The Value Stream of Succession Planning and Leader Development

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean

What's the purpose of thinking about work as a value stream? Is it just a buzzword? It helps us identify how our activities connect and flow together in order to deliver value to some customer. So let's look at the process of succession planning and development from that perspective. Succession planning as a value stream might be considered a subset of the much larger talent development value stream (see wikipedia on succession planning).

When we don't think of succession planning as a value stream, we just think in terms of the end result. The end result is knowing who will replace a key position if that person leaves, is fired, or is otherwise not available. Most organizations skip to the final result: they name one person who best fits into that role. That answers the open question on the table, but it doesn't solve the real problem, which is how do I get someone to the point that they could replace someone.

GE is an example of someone doing this right. They have systems, evaluations, relationships, goals, and resources all designed on developing leaders to their full potential with the assumption that tomorrow's division presidents and CEOS are working somewhere in the company today. When Jack Welch was getting ready for his retirement, he had 3-4 individuals that he, the board, and the shareholders all would have been comfortable as a replacement. Warren Buffett is in a similar situation, with 2-3 "deemed worthy" successors sitting in the wings. On the other hand, no one can imagine or can see anyone being groomed and prepared to take over for Steve Jobs at Apple. The naming of a successor is not just an event, it is instead the end result of a thought out and managed value stream of leaders.

As with any value stream, we must consider its design and execution in the context of the changing environment in which it operates. As it relates to succession planning, a great example is found in the privately-held family business. The commonly-accepted flow was that "dad" (it's not always dad but the majority still is) would run the business until they were in their 50s or 60s at which point they would retire. The son, daughter, son-in-law, or other next-generation-representative would then take over in their 30s or 40s with some experience behind them but also plenty of time to make their own mark and take the business to a new level. How is the environment changing? Quite clearly, each generation is living longer, and working longer. This has a dramatic impact on the value stream. If dad is going to run the business until they are 75, son doesn't want to wait until they are 50 to take over. So instead they leave and find something else to do. Now there is no one "downstream" in the succession process to take over. Right now there are many privately-held business in that condition looking for a solution in ownership and leadership.

How do you look at succession planning as a value stream? Ask yourself these questions:

First, what is the value, what are customers willing to pay for? This is defined by having a clear leadership model. There is no right leadership model, you must develop that based on who you are, who you want to become, and where you want to be.

Second, what is the takt time, or customer demand rate? You will need to develop leaders at a certain pace, and that pace is probably constantly in flux depending on your current conditions. If you industry is headed for a certain level of decline, it might not be as attractive and you have to develop people at a faster pace to replace outgoing leaders. It's just as important to know if you have a slow need for new leadership.

Third, understand the activities that make up that value stream, from initial hiring to exit. Look at the flow. Very often, there is a great deal of batching of the development of leaders centered around late in the value stream. It is very helpful to spread more of that change upstream to earlier in a leader's career. Although it is spread across more "product" that may not make it, it is cheaper and those investments have longer to pay you back.

Lastly, measure it, manage it, and improve it. Measure you pace, your success rate, and your fallout in the succession planning value stream.

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Jamie Flinchbaugh Video: Daily Improvement

Everybody Everyday: Managing for Daily Improvement

The link above is an online video presentation by Jamie, courtesy of IndustryWeek (click here to subscribe to their print edition of the magazine).

In This Presentation You Will See

• How 90% of Lean strategies start and end (in minute 10)
• What you really want (and get) out of 5S (in minute 23)
• How you measure Lean (in minute 25)
• The leading metric of truly sustainable Lean change (in minute 27)
• Using lean to change the work of leaders (in minute 32)
• How to manage, not just lead (in minute 35)
• How to integrate Lean into the organization (in minute 41)
• How to know when problems occur (in minute 44)
• and more

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Lean and Green

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

As some of you know, I've been answering questions on lean in partnership with Bosch Rexroth both on their newsletter and through the recently launched podcasts. Here was one question that was simply put:

How is lean green?

