everything back to the plumbline of the OE system. That is your vision: drag each thing to the plumbline and make corrections. Exhausting work? Yes, but incredibly rewarding as you see your influence making positive changes for the team, for the organization and for the community.

For more ideas and tips, call us.

Your Christmas (lull) List for Operational Excellence

2009-12-18T16:28:00.004-05:00

Wow. It is really quiet around the office this evening. Next week will be even quieter, although we have a few brave clients who are trudging along through the lead up to Christmas. What do you do when the phone stops ringing and the email stops pouring in?

Here is a Christmas lull list (if you will):

1. Go thank someone. Show your team that you care by going out of your way to say thanks for the great work this past year. Maybe you don't have the budget for gifts or bonuses, but do you realize how far a firm handshake and a steady gaze in the eyes goes for someone? If you choose this "item" from the list, make sure you check your heart before you go out the door: do this because you really are thankful for the people you work with. Mean it when you say it!

2. Reflect on the top problems you've encountered in the past three months. Are they the same as the quarter before? Are they phenoms or specters? What will you do to gather a team to work on solving the problems and issues?

3. Speaking of problem solving (well, at least I am...), how are you doing in that department? How are you - yourself - doing? How is your team doing? What do you need to do to help them succeed? Are you to the point where you can get Five Minute Problem Solving in place or do you need to work on technique and skill?

4. How is your planning going? How about your execution? What is dropping "off the plate"? What is dropping onto the plate and why?

5. How is your management cycle working? Is your team successful? How about the one above, the one below and those side to side? What can you do to help them succeed?

6. Are you rested? Are you exercising? Are you "firing on all cylinders"?

Hey, it isn't much, but these questions will keep me busy thinking next week.

If things are quiet where you are, give us a call, send an email, text us, facebook us, tweet us or whatever.

If we don't speak: may God bless you richly with the Peace that He offers through His Son.

Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad

Joyeux Noël

David

Rocks, Stone and Some Amazing Beans: Why Problem Solving Matters...a lot...

2009-12-17T19:49:00.003-05:00

When I was stationed at Camp David, my wife and I shared a simple duplex with a fantastic family. The EO1 (first class equipment operator) and his wife had two great kids and we had none. We really enjoyed our time living in that small, high quality, Navy community. Roger, my neighbor, and I did a few things together, careful to not cross the fraternization line drawn by regulations and good sense. Roger and I assembled our first crib; it took us about three hours and a six pack. He commented that it was a four-baby crib. And, I'm pleased to report, it was.

One spring evening, Roger and I had a brainstorm. We would till up a small section of the neighborhood garden plot (yep, 20 families shared about an acre) to call our own. Man and dirt - God surely meant it this way (OK, so He meant it as a curse, but...).

The next evening, Roger borrowed the command roto-tiller and we got to work. We took turns running the machine and spelling each other. The garden plot was fairly neglected and full of rocks and stones. We pushed that little tiller to its limit. When we were finished, we stood back in awe, pleased as punch with ourselves.

Then, our wives showed up.

They were shocked to see how big the area was that we tilled. What started off as "tilling a small plot" had turned into plowing up about half of the garden area. In our zeal (and perhaps in the fog of our liquid refreshment), we had really gone to town. After a quick discussion about planting the whole thing (dumber idea), we decided to walk around the neighborhood looking for would-be gardeners. We found a few and divided up the half-acre plot. I took a smallish section (it looked small without any plants in it), put some stakes in the ground and nailed a little piece of wood to one. It said: Adams Garden.

The next weekend, I had duty. After returning home 72 hours later, my wife caught me up on all the housing circle gossip. She finished by telling me how hard Roger worked in the garden. When I went to work the next morning, I drove by the garden plots and looked over Roger's. To me, it looked like he hadn't touched it. From my vantage point, it look just like mine. I rested assured that he was not ahead of me in this contest...did I mention the competitive spirit we shared?

Later that summer, I wandered out to Roger's garden in the cool of the evening on a Saturday night. My wife was with me. She looked at our garden, then at Roger's, then back at ours. She gave me a glance and walked away shaking her head. Roger's garden was the stuff of coffee table books. It was green and lush and orderly. My was dry, sparse and, well, really sad. Roger had harvested stuff all summer long. We had one meal's worth of green beans. The rest of my crops had withered and died. Ready to admit defeat, I walked up to Roger's porch. He was sitting on the steps with a smug look on his face.

"OK, you win. What did you do, fertilize it when I wasn't looking? Water it when we were in drought conditions and supposedly saving water? What did you do?"

"I did the same things you did, Ell Tee."

"Right." I walked back over to my garden and stared at the mess. I looked at Roger's. Then it hit me. I picked up a handful of his soil: it was smooth and cool and uniform. I looked at mine and as far as I could see in the early twilight, all I could see was pebbles and rocks.

Marching back up to his porch, I demanded to know how his soil was so good and mine was so bad?

"I took the rocks out!" he said, innocently.

"When?"

"Before we planted. You were there...wait...no you weren't. You had duty that weekend."

"When...?" Then it dawned on me: it was the weekend that my wife reported Roger's work in the garden that I really couldn't see. "Oh..." I trailed off. "So, you win. Next year we'll do smaller plots."

"Yes, sir. I agree."

So, what does this story have to do with implementing "lean"? I think you figured it out a few paragraphs ago, didn't you? When you plant a field, you can till up the ground all you want, but if you don't pick out the rocks and stones, you won't get much of a harvest. What are the rocks and stones?

Well, in human terms, the rocks and stones are the things that you or your team do simply because "you've always done it that way". They are the behaviors that go unchecked even when everyone knows they are counterproductive or downright wasteful. In operational terms, they are the pathways that you continue to use that are confusing and ridiculously complex. Simply put, the rocks and the stones are the things that get in the way and frustrate folks when they are trying to make value for the customer. The rocks and stones are the problems you are facing every day. The stones are the little ones. They're easy to get rid of. The rocks are a little harder... especially the ones that are small on the surface but seem to go down to China when you start digging them up.

We've seen a lot of organizations do the hard work of "tilling up the soil". They make grand plans to change, but they never carry them out. Or, they carry them out partially, but stop short, leaving the rocks and stones in place: they focus on the big gains and grand changes, without paying attention to the problems - great and small.

So, here's the rest of the story...

I wandered back into my house and found my wife in the kitchen. She knew that I had been over at Roger's and asked what we were talking about. I told her about the rocks and stones. Ever intuitive, my wife asked a question that sticks with me, even today. She asked me if I hadn't had duty that weekend, would I have picked out the rocks and stones with Roger. She didn't really require a reply - we both knew the answer. In my youth and foolishness, I most certainly would have NOT taken out the rocks and stones. Why? It would have been too much work. The tilling had just about killed me; we had done way more tilling than either of us had planned. Why would I go to the trouble? Hadn't the tilling "loosened everything up".

So, where are you on the journey? Are you staring at the untilled field? Is it tilled and you have some rocks and stones to get out? What is your motivation? How hard are you willing to work for the change?

The next evening, Roger dropped by and gave us a huge bag of green beans. When we tasted them, we were amazed at how good they were. It was as if you could taste the sunshine in them. We enjoyed those beans like crazy...those beans...those fruits of Roger's labor.

The fruit you are looking for from "lean" only comes after the hard work of changing the culture. Sure, you will see some gains early. Your situational awareness will certainly go up (your blood pressure may go up in direct relationship, too!). But the real fruit - the really good stuff - will only come later, after that hard work.

Don't stop short. Pick out the rocks. Pick out the stones. Get focused on problem solving: first the technique, then the gains.

David

PS: The following year, Roger and I decided to go to the farmers' market...

Car-building meets Patient Care

2009-12-16T14:48:00.002-05:00

Toyota makes cars; we heal people.

It is a common hurdle that we face. As we introduce and implement Operational Excellence, a contemporary, culturally adapted form of the Toyota Way and Production System, many healthcare leaders see too much disparity between assembly operations and the highly customized world of diagnosis and treatment.

There are some amazing success stories right here in the US that attest to the power of Operational Excellence. Conversely, there are thousands of stories that document the attempt and subsequent failure to sustain improvements in healthcare. The successes did something different: they applied a system rather than simply putting "tools" in their organizational "toolbox".

Here is a quick experiment: think of the training you've supplied to your organization over the past five years. What is still in place? What is still being used? We've visited healthcare leaders' workspaces and we've seen the binders and glossy print material collecting dust on their shelves. A closer look reveals the quality training, the "how to handle difficult conversations" training and the "how to manage" books. What are you doing with them today? Have you had a crucial discussion or have you rifled off a strongly-worded email?

