Who Must Lead Lean?

As my knowledge of Lean has grown, I've come to some important discoveries.  First is that Lean was not a collection of tools to eliminate waste.  Later, it became clear that Lean is a business system.  Using the Socratic method, I’d like to walk readers through a process of discovery intended to answer the question: Who must lead a Lean transformation?

BUSINESS SYSTEM

Who in your organization is currently responsible for all the business systems?  If your organization were to change to a Lean business system, who could make the decision?

VALUE STREAM MAPS
Value Stream Maps (VSM) are strategic tools used for three distinct purposes:

1.   Capture current (baseline) conditions
2.   Identify obstacles to flow.
3.   Establish the priority of obstacle removal and the specific Lean tool to be used for each.

Who in the organization is best positioned to use that information?

LEAN TOOLS

The use of Lean tools (most frequently in Kaizen events) requires some very specific pre-work.  Someone has to determine:

·      where to begin the Kaizen (as indicated by the VSM)?

·      what Lean tool to use?

·      what coordination needs to be effected with process owners, suppliers and customers?

·      who will be on the Kaizen team from:

o   the process owners?

o   the customers of the process?

o   the suppliers to the process?

·      how much the value stream needs to build ahead, or offload, in advance of the week-long shutdown of the process?

Who in the organization is best positioned to make those decisions?

LEAN CULTURE

You’ll note that, thus far, I’ve kept the discussion to the use of Lean tools, but what about culture?  Isn’t Lean also about changing the culture?  What layer of the organization has the most direct impact on the culture? 

One way of answering this question is to ask, if anyone else in the organization can override the decisions of the person you’d recommend?  If they can, doesn’t it stand to reason that the head of the overriding body is really better suited to change the culture?  Doesn’t it make sense that if you ask yourself that questions enough times, you get to a single entity?

The answers to all the who questions should have been the same.  If yours were not, you need to go back and examine your answers.  In the end, there is only one entity in every organization that can meet all those requirements and that’s the most senior leader.

If you will accept that premise, does it make sense to start a Lean transformation anywhere below that level?  If you think that by demonstrating that Lean works, you can win the hearts and minds of the most senior leader and their staff, it's highly improbable.  In 30 years of practice, I’ve yet to see it happen even once.

Admittedly, some attempts lasted longer than others, but in the end, without the commitment of the most senior leader and their staff, the attempt failed.  As Dr. Deming would have said, “What a waste.”

Kaikaku - Quantum Change (Part 2)

Kaikaku: How do we do it?  What’s it worth to us?

Let me open with an apology.  Back in December 2013, I promised that my next post would be about how to conduct a Kaikaku event and what you could expect from one.   Then life got in the way.  To keep my word, here is the follow-up post.

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Dr. Deming used to say that 85% of all problems are the result of poor systems (systemic failures).  Three years before his death, he adjusted that figure to 95%.  If systemic problems are so frequent, Lean needs a tool to improve them.  That tool is Kaikaku [radical, or "quantum leap" change].

Who?

Because Kaikaku events solve problems with whole systems, they cross-disciplinary lines, so a Kaikaku event must have representatives from the system's process Suppliers, the Process performers, and process Customers.  That usually makes up a pretty large group.  

It's not uncommon for Kaikaku events to take a year or more, but most last 3-6 months.   Before you start thinking “Who won’t I miss?”  STOP!  You want to put your best people on a Kaikaku team, as they will be solving a longstanding problem that spans multiple disciplines. You'll want someone representing you that others will respect and can articulate your discipline's concerns and needs.

What?

The team will first completely document the existing process.  There are a number of useful tools for doing this, e.g. swim lanes, flow charts or, my personal favorite, an adaptation of Makigami. 

Using different colored 3” x 3” Post-It® Notes to represent every discipline involved, we create a single flowchart.  This is far more difficult that you’d think.  The reason is that, while many will assure you they know the whole process inside & out, I’ve yet to find a single person who actually does.  There are often steps performed inside one discipline that those outside that discipline never see.

Modified Makigami example below.

Once we’ve finished the modified Makigami, the team cycles back through to count the number of process steps and the number of times colors change from one process step to the next.  This is critical, since the more process steps, the longer the process Cycle Time; and because color changes represent handoffs between disciplines, and every one represents an opportunities drop the baton.

As the Kaikaku team is eliminating steps and handoffs, they are not only looking to streamline the process, but to make it more robust.

As stated earlier, a Kaikaku event can take 3-6 months; sometimes more.  It’s rare for the participants to be able to quit their day jobs and sequester themselves for that long, so teams usually meet at regular times to report on progress made against assignments handed out at the previous meeting.  

Although long, the results of a Kaikaku justify their expense.  The outcome is a process (system) that has been Beta tested - often more than once – proven to work flawlessly, documented completely, trained to all users and, only then, is it made the new standard.

