September 30, 2015 Industry Forum Blog Are you in a position where you need to improve your information or people based processes? This may be to meet new company objectives or because they are currently causing you problems. I most often find companies want to: Improve the cash flow cycle – get paid more quickly. Reduce the time it takes to do the task, like turn round quotes. Improve customer ratings on standards of service. Meet deadlines. My recommended approach is to; map the current process, identify the problems and opportunities for improvement and deploy the right lean tool in the right place. Do not be tempted by a blanket deployment of 5S, huddle boards and Standardised Work across a whole department. It rarely produces measurable results and nearly always alienates the workforce. The approach State what it is you want to improve. Which task in which department? State your target and the link to company objectives. Form a team involving people from the area. Having people who know what actually happens is vital as these tasks are much harder to observe than manufacturing ones. Think of the task as a process with inputs and outputs. Decide what the “material” you are processing is. It could be numerical data, documents or a person. This helps us in step 4. When compiling a month end financial report we followed the flow of data into the final document. When booking in cars for service we followed the interaction with the car owner and then the route of the vehicle. Physically capture the current process as it actually Use a suitable mapping tool. Go to where the work is carried out. Observe, ask questions. Don’t fall into the trap of using an existing procedure or one person’s opinion. Enhance the map with supporting data and key measures. Spot wastes, threats and opportunities for improvement in the process. Get the team to stand around the map, brainstorm, and attach sticky notes where they occur. I always use the standard 7 Waste tool, with non-manufacturing examples given for each waste. In particular I get teams to look for order corruption, back flows and disconnects. You can be pedantic and classify these as one of the 7 Wastes, but it helps teams to identify them when they are highlighted in this way. Make sure to pay attention to the interfaces between departments, customers and suppliers as well. At this point it also works well to identify opportunities for improvement. This helps to move the team into the next step. Create a future state. Draw what you want the process to look like – especially if you used one of the mapping tools. With a simple process flow it may be enough to just eliminate the identified wastes and not draw a future state. Identify the most appropriate lean tools. Deploy them in a way to achieve the future state and eliminate the wastes you spotted. Avoid these problems. As with any improvement activity follow up and close out actions for sustainability. Make sure you communicate what is happening to everyone and train the wider team in the new and improved processes. Calculate savings and benefits. Keep looking for ways to improve. Future blogs will highlight ways of applying the right lean tool in the right place. If you want to share your examples please send them in.