Like most of us, the only training that sticks is that which supports a system that exercises the components.

So, how do these two thoughts converge? What makes the change stick?

"Lean manufacturing" is a phrase that was coined over the past 20 years. In the US and around the world, manufacturers looked at world class operations and imitated what they saw. What they imitated, they called "lean manufacturing". What they failed to see and, thus, failed to imitate, were the principles and ideas that comprise the system around "lean". For example, manufacturers saw world class operations with complicated production andon systems - systems that allow an operator to call for help when he or she encounters a deviation from a standard or norm. They went out and installed the same, instructing workers to "pull the andon". The system around the andon remain unchanged. In fact, the system principles that were and still are status quo around the world are: run the process until something breaks down, produce a bunch of the same stuff all at once so we don't have to change over or set up, problems are caused by people and people need to fix blame. The result became obvious: no one wanted to pull the andon for fear of getting in trouble or for fear of stopping production. Sometimes, a brave soul would pull the andon and...nothing. No one would respond. We visited a plant here in the US that boasted an advance "lean" system. We walked onto the floor only to observe andon lights flashing all over the place. Expecting to see processes stopped and leaders helping to solve problems, instead we see the process moving rapidly as normal. When we questioned the leader, he simply said, "Oh, that's normal..."

Here we are, 20 years later, still trying to understand that "lean" is a component in a larger system and that in order to get the results touted by "lean" advocates, an organization must adopt the system and, often, the painful changes that come with it. Manufacturing is requiring a major course correction on its "lean" journey.

Healthcare, on the other hand, is where manufacturing was 20 years ago. Faced with a changing business landscape that will surely endanger profitability, healthcare organizations must change. They must mobilize people to operationalize improvement. They must embrace the system the surrounds "lean", rather than proceeding down the erroneous path that manufacturing has taken.

The healthcare organizations that have succeeded in implementing "lean" are those who have also implemented a foundational change to the way they do business. They focus on the patient, on safety, on quality and on the people who do the work. The results have been remarkable: sustained change and improvements that greatly exceed national standards and norms.

From the very top of these organizations, leaders who used to pay attention to costs and head counts have learned that focus on safety, quality and production pay the biggest dividends. They also learned that the cultural change required is a painful process that starts with the work right in front of them.

The payoff in the long term is huge. For some, it was the difference between surviving and dying a slow painful death.

As usual, let me ask you a couple of questions: are you focused on complex formulas for righting head counts on a floor from shift to shift or are you focused on qualitative improvements to patient care? If you said both, which one drives your day to day decision-making? And, if that drives YOUR day to day decision making, what about the people who are face to face with the patient every day: what drives their decision-making?

A few months ago, a family member was wheeled onto a monitoring unit after a grueling six-hour wait in an emergency room 'holding area". She was "out of the ED" so she wasn't their problem, but she wasn't on the unit, so she wasn't their problem either. She waited patiently on an ED bed designed for function, not comfort. About three hours into the wait, an ED nurse popped in to tell us that her bed was open, but the unit was short-staffed and had to call someone in before they could move her into her room. When the nurse finally transferred her into her bed, my wife began to apologize for the nurse having to be called in. Brace yourself for this... The nurse replied that is was no problem. In fact, she was quite happy about it. You see, she had reported for duty at the beginning of the shift (four hours ago) but was sent home because the unit census was low. Because the hospital called her back in, she would be making a premium wage.

Where was the unit manager's focus?

Yep.

If you are considering "lean" - and, frankly, who isn't these days - make sure you get good counsel on the system that surrounds it and do the hard work of building THAT system before you drop in lean.

Rapid Deployment and Other Hazards to Lean System Implementation

2009-12-16T13:46:00.002-05:00

Warning: the anecdote ahead did not involve live ammunition or live fire. No Seabees were harmed during this exercise (well, OK, my ego was harmed, for sure). One of my platoons had just been wiped out by an automatic weapon positioned nicely at the top of a clear rise. I had just sent the team to their demise. It was a field exercise, so no harm done. Everyone was safe and we all learned a valuable lesson: if you try to take hill, you better move slowly and deliberately, taking it a square foot at a time. If you rush in with thin lines, you are finished. A salty old Gunnery Sergeant, Gunny, sauntered up to me as I let the defeat sink into my head. As only one of the Marine Corps' oldest and best could summarize it, he said, "Ell Tee, you really f***** that up. Your boys aren't likely to follow you to the s*** hole, much less into a firefight. Let's do that one again. This time, don't get so spread out...you weaken the whole line when you do that."

Expletives aside, he was about as right as you can get. When you get spread out, you weaken the line.

As we coach Lean Systems implementation around North America, we've seen just such a phenomenon. Eager leaders set up elaborate strategies to get managers "trained up" and give them ambiguous (sometimes ridiculous) goals for projects or events (kaizen). At first, the leaders are satisfied to see some level of activity and organizational focus on "lean". Within 12 months, most organizations have slipped back into business as usual. Managers do the events but are so tactically focused and so strategically myopic , the events don't amount to much improvement or to much organizational learning. Some organizations, those with whip-wielding, maniacal lean managers, are able to sustain numbers of events but do little to make and sustain improvements.

When we introduce the concept of Operational Excellence as the system that wraps around Lean to make it produce the harvest, leaders often guffaw at our notion that culture change precedes lean improvement. As we focus on things like "just fill out the problem solving sheet", they rail against us and wonder why we don't measure the number of solved problems. We set up targets that are attainable, year to year. They want to move the bar up after hitting the first year's incremental improvement. Like rabbits racing to a loss, they insist that we have to move quickly and get things spread out rapidly. Hence the name of this post, rapid deployment.

In the military, a rapid deployment is one that is sustainable. I pity the S4 (battalion-level supply officer), who failed to ensure a steady stream of fuel, food and ammunition to the moving unit.

But, the top level leader who wants results right away makes, essentially, the same error. They get a structure and some training in place with no system to fuel it and no system to keep it alive. At the risk of mixing metaphors, we often use the parable of the sower from the Bible to illustrate our point: the seed that fell on stony soil came up with no roots and was cooked by the sun; the seed that fell on soil that wasn't conditioned came up and was choked by the weeds; the seed that fell on the good soil came up and produced a harvest.

All we are saying is that you have to cultivate and condition first, THEN plant the seeds and nurture them. Cultivating and conditioning comes from making changes to daily communications, making problems visible, exercising problem solving muscles, etc. - all parts of early phase Operational Excellence implementation.

When we had finally regrouped, I took some time to brief up my platoon leaders. Using a combination of offensive maneuvers suited to the terrain and enemy fire power, my teams were able to secure the hill and remove two platoons of the opposing forces. As the teams returned to my command post, the Gunny wandered over in my direction. Amidst the high fives and banter, he grunted in my general direction: he approved. I learned a really valuable lesson that hot afternoon in the Lejeune marshlands: concentrated fire can beat overwhelming firepower. I also learned that speed never trumps agility.

So, here is a question for you: as you implement "lean", what is your objective? Are you focusing on the short term results or the long term change? Are you focusing on the outcome or the technique? Are you developing people who can improve the process?

Are you racing up the hill with a thin line or are you moving methodically, fixing the enemy?

Don't lose the Gunny's real reason for dressing me down: he feared that my men wouldn't follow me.

As you implement lean, do me a favor: turn around and take stock of who is following you...really following you.

David

23. ALIGN! (listen to David discuss Alignment with the Ready Room guys)

2009-06-19T12:01:00.001-04:00

23. ALIGN!

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Connecting the Daily Meeting to the Rest of the System

2009-03-03T14:01:00.002-05:00

Competitive Edge

You have a decision to make: we all have to respond to economic downturns by cutting COST. the problem is that most companies will look to cut labor. In some cases, that is unavoidable, but in many cases, the decision to cut labor by cutting people is the absolute worst move you can make.

I think it is easy to see the obvious and the hidden investments that you've made in your employees. Hiring, training, etc. all cost money. You may be saving some money in the short term, but the cost to re-hire and re-train when demand returns will be very high.

Rather, you should be working feverishly to ELIMINATE WASTE and thus cut cost. Eliminating Waste can be a real competitive edge! Eliminating waste is a great way to keep your people employed while they are reducing your costs for you.

One way you can eliminate waste is to implement Operational Excellence (OE) system components. The components in the OE system are often called "tools". They are things like kanban, 5S+1, andon, etc. Implementing components isn't as costly as implementing the whole system, but - if you choose wisely - they can give you a nice return in the long run. For example, when you combine the daily meeting with problem solving - two components in the system - you will see an increase in communication around the organization's top problems. This has the effect of optimizing your resources: team members and team leaders are focused on the real issues facing your business.

