A Report Out is an event that is usually put on by the members of a kaizen team after their improvement event is completed. It is a presentation where the whole team can share their problem solving process and celebrate any positive results that have been seen from their improvements. During a Report Out the team might discuss what their area of focus was, their current and future state, metrics, results, and their newspaper items. But why should a team report out? I’ll share a couple reasons!
In addition to being an opportunity for a team to celebrate their results, it also provides an opportunity for the team to reflect on their experiences and provide clarity for the team at the end of an event. Reporting out on the newspaper items from the event can also help with accountability and sustaining of improvements. In Auxiliary Services at Michigan Tech, we even ask past improvement events that have already reported out to give updates on past kaizen events at our monthly Report Outs. This provides the team with an opportunity to give updates on accomplishing their newspaper items or to share any further “PDCA-ing” of the process since the kaizen event.
Having a Report Out event is also a way to share an improvement with anyone who needs to know about the improvement (if they might be effected by the change) or anyone who just might be interested! Reporting out on an improved process could be a way to share current best practices with another team that works with the same or a similar process. For example, if one dining hall on campus made improvements to a particular process, such as, how they schedule their student workers, they could report out to share the improvement with the other dining halls on campus.
So, why report out? To celebrate, reflect, and share!