This is a great question. The green movement has picked up steam, some based on moral grounds and some practical. But in lean, green efforts have found economic return as well. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a report on lean to help companies better connect lean and green. From a lean perspective, the focus on green is waste elimination. Where are the waste streams, from an environmental perspective? Examine your garbage removal? Is it filled with cardboard and plastic packaging? How can you remove that? What about your water use? Energy use? Do you have excessive but small leaks throughout your air pressure system? All of these waste flows are not only bad for the environment, they cost you real dollars. Find the waste and eliminate it, the same way you would go after other wastes. The only trick is, these waste flows are just a little harder to find. You have to look in some unusual places.

Click here for more from Bosch Rexroth on lean, including more Q&A.

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HELP WANTED: Lean Instructional Designer

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

The Lean Learning Center is looking to hire an additional Instructional Designer to support our product development and client design work. Below is a description. If you are this person or know of a person, we would love to hear from you. Please email us with a resume at info(at)leanlearningcenter(dot)com.

The Company: The Lean Learning Center is a leading provider of advanced learning curriculum and leadership development strategies to enable lean transformations at client companies. The center was founded in 2001 to address the gaps and barriers that are holding back companies from successful lean transformation. In addition to the advanced curriculum, the Center has developed a learning environment designed specifically for adult learning, utilizing techniques that include discovery simulations, case studies, personal planning and journaling. The company has a very large customer base, including a number or international firms, and works with companies across virtually every industry.

The Position: Instructional Designer

Position Summary: The successful candidate will work for the Lean Learning Center’s Instructional Design Studio to develop state of the art Lean training and related products for public sessions as well as custom designed offerings for client companies. This position requires a substantial amount of creativity and the ability to ‘think outside of the box.’ The ideal candidate will possess a passion for transferring knowledge and experience using a variety of innovative techniques to adult learners. Specific responsibilities will include:

• Curriculum and product design, development and implementation for Lean Learning Center public courses as well as customized training curriculum for clients.
  

• Evaluate training design and delivery and make recommendations for improvement.
• Conduct needs analyses to identify training techniques to fill knowledge gaps.
• Coordinate with subject matter experts, clients and vendors.
• Gather research for training content and products.
• Establish and manage project time frames, responsibilities and deadlines.
• Design page layouts for published materials.
• Facilitate occasional training content.
• Recommend products and services to clients from the Lean Learning Center’s products and services portfolio.
• Other occasional responsibilities as assigned such as:
• Setting up training room layouts and simulation materials
• Assembling simulations and products for shipment

Requirements:

• Bachelors degree required. Concentration in Human Resource Development, Instructional Design or Instructional Technology preferred.
• Demonstrated creativity in developing training techniques for adult learners.
• Demonstrated strong writing skills.
• Embraces change and has the ability to adapt quickly to continuous change.
• Ability to work independently in a virtual environment with little supervision.
• Ability to make presentations and facilitate occasional training content.
• High level of professionalism in working with customers.
• Excellent prioritization and organization skills.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel and Power Point
• Desktop publishing knowledge and experience preferred.
• Previous experience with eLearning preferred.
• Strong desire to continuously learn new skills and knowledge. We are willing to teach the ideal candidate our curriculum content.
• Familiarity with Lean, Six Sigma, or Continuous Improvement methods is a plus.
• Occasional travel required.
  

Salary and Benefits: The Lean Learning Center offers a competitive salary and benefits structure based upon the candidate’s contributions to the organization and its clientele.

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Lean and Ben Franklin

Lean Learning Center: Newsletter

The latest issue (#12) of the "Lean Progress" newsletter from Jamie Flinchbaugh and the Lean Learning Center is available now.

There's always great content in the newsletter. One piece I particularly liked was called "Lean Thinking from Benjamin Franklin," written by Debra S. Levantrosser, the Executive Director of Lean and Business Improvement at Johnson & Johnson.

I always enjoy reading about "Lean history" -- the origins of Lean thinking from sources such as Henry Ford, Samuel Smiles, the Training Within Industry program, etc.

Levantrosser's piece draws parallels between Benjamin Franklin's writings, philosophies, and business concepts and modern Lean thinking. Franklin's time as Postmaster General is highlighted as an early adaptation of Lean principles in efficient government operations.

Check it out, it's a very noteworthy piece. If you haven't already registered for Jamie's site, you'll have to do so to read the newsletter. But, that effort is well worth the time for the content that you'll receive.

An excerpt, reprinted with permission:

"...Franklin lived other lean principles. Innovation and experimentation, servant leader mentality, communication, customer-service orientation, striving for perfection and supporting small, incremental changes were central to the implementation of his virtues.