Implementing a component - like andons or daily meetings - in the absence of some supporting components won't work; you just won't get the results you expected. Many consultants will "sell you a tool" without having the understanding of how that tool works to accomplish the real goal.

By way of illustration: let's say I wanted to build some cabinets in my kitchen. I run down to my local hardware store to get the tools and supplies that I need. The man behind the counter- a computer programmer who is working part time at the hardware store - assures me that I need a hammer. He extols the virtues of the hammer: how else could I expect to drive nails? I leave with the hammer and nothing else. Imagine how frustrating it would be to cut, trim , miter, join, etc. with just a hammer. If only the man behind the counter knew what I needed, exactly, and knew how it all worked together.

You need a coach that knows the system well and how it works in order to implement a system component on its own.

How it Works

We are currently doing a project where we are implementing only a few of the OE system components. We recognized early on that we can't simply implement JUST the daily meeting, for example, without some of its supporting components. We use these supporting components to "prop up" the component we are implementing.

In the case of the daily meeting, we use the system's foundational elements: visual management, the PDCA cycle and Roles+Responsibilities. Here's how it works:

Visual Management

Visual Management (VM) is in the system essentially to let us see problems as they are occurring. In the case of the daily meeting, we use a team board or a score card to support VM. The boards are designed to show the team when a problem is occurring. For example, most boards use the green cross to indicate Safety for the day. If the day's block is colored in with red, the team knows that there was a safety accident during the previous day. The Problem Solving can begin right away while the trail of the root cause is still hot.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

Because the daily meeting is on a 24-hour cycle, it fits our PDCA cycle. In fact, if you follow the flow of the daily meeting, it is all about Checking: did we have any problems, did we make our plan yesterday, what is the plan for today and what is coming down the pike that might prohibit us from making the plan? These are all good Checking questions. Obviously, if a problem presents itself, the team can Act and Adjust the Plan as needed.

Roles+Responsibilities (R+R)

Each member of the team, including the leader, has specific responsibilities for safety, quality, productivity, human development and cost. Without R+R, things get muddled and confused. When everyone is responsible for something, generally no one takes responsibility. Therefore, the OE system demands clear lines for actions, actors and timing. The daily meeting has each team member reporting on problems, but the problems fall into the priorities of safety, quality, productivity, human development and cost. The problems represent the team member's inability to meet their responsibilities in each of the priorities. For example, if a team member makes a defect (a bad part, a bad weld, a medication error, an error on a form, etc.), they aren't able to fulfill their responsibility for Quality, which is "don't accept, don't make and don't send" bad quality parts, work, services, forms, etc..

The Quick Lesson

The daily meeting is one of the first components of the system we introduce and implement. It is imperative that you support it with other system components in order for it to work. The key system components for success are the foundations: Visual Management, Plan-Do-Check-Act and Roles+Responsibilities. Each of these foundations are found in each system component. Without them the system component won't work properly.

Advanced Understanding

Don't forget that we are planning to offer some Advanced Learning in Lean programs later this year. If you have any questions, call Allan Edwards at 724.805.2142 or email him at allan.edwards@email.stvincent.edu .

Thanks for Joining Us Last Night

2009-01-22T12:07:00.002-05:00

Thanks for joining us last night for the "kick off" to the new year for networking. We had 66 people at the Rogers Center and from the looks of our feedback scores, the night was profitable for all who attended.

If you are interested in getting copies of the slides by Dr. Quinlivan or Ron Stewart, shoot us an email and we'll send them right away.

While the outlook for the near term is disheartening, don't be discouraged. Now is the perfect time to get your folks working on cost-cutting through the elimination of waste! Almost everywhere I go, company leaders are trying to figure out how to keep people busy during declining production demand. We can help. Think about doing some quick, hands-on training followed by some intense coaching by the KCOE team to make solid, sustainable gains through waste elimination.

If you'd like one of us to drop in for a look, call or email David: dadams@stvincent.edu / 724.805.2104.

I hope we see you all again next month!

Allan Waxes on Wilderness First Aid and the PDCA cycle

2009-01-13T15:17:00.002-05:00

Allan and I were riding down to Medrad on Monday and began talking about our weekends. He had an interesting one: he was certified in Wilderness First Aid. Any of you who have "gone to the woods" with the KCOE team can understand why we need someone with this certification! Allan had a really cool interpretation of the training. Read on...

January 10^th and 11^th were cold, rainy, snowy, windy, wet days. In other words, perfect days to be out in the woods for Red Cross Wilderness First Aid Training. The title of the handbook was ominous: “When Help Is Delayed!” As I sat through the class learning about snakebites (apparently we don’t suck the poison out) and splinting (apparently I cannot immobilize a knee), I had a stunning realization.

Everything, everywhere is about the PDCA Cycle.

Part of the standard procedure when dealing with a patient when help is delayed is to document you care using a SOAP note. SOAP stands for subjective, objective, assessment and plan. First, understand the subjective experience of the patient. What does he/she describe as the problem? Then, objectively examine the patient. Take a sample history and do a quick physical examination. Once you have collected the data assess the situation and make a plan for care. Carry out that plan and reevaluate it the plan periodically so you can adjust to changing circumstances.

If you’re an avid reader of Lean/Kaizen/Continuous Improvement type material, or if you’ve spent any time with the KCOE Team, you are already thinking PDCA from the above paragraph. Let’s look at the elements quickly.

First, when you come on the scene you check for safety, check the victim and check your gear. Then you begin your subjective/objective information gathering. Basically you: go and see and get the facts. Then, you make an assessment. This person has a broken femur. This person has low blood sugar. This person fell out of a tree. So you: grasp the situation. Once you have made an assessment you make a plan for treatment. Then you do the treatment. Periodically you check vital signs, get feedback, reevaluate and check to see if your plan is adequate. Finally, you adjust your treatment based on the results of your check.

PDCA is definitely the DNA of Operational Excellence and the Toyota Way. But the more I learn, the more I see it’s at least present in everything else.

...so, if you happen to take a walk on the wild side with KCOE this year, rest assured that Allan is doing PDCA, even while he's trying to splint your leg!

r/ David

Emerging World-Class Leader Tip: Don't Blur the Lines

2009-01-02T13:04:00.001-05:00

As an emerging leader, it is fairly easy to make some early mistakes regarding the "lines" within which you are working now. To be very clear, emerging leaders often make mistakes when it comes to understanding how to relate to the team. Emerging Leaders may have come up from within a team, even the team they are now leading. This isn't uncommon at all. How will you handle the idea that now you have to direct your team's work? You may have to correct someone's work or their attitude. How can you make sure you retain the authority without becoming a real butt?

Here are some quick tips:

1. If you've got friends working FOR you, make sure you keep your friendship outside of the work environment. This isn't the ideal situation, but you've got to be able to rise above the draw to treat your friends better than those who are not your friends. Pay attention to simple things like justice. Do what is right, regardless of who is involved. Do it swiftly and impartially. This will be a true test of friendship.

2. If you can't keep your friendship tendencies under control, request to be assigned outside the team. If this can't be done, go back to number one above and get some help.

3. Don't err on the side of being completely different. If you were selected because you "look" like the Operational Excellence system (meaning you "get" continuous improvement, the human and operational balance, etc..), continue to walk in the system's ways. Don't think that because you have this new authority you need to become an authoritarian. Don't be overly harsh. Simply bring all things back to the "plumbline" of the system: mutual trust and respect, customer first, team work, continuous improvement, etc..

If you do mistakenly blur the line - it is easy to do - admit your mistakes, make repairs and keep on moving. Watch for this pitfall early on. It should go away with time.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T16:26:00.002-05:00

Thanks for a wonderful year filled with improvement and challenge! To our clients and friends: may God bless you richly this year. From the bottom of our hearts, we wish you and your families a very merry Christmas. See you next year!

David and the KCOE Team

Marvelous Overly Door

2008-12-19T14:35:00.006-05:00

So, here's what happened: Overly undertakes an OE cultural transformation and Don Andrews, plant manager here in Greensburg, takes up target practice...hmmmm.

OK, no, really, this is what happened: I showed up for the 40th daily meeting in a row, trying to get some problem solving going and Don pulled his .44; I ducked behind a bullet-proof door and...

OK, I'll let the Trib tell the story. Congratulations to Terry, Chuck, Tyler, Jon, Elmer, Tim and Bill for this very cool coverage!!

Photo is courtesy of the Trib and S.C. Spangler.