Kaikaku embodies the meaning of Toyota Principle #13: “Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly.”

So, that’s a thumbnail of Kaikaku.  Give it a try.

Meanwhile, Get Lean, Stay Lean.

Lean Without Leadership

A few weeks ago I told a colleague that I wouldn’t accept a contract for a Lean transformation comprised solely of Kaizen events.  At the end of our conversation, the colleague gently suggested that I “rethink that position.”  I knew they meant well, but in that instant I realized that we had very different expectations of Lean.

What I had been telling them was that Lean without leadership, i.e. Kaizen only, was a waste of the client’s money.  Why would I say that when Kaizens have the potential to do so much good and save so much money?  Why would I do it when I know that some organizations will look elsewhere for a consulting company that will do Kaizens only?

The answer begins with Toyota principle #1: “Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.” 

I assure you that I’m not the least bit hesitant to conduct Kaizen events and save boatloads of money … but, Kaizens alone won’t transform anything for very long.  Whatever the event improves will slowly drift back to where it started, and that will leave a bitter taste in the client’s mouth.  So ask yourself, does it sound as if the Kaizen-only approach starts with a long-term philosophy?

The answer continues in stating that what does transform cultures is top-down leadership of the transformation.  Together these two components: Kaizen & Top-Down Leadership, make up the full transformational package.  Kaizen saves money; Top-Down Leadership makes it possible to sustain those gains and transform the organization into a body that will continue to make gains.

What do I mean by Top-Down Leadership?

It’s exactly what it sounds like.  Those in the top leadership positions will lead the transformation by first living Lean.  Once they’re living it, they get their subordinate leaders to live it.  In turn, the subordinate leaders will get their subordinates to live it, and so on, and so on, until all the leaders are of one mind and share common knowledge.  Just so you know, there is a specific methodology called Hoshin Kanri used to develop top-down leadership and it's not at all hard.

Isn’t expecting top-down leadership a tall order?

Absolutely!  It’s why most stick with Kaizens and why few organizations achieve what they set out to achieve; or become what they have the potential to become.

Those reading who think all is lost, take heart.  Transforming is challenging, but not impossible.  In fact, the hardest thing for leaders to do is to accept the fact that they are going to have to personally change.  If you think you won’t save money until you’re fully transformed, fear not.  You’ll save it and, if you stay the course, you’ll save and make lots more.

Just understand that it will take time, but no more than if you take a Kaizen-only approach.  The difference in outcomes, however, will be huge.

Shooting for the Moon

From the "Really Leading" Series

by Robert B. Camp

On September 12th, 1962, John Fitzgerald Kennedy stunned an audience at Rice University by announcing that the United States would go to the moon within that decade.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25G1M4EXrQ.  That challenge was fulfilled on July 20th, 1969, when Apollo II successfully set down on the moon.

One of the attributes of great leaders is that they challenge us.  They challenge us to give the full measure of who we are.  They find in us courage and skill and passion far beyond any we see within ourselves.

When we’re around such leaders, we are often frustrated by their unbending desire to achieve the impossible, yet they seek the impossible not for themselves, but for loftier reasons.  In some cases, like Kennedy’s, they seek it for all humankind.  We sometimes resent them because they require more of us than is easy, more than we had intended to give.

I had a high school football coach like that.  I was gifted to be the fastest player on my team.  I was also big and well muscled.  I should have been a natural, but my head told me that I wasn’t as good as others, and that held me back.  My coach pushed me.  He put me in situations in which I was forced to overcome the very obstacles that my mind had set.  He extracted from me more than I thought I had to give.

Great leaders do that to us.  They refuse to accept what we think we can do and push us to achieve what they somehow know we can do.  They have a vision for us and they passionately challenge us to reach it.

So, two attributes of a leader:

1. They have a vision.
2. They ignite within us skill & passion far beyond what we thought we possessed.

Kaikaku - Quantum Change (Part 1)

Kaikaku, what is it?

What can we do when we find ourselves trailing the our competition by a lot?  Kaizen could achieve the necessary change, but it would take take forever.  We need a tool that will take us from where we are, to where we need to be, in one step.  BAM!!!  KAIKAKU.  

The use of Kaikaku is often indicated when we need to change a whole system.  For instance, what if:

• it takes six weeks to simply enter a new customer order into our Sales system?  
• we have an Accounts Payable system that takes three to four weeks to perform the three-way match between PO, Receiver & Invoice?  
• our Purchasing system requires as many as 20 signatures on a purchase order before it can be executed?
• the cost to update the Engineering Change Order system, before the engineer can even set pen to paper (or mouse to CAD screen), costs over $600?
• your inventory backflush system doesn’t work and constantly creates mismatches between physical inventory, MRP and your Accounting systems?