Regarding innovation, he experimented with ideas until he found something that was successful and met a customer need and was often many steps ahead of his customers’ thinking giving them more than they even thought possible. He finally created a new street lamp to keep the streets successfully lit all night and that could be repaired easily if broken. This may sound like an inconsequential improvement but going from little or no light to full light had a direct positive impact on crime and business performance."

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Leadership versus Management

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

For a long time, we have been saying that leadership is one of the top reasons that lean efforts fail. Many have begun to figure this out. Lean is more than changing a few systems and training a few people. But why does a support of improving leadership have to include a disdain for management. Management is like leadership - there is good, and there is bad. But it is different, and it is just as important as leadership.

There is a recent article in SME's Manufacturing Engineering Magazine called Leadership is Critical to Lean. This is of course true. But throughout it basically takes bad characteristics in organizations and calls it management. For example, management is described as:

• Often doesn't listen
• Stays detached
• Unconcerned
• Often insincere
• Knows it all
• In his/her office

Perhaps this is a description of bad management, but it is not management. Management is not as sexy as leadership. That's why writers don't like to write about it. But anyone who's ever been a manager knows there is more to it than authors think. I just happened to write about this in my latest Assembly Magazine Leading Lean column which you can read here.

Leadership is required to get things going. The quality and depth of leadership will determine how far and how fast you progress. But without management, it will be one step forward, one step backwards. Management is about accountability, daily problem solving, marshaling resources. Quality management is the backstop that sustains progress made. It's time to stop badmouthing management and instead focus on improvement management.

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Is your plant good enough for this?

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

Assembly Magazine's 5th Annual Assembly Plant of the Year Award is looking for nominations. They are due April 16th. Is your organization ready? Think you measure up? This is a great test if you think you do.

The goal of the award is to identify and showcase a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the United States that has applied world-class processes to reduce production costs, increase productivity, shorten time to market, or improve product quality.

The previous four recipients of the award were:

• Square D/Schneider Electric, Lexington, KY (2007)
• Lear Corp., Montgomery, AL (2006)
• Xerox Corp., Webster, NY (2005)
  
• Kenworth Truck Co., Renton, WA (2004).
  

The award is open to all manufacturers—both large and small—in all industries. Facilities can use either low-volume manual assembly processes or high-speed automated equipment (or a mix of both). You can nominate through this form.

Good luck!

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Skill Development Critical to Success

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

Why do many of our best companies move to China or other countries? Some do it for the lower labor rates, but just as many move because they can't find skilled labor, engineers and other resources here in the U.S. This is a tragic reason. In today's politics there is an argument that the middle class is disappearing. This is not the fault of companies. It is the fault of all of us. We can't compete with low-wage countries on no-skill jobs, only skilled jobs. And on this front, we have drastically underinvested, as schools, individuals, companies and depending on your view, government as well.

Scotland faces many struggles as well (full disclosure, I'm part Scot). While by no means a cure-all, they are taking action. You might, and I might, disagree with some of the politics in how they are handling it, but the underlying point is vital.

Scotland to expand number of apprenticeships.

The BBC (3/18) reports that Scotland "is launching a bid to expand training opportunities for young people by delivering almost 30,000 modern apprenticeship places." According to the BBC, "The bill proposes to establish a right to undertake an apprenticeship for those aged between 16 and 18. ... The bill's consultation is being launched at the Carnegie College's school of engineering and technology in Fife." There the "the next generation of skilled workers" will be trained to "assemble the new Royal Navy aircraft carriers." John Park, a "skills spokesman," said that "[a]pprentice numbers in Scotland have increased significantly over the last 10 years." He added, "An apprenticeship gives you not just technical skills but core skills that will give you an edge in what will become in the future an increasingly competitive labor market."

If lean is to be about respect for people, it doesn't mean to keep people employed that don't have skills that you need. It means to develop people's skills and talents, and expect that they invest to the same end. Every manager, supervisor or executive should have a development plan for what they are doing to develop the skills and talents of those they are responsible for. This doesn't mean just filling out the corporate HR forms. This means engaging that individual and helping them through the process. And every individual should have their own self-improvement learning plan. I have mine. Do you have yours? Better yet, share some of your ideas here.

