Continuous Improvement Blog

Those in leadership roles may argue that the work they do is not “routine,” that their day-to-day work can not be made standard.  However, in Lean practice, all work can be highly specified and standardized.  Leadership Standardized Work (LSW) is a developed practice leaders use to create specific content, sequence, timing, and outcomes for the work they do.  In simplistic terms, it is a checklist for daily, weekly, monthly, annual leadership activities.  I am beginning my personal journey to develop LSW for my work.  I am very new to this practice and I will be learning along the way.  Here is what I am doing this week, Week 1:

• I am currently tracking what I do each day, down to 15 minute increments.  Today is day 3.  This will give me an idea of how I currently use my time.
• I am also keeping a list of deliverables that I need to do each day, week, month, quarterly and annually.  For me, this includes things such as the quarterly Lean Overview presentations for employees, Board of Control reports, monthly Facilitator Meeting, leading Staff Council Meetings, daily group-ups…I will stop there, you get the idea.    
•  Job reflection: What is the purpose of my job?  What can I continue doing, begin doing, or do more of (to do my job well).  Where is the “waste” in my work?

My plans for the next step: I will use my findings to begin drafting my LSW checklist.   Check back in a few weeks for an update!

-Wendy

Muda is the Japanese term for waste.  There are eight forms of muda:

• Motion—unnecessary movement of people
• Waiting—people waiting for people, information, products, equipment, etc.
• Movement—unnecessary movement of “things”
• Correction—incomplete or incorrect information
• Over Processing—doing more than necessary to produce a product/service
• Overproduction—doing/making more than needed
• Inventory—excess supplies, paperwork, information or equipment
• Knowledge—not utilizing an individual’s full capacity (knowledge, skills, aptitude, and/or creativity)

Nick Sirdenis, General Manager at Mont Ripley Ski Hill, recently shared a short story of his day-to-day experience with muda – in the form of overproduction.   Mont Ripley uses snow guns to produce snow, supplementing when Mother nature doesn’t come through.  “A good 18 inched of base (snow) will last through any thaw” Nick stated.  However, he continued with “when the snow guns are blasting and the ground is covered it is hard to tell whether there is one inch of coverage or four feet.”  The Ski Hill staff then use drills to make a measurement of the snow coverage. 

Daily snow production changes with the weather, so Nick and his staff are always watching the forecast and measuring snow to make sure portions on the hill do not get too much (overproduction).   To date this season, Nick estimates the guns have allowed them to be open for an additional 40-45 days. 

Check out the Ski Hill on Facebook

(Photo of a snow gun at Mont Ripley)

By Allie Olano, Student Process Improvement coordinator

When I entered my first Kaizen event I was very overwhelmed.  I was a Student Manager at the time and our Kaizen was focusing on the efficiency and flow of student workers during our busy times in the Residential Dining Halls.  The facilitator walked us through the four step problem solving process, which was something I had never heard before. 

We started going through all the steps and I was able to participate and give my perspective on things.  We were able to brainstorm and formulate countermeasures that would later be implemented to help solve our problem.

After the Kaizen was over, it really got me thinking about my job and how I could apply this process to day-to-day tasks that often have problems.  I took the task of our substitution-card process and through the problem solving process was able to come to the conclusion that the root cause was actually overscheduling due to the process I was using.  My student workers were signing up for more hours than what they wanted, and I was scheduling them based on those hours not knowing it was too much.  In turn this lead to more sub cards being posted and the sub cards not being filled.  To solve the problem I rescheduled my workers to where it was more manageable with their class schedule and I also hired a couple more students that just filled sub cards.

I found that going through the process is very beneficial because you are able to reveal the true cause of your problem and you are able to find a solution to solve the problem.  I encourage you to contact a facilitator if you a have problem and would like to work through it using the problem solving process.