If you think those examples are fanciful, I have worked with clients who had each of those problems.  In the case of the signatures needed to execute a PO, one client had over 100 signatures on  a PO.  Why?  Because their procedures required it.

Okay, those may not be your problems, but I can assure you, you have systemic problems.

Whatever the indication, there comes a time when we need to make some major changes to your business model.  The Lean tool used to make these changes is Kaikaku.  

In my next post, I’ll talk about how to conduct a Kaikaku event and what you can expect from it.  

Meanwhile, Get Lean, Stay Lean.

Really Leading

by Robert B. Camp

In my book, Go and See: A Journey About Getting to Lean, I make the statement: “You can’t lead from behind.”

Does that seem intuitively obvious?  Why, then, is it so common?

Why do so many leaders stay in their offices?  Why do they run things from their computers?  Why do they sift through the ashes of yesterday’s performance to try to find a path toward tomorrow?  Why do they keep their own counsel or gather subordinates who they won’t allow to challenge them?

I recall the statue of a young soldier that stands on the quad at the US Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Georgia.  The soldier holds a rifle in his left hand and has his right extended over his head motioning to those behind him to follow.  His head is turned backwards over his shoulder and his mouth is open as he yells encouragement to those behind.  Get the image?  The caption below the statue reads: “Follow Me.”

Leaders get out front.  

Leaders go first.  

Leaders show by example.

In the next few posts, I’ll talk about some of the behaviors of leaders I respect.  

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Boards (Part 2)

When you visit a KPI board, what are you looking for?  Number 1: you’re looking to ensure the charts are all present and up-to-date.  If they’re not, you need to be unrelenting until they are.  That’s like a subordinate showing up to a meeting without his assignment complete.  UNACCEPTABLE.  It’s as much as yelling, “What you tell me isn’t important.”

Why make such a big deal?  Because you’re changing the culture, and if one of your subordinates isn’t changing with you, they need to understand it’s not “optional.”  In this new culture it’s change or perish.

Besides, your subordinates aren’t the only ones looking at the boards.  In time, you’re going to create a culture in which everyone looks to the charts to see how they’re doing.  If they see someone who isn’t keeping up, they will believe you weren’t really serious about all this Lean stuff.  Is that the message you intend to send?

Although the charts tell an important story, what you’re really looking for are the action items flowing from the charts.   Again, an example:  You arrive at the chart.  What should you expect?  The answer is that you should see an Action Item sheet like that above.  The Action Item sheet should explain what the group is doing about problems they are encountering.  

You also want to be checking to see that Action deadlines (Due Dates) are being met.  If they aren’t, is there a recovery plan in place?  If not, a training session is needed.

Okay, can you do all this from your office?  Sure you can, but don’t! 

Having you seen at the board is critical.  As you arrive at the board, you’re making a non-verbal statement.  You are saying “This stuff is important.”  When you ask questions, you’re telling your people that the answers are important.  This is one of the ways you change the culture.

At first, you should train all your subordinates on how to use the chart and Action Item List.  On the board, the Action Item List should hang right under it’s associated chart.

Next, meet every board’s owner at their board. Try to shoot for the same day and time each week.  You may not realize how important it is at first, but you need to clear your calendar at these dates and times.  It’s that important.

Initially, you’re going to ask owners to explain what their charts are telling them.  This needs to start as a very collegial conversation.  If they don’t know, explain.   Your followup teaching will pay huge dividends.  

If they explain their charts correctly; praise them.  If they get it wrong, or seem unsure; educate them.  The initial goal is to get owners to understand and explain each chart's trend.  

Next, you want the board owners to explain what they’re doing about negative or stalled trends.  You’ll introduce the Action Item list (above) and explain again how it’s used.  On your next visit, each poor trend should have a written action to improve it, and that entire line on the Action List should be complete.  The only optional block is the one for “Comments.”

Initially, you had the board owner explain what their charts are reporting about their business, and what actions they are taking, but in time, you get their subordinates to explain the charts and actions.  What are you doing?  You’re driving the new culture even deeper in the organization.

Look what you’ve done.  You’ve moved from capturing data, to plotting performance, to  improving performance.   Moreover, you and your people are focusing on what’s really important.  Remember where these metrics came from: your Mission Statement.  So when you and your subordinates work to improve their performance, they are working to achieve Mission-Critical Goals.

One last.  The big picture is that, while you’re improving your performance, so are your peers.  Instead of protecting your personal silos, you’re finding ways to solve common problems collaboratively.  There’s a tool for that.  It’s called Kaikaku.  I’ll address it next time.  Same channel.  

Until then, Get Lean, Stay Lean.  

Feel free to drop me a line at: robert@gettingtolean.com