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A Podcast with Jamie Flinchbaugh

No, not my podcast (but I'm hoping to do another episode with Jamie soon).

This podcast is the first in a seriesdeveloped by Bosch Rexroth’s Linear Motion and Assembly Technologies group, each eight- to ten-minute lean manufacturing podcast episode will present guest experts and information to help manufacturers and OEMs understand and apply lean principles and practices in their businesses.

The first episode, with Jamie, can be found here. In the episode, called“Developing Front-line Supervisors to Succeed in a Lean Environment:"

Flinchbaugh examines the critical role front-line supervisors play in helping their companies successfully implement and sustain lean manufacturing practices. He also discusses guidelines for ensuring that supervisors are effectively trained and supported to fulfill their roles in lean operations. All too often, he says, front-line supervisors who are expected to perform in a lean environment are not equipped with the specific skills they need compared to those used by traditional supervisors.

Check it out. A lot of what Jamie says would also apply to hospitals. I like the phrase "taking super workers and making them supervisors." We can all do a better job of training new managers and supervisors about how to be leaders, with Lean or without.

Update: If you have iTunes, you can get to the podcast series via this link.

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Congratulations on 50 Years

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center:

This particular post is about as overdue as my contributions to LeanBlog, but it's always better to be late than never. Given how far industry has come, and in the spirit of how far we have to go, I thought it appropriate to acknowledge and congratulate Assembly Magazine on 50 years in print. That's an accomplishment for any business and perhaps particularly a magazine. As many of you know, I contribute a column called Leading Lean to the magazine each month and continue to be blessed by its popularity. Assembly Magazine has contributed to the knowledge and conversation around lean and progress in many forms.

A very nice feature that sums this up is a 50 year history of assembly ranging from company mergers to the advent of certain technologies. Friend Austin Weber wrote 50 Years of Economic Change and Manufacturing Progress which I encourage you to read. And I hope Assembly Magazine can contribute another 50 years.

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Lean Learning Center in the News

Economics & Finance business Articles - MLive.com

Here's a nice article about our good friend Jamie Finchbaugh and his colleague Andy Carlino at the Lean Learning Center.

What strategies can help clients to use the principles learned to become successful?

Flinchbaugh: Leading the center's philosophy is the idea that tools are largely ineffective unless they are supported by the proper foundation of lean guiding principles and rules to help an organization understand how things work together and why. We hope that the ultimate goal is creating better customer relationships. We want the lean concept to help clients apply rules and principles to help achieve greater customer satisfaction.

Carlino: Adults do not learn best by listening to a series of lectures. Adults learn though their own discovery, through experience combined with the right questions and through interaction with other adults, which is what our training is based on.

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A Cautionary Suggestion Tale

Leading Lean: Make Suggestions Productive - Departments - ASSEMBLY

While we're on the topic of suggestions today, our good friend Jamie Flinchbaugh (of the Lean Learning Center) coincidentally has a column in Assembly Magazine on this very topic. Thanks to Jamie for passing that along. Check it out...

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New Lean Learning Center Newsletter

Newsletter Link (registration required)

Our good friend Jamie Flinchbaugh and his Lean Learning Center have a new edition of their Lean Progress newsletter available.

The newsletter includes:

• Leading Lean: The Personal Improvement Journey
• Book Review: The Toyota Way Fieldbook (also featured here)
• Information on their new "Single Point Lean Lessons."

Check it out.

Leading Lean A-Z

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean

Decades of knowledge in lean have been passed on, written down, turned into curriculums and even documented in the annual reports of some companies. But why do so many fail to achieve the potential of lean? When I speak at diverse industry conferences or programs, I ask who is doing something about lean and who is wildly successful. Unfortunately, both based on those surveys and my own observations, the rate of companies succeeding at lean is probably around 1 %. This is far too low.

What is the differentiator? It is far too complicated to suggest one answer, however if there were one answer, the one that has universal agreement is LEADERSHIP. Lack of leadership, or lousy leadership, can prevent any organization from moving forward, and it can be blamed for many failures beyond lean including the slew of corporate ethics collapses.

Why present Leading Lean concepts in A through Z. Well, if I didn't limit it to the 26 letters of the alphabet, I would probably never finish the project. Here I will actually start with Z. Enjoy.