Pittsburgh Business Times Manufacturer of the Year: FS Elliott

2008-12-17T12:39:00.005-05:00

For the second year in a row, the Pittsburgh Business Times has selected one of our clients as the manufacturer of the year, in the Medium Category Award. FS-Elliott Company in Export, Pennsylvania, manufactures "industrial air compressors, driving almost every industry’s manufacturing process. Though FS-Elliott’s machines can be found in textile factories, paper mills, mines and even ski resorts that make artificial snow, the bulk of the business is in energy and petrochemical markets," says the Pittsburgh Business Times. This is FS-Elliott's second award in this category in a row.

This year, the company watchword is "nimble". Ron Stewart, CEO, says that, “We’ve broken all the walls down,” CEO Ronald Stewart said. “We’re able to be much more adaptive than bigger companies are.”

Part of breaking down the walls has included the implementation of a robust OE floor management system that has the assembly and test groups organized into teams that employ daily meetings, problem solving sheets and boards, 5S+1, setup reduction and a fast-growing suggestion system. The results have been impressive. FS-Elliott started suggestions in June and had a couple of months of single digits. For the last four months, they've hit double digits, including one month - September - at 26 implemented suggestions.

Are the suggestions paying off? Well, we aren't tracking costs, but we know they are. Some of the setup reduction suggestions have shaved tens of minutes off of their processes.

See the full Pittsburgh Business Times article here.

Kudos to Bill Turek, Tim Barkley, John Sinclair and Jason Emerick, the FS-Elliott Steering Team for their hard work and heads up play.

For more information on the floor management system, give us a call or drop a line.

Liking Liker

2008-10-15T15:10:00.003-04:00

It's the day after our Annual Growing America Conference here in the Center. What a profitable learning day we had! I think the message was clear: culture matters and change takes time and patience.

Culture matters. Lean won't work in the absence of the system surrounding it. Lean and continuous improvement aren't self-sustaining.

Liker says so...

And, of course, so do we. In fact, without puffing ourselves up, we've been saying it for a long time. We've been saying it from the day the Center was born. OK, enough of this self-centered nonsense!

The real question is this: now, what will you do? Have you implemented lean and has it plateaued? Were you so focused on lean that you missed the system required around it? What I saw yesterday after the conference really made me pause: several company team huddled at their tables and in the corners of the Rogers Center.

What were they talking about?

I think I know. Well, I do know because several of you have contacted me today. These teams were trying to figure out what to do next. They want more of the total system. They want more of the cultural change.

I have to tell you that I really like Dr. Liker. He is - hands down - the most prolific author on the subject of Toyota in the world. I really liked the complement he paid to all of you: he doesn't need to convince you that culture is the missing link.

We do differ on our implementation approach, but for the most part, what he shared with you yesterday is what we've been teaching and coaching for five years.

So, here's the deal: If you thought Dr. Liker's speech was dead on, why not join one of our networking groups to keep the dialogue going?

The manufacturers' networking group meets on the third Wednesday of every month except July, October and December. The healthcare networking group meets on the - brace yourself for this one - the next to the last Thursday of every other month.

Either way, you will find the food great, the fellowship good and the context relevant. Check out our website for the latest dates. Register while you are there!

To all of you who came out to the College yesterday, we truly thank you for visiting with us. You are what makes the conference a highlight of our year.

See you at networking!

developing your grip and swing

2008-09-02T16:12:00.003-04:00

I don't golf. In fact, it has been a couple of years since I swung the clubs (at a golf ball). But, the charity golf outing season is upon us and - like you - I've been invited to several outings. I always cringe when I get the invitation. Why? Because I'm not a real golfer. In fact, when I golf, I don't count strokes, I count the number of balls I lose.

So, what does all of this have to do with OE?

I've been teaching a team in a healthcare setting to do problem solving recently. Each day they wonder if we will ever get to solving problems. You heard me right: we aren't solving problems. Instead, we are learning the technique of problem solving, increment by increment.

If I were to take golf seriously (like I know some of you do), I'd probably take some lessons. If I took some lessons, I'd probably have to learn how to hold the club, before I swing it. I'd probably have to learn how to swing it before I address the ball. I'd probably have to learn how to address that ball before I hit it. And so on...

That is our approach to problem solving. Every once in awhile, someone who is simply learning the five why's finds a root cause that they can put down and the problem gets solved. But, most of the time, I'm happy to see them cranking out problem solving sheets.

Why? Because the first step - the grip - is to recognize a problem.

When we teach the human side of the OE system, we remind folks of the three P's: people, passion and patience. The third P - patience - is what you need to have when you are learning or teaching problem solving.

Remember, you wouldn't want to put me into the same foursome as Tiger Woods (unless it's a best ball thing). You'd want me to invest some time in learning how to golf.

Are you investing the time to learn problem solving?

As I tell my students: keep swinging!

I Implement Incremental Improvements !

2008-06-20T12:07:00.002-04:00

We’ve had a few questions about the Suggestion System component in the Operational Excellence system. Here are the key ideas:

- Unlocking the creativity of the workforce is crucial to gaining employee engagement which in turn reduces absenteeism and ultimately reduces cost.

- Employee creativity must be aligned to the priorities of the business case that cut across team lines: safety, quality, productivity and cost, in that order.

- “Suggestions” are ideas that the employee has tested and proved. In other words, they are improvements that are implemented BEFORE the suggestion is recognized and rewarded.

- There are no “committees” to determine IF a suggestion should be implemented. If the idea meets the critera (incremental improvement, pennies not dollars, implemented and proven), it is acknowledged by the team leader and submitted by the team member.

- ALL suggestions are recognized (thanks for the suggestion!) and rewarded (here is a gas gift card to help things out) by management.

- This component begins at the individual development stage. It continues as the system develops teams and finally matures in the team to team stage.

The key understanding in Suggestion System is that this is not an employee perk only. The system yields cost reduction. The system doesn’t focus on cost reduction, but by placing the priorities on Safety, Quality and Productivity and weighting them appropriately, cost reduction results. Therefore, the balance becomes employee recognition and reward counterbalanced by operational improvement. The cost reduction comes naturally instead of being thrust upon the organization.

Some results that we have observed:

A large engine manufacturer in Austria started the system and after one year, the roughly 1200 person workforce came up with one suggestion per person for the year. At our last check, the system was yielding about 6-8 suggestions per person annually. The annual returns were in the millions.

A small sheet metal fabricator in Greensburg, PA, started the system and after one year, the 50-person workforce came up with 108 suggestions, just better than 2 per person for the year. This year, they cascaded the system enterprise wide to several hundred people and they are on track to meet their balanced scorecard improvement of 3 per person per year. Their investment last year was several thousand dollars; the return was, conservatively, $40,000.

The first year that small blow molding shop in Latrobe implemented the system, their team generated about one suggestion per person for the year. The annual savings was in the tens of thousands of dollars.

The first year that a small service business in Westmoreland County implemented the system, the 12 person team implemented about 35 improvements. The cost to the company was about $2000. The return was in the tens of thousands.

Suggestion systems work; the trick is that they don’t exist in a vacuum. The rest of the OE system enables the suggestion system and the suggestion system connects other critical components (problem solving, daily meetings, etc.).

Best Plants: Medrad and FS-Elliott

2008-04-22T14:39:00.004-04:00

The KCOE team had the honor of visiting the Heilman Center, MEDRAD's premier plant. The plant won Industry Week's Best Plant in North America Top Ten award for 2007. It is easy to see why: it's the people. From top level leaders like Mike Kochis to front line workers, this team cooperates and collaborates... and it all drops to the bottom line.

We are also doing a project at the FS-Elliott facility in Export. This plant won the Pittsburgh Business Times Manufacturer of the Year award in 2007. What's the deal? The people. Again, from leaders like Bill Turek to front line workers who take personal time to learn about Operational Excellence - it is the people that make that difference.

You have heard us talk about the Human and Operational Balance. I am convinced now more than ever that folks who "get it" are people-focused. Congratulations to these two fine operations; keep up the great work!

Deep Change / Part Two

2008-04-18T13:42:00.005-04:00

Incremental improvement (kaizen)

Much has been written and discussed concerning “kaizen”. The semantic range of this word has been stretched as only we Americans can manage to do so. As with any serious study of a system, understanding the “native language” of the system is critical. The word means "change good". Maybe "good change" would work too. Any Japanese language experts out there are welcome to help with this one. Note, the word is neutral regarding the size of the change. Some would say that it means "small, incremental change for the better." Others argue that bigger is always better. The real question is how is the word used in context. For the sake of argument, let's assume that we are looking at the word in the context of the Toyota / Operational Excellence system.

