WK 2 – 04 DISCUSSION “Kaizen”

[Mike Hincks]

Chapter 6 of Lean For Dummies introduces you to the Kaizen method for tacking improvements. Kaizen is a powerful way to empower and enable all MasterControl employees in improving our operations.

There are just a few key points from Chapter 6 that we, as a Operational Excellence Improvement Team, must understand thoroughly. They are:

·         Top of page 119. Kaizen is directed along two line: 1) Kaizens focused on establishing a standard for processes which are not operationally stable (called “Kaizen maintenance” in the Lean book), and 2) Kaizens focused on improving and advancing a process beyond the level of its current standard (called “Kaizen improvement” in the Lean book). Much of our initial work at MasterControl will be first creating operational stability and then embarking on continual improvement.

·         Bottom of page 119. The various management roles of Kaizen. In our MasterControl terminology, I think the executive team will need to take on the role of “Senior management” outlined in the Lean book; VPs, Directors, and Managers will take on the role of “Middle management”; and Team and Group Leads will fill the role of “Supervisors.”

·         Adapting the concepts found on pages 124-126, beginning in Q2 this year, MasterControl will be systematically conducting individual Kaizens (each employee using Kaizen to improve their personal work), department Kaizens (multiple members of the same functional group using Kaizen to improve the work of their department), and cross-functional Kaizens (a team of people from different departments working on processes that cross functional boundaries). Individuals and departments will be responsible to use MBOs and other incentives to help their employees engage in individual and department Kaizens. Beginning in Q2, on a once a month schedule, members of the Improvement Team will begin leading week-long cross-functional Kaizen teams. These cross functional Kaizen teams will follow the workshop agenda shown in Table 6-1. At the end of their Kaizen week, they will have an improved process implemented and in place with all associated documentation and training.

With these key points in mind, what do you see the challenges being for you on the Improvement Team to initiate and maintain ongoing individual and department Kaizens as well as leading monthly week-long cross-functional Kaizens?

Please include your thoughts on this discussion question as a response to this posting. To create and send your response, just select this note and click on the Reply button, add your file or photo, and click Send. Also be sure to read and comment on the ideas posted by the other Leadership Team members.

Thanks!

[Ryan]

One challenge we are already facing with the kaizen we implemented to check the KB and then go to a mentor, as well as using the description and notes templates, is not everyone follows it even if reminded repeatedly. 

How do we improve the KB if no one refers to it to see if the details are there? 

How do we decrease the number of resources being occupied on a single issue if people still uses the skype chat to as every question without going to the KB or mentor before?

How does salesforce improve as a resource unless the information is more easily attainable?

For Kaizens to be SUCCESSFULLY implemented EVERYONE must follow them. Otherwise we are spinning our wheels and not improving, especially at the team or work group level. 

[David Healey]

The first challenge I can see being a potential problem for all three Kaizen types is keeping focus.  The leader of the Kaizen would have to maintain a specific schedule to keep everyone focused.  S/he would as well need to maintain good notes during each meeting so when ideas come to a final idea, or conclusion, that conclusion could be written down and kept all together with other conclusions to form a waste-less system.

Another potential problem is keeping the individuals involved in the Kaizen comfortable and motivated especially for topics that may be somewhat dry in nature, or uneventful.  Establishing and keeping motivation to continue to use the individual's best thoughts and ideas would be difficult, yet would yield the greatest incite. 

[estolberg]

In terms of initiating departmental Kaizens, this is something that is going to need to be done during team meetings. Right now, I don't see much engagement during those meetings, so deciding on an idea, getting support, and gathering details seems like a long shot in my eyes. True, it only needs to be 'multiple members of the same functional group' but involving everyone within Tech Support will go a long way when it comes to buy-in and ownership of the idea. I also don't see a very solid understanding by most team members on what an individual Kaizen is, myself somewhat included. I think the book states it best: "Supervisors make sure that Kaizen is occurring on both an individual and a workgroup level." Not to point a finger, but I feel the team leads should be more involved at this level in order to effectively ensure that best practices are developed and followed by all.

I would love to be involved in a cross-functional Kaizen team. The chance to take a process, improve it, and implement it within such a short amount of time would be an amazing accomplishment. I think the toughest part would be to not point fingers at other departments for our failures, but instead really setting up the trace and determining with facts where the bottlenecks are.

[Jared Allen]

The challenges I see are dedicating the time to the kaizen while keeping up on your existing workload, and as Ryan pointed out, getting everyone on board with the new policies and procedures.

[ajones]

I have to agree with both Ryan and Jared on this.  The time and dedication to a group kaizen is not available to us right now with our current workload.  We need to whole group's input and the mutual agreement on the outcome in order to make it successful. 

[Chanse]

I agree that the difficulty with a department kaizen will be having time to work on it and getting everybody's buy in.  Now that we have 2 shifts this will be even more difficult.  If the department kaizen is discussed in the weekly team meeting, those of us on swings, currently just me but probably others in the future, will be unable to participate in those meetings.

[Ely Mcginty]

The challenges I see are first trying to get all team members to participate in all aspects when there are so many other things we need to be doing to help the customer currently. I also see an issue with our team coming up with new ideas because we are so focused on our current work.

[bmiller]

Ryan has some important points he has brought up.  I believe to achieve bigger goals, we need to focus on 100% excelence on small key indicators that will lead us to our goals.  In this case Kaizens.  I think there may have been too many things implimented at once.  This leads others to pick and chose what they will follow, but if we only impliment the notes untill it is perfected, then we move onto looking up things in the KB as the first step, we may see improvement faster.  I believe there are normalized steps that can be implimented for each of these key indicators, that will help us be 100% reliable at these key indicators that we should look more closely at.