Z: Be a Zealot

What is a zealot? Defined, it is a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political and other ideals. If I were to only pick one single leadership trait, it would not be zealotry.

Being a zealot can have both a good side and a bad one. In isolation, zealotry can be narrow-minded, blind, unforgiving and ultimately destructive to the objective. Zealotry must be balanced with pragmatism, partnership and a focus on others' real needs and perceptions. With the right balance, being a zealot is a critical component of leading lean.

The obvious reason for being a zealot is to convince others. But a less obvious reason is that if you're not a zealot, it is too easy to give up. A zealot spends most of his or her days frustrated. Why? Because not everything is the way you think it should be, and not everyone thinks the way you think they should either.

If you are not frustrated, you are probably not working on the right problem. Being a zealot helps you keep your focus and direction through that very frustration. Without it, you may focus on what is easy and doable, instead of the important, right and seemingly impossible things. To accomplish big goals you must be deeply committed to what you are pursuing.

Being a zealot helps you win others to your cause. The passion you show in your words and actions has many benefits. If you were pursuing something just because it was assigned to you, you would find it hard to show real passion. Passion and zeal can be contagious. People want to believe in something. They want passion, and will never jump in with both feet if they don’t think they'll feel that same passion. And perhaps most importantly, when you become a zealot you never again deliver a canned speech or presentation. You speak from the heart. You speak from experience. You own the idea.

To be a zealot you first must become one and then must sustain that role. The first can take some time, but the second takes forever. To become a zealot takes belief, which comes only through experience. Don't attempt to become a zealot without experience because that leads to the kind of unbalanced zealotry that can be dangerous. To become a zealot you have to start with the head. Is getting it into your head the same as experience? You have to get the ideas, language, and knowledge in there. You have to learn it. Then, you must get it into your hands. What about your heart? That is the real test. Lean begins with you.

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Some Latest Writing

By Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

Although I haven't been posting in the blog recently (sorry), I have been doing some writing, and thought I would share some of that with you now. I continue to support Assembly Magazine with the monthly Leading Lean column. Assembly Magazine is coming up on their 50th anniversary. That's quite an accomplishment. We should all aspire to being relevant for that long.

In May I wrote about Forging Your Help Chain. The tool that many of you might think of is the andon system, or andon cord. But there is a bigger picture than just a signal light. This is one of my favorite topics, and I'm not sure why it took me so long to write about. The reason this is about how we connect people to each other. In particular, we connect them with the intent to provide help to each other. That's why it's a help chain. This is one of the hardest things for people to replicate outside of the discrete manufacturing environments, but perhaps one of the most valuable.

In June and July I cover more traditional topics. In Search of Waste focuses on looking beyond the waste lying around you and knowing which rocks to turn over and find the waste that is hidden. Make Everything Visual is about one of the most simple and effective tools in the lean toolbox - visual management and visual control.

In August I returned to organizational issues and the challenge to Select the Right Champion. As the number of organizations adopting lean has grown, there is now a shortage of true lean champions capable of leading an organizational journey. This goes beyond being able to facilitate a kaizen event or value stream map.

With Andy Carlino I also wrote a feature article for the first Lean Yearbook published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. I unfortunately can't share it with you, but you can purchase it from SME here. Our article is titled Farther, Faster and More Sustainable, and it focuses on some of the issues that seem to hold companies back. You can find a wide range of articles and case studies in this Lean Yearbook, which we hope SME will continue to do next year, including one about our friends at Ross Controls.

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The wanderings of a lean hitchhiker

By Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

The reason Andy Carlino and I named our book The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road is that we felt that not only was a company to go on a lean journey that never ends, but also the individual. As two individuals, we feel we learn lessons at every corner, with every barrier and through every conversation. One only has to be open to the experience, look for the opportunities to learn and reflect deeply enough to integrate those lessons. This is why some gain a great deal of knowledge from an experience such as benchmarking or a conference and others gain very little. One such experience was the Industry Week Best Plants Conference. This is a great concept - a place to honor those who have excelled with the intent to learn from them and others. I was honored to be asked to speak. My topic was on everyday lean, meaning how do we build a culture to get lean into everybody, everywhere, everyday. There was an incredible response to this topic - we had every seat filled, the back and sides of the room, and people standing several deep in the hallway. I know companies struggle with this, which is why I choose it as a topic, but it was clear based on both the attendance and the conversations surrounding it, that many people and organizations now recognize this as a primary concern.

