Lean Communication is not Lean Vocabulary

A slight change of verbiage can make a big difference, especially in professional organizations. Hierarchies, rivalries, and other negative factors can influence the way employees and co-workers interpret even the most common phrases. Take “training” for example. At best, this can be interpreted as “apprenticeship.” It can be looked at as a mentor and mentee relationship. At worst, the trainee can feel like a beast of burden, being forced to follow commands. People use the word “training” to describe both types of relationships. To avoid misunderstanding, one solution is to change your phrasing; use “learning” instead of “training.” However, this only scratches the surface and applies a Band-Aid to the problem. Like any sort of Kaizen or problem solving, it is better to look for the root cause when dealing with Lean communication issues.

Training or Learning?

If people respond to the idea of training in a negative way, there is probably a deeper issue to deal with. If people think of “training” as a correction or punishment, they will probably react similarly to the phrases “skill acquisition” “professional development” or “workplace learning.” Employees need to know that workplace training is meant to benefit them, not just the organization’s bottom line. When people work better, they live better. It’s not one or the other. Carefully selecting words is not the most effective way to communicate this message. Instead, a company culture of Kaizen (continuous improvement) needs to be created through actions. Its not enough to tell people you want to help them, you need to prove it. Developing your company around its people is a great strategy, since better employees achieve better results. Many managers worry that if they train their employees too much, they will leave and seek better opportunities, but this is backward thinking. Richard Branson sums this up in a great quote, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” If training you employee’s leads to a more successful company, your company will continue to provide better opportunities for everyone who works there.

Standards or Kaizen?

The same logic for Lean communication can be applied to standards. A lot of people worry that standardizing processes will undermine their professional expertise and creativity. This is because they interpret the word “standard” to mean “rule” or “law.” Once again, this is often because of a company culture that has treated standards as unbreakable regulations. As counterintuitive as it sounds to many managers, the best way to introduce standard work is to simultaneously introduce a system for changing it. That is why many organizations start with current state analysis and a Kaizen workshop. The entire purpose of standards in Lean is to function as baselines, so everyone can see the improvements that are made by changing them. Standards are not “rules” and should not be treated that way.

Lean and Kaizen

The underlying theme in all of this is that Lean cannot be separated from Kaizen. Standardization is not a revolutionary process; it is an evolutionary process. If training and standards come across as commands, then nothing will change. The best way to change is for every individual to reach toward his or her fullest potential.

In our series, Barriers to Lean, we discuss some ways to overcome objections to Lean reforms. One way is a small pilot project.

The Pitch: 

Say you have a manager who is unconvinced about the need for Lean. Offer to do one small-scale project to show that it can create real positive change in your workplace. With very little investment in time or resources, you can illustrate how Lean can be used to improve operations.

Alternately, if you are a manager dealing with employees resistant to change, a pilot project will reduce their apprehension and show them how Lean can make their life easier.

Examples of Pilot Projects: 

Once you have their support for a small implementation, what could you do?

1. Apply 5S to a workstation. Make sure it is a highly visible location so that everyone can see the improvements as they are being made. 5S is a pretty straightforward system, easy to grasp and people will see the difference. To learn how to apply 5S at your workstation, check out our course here.
2. Implement a Kanban system for ordering new supplies. Simply place a Kanban with all the order information near the end of your supply (see picture), whether it is printer paper, cleaning detergent or receipt tape. Learn how to implement this in your office environment with our Lean Office course.
3. Time and document one operation from start to finish. People tend to get a little nervous whenever stop watchs are involved so time one of your own operations. Simply the process of documenting all the steps involved in one operation can open your eyes to potential waste. For more information on this, check out our Time and Motion Study series.

Document: 

Make sure to take measurements before and after the pilot project. How much time did the pilot project save? What does that mean in terms of dollars saved? Take before and after pictures to show what a difference Lean makes.

Brag: 

Don’t be shy about your accomplishments. Let people know, not just the management but everyone at your organization. Feature your improvements in the company newsletter and talk it up at the water cooler. For full implementation, you are going to need the support of everyone in your organization, don’t let Lean be a surprise.

Next Steps: 

After your successful pilot project, it is time to bring in some training. Use üttana to begin training everyone on Lean.

With the right pilot project, you can turn Lean nay-sayers into converts. Feel free to share your success stories in the comments below or email me by clicking here.

Materials of Lean To a casual learner, Lean might seem very material focused. Using SMED to develop Poka-Yoke devices to speed changeover times, the practice of TPM to maintain machines and increase skill levels, applying 5S to a workstation to remove clutter and safety hazards; all these tools seem to be centered around physical materials but this view neglects the biggest part of Lean and Kaizen philosophy.

“Kaizen Green is PEOPLE!” My apologies to Charlton Heston for the butchered quote, but the point stands. Kaizen and Lean needs to focus on people. They are the true engines of progress. Implenting 5S might look impressive, but we can be drawn away from the core concept. Kaizen is continuous improvement. That doesn’t just mean constantly upgrading software, it means tapping into the creative power of your employees to improve their work.

Retaining the Focus Are your current practices truly People-focused? Ask yourself, is the form you fill out more important than the idea it represents. Does the process for improvement encourage or discourage participation? Are the procedures within your facility driven by people or machines?

Lifelong Practices While several children play musical instruments in school, only a few continue playing music in their adult lives.  Research has found that one of the key factors in whether or not that person will continue playing music had to do with the type of music they played as a child. If they learned music they enjoyed listening to, they continued to use their instruments into their adult life.