What does Toyota system say about kaizen?

To an organization that has an immature continuous improvement system - if any - Kaizen should mean small incremental improvement, but today, particularly in this country, it has become synonymous with “rapid improvement”. As I pointed out earlier, when you are changing a culture and creating an operating system, nothing is really “rapid”. Toyota would tell us that kaizen is not necessarily rapid and sweeping, but rather incremental, systematic and pulled from a larger improvement strategy. It is what our friend David Meier, co-author of The Toyota Way Fieldbook, calls “Every day a little bit up.”

When I fence, I go through little learning experiences each week. My coach will teach me a new parry / counterattack combination or a new compound attack. I learn it first “by the numbers”, one movement at a time. I repeat it over and over until I can make the movements fluidly. Only then, do I give it a try during a practice bout, weeks or months later. Usually, it doesn’t work. Why? It is because I can’t incorporate the new moves into my normal “game”. They new stuff feels weird.

Eventually, I work it in. Everything else has to adjust to the new moves. When I’ve mastered it, it can become a new part of my “game”: an extra tactic that I can employ.

I tell this story for two reasons. First, notice the methodical way in which the improvement is made: small, incremental steps that combine to make a new fluid movement. Second, notice that I work at mastering the move, doing it the same way over and over, before I am confident to use it.

In kaizen, incremental improvements build on each other. How might we see this in action?

Consider a process in motion. A problem occurs and the team leader responds to the call for help, relieving the team member momentarily so the team member can grasp the situation and – maybe – start some sort of problem solving sheet.

Later, the team member reflects on the problem and does a root cause analysis and develops both a plan to solve the problem and a control mechanism to see if the problem is truly resolved. The team member tests his solution over several cycles, making sure that the problem is resolved. Once resolved, maybe during a few extra minutes at lunch, he fills out a suggestion form, suggesting the solution as an improvement, and takes it to his team leader. The team leader reads it through and asks for a demonstration. He sees that it works and approves the suggestion.

The next day, the team leader’s supervisor joins the team for their daily meeting. He congratulates the team member who made the suggestion, thanks him and gives him a small reward.

Later in the day, the team leader takes the team member’s suggestion and builds new standard work around it. At the end of the day, he teaches the whole team.

What started as a problem became a suggestion, which became the new standard. The improvement is directed: it solved a problem. The improvement is extended: it is a new standard to follow for everyone.

The improvement is now part of the team’s “game”.

Most of the time, improvements won’t happen that quickly, but I hope you capture the essence of what I am trying to convey. We have spoken at length about “blitz” kaizen versus small incremental improvement. The former works, but it only works in a mature continuous improvement culture. Here, the soil is rich and ready for rapid complex improvements. How do you get the soil ready? Focus on the small, incremental improvements; make them the priority and then the norm. It pays off.

Some things to remember:

1. Small and incremental improvements in the early part of your journey

2. Have a system to recognize and reward them

3. Accept that you are tilling and fertilizing the soil

4. Don’t rush rapid, complex improvements until your team is ready for it

5. Connect problem solving and suggestions – it is a huge way to get alignment

6. Structure your organization to enable the call for help

Next time: Buy-in / Ownership versus Passion / Patience

OE Leadership Series/ Sessions III and IV

2008-04-15T09:35:00.005-04:00

We have re-scheduled sessions III and IV for 17 and 18 June 2008 respectively. The course meets from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. For those of you just joining the Networks, these sessions are designed to take a small group (5-10 people) deeply into the early OE implementation phase topics. There are four sessions; Sessions I and II will be repeated in late summer and in the fall. If you missed Sessions I and II, no worries! Each session stands alone. This is essentially the same material that you would get through our full engagement condensed into a one-day session. The real value (according to the feedback we've received) is begin able to explore the topic with peers and with a coach right there with you.

The price for each session is $500 or purchase a "season pass" for all four sessions for $1800. You can register at 724.805.2142 (Allan) or by visiting our website here.

KCOE Executive Director, David Adams is teaching these sessions, which are summarized below.

Session III

· Understanding the customer chain – who is the real customer and what is the relationship we have with him or her? What if the customer is the person sitting right next to me? What if the customer is my employee? How will or how do I act to build that relationship?

· Understanding value and waste – who defines value? What is “waste”? What about processes in the back office? How do you build systems to actively eliminate waste?

· Roles and responsibilities explained - who does what and when? One of the most critical foundational elements in the system, “roles and responsibilities” builds a solid foundation for standardization across the board.

· Organizing great natural teams – what is the right structure? When and where do you apply teams? What is the appropriate span of control?

Session IV

· Building great natural teams – what can you expect when you change the framework and the organization around a working team? How can you manage the developmental movements of a new or newly commissioned team?

· Effective communication – forget sending and receiving, start to focus on understanding by using the 3 G's (go and see, get the facts and grasp the situation). What are the tools you can employ to increase the effectiveness of your communication?

· Plan - Do - Check - Act – you've heard it all before; let us unravel this quintessential component of the OE system. How can you build PDCA into everything you do?

...these sessions have proved to be very enlightening for our attendees.

What people are saying about KCOE:

From a local plant manager...

"This event was very effective at improving my understanding of (root cause problem solving)...this event was a very good value. We need to get this training down to the right level - our managers and operators - they would really benefit from it."

From a local heart surgeon...

" KCOE's intense focus on value definition and "living the values" is paramount. By providing the framework for continual learning and improving, KCOE has enabled us to implement real time continual improvement towards perfection. "

If you have any questions about the training, please give us a call at 724.805.2104.

Deep Change

2008-04-09T14:42:00.004-04:00

This is the beginning of a series on deep change. Please let me know your thoughts!

I started to fence about two years ago. My son had a keen interest in the sport and discovered a local club in our own backyard. At first, I was a mildly interested parent, watching the lesson with one eye while catching up on work with the other. Soon, though, I became deeply engrossed in the lessons.

Fencing isn’t a simple sport. Some might reduce it to mere thwacking with metal whips, but in truth, it is a complex mix of physical discipline, stamina and constant strategy. Nicknamed “physical chess” or “chess at 300 mph”, the sport requires lightning-fast reflexes, a clear mind and the ability to keep your heart in the aerobic range for long periods of time.

It wasn’t long before the coach teaching my son had lured me into my first lesson. He prefaced it with, “Now we will teach you to walk, again.” I gave him a nervous chuckle, thinking, “This doesn’t look so hard.” It was the first of my misconceptions.

Beginning with the movements of advances and retreats – all simple footwork exercises – he began to help me unlearn what my body thought it should do and teach me what it absolutely had to do in order to survive my first bout. Weeks went by before he let me hold the sword, a foil, the first of three weapons that I would learn to wield. It felt awkward in my hands. Again, weeks went by before he began with the simplest of parries and ripostes, short blocking and defense moves. Months went by before he let me on the strip (the “court” used for fencing bouts) with another fencer for my first real attempt at fighting: I lost without touching my opponent once.

One of the most difficult things for me to master was patience: the patience required to learn simple movements. Standing in my mind’s way is a lifetime of preconceptions. I had watched my son learn, whose plastic mind and elastic body soaked up the new regimen with ease. Naturally, I thought I could do the same. I was wrong. I had to start simply and move slowly.

And, so goes how we implement Operational Excellence, the cultural adaptation of the Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System. Many have rushed to imitate the world class company’s management and operating system, only to find the tools they are using awkward in their current culture. Like the first time I grasped a foil, their corporate mindset won’t allow them to see the need for developmental steps. Like my misconceptions as I watched my son, they think they can rush to imitate the most complex components of the Toyota system, only to get frustrated when their attempts fail.

When trials come (and they will)

There were a few nights during the first six months of my training where I went home determined never to return. I couldn’t master some of the simplest movements. It was too hard. Why was I even bothering? Still, the next time a lesson rolled around, I packed my bag and dragged myself to the gym. Why?

The answer lies in my motivation – the thing that moves me to action. Beneath our motivations, are our values. Our values are the things we treasure above all things. They are the things our hearts follow at all costs.

I value a challenge and I really valued this new sport I was learning: it stimulated my senses of strategy and of physical challenge. I wanted to learn so I could succeed. I wanted to succeed because I value success.

The other thing that motivated was more of a person than a thing: my coach. He was astute at sensing when to go forward with something new and when to linger on a particular movement. He was excellent in timing his praise, but measuring it with truthful critique and solid advice. He knew when to drop an email to make sure I would come to class.

And, so, I continued.