The solution to this is obviously much deeper and broader than can be covered in a blog post. However, we need to move beyond what I call "event lean" with a focus on kaizen events, value stream mapping events, 5S events, training events and so on. These are great tools but they are only tools. Instead we need daily continuous improvement, value stream thinking, a culture of standardization and coaching. One such process that most people think of as an alert system is andon. It can be a tool to improve quality, but I believe it is more than that. I believe it is a process to connect people together for direct observation and mutual learning. Without that intent, you will not achieve the potential impact. I focused on this topic in my latest column for Assembly Magazine, titled Forging Your Help Chain. This excerpt addresses a key aspect of the help chain:

In fact, one of the toughest questions for organizations to answer is when help should arrive. If the problem will prevent the flow of work, it clearly requires immediate help. Other problems might not require immediate attention, but a strong case can be made that help should arrive immediately regardless. The helper is most effective when the current situation is deeply understood, and this insight is best achieved through observation of the problem while it is occurring. If the response from your help chain is not immediate, the possibility of direct observation is lost and with it, the best chance of analyzing the problem and identifying the cause. A lean company will eliminate barriers that prevent people from responding to the right place at the right time to observe the problem.

Continuing on the topic of building a culture of lean for daily improvement, a wonderful example of the kind of leadership that it requires is Taiichi Ohno, the founder of the Toyota Production System. The best and most useful of his writings, titled Workplace Management, is now available again, thanks to the translation efforts of Jon Miller of Gemba Research. I highly recommend this read which, while quite dated, gives insight into what a few days in a factory with Ohno would really be like. You can check out Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno here.

While leadership and culture remain the primary barriers to overcome for a successful lean journey, there are also many other barriers that remain that continue to be uncovered and broken through. One such barrier is the role that information systems and IT departments play in the lean journey. While many books have focused on the departments and roles of accounting, there has been little exploration and direction on how to handle the role of IT. A new book titled Easier, Simpler, Faster does exactly that. It is written by Jean Cunningham, co-author of Real Numbers, and Duane Jones, head of IT for Lantech. You can find Easier, Simpler, Faster: Systems Strategy for Lean IT here. For more books, check out The Lean Library.

The lean journey continues, and the battlefront is your organization. We have just as many barriers ahead of us as the barriers we have broken through already. We have to continue our journey together, one yard and one inch at a time. But the journey is worth every ounce of energy, effort, action and reflection that we all continue to pour into it. Best wishes for a successful journey.

Latest "Leading Lean" Columns

Here are the two most recent "Leading Lean" columns from Jamie Flinchbaugh:

April 2007: Consistency Erodes Skepticism

Here, Jamie maps out "a route through the terrain of skepticism" that we often face as Lean change agents.

May 2007: Forging Your Help Chain

In this column, instead of a "supply chain," Jamie is talking about a "help chain" -- defining the need for help (problems), signaling that help is needed, and improving the process that gets help to the right problem in a timely way.

World Class Numbers?

Blog reader Darrin wrote and asked:

Do you have any up-to-date sources for "word-class" numbers for lean metrics like % of Leadtime that is wasted, % yields, etc.?

I know I've seen numbers for benchmark "% value added time", etc. but don't have the numbers ready, nor am I sure if the numbers are current. A google search turned up nothing but firms willing to do benchmarking studies.

Does anyone have any ready references (from lean books, articles, journals, etc.)?

Thanks for compensating for my laziness!

I've never fixated on the benchmark numbers, since I've always tried to set the bar against perfection, or as close as we can get. I know nobody fully eliminates non-value added time completely, but you can get it pretty low. In each of my lean endeavors, we always try to estimate where we can get based on our particular process and our analysis of the current state and expected improvements.

Leading Lean: Question Everything!

ASSEMBLY Magazine

Jamie Flinchbaugh has a new "Leading Lean" column in assembly magazine. Here's a great story, an example of "because we've always done it" waste.