Enjoying the Work Similarly, if the practice of suggesting and implementing ideas in the workplace is an enjoyable experience, your coworkers will continue to do it. They will carry those values of continuous improvement throughout their career, but that will only happen if their experience with Lean is people-focused. To learn more about Kaizen philosophy, click here to check out our course on the value of a Kaizen workshop.

When you are first delving into Lean principles, you swiftly encounter two key concepts: Kaizen and Kaikaku. These interconnected ideas of improvement are essential to grasping the principles of Lean. They are not opposites or dueling schools of thought but rather two sides of the same process: your Lean transformation.

As organizations first start embracing Lean, they will often see some drastic early results. After identifying and removing large amounts of Waste, or Muda, from their organization, they will find a boom in productivity and drastic reductions in cost. This initial dramatic phase of the Lean Transformation is called Kaikaku.

Kaikaku

Kaikaku is a Japanese word for radical change. As part of a Lean transformation, this represents the initial fundamental shift towards reducing waste and increasing productivity. When touring a manufacturing facility in Hartford, Connecticut, a Lean consultant handed the CEO of the factory a metal saw and told him to cut all the storage racks in half, so that there would be smaller stockpiles of work-in-process. The CEO was hesitant but knew that this was the Kaikaku, the big dramatic change that begins the work of removing waste. He chopped the storage racks in half and showed his commitment to getting his facility Lean.

Kaikaku is also found in “Lean Workshops” where teams of employees assess a specific area of work – a production cell, a department of the office or a product line – and identify all the ways to remove waste within that area. These events, if properly implemented, can lead to huge leaps in productivity and are key stepping stones as you continue to improve processes.

By its nature, Kaikaku is not meant to be sustainable. If you are frequently overhauling your entire system of production, the lost time in training and employee burnout will reintroduce waste into your facility. That is why it goes hand in hand with Kaizen.

Kaizen

Kaizen is a broader concept. It comes from the Japanese word for constant improvement and is the process of making small changes to the work environment that create more value and reduce waste. The central tenet here is continuous improvement; when people talk about finishing their Lean journey, they are missing the point. Lean is a journey without an endpoint, a constant steady path towards more efficient production. By embracing the concept of Kaizen, you see that you do not need to wait for an event to eliminate waste but rather you can make small changes each day that quickly add up to dramatic savings.

A facility that has embraced Kaizen empowers employees to identify waste in the workplace and propose workable solutions. This usually takes three steps: identify a potential waste, document the problem and potential solution and then implement the solution. Inside a Kaizen-conscious workspace you will find scores of employee submitted ideas up on the walls as they are discussed and implemented. By harnessing the creativity of their ground floor workers, a company can make slow and steady improvement towards efficiency. Whether it is a simple marker on a bucket, so it no longer needs to be weighed each trip, or taping off the location for a tool to remove time spent searching, these changes can save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Kaizen and Kaikaku are both essential components of a Lean transformation. Think about how they can be incorporated into your work environment. What is the best way to empower your employees to suggest solutions to workplace challenges? Good attentiveness to Kaizen philosophy will allow a company to maintain the changes implemented by the initial Kaikaku, and prepare employees for the next Kaikaku.

Learn more about Kaizen and Kaikaku in our video series Kaizen Workshop by clicking here.

What happens when you take the insight of early efficiency pioneers and instill it with the best of modern Lean thinking? Time and Motion Study! Learn how to capture real, effective data, right there on the shopfloor and translate it into thousands of dollars saved at your facility.

Click here to see our latest material about Time and Motion Study

Time and Motion Study is a collection of techniques to record raw data for improvement efforts. While it has its roots in the historical work of Frederick Taylor, modern efficiency experts use motion diagrams, stopwatches and other data gathering devices to reduce and remove waste. Our series takes a look at the history behind this research and how to implement the best practices in your facility.

Learn how to use the knowledge gained through Time and Motion Study to drive process improvement, create standards, and sustain a continuous improvement cycle. Topics in this course include testing new methods, establishing roll-out education, and creating model work areas.

The 7 Deadly Wastes is one of the founding principles of Lean.

In this series of blog posts, we are going to take a look at each of the original 7 Wastes and show examples of how you can eliminate waste in your organization. You can find our entire video series on the Lean Wastes here.

The Waste of Motion is the easiest to illustrate but is often overlooked when it comes to improvement efforts. We illustrate this common complaint in our series, Everybody Get Lean.

“Just imagine what you can do with forty-five seconds.”

Greg comments, but in truth, the answer is plenty! At first glance, counting the number of steps it takes to carry tools from a shelf or limiting the number of folds it takes to stuff a letter seems insignificant. But small improvements to common tasks, measured over weeks and months, can count up to hours and hours of saved time and energy.

Consider the simple task of refilling a printer with paper. The necessary paper may be located in a supply closet. Every time the printer needs refilling, someone has to spend five minutes walking down the hall, grabbing the paper and putting it in the machine. By relocating the paper to a shelf next to the printer, you can eliminate the waste of unnecessary motion, saving four minutes.

But what good is four minutes?

If you refill your printer twice a week, that adds up to 416 minutes a year or almost seven hours of total labor. Imagine what you could do with an extra workday every year. Suddenly, these small changes seem quite significant.

Take a look at your tools, whether they are paintbrushes, screwdrivers or staplers. Are they within arms reach? How much time do you spend looking for the right tool? Check out our material on shadowboarding and 5S to cut down on this sort of waste. Examine how often you walk from one area of the workplace to another. Are you getting materials that could be effectively relocated? Are you seeking input from co-workers? Would it make sense for them to be closer to your work environment?

Once you open your eyes to Waste, you can begin seeing hundreds of small ways you can improve your work process.