Likewise, as we create a new culture and operating system, there will be days when we do not want to go on. There will be days when we default to our old way of doing things because we find comfort in them. There will be days when the ease and safety of sending an email instead of going to see will seem right; days when firefighting problems seems as comfortable as an old pair of jeans.

When those days arrive (and they certainly will), it helps to recall the reasons you embarked on the journey in the first place. What were your motivations? What are your values that drive you? Revisit them and reflect on them. Reflect on where you are and where you have come from. Enjoy the moment, but resolve to press on.

It also helps to have a coach that can sense what is happening and help you adjust. The best coaches serve as guides – those who have gone before down this road – who know what lies ahead and how to get you to the next level. Ask questions of them and challenge them to show you the way.

Standardize

When my coach would introduce a new parry (defensive movement with the blade to block the opponents attack) to me, he would go very slowly, showing me each incremental movement. He would watch me and adjust my feet, my shoulders, my arm, my elbow, my wrist and my fingers all to get the correct movement out of my blade. He would make me practice the movement over and over until I could reproduce it from muscle memory. Only then would he permit me to employ the movement during a bout. To say that this technique requires patience grossly understates the situation. Note that it required much patience from me as I learned and mastered the movement, but it required so much more patience from my coach as he watched me fumble around with my blade ineffectively and inefficiently.

These small movements were standards for me to follow; if I hadn’t mastered the small movements, I would never be able to attempt the more complex and advanced movements that are merely variations on the themes of the smaller movements.

And, thus, so are the small, incremental new movements in the Operational Excellence system. Things like the daily meeting and individual problem solving serve a purpose as a foundation for the more complex and advanced things to come. Problem solving at the individual level forms the basis for team problem solving, which forms the basis for quality circles, the most advance form of improvement activity. The daily meeting aligns communication and forms the basis for monthly, quarterly and annual review of improvement activity.

All of the little pieces will add up to the whole and much patience is required on everyone’s part to see it through. You have heard that direct observation and fact management is captured in the Three G’s: go and see, get the facts and grasp the situation. Motivation and sustainment is denoted by the Three P’s: people, patience and passion. Note that the hinge in the three is patience. Large doses will serve all well at this stage.

Next time: "Incremental Improvements"

Mass Nodding...

2008-03-28T15:04:00.002-04:00

As I was going over last night’s networking group event with my wife this morning, she commented on a phenomenon that we see all too often as we work with regional business. When folks like us get together with folks like you, the conversation often turns to “what makes the improvement stick”? Seeing the door open a crack, we burst through with vigor, eager to convince anyone within earshot the “lean” or “six sigma” alone won’t work.

Interestingly, we don’t have to preach too long before we can observe the phenomenon I mentioned earlier: heads begin bobbing. At first, I thought it might be that folks were nodding off as we droned on about the need to balance operational improvement with human development. But as we traveled from place to place I noticed that this bobbing of heads was steady and constant – it was a signal of agreement with us. Indeed, most of the places we go, we find that people are in strong agreement that tools alone won’t get improvements to stick. They tell us that “people” matter and the “culture needs to be changed”.

We couldn’t agree with you more!

As my wife and I mulled over this common reaction, I realized that I’ve witnessed yet another, just as common, reaction. It follows the question: how do you change the culture?

I have to admit that the reaction to this question is less definitive in its physical expression, but it is more definitive in its message. The physical reactions range from hanging heads and eyes - frantically trying to avoid contact - to shoulders shrugged in resolution to this cold hard fact: most of us don’t know how to change the culture we are in. Shoot, most of us don’t know how to define the culture we are in!

When pressed – and I do press – folks tell me that they just don’t see how the culture can be changed. “You don’t know what it’s like working here at (insert the name of your organization).” “You don’t understand ________ (insert your peculiar industry).”

True, I may not have first-hand experience in your particular “world”, but let me take a crack at describing the negative aspects of your specific culture:

- People are afraid

- People feel compelled to place blame

- It’s all about the numbers at the end of the month

- It’s all about the bottom line, they don’t really care about the customer or us

- We can’t get anything changed, it takes a committee and an act of congress

- I’m just biding my time here until something better opens up somewhere else

- Morale is low

- Leadership is stressed out

- People just come to work and go home, they don’t really care

Need I go on? I’ve just described the negatives in manufacturing, retail, public service, healthcare and the military all at the same time.

So, what’s my point?

First, don’t be naïve enough to think that what you are experiencing in terms of negative culture is unique to you. It is everywhere and it is – sadly – more the norm than the exception. On the upside, you’re not the only one! People have been through what you are experiencing and some may be able to help.

Second, don’t be deceived that culture can’t be changed. It can. Most of us have experienced the top-down culture change that comes with the replacement of top leadership. Depending on the charisma and style of the new leader, culture can be changed fairly rapidly under a new way of managing things. The problem with that kind of cultural change is that its lifespan is about as long as the new leader’s tenure. When that new leader becomes the old one and a new one comes along, brace yourself…

Another way to understand cultural change is through systematic, planned change. We, here in the Center, understand culture to be the expression of beliefs (convictions), attitudes and behaviors of a particular person or group of people.

What we are looking for, in the end, is behavior to change for the better. We are looking for decreased absenteeism, higher levels of employee engagement, better production, higher quality, etc. Note that most of this lives at the “behavioral” level. For behaviors to change, attitudes have to change. For attitudes to change, beliefs have to change.

Growing up here in Western Pennsylvania, one of the beliefs I held well into college was that “management was bad”. I had an attitude of mistrust towards my managers in my young work life. The resulting behavior was that I stayed disengaged from my managers, even when I knew how to help them out.

Later, as I matured and experienced more and more life, I came to realize that my belief was uninformed and it changed (maybe because I was “management”). My attitude and my behavior changed along with it.

You can change your culture; here are a few tips:

1. Start with that person that you see in the mirror each morning! When you don’t see culture changing around you, check to see if you are changing. If you are, great! Go and influence someone to follow you. If you are not changing, problem-solve and make some changes.

2. Know that culture is FORMED by beliefs leading to attitudes leading to beliefs, but culture is TRANSFORMED by changing behaviors which lead to changing attitudes which leads to changing beliefs.

3. Get a coach. World-class athletes use coaches every day. We need to follow their lead. Find a great coach and let him or her fine tune your behavior for cultural change. Operational Excellence has an inherent cultural change roadmap embedded in the fabric of the system, but even experienced practitioners will tell you: get a teacher.

Back in the Swing in SPRING

2008-03-25T14:52:00.004-04:00

It has been a few months since I penned some lines for the blog; we have been pretty busy around the Center these past few months with some new large projects kicking off, some old ones expanding and some new networking ideas.

Today I wanted to talk a bit about our networking groups. We have two: one in focused on manufacturing and one focused on healthcare. The first group has adopted a new format this year and it seems to be producing fruit. We invite a manufacturer to share two or three great lean ideas that have "stuck" and one problem they are wrestling with. We break up into small groups and noodle through the problem, then present some possible solutions. The feedback is awesome, so if you haven't placed it on your schedule yet, mark your calendars for 16 April 2008 at 4PM. More news on the presenter and the problem to follow!

We are finishing up our open registration Lean 101 course this afternoon. See the photo! If you are interested in this or other training, including training on your site, give Allan Edwards a call at 724.805.2142.

Finally, a thought on getting lean to stick: people ask me all the time how to "change culture". I always answer them the same way, telling them to start with the guy or gal in the mirror. Try the tool you are implementing right in your own work area. If you work in the office, give us a call and we'll show you office application of most of the lean tools you know.

Until next time, have a great day!

Manufacturers' Lean Network: January 2008

2007-12-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

Mark your calendars now for our January 2008 session on the 16th at 4PM here at the College in the Foundations Room. For directions and to register click here.

OE Leadership Session Three - Mark Your Calendars for February 21, 2008

2007-11-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

The customer is always right. Customer is first. Customer satisfaction is job one! Is this all fluff for you or is it the reality? What about those pesky customers that we really just don’t like? Are they always right?

We are already preparing for the next session, session three, in our popular Operational Excellence Leadership Series where we will explore these difficult questions and more in the critical context of the Operational Excellence (culturally adapted Toyota) System. In this session, we will explore the deep waters of:

· Understanding the customer chain – who is the real customer and what is the relationship we have with him or her? What if the customer is the person sitting right next to me? What if the customer is my employee? How will or how do I act to build that relationship?

· Understanding value and waste – who defines value? What is “waste”? What about processes in the back office? How do you build systems to actively eliminate waste?

· Roles and responsibilities explained - who does what and when? One of the most critical foundational elements in the system, “roles and responsibilities” builds a solid foundation for standardization across the board.