"One of the most remarkable examples was a manufacturing company that was finally getting rid of standard paper time cards. In examining their time cards, the question kept coming up, “What does the ARS column stand for?” For years, new employees had been taught to put a zero in the ARS column on their time cards. So week after week, every person accounted for zero hours of time in the ARS column, but no one could remember what ARS meant. It finally came out that ARS meant air raid siren. During World War II, when the air raid sirens sounded an air raid warning, the employees went into the basement for safety. The company naturally wanted to track time lost due to air raid warnings. Although time cards had been reprinted, and even redesigned, the ARS column remained because no one questioned it. If you think this kind of thing isn’t happening in your company, think again."

For more, click on the link above.

More Lean Q&A

by Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean Learning Center

Here is the final installment of the lean Q&A, but if you have more questions, please feel free to comment here and I'll post the best attempt at answers here. Here was lean Q&A batch one and batch two.

Q: How does one learn to be a lean leader?

A: My first suggestion is to kick out the crutch. What I mean is to develop as a lean leader you need to leave your comfort zone and it helps if you have something to force you out of that comfort zone. A crisis will do that but you can't create a false crisis so you might find another way. Take on a new role that you are not really prepared for, sign up for a near-impossible challenge or remove whatever security blankets you have around your process. Next you have to begin by applying lean to your own work. Between what you learn and what you demonstrate, only by practicing lean on your own work will you become an effective lean leader. You must be a learner first. Lean is about how an organization learns, but organizations are made up of people, so how people learn will drive the success of lean. Regularly experiment and reflect on your own work. Finally, engage people from where they are and help them move forward to their own idea of progress. Don't stand in a field asking for everyone to join you. Don't ask people to make an impossible leap. Don't ask them to give up their own pursuits to join yours. Take your knowledge, skill and vision from lean and help the person move forward from where they currently are.

Q: Do you have any specific recommendations for an organization that is taking Lean to non-manufacturing operations?

A: The main reason lean has had so much more activity in manufacturing rather than business processes is that in general, manufacturing is much easier to see and much easier to measure. You can count parts coming off the end of the process by the minute and physically see a change as you make it. Also, in many organizations, manufacturing represents a large percentage of the overall population and cost. That being, lean has always applied to business processes, and that is nothing new. It's the 'how' that matters most. First, don't just copy the manufacturing solutions. For example, if 5S is about organization your tools and materials so that you have what you need and can spot problems quickly, how does putting a label around your stapler and pencil contributing to that. You primary tool is information. Get that organization. Spot problems quickly - what's missing, what's out of place, what's a problem. Second, the concept of directly observing work is even more important and harder. You can't observe the process of "closing the books" like you can "load the machine." You must develop the skills and principles of observation more deeply and make more strategic use of observation tools such as process mapping (and value stream mapping is rarely, but sometimes, the right mapping tool). Second, the concept of standardization is also harder and often rejected: "we don't do repetitive work." Yes you do, the output just isn't standardized. Consider a legal contract review. That's a process. The size, issues, players and about two dozen other variables are always different, but the process you and the organization should go through can be standardized, just as an author has standard work for how they develop an idea into a final product. Finally, because business processes are inherently less visible, you have to work hard to make them visible. Develop signals, triggers, metrics and visual management for how the work is done. The visibility is so that you can see problems as they occur and see improvements as you make them. This is challenging work, but the standard is still the same - to be able to walk into an area and tell it's status at a glance, and know what is needed.

Q: Why does Toyota share what they do so openly?

A: First, I do not really know the answer, I can only really speculate based on conversation and observation. It may very well be that they regret going as far as they have in this regards, I don't know for sure. But first, I believe that they know that the real essence of what they are all about cannot be copied. You can copy tools, but you cannot copy how people think. We have always said that lean is not born from what you see but from how we think. It's easy to copy the stuff you see at Toyota. Hundreds of companies have walked their lines, seen something powerful like the andon cord. They measure how high to make, what color to make the lights and what music to play. But the dance of engagement between the team member, the customer, and the team leader, the supplier of help, that is understood in how they think about that work. You can't copy thinking, and Toyota knows this. Second, I believe they get better at understanding themselves with every tour, every visitor. Through the questions and need to articulate, it forces them to think more about what they do and how they do it. I believe this is the benefit for any company providing a tour. While your tour for your benefit, they benefit as well. I encourage one award-winning company who was going to host a tour for a conference to hand-out 3x5 cards and ask every visitor to leave them one idea to improve. Even if only 20 percent of them are worthwhile, imagine how useful that feedback can be if acted on.