Click HERE to go back to e-Newsletter Archives page.
The LEAN e-NEWSLETTER: #001
March 26, 2006
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Welcome to our first newsletter for our customers and friends who are attempting to implement Lean Manufacturing practices.
Our organization’s vision is to be the catalyst for organizations to become more globally competitive. We hope they will avoid the normal problems when implementing Lean Manufacturing that have caused many companies to abandon their efforts within the first year of implementation.
This newsletter is for you to read, copy, and use the information in your implementation efforts. If you have suggestions for subjects to be discussed, articles to be covered, or want to contribute a case study about a project that you have worked on, please contact us.
We look forward to your feedback, comments, and await the opportunity to help you make you Lean Manufacturing implementation successful!
Mike Wader
FEATURE ARTICLE
The Top 7 Mistakes To Avoid When Implementing Your Lean Production System
By Mike Wader
1. Not understanding management’s role in implementing “Lean”
Many organizations want to run before they know how to walk. Perform a Lean Assessment to evaluate the climate for change and the severity of the Hidden Wastes that exist within the current operations. Then when you are convinced changes are needed, train the senior managers and executives first. Not training the executives first is a critical mistake. They need to understand your plan for a new production system and give their inputs to how they can support this new system. These leaders need to be the founders of your Production System and create a long term vision for international competitiveness. Their continuous support will be a major deciding factor to the longevity of your new production system. A few of these executives will need to become the “Champions” for this new initiative and directly support those implementers who are doing the improvements down on the line.
2. Building a “Production System” that is not flexible.
Too many organizations try to build the “perfect” Production System and wind up disappointed with something less than perfection. If you look outside the windows of your organization you will see a landscape that is neither Japanese nor American. Therefore your production system will have to have an Indian twist to it and not be exactly like the Toyota Production System or Ford Production System. Be willing to get started with something that may be less than perfect, but something that is flexible and can be updated or changed as demands change. From mass-production shops to one-of Job Shops, each company will have a unique production system geared to meet their individual needs. Lean Manufacturing techniques should be a critical part of the design of your Production System.
3. Not starting with “the Basics”
Managers must get involved and lead the initiative. Some managers say, "We can't afford the time or money to implement Lean Manufacturing practices."
The truth is that you can NOT afford to NOT implement Lean Manufacturing practices. |
Some organizations want to rush in and “fix" problems before realizing that hidden problem areas may exist for years after you have started. If they were easy to spot and fix they would have already been fixed. Develop and stick to a timeline for training, mentoring and coaching a group of personnel who will become you Lean implementers. Design a Training Program that becomes part of your Production System which outlines how an individual can begin training and how they can advance to higher levels of expertise and accomplishment. Begin to train the implementers with the Basics of 5-S, Visual Controls, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) before advancing to the more complex Lean Tools. Before a new production system is started it should have a clean and visually controlled environment to begin with. Then a good Value Stream Map should be developed that identifies opportunities to use additional Lean Tools like set-up and change-over reduction, single piece flow, JIT and Kanbans. Your new Production System should establish a procedure for implementing Lean Manufacturing techniques in each new area where they are applied. Each area, including administration and material storage, should have a format to follow to implement new layouts for improved flow, standardized work procedures and enhanced visual controls.
4. Changing work areas without changing habits
Organizations often begin with a small group of people being trained and then these individuals start to change work areas with out educating the workers first. Old habits applied in a new work area usually leads to disaster. Help the workers to understand why they can not continue their old habits. Make sure they understand and support the vision developed by management. Design work areas to prevent workers from being able to practice their old habits and reward those that are able to change and sustain the new habits. Your new Production System should outline the expected behaviors or habits needed to be successful within your organization. This change of habits will require efforts from all levels of the organization and may last for months or years. Find those workers who are able to change quickly and get them involved in giving suggestions to changes to be made. Take the time to establish new habits, recognize those workers who comply, and monitor the results to prevent falling back to the “old ways.”
