Happy holidays from the folks at the Office of Continuous Improvement!
If you’re in the mood for a little Lean Christmas cheer, check out the song “Gemba Clause is Coming to Town” at Mark Graban’s LeanBlog:
http://www.leanblog.org/2009/12/gemba-claus-is-comin-to-town/
One of the pillars of lean thinking is Jidoka. Lean Lexicon defines Jidoka as “Providing machines and operators the ability to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and immediately stop work. This enable operations to build in quality at each process and to separate men and machines for more efficient work.” Within Jidoka, andon is the visual management tool used as the signal to call for help and stop production when that abnormal condition is recognized.
Some of the requirements for this type of visual management include
I tend to think of andon as the worker on a factory line pulling a cord to stop production, but it can also be an automated system or in an office setting. As I was preparing a teachback on andon for a department report out the office printer started beeping and blinking. I immediately got up, glanced at the screen and grabbed a new ream of paper to put in. When I got back to my desk it hit me that this was an example of andon. The printer encountered an abnormal condition (out of paper), stopped production (my print job was on hold), and indicated the problem through the flashing light and beeping. On the screen is exactly what the problem is and the steps you would need to take to correct it.
Another example of an automatic andon is the low fuel light on your vehicle. The light is the indicator and you, as the operator, know you should go to the gas station and fill up the tank to correct it. There are more examples of andon around us than my originally narrow view of them thought!
Are you always searching for lost files or tools? Do items from your area seem to just “go missing”? Is it hard to find files on your shared network drive?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, the 5S Blitz might be for you! The 5S Blitz is a Lean Workshop for those who are interested in learning more about Lean and in using 5S to improve their (physical or virtual) work spaces. 5S can be applied to your personal desk, a lab, a supply area, a network drive, and more! The workshop will be taking place on January 28, 2014.
In the 5S Blitz, participants will have a learning session in the morning, and then will be able to go to their work space to start implementing 5S with the help of a campus Lean facilitator before coming back in the afternoon to share their progress and any lessons learned. Throughout the following two weeks, participants can continue to work on their 5S project before sharing their experience in an open report out.
If you’re interested in participating, you can find out more and register today on the Lean Workshops page of our website. You can participate individually or with others from your work area. All you need to register is a 5S project idea!
Our University recently switched to a new compact toilet paper from Georgia Pacific. Being a Lean practitioner, I have thought about this toilet paper change every trip to the bathroom since. I think of each instance of waste that was eliminated from the simple change in design of the toilet paper roll.
On the right you have your standard toilet paper roll…..and on the left is the new type of toilet paper we are using:
I have compiled some of my best thoughts on the major waste reductions from this new toilet paper roll design, though I cannot be certain that all are recognized by the stakeholders:
Guest post by Theresa Coleman-Kaiser, Assistant Vice President for Administration
Last year the State of Michigan embarked on a journey to bring Lean to state government as part of the Good Government transformation. The “Lean Greenbelt” program was offered through a collaboration with Oakland University and the Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC), and to date 52 people have been certified, representing every state agency.
Through the MLC, I had the opportunity to volunteer as a coach to individuals in the third cohort of greenbelt candidates as they worked on their first projects of implementing lean in their state agencies. It was my job to provide guidance, feedback, and act as a sounding board to issues experienced on the projects, since I had walked in their shoes in my own Lean Journey.
My three candidates’ departments and projects were:
Without any background in state government, I was apprehensive about the coach’s role but was pleasantly surprised to find that the processes identified for improvement were very much like processes I would find here at Michigan Tech. In fact, we had done an IRB kaizen event here several years ago that I was familiar with. Many of their questions and concerns were exactly the same as I had when I first began my Lean journey, such as which tool to use at any given point in time and how to best communicate improvements.
The candidates utilized a pull system for their coaching needs, and the way this worked is that I only provided coaching when they asked for it. To familiarize myself with their projects, I first helped them develop and revise their project charter, which is similar to a kaizen profile that we would use at Michigan Tech. This was accomplished through email and individual telephone calls. I also set up a weekly conference call with the promise that I would be on the phone line to answer their questions during those weekly “office hours” if they needed it. Almost every week I had at least one candidate calling in with questions or asking for suggestions on how to approach their lean implementation.
On October 17th I was able to travel to Lansing to see the final report-outs of all 19 greenbelt candidates, including my own three coachees. This was an extremely rewarding experience for me, to be able to share my knowledge and lessons learned from my own Lean practice. I am also proud to know that these projects have produced time savings, financial savings, improved morale and have reduced waste to make Michigan an even better place!
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!
With the semester more than half way over, Leaders in Continuous Improvement is gaining popularity and momentum throughout campus with the help of some on campus resources. The Lode, Michigan Tech’s student run newspaper, featured Leaders in Continuous Improvement in the Student Org. Spotlight of their latest paper which was released Friday, November 1st. You can read the article here. The Student News Briefs have also featured Leaders in Continuous Improvement in their recent writings. To read what they had to say about Leaders in Continuous Improvement click here. If you’d like to know more about Leaders in Continuous contact the LCI President Megan Johnson at meganj@mtu.edu.
Although not a Lean specific concept, “Start, Stop, Continue” is one way to gain quick feedback on process improvements and rapid experimentation. Typically “Start, Stop, Continue” is done in a group or team environment and involves open discussion. The goal is to take a look at something and determine how it is performing. This could be a process, a strategic vision, or even an individual’s performance (in a one-on-one setting).
Participants are told to write down their ideas on what should be started, what should be stopped, and what should continue.
For example:
After everyone has done some brainstorming on their own, the group can come back together and prioritize action items. This can be done by an affinity diagram or any prioritization method. Overall, the “Start, Stop, Continue” method lends itself to quick discussions that can focus on anything from a company’s strategy, to coaching an individual employee.
The Socratic Method, or Socratic Questioning, is a type of questioning used to encourage critical thinking, analyze assumptions, determine knowns and unknowns, and help stimulate open discussion.
There are six main types of Socratic questions:
As a student, I have frequently experienced Socratic questioning firsthand in the classroom. Using Socratic questions furthers understanding by helping us as students think more deeply about what we’re learning, challenge the concepts, and be more involved in discussion.
For example, let’s say a professor is explaining an equation used to model a phenomenon; perhaps the flow of blood through a vessel or analyzing the forces acting on an object. Often when modeling a behavior we make assumptions about variables that we can neglect to simplify the equation, and these assumptions can lead to Socratic questions:
While Socratic Questioning is a useful practice in the classroom, it’s also a great tool for problem solving in Lean processes. Using Socratic Questioning can help a kaizen team with opening up problems, analyzing the process, and engaging in discussion.
(Image from: http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/WebBased/questions.htm)
