The Lean Enterprise Institute is putting on a free webinar this Thursday. Check it out here: http://www.lean.org/events/june_23_webinar.cfm
LEI is a great resource for lean training and networking. I have been to two workshops and highly recommend them!
Karen Martinposted a link to a blog on her facebook page. It shed some light on on the daunting Lean Journey. This was a refreshing post about what the lean journey, or lean maturity rather, looks and “feels” like. Click HERE to read the blog post.
Last week I had the pleasure of facilitating a brainstorming session for the administrative staff and their supervisors for an entire department. The goal of the session was to provide an environment for the administrative staff to share their work and job experiences so that improvements could be identified and collaborations could be sought. To set the tone for the day, I began by introducing the Japanese term Yokoten. It was a new term for me. Isn’t it a fun word to say?!! Here is what it means:
Yoko = horizontal, lateral, sideways
Tenkai = develop, deploy, advance
Yokoten = horizontal deployment
Shared learning, based on experience or observation, across an organization.
Yokoten is:
– Knowledge and best practice sharing
– Horizontal, peer-to-peer dissemination of information
– Spreading wisdom to areas who have similar processes
– Communication – sharing ideas, thoughts
– Going and see
– An understanding of WHY something is a best practice
– Copy pluskaizen
Two students were hired and began work this week to support summer improvement events on campus. Feel free to contact them, or myself at wmdavis@mtu.edu, if you’d like to make some improvements this summer. Here is a personal messages from each of the new Student Process Improvement Coordinators…
Hello All!
I am Allie Olano, one of the new Process Improvement Coordinators. I will be working for Theresa Coleman-Kaiser and Wendy Davis on Lean initiatives and Continuous Improvement throughout campus. I am from Tecumseh, Michigan and I am a 5thyear Business Management and Marketing student at Michigan Tech. I also work for the Dining Services department as the Student Manager for McNair Dining Hall, and I am also the assistant to the Associate Director of Dining Services, Bill Hall.
I am currently working on a few improvement projects, one being Batch vs. Flow of invoices from one department to another. Human perception makes us believe that if we batch our processes it is faster than performing one-piece flow. However, one-piece flow is proven to result in faster production time and with fewer errors due to more efficient work. Another project I am working on is bringing back the Secret Shopper program in the Campus Bookstore, to measure customer service. We are looking into programs that would give timely feedback on a more frequent basis and also address what the customer sees as value to them.
This is just a little bit about what I am currently working on. If you have any ideas or thoughts, please feel free to contact me at anolano@mtu.edu. Have a nice day!
Allie
Hey there,
I am Megan Johnson, a new Student Process Improvement Coordinator working along with Theresa Coleman-Kaiser, Wendy Davis, and Allie Olano. I am a third year Biomedical Engineering student with a Biological Sciences minor, and I’m from the small town of Esko, MN. I’m still in the process of learning a lot about Lean, but I am excited to put my new knowledge into action soon! One of my first improvement projects this summer will be with Merchandising, looking for ways to reduce the time spent on special orders. An example of a special order that comes through Merchandising is shirts that are purchased specifically for special events on campus.
I can be contacted at meganj@mtu.edu. Have a great day!
Megan
Spring and early summer can be a slower period for many departments on campus. This is a great time to set aside a few days to make some improvements in your area or within the processes that you work with. Here are some of the improvement events taking place this spring on campus:
What should you be cleaning this spring?
The Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) cycle is the backbone of an improvement event. It is a four step model for carrying out a change. Here is a real life example of what PDCA can look like:
Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change. Collect Baseline Data and gather information.
Auxiliary Services identified an area that needed improvement. Problem Statement:
“Cash accounting and financial reporting is decentralized and inconsistent among the operational units of the Memorial Union, Dining Services, Merchandising and Rozsa Center. This is causing: unclean month end reports, delays in deposits and remittances, and stopped work when employees are out.”
Do: Observe and analyze the current process, design an improved process, test the change.
A team was formed and met for five days. They analyzed problems and brainstormed solutions. As a result, by day five a new cash accounting process was implemented.
A hub and spoke model was created, and the 16 operational units began sending their accounting to the newly created “cash hub.” Each operational unit would submit a daily cash bag to the cash hub. The hub model allowed for the following:
Check: Review the new process and monitor the results. Is it working?
Cash hub staff continued to collect data and performed additional monitoring of the new system. A few areas for improvement were observed:
Adjust: Modify and make improvements as needed. Continue to check and adjust, or PDCA again if the change didn’t work.
Standardized work sheets and visual aids were created to help the staff at each operational unit submit an error free bag. Feedback loops were also created for error tracking. As a result of their monitoring and continued improvements, the Auxiliary Services cash hub has been seeing results.
The Continuous Improvement website will be launched later next week. There will be a presentation of the website at the Staff Council meeting on Thursday, April 21st at 12:00 PM in the MUB Datolite Room 100. Everyone is invited to attend.
The website launch will also be announced in Tech Today!
Today the Continuous Improvement website will be sent to a select group of individuals to undergo beta testing. A group has been selected to help rid the site of any broken links or bugs and to help ready it for it’s public release in one of the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned for the launch!
Hello Everyone! Welcome to the Continuous Improvement Blog.
This blog is set up to complement the Continuous Improvement Website (which will be on-line soon!), to keep our campus community up-to date and involved in University improvement efforts. Here are a few things you can expect hear about through this blog:
I am also very open to suggestions you might have for future blog posts!
-Wendy Davis