· Organizing great natural teams – what is the right structure? When and where do you apply teams? What is the appropriate span of control?

As with our other sessions, we will be posing these questions and seeking your current condition. Then, we’ll describe the desired ideal and how to bridge the gaps. We will do several exercises designed to sharpen your skills in seeing waste in everyday processes you find right around the house. We’ll organize into a functional team and rotate leadership while you accomplish tasks that seem simple. We will send you home with some real practical thoughts that you can put into action right away.

Here are a few comments from the last session:

"This event was very effective at improving my understanding of (problem solving for root causes)...this event was a very good value. We need to get this kind of training down to the right level - our managers and our operators; they would really benefit from it."

From a local Plant Manager

"(The daily meeting) really works to get people talking to each other about the most important things. We weren't sharing that kind of information before; we were just chasing each other around."

From a local Director

Mark you calendars and make a plan to join us for this informational day. We will be meeting here at the College again from 9AM to 3PM on Thursday, 21 February 2007. Price is $500 per person or $1800 for all four sessions. We are planning to run through the same cycle next year, so if you missed the first two sessions, you can pick right up in September 2008 with Session One. Call us at 724.805.2142 to register at 724.805.2142 or use the drop-down menu and select “OE Leadership Session 3” here.

Operational Excellence Leadership Series Session One and Two: The Results !

2007-11-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

The Results!

Session Two wrapped up yesterday with a bang: we ended the day working through the problem-solving process with real problems from each participant's working environment. There was plenty of head scratching and chin rubbing going on; the Five Why's look easy, but they require some deep, reflective thought. If you missed yesterday's event, our team is ready to help you right where you are to discover the power of root-cause problem-solving. We can conduct problem-solving training for your team using our distinctive teach-coach-check method (teaching you the idea, coaching you through the application of the idea and checking your learning as you do it on your own).

Session Three will cover the customer chain, value and waste, roles and responsibilities as a basis for standardization and team work part one: how to optimally organize your people. Call us today to register or for more information.

If you are curious how effective these sessions have been, give us a call and we'll put you into contact with one of the attendees. Here's what one plant manager told us yesterday:

"This event was very effective at improving my understanding of (problem solving for root causes)...this event was a very good value. We need to get this kind of training down to the right level - our managers and our operators; they would really benefit from it."

Another manager shared his experiences in implementing "the daily meeting" from Session One, telling us:

"(The daily meeting) really works to get people talking to each other about the most important things. We weren't sharing that kind of information before, we were just chasing each other around."

As promised, this isn't your grandmother's warm and fluffy seminar: we are dealing with real issues and real problems. Try it out in February and bring a co-worker. Call us at 724.805.2104 to register or follow the link here. We will be meeting here at the College again from 9AM to 3PM on Thursday, 21 February 2007.

Welcome Healthcare Networkers!

2007-11-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

We held our first-ever healthcare networking group meeting last last. If you weren't there you missed an amazing story about a hospital focusing on long-term objectives and getting incredible results in their community. Thank you to Hal and John from Armstrong County Memorial Hospital. The food was great and the fellowship was even better!

I promised that I'd list a couple of the key references used last night. See my list below. We will be in touch soon regarding our next session at 5:00 PM on 23 January 2008 here at the College. Until then, take a look at the articles we've posted below and feel free to comment.

Steven Spear: Decoding the DNA of Toyota. (Article available through Havard Business or for checkout through the Timken Foundation Operational Excellence Library here at the College).

Jeffrey Liker: The Toyota Way. (Hardcover available from Amazon or from the Center ($20))

Some of the salient take aways from last night:

1. Creating a continuous improvement culture requires people to have "skin in the game": a personal stake in the success and failure of the system that goes beyond the balance sheet and a year-end bonus.

2. Creating continuous improvement requires personal leadership (see also point 1 above!).

3. Focusing on the long term does create conflict (see also points 1 and 2 above!).

4. Focusing on the long term brings positive results that you could never have predicted or expected (focusing on BMI in one school ends up bringing national media attention).

If anyone has any questions, please give us a call or post a comment.

"Lean" Culture

2007-11-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

"It's going to be hard implementing Operational Excellence here; people are stuck, they don't want to change. We have the wrong culture."

Yep. We hear this in a lot of places. When we don't hear it, we get suspicious. In Peter Senge's terms, culture is "elusive". Absolutely.

But, hey, it's not like you can't change a culture. We've actually seen it happen.

I just started a book that has intrigued me because it syncs up nicely with what we teach about the culture that supports Operational Excellence. The book, Creating a Lean Culture, was written by David Mann. David is an organizational behaviorist by training (PhD in Psychology) and has been with Steelcase for a long time. He has led numerous "lean" transformations.

I've focused in on just one theme in the second chapter. Mann posits: "Making checklists is easy. Developing and posting operator standard work is straightforward. Filling out production tracking charts is not a demanding routine. In the absence of leaders' disciplined adherence to their standard process, all of this was of no value in preventing a known defect from being produced and shipped." The subtitle of the section I'm citing is "Execution Is Key to Lean Management".

Execution. Discipline. Wow, now there are some old-fashioned words. Taken alone, what might they conjure up: a military operation; a football team; open-heart surgery?

No: simply, the human side of the operational and human balance in a process-oriented business.

As a career military officer, I often laughed to myself about the irony of the "Executive Officer" or XO. Stereotypically, the XO was the administrative wonk in the command structure. I was a miserable XO because I had terrible attention to detail. Instead, I was oriented to people and process - to execution and discipline. I was oriented to command.

In the civilian world, we label folks "Executives". The equivalent of Commanding Officer in civilian terms is Chief Executive. I like it! The problem is that most of the "executives" I meet fit the XO stereotype; they are having trouble executing!

So, if you are finding your thoughts wandering down the path of, "...this won't work here," stop and ask yourself this question: of the "lean" tools I've implemented, am I executing - am I exercising discipline to follow through the PDCA cycle?

Let me know what you think.

Growing America Conference - Thanks for Attending

2007-10-16T17:33:00.000-04:00

I am sitting at my desk waiting to share dinner with some friends who attended our conference today. As I reflect on the day, I must say that I am overwhelmed with the quality of speakers we lined up. A few months after last year's conference, we did some team reflection and determined to react to your feedback. The result was a conference slate that was on par with other "big name" conferences around the country. I learned a lot from the men and women I interfaced with.

So, I just wanted to thank you for joining us today. You all - each one of you - made today special. I'd especially like to thank Mr. Allan Edwards for his efforts in bringing the day together.

If you missed the conference today, don't miss it again next year: register today for next year's conference by calling us.

OE Leadership Series: topics coming up on 15 November 2007

2007-10-05T15:47:00.001-04:00

We will be tackling some interesting issues next month when we reconvene the OE Leadership Series: Facing the Coming Storm. Take a look at the topic list and let me know what you think - I can adjust on the fly with your feedback!

The problem solving imperative: problem solving = survival
What exactly are we talking about when we say problem solving?
What are you currently doing (you ARE doing it)?
What is working where you are? When, Where, How and Why?
Discussion of the common success "activators"
The Saint Vincent Way: Problem Solving at all levels (3G's, 5 Why's, PDCA)
If problem solving = survival, who should do it? Everyone
How can you get everyone to do it? SIMPLE (KISS)
The SIMPLE way: Problem Solving I - individual problem solving
Checkpoint: Are we learning?
Lots of problems - which ones do we work on? How do you do it?
Selecting problems (cause and effect diagrams, priorities, decision matrix)
Getting the facts: analysis (pareto, check /control charts)
Exercise
PDCA + what's coming up next time

Remember that next month's session is on 15 November 2007. Registration and breakfast is from 8:30 - 9:00 AM. The seminar lasts until 3:00 PM. If you are bringing additional people, please call us to register them so we can plan meals accordingly.

A New Resource for Manufacturers in the Region

2007-09-21T14:33:00.001-04:00

I was at a meeting this week where a great new resource was rolled out for the manufacturing community. The resource - an electronic forum on the web - is intended to serve the needs of the members from "B to B" to training. Take a look and sign up for Westmoreland Manufacturing !

What the Best CEOs Know

2007-09-16T12:17:00.001-04:00

The title of this entry is the same as the book by the same name. The author, Jeffrey Krames, has done a fantastic job of gleaning some of the most sage stuff from the hearts and minds of such stellar CEO's as Jack Welch, Michael Dell, Bill Gates and others. We (the KCOE team) are reading a series of top books read by top CEO's last year and this one made the list. I'll try to share some insights from the book that resonate with what we teach in the Operational Excellence system.