5. Measuring everything and responding to nothing.
Some organizations establish a long list of “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs) to measure their performance or compliance to the new production system. While these measurements can be helpful, if there are too many they can become confusing. “Which indicators do I respond to today” becomes the production managers cry and he is continually fighting fires on different fronts. Your Production System should be driven by no more than five Key Indicators, and they should be understood be people at all levels of your organization. Indicators like: process flow interruptions, overall equipment effectiveness, and on-time deliveries are just a few of the candidates. Defect rates, unscheduled downtime, and overtime are measurements that can be directly related to the bottom line profits. While measuring key indicators is important, what you do with the information gathered is even more important. Instead of fighting fires, looking for the root causes from the information gathered and setting specific team actions to attack these root causes will usually yield huge improvements. If you have 20 Key Performance Indicators you usually have to respond to the one that managements want today, versus the ones that may be root causes of several problems. Meanwhile the remaining KPIs raise their ugly heads and then management wants to know why they aren’t being fixed. Pick a few, and measure them well. Then, stabilize and improve them using the Lean Tools and in the future you may measure others that are not under control yet.
6. Analysis Paralysis
Don't be frozen by Analysis Paralysis and take forever to get started making improvements!
|
In an effort to get a process improvement perfect we tend to analyze it to death before starting any action. It is much better to take the continuous improvement idea of Kaizen and work on improving a little during each improvement activity. If you are going to use a Rapid Improvement Process (5-day activity) to attack a problem, do not expect to reach perfection within five days. Your team can make significant improvements and greatly enhance the performance of an operation without making it perfect. A five day event can reduce set-up or change-over time, rearrange a cell layout to allow single piece flow, identify and establish kanbans for a work area or reduce the cycle time within a production line. It is more important that you have teams that are actively attacking and improving processes than having teams that are spending huge amounts of time analyzing processes before attacking them. If they don’t reach the desired levels of improvement the first time, they can attack it again, and again, until the desired levels are net.
7. Not getting outside help
Many organizational executives read a book and then tell someone to try an implement what they read about. This almost always assures disaster or a problematic beginning to a new program. Not only is training needed, but also outside thinking is required. Most people are working too close to their own processes to see the problems hidden within the processes. They are not use to thinking “outside the box” or able to step back from their processes to see them in a new light. This most often takes an outsider who has a fresh set of eyes and unbiased thinking about a process and can see the wastes that are the root cause of the poor performing process. With training and coaching teams can apply the Lean Production techniques and identify root causes, improve performance, and establish habits and techniques that will sustain these gains. But remember, “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got”!
Written by Michael Wader, President of LeanPlus, India located in Chennai, India and CEO of Leadership Excellence International Inc. providing LeanPlus training and consulting services. He can be contacted at mikew@leanplus.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a Question for Mike Wader and the LeanPlus professionals?
Want to know more about Lean Manufacturing? Have a perplexing manufacturing problem? LeanPlus welcomes your thoughts. Post them online at www.leanplus.com/contact/
or send questions directly to newsletter@leanplus.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALL CONTENTS OF THIS E-MAIL ARE COPYRIGHT 2006 BY LEANPLUS MANUFACTURING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: REPRODUCING ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF LEAN PLUS MANUFACTURING, INC.. Protected by U.S. Copyright Law {Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319}: Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Are you having trouble receiving our messages? Ensure that The LEAN e-NEWSLETTER gets delivered to your email box, click below:
www.leanplus.com/whitelisting/
If you'd like to suggest The LEAN e-NEWSLETTER to a friend or associate, please point them to:
www.leanplus.com/referral/
To SUBSCRIBE TO THE LEAN E-NEWSLETTER, please visit:
www.leanplus.com/newsletter/
or email newsletter@leanplus.com
NOTE: If URLs do not appear as live links in your e-mail program, please cut and paste the full URL into the location or address field of your browser. Disclaimer: The inclusion of an ad in The LEAN e-NEWSLETTER does not constitute an explicit endorsement.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, Click HERE
To cancel or for any other subscription issues, write us at:
LeanPlus Manufacturing, Inc.
Attn: The LEAN e-Newsletter
13950 Westchester Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921
Ph. (719) 330-7220 / Fax. (719) 487-0865
------------------------------------------------------------------------
All material on this site is provided for information only and may not be construed as financial advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate financial professionals on any matter relating to their accounting and finances.
www.leanplus.com