I'll do this over a couple of days to keep it short and sweet...

Andy Grove of Intel developed something he called strategic inflection points. Translated, that means a point in time when you are becoming aware that something in your current business case is not quite right. One of the inflection points that Krames cites is when Japanese manufacturers of computer memory began to eat Intel's lunch. The inflection point demands action - action that is rooted in one of Grove's basic philosophies: "...only the paranoid survive..."

In the operational excellence system, a key foundational principle is to maintain an orientation to survival by keeping the organization in a constant case of crisis. A basic understanding at Toyota, keeping the taste of crisis on your tongue is a way of life. In a July 2007 Business Week article, columnist David Welch says: "If there's one thing a company can learn from Toyota Motor Corp ... it's the power of paranoia."

Our team would caution that you shouldn't drive with your eyes constantly in the rear view mirror all the time (you'd wreck, of course). Rather, you should be checking it frequently. Know what the competition is doing and let them spur you, but don't let the competition influence your value proposition - that is the sole job of your customer.

Intel's Grove realized that to stay in business they need to shift gears a bit. They reduced their production (and the business case's dependance upon) computer memory, shifting away from the Japanese. To make up the difference, they took on the production of something called the microprocessor... and the rest, as they say, is history.

Reformers in the Tool Age of "lean"

2007-09-15T13:05:00.000-04:00

I just read a very short review on Pascal Dennis' book entitled, Getting the Right Things Done. The subtitle of the book is: "A Leader's Guide to Planning and Execution". I've been on a bit of a binge lately, thinking a lot about hoshin kanri, or the Toyota Production System's policy deployment model (the binge started when my own team completed the arduous process of hoshin kanri). The review of Dennis' book, written by Tonya Vinas, created some resonance in me that I wanted to share with you.

For a couple of years, now, we (the KCOE) have been telling the region that "lean" will only get you so far. You may get into the race with "lean", but you may not place or win. Some folks out there patted us on the head and politely asked us to go back to the verdant pastures of academia; surely we were deluded by our ideology.

(A parathetical tangent: by "lean" I mean the pieces of the Toyota Production System that folks have "picked off" and tried to emulate. These are the same pieces of the system that have given rise to a cottage industry of consultants who can "lead your kaizen event to eliminate 80% of your waste". Don't bother asking a) do they mean at the process level or enterprise wide - resolving 80% of your waste at the process level equates to about 20% of your enterprise waste OR b) what will you do when the gains we see during the post-kaizen honeymoon fade into the hard reality of "business as usual"? But, I digress: by "lean" I mean essentially the tools of lean manufacturing absent from a system that makes them all work in concert.)

Acknowledging that I lack the eloquence and the skill in prose to communicate this simple phenomenon, let me borrow from Vinas' in this review to restate the issue more concisely. She says,

"Leading teachers in the lean movement are starting to refer to now as the "management age" of lean. This follows the "tool age," which ran roughly from 1990 to 2006. The meaning here is that companies and organizations have hit a wall with the mere implementation of lean tools and realize that they must deploy lean thinking strategically throughout the enterprise to reap continued benefits. It's what Toyota has done all along with its Toyota Production System (TPS)."

Hit a wall?? I'd argue that some companies haven't even thought about implementing "lean" and are being led astray, headlong into the pileup at the wall. If you think a moment about our colleagues in the healthcare industry, the image gets even more complicated. They, too, are looking to what we in manufacturing THINK is "Toyota" to solve one of our country's most serious problems. They are already emulating by implementing tools alone. They are headed for the pileup as well.

When considering the scope and range of the issue, Vinas hits the nail on the head calling it:

"... a serious and terrifying reality for many U.S. manufacturers. "

I'd add that US manufacturers aren't the only ones who should be terrified. The service sector, the non-profit world and our public service agencies are all adopting what Vinas calls the "tool age" approach to implementing "lean", all the while thinking they are emulating Toyota.

Vinas wraps up the reveiw with another strong warning:

"It's no longer enough to reduce costs and improve efficiency; companies must tap the only resources that make them unique -- people and their ideas and abilities. Strategy deployment, done properly and consistently, will do that. "

I agree to a point: strategy deployment (or by other names annual planning, policy deployment and the western version of hoshin kanri) is an imperative.

I've seen too many "executive" teams in the region and even internationally who lack the skill to execute. The root cause is complex. The deployment piece of the system alone is not the piece that unlocks the potential found in the human spirit. And, this is exact point on which I would like to respectfully disagree with Vinas: it is the implementation of the system as a whole that unlocks the human potential through development and through a delicate balance with operations.

True hoshin kanri links up with other system components and the connective philosophy that underpins it. For example, when a leader brings a goal or an objective to his or her team, the team must be at a very high state of team development in order to accurately assess the target and develop their methods and actions to attain the objective. This high state of team development is based on a high state of individual development. All of this "development" is found as the organization seeks the balance between the human and the operational.

Like so many other "lean" tools, strategy deployment sans the supporting system may bring some early euphoria, but is doomed to fail in its broader intent over the long haul. Conversely, policy deployment done in the context of the full supporting system will bring a rich harvest as it works with the other parts of the system.

One last parting thought: Dennis uses the now-very-popular method of sneaking good leadership practice into the form of a story (just remember that the parable was Jesus' form of choice for teaching the faith ... there is nothing new under the sun!). In the parable, the fictitious company, Atlas, finds itself in a real fix. Ready to sell the company and cut his losses, the owner - Bill Harman - realizes that he is in the midst of a personal crisis. Interesting... Vinas says,

"The owner, Bill Harman, is on the verge of selling the company when he has a personal crisis: Who am I? What do I believe in?"

...what a pair of interesting questions! Notice that the point of crisis brings the owner to question his very system of beliefs: his convictions, his values.

Make no mistake: implementing the real deal - the whole system - takes personal courage on the part of the ultimate leader in the company. To be honest, I've only seen that kind of courage in a few people. Still, I have hope. I hope because I was born and raised here among the rolling hills of the Alleghenies. As these humble mountains have seen storms come and go, so I believe - in the deepest part of me - that our region will weather the storm and remain unmoved. It will require incredible leaders, the like of which we haven't seen in awhile. I believe they are right here among us. I believe you may even be one.

Hats off to both Dennis and Vinas for their efforts to bring reform during this next season in "lean", what Vinas has aptly dubbed the management age of lean. It is refreshing to hear a few "voices in the desert" calling us into the truth for a brighter future.

OE Leadership a good thing...

2007-09-07T15:31:00.000-04:00

A group of six people recently completed our OE Leadership Series, Session One. We had a good time with each other. The conversations were open and honest. The content appeared to be helpful.

If you still want to sign up for the remaining three sessions, please give us a call or register online. We are also open to doing a make-up session if we get 5 or more additional people. So, gather some friends and sign them up.

US Navy embraces "lean sigma"

2007-08-20T08:43:00.000-04:00

I was doing some Navy work this weekend and found a couple of e-training courses in "lean". One of them was actually right on par with our interpretations. The interesting thing is the way the Navy has tackled a behemoth transformation. To be honest, there is little documentation of them using six sigma. Instead, they've focused on the human and operational balance and are working at the cultural level to make planned change. See a short but sweet article here.

While they say they are using theory of constraints and six sigma, the only evidence I find is the application of Operational Excellence. Note what the Navy's lead admiral has to say here.

OE for Leadership: Facing the Coming Storm

2007-08-19T14:54:00.000-04:00

We are hosting a new series that begins on 5 September 2007, here at the College. The series is for aspring mid-level to seasoned senior leaders. We'll spend the first of four days (one each quarter) exploring the depths of the leadership components of the OE system. OE won't work without leadership throughout the organization. Our goal is to share some of the key secrets that unlock the potential of some of the tools you probably already have in place. We're keeping the class size to a minimum (10 seats) so that the discussions can go deep. The atmosphere will be informal and relaxed - the perfect environment to think deeply about leading the way into the future. The cost for one session is $500 or you can reserve a seat for all four sessions for $1800. As always the Saint Vincent food service will knock your socks off. Call us today at 724.805.2142 or register online at the Saint Vincent website.

Welcome to KCOE's Blog

2007-08-19T14:39:00.001-04:00

Yep, we thought we'd get hip to some technology that supports the process of communicating to our faithful following of hardcore networkers. So, we (OK, well, I...) plan on doing a posting every once in awhile to keep you posted on events and our latest rants. Bookmark this page (or whatever you do these days to keep checking us out). Thanks for looking at us.

The Management (OK, well, David...)