CI Basics Archives - Better Process Solutions

Continuous improvement books for beginners

I learned that February is the library lovers’ month. Many of us don’t visit libraries anymore, but still, keep our love for books. In my case, I have a weak spot for continuous improvement books. Books are an excellent way to learn, find inspiration, or have a good time. My CI learning experience includes traditional classroom training, webinars, hands-on workshops, and others. But my favorite way to learn more about CI is by reading books. Perhaps, it is because I can go at my pace, reading, learning, and practicing.

Continuous improvement books

There are thousands of books about CI out there. Although there are real gems, there are also some that are not very good. As a result, finding the right one can be difficult. Some publications are best suited for beginners, while others are for people with some experience.

Here is a list of my favorite CI titles

Gemba Kaizen by Masaaki Imai – This book is an introduction to kaizen and gemba. Although the book contains all the traditional lean jargon, it is easy to read. In addition, includes various case studies including hospitals, product development, ground transportation, and logistics.
Lean Production Simplified by Pascal Dennis – The title says it all, it contains a simplified explanation of the lean system. The book includes a description of various concepts like five S, visual management, standardize work, and others.
The lean turnaround by Art Byrne – If you are an executive looking to start a culture transformation, this is the one for you. It focuses on lean as a strategy to create value and transform the company.
Lean Office and Service Simplified by Drew Locher – If you work in an office or service environment, look no further. The author presents all lean principles and concepts from a non-manufacturing perspective. He describes how to use tools like value-stream, standard work, flow, visual management, and others. In addition, it provides several examples and implementation strategies.
The Toyota Way to Service Excellence by Jeffrey K. Liker and Karyn Ross – The authors explain how to use the lean principles, practices, and tools to provide better services. Moreover, it contains case studies in various service industries. The examples include financial services, telecommunications, health care, and insurance.
People: A leader’s day-to-day guide to building, managing, and sustaining lean organizations by Robert Martichenko, Steve Gran, Roger Pearce, & 4 more – This book is a leaders’ guide to build and sustain a lean organization. It provides guidance for all the tasks, activities, and behaviors a leader needs to transform the organization and get long-term success.
Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones – This publication is a best seller classic. It goes from the principles to lean thinking to action, presenting how to close the gap between customers and providers. It also has case studies to explain those concepts. One of them is Wiremold Company with Art Byrne as its president and CEO. Yes, you are right, he is the author of the #3 on my list.

You read continuous improvement books, and then what?

The short answer to that question is that you learn, explore, and practice lean. Learn new ways to do things. Second, you explore how to apply those ways within your business. Third, you keep learning by teaching others how to do it. And third, you keep learning and practicing.

The secret to a continuous improvement culture transformation is that lean, or CI, is a system, not a group of tools. The focus should be on the people and the learning process. One common mistake is to spend too much time learning and using tools. Instead, focus on working with the people. The real success is, being able to engage your team in CI. That is to say, do not waste your time reading books unless you are committed to learn and teach.

What else you can do?

To increase your learning opportunities, combine reading books with hands-on workshops and training. For even better results, get a serious professional to help you along the journey. We all need a coach or mentor to guide us through the challenging steps of transforming a culture. Here in Better Process Solutions, we are ready to help. Get in touch!

CI Basics

Lean thinking, what is it?

I mentioned the phrase, lean thinking pretty often. As I indicated before, the term was coined by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones. It is used to describe the process of making business decisions based on Lean Principles.

What are the principles of lean?

Customer Value
Identify all the steps in the value stream and eliminate waste.
Make the value-add steps flow.
Let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.
Continuous Improvement

The foundation of lean thinking

This list of principles is the foundation of the Lean system. It is a collection of thoughts, behaviors, or propositions that guide what we had known as Lean Thinking.

All effort directed to improve a process starts with identifying value from the customer lenses. The continuous improvement goal is to deliver the Customer the highest product or service quality, at the lowest possible cost, in the shortest lead time. Consequently, the focus of all our decisions is quality, cost, delivery, and people. In other words, the focus is on those things that the customer value.

Process Improvement and the customer

If the focus is on customer value, then it is logical that the next step is to identify the value stream. That is to say, to identify all the steps from request to delivery and eliminate waste. Waste is defined as those steps that do not add value.

The third principle is to make the value-add steps flow. Eliminating delays, waiting time, and other sources of waste, the flow improves. Therefore, the total process time would be shorter. Once this happens, let them pull value from the next upstream step. That is to say, that your clients will indicate when they need more inventory. Continuous improvement is the repetition of the first four principles. Once you improve one process, standardize, train, and start improving again.

Lean thinking vs. traditional thinking

It is necessary to put aside old behaviors and ways to change the culture by embracing continuous improvement thinking. To make decisions based on customer value and flow is not what you learned in business school. Give your team the power to change things is not common either.

The table below presents various examples of each thinking type, side by side. You will recognize some principles and behaviors that I mentioned in previous posts. For example, to empower the team to improve their workplace versus bringing external resources.

It takes time to get used to this type of thinking. However, practice lean thinking every day, everywhere, by everybody is worth it. Above all, your customers will notice the difference, and your business bottom-line will be better.

CI Basics

Innovation and continuous improvement

Some people think that continuous improvement or lean conflicts with innovation. In other words, that lean kills innovation. However, that is not true both go hand in hand. Let’s see how.

The power of innovation within continuous improvement

One critic about continuous improvement that I heard often is that the structure does not allow creativity. CI indeed organizes the thinking process and has some core elements that are not negotiable. On the other hand, it promotes skills development as a way to show respect. And it is there where the innovation power of lean or continuous improvement resides.

How it works

To be able to empower your team, you need to develop the skills they need. Hand-on training to learn the tools is not enough to succeed. Self-discipline to behave and think the continuous improvement way is critical. The structure provided by tools like PDCA and 5S helps to build that discipline.

For example, the traditional way to solve problems is by using past experiences to guess the best solution. But with PDCA, you have to define the problem by going where the problem happens to see for yourself, ask questions, and gather data. It also uses promotes a team approach. Various minds working together enriches both the problem definition and countermeasures identification.

The most important lesson of PDCA occurs at the end of the process. During the last step, act or adapt, you verify if the actions taken solved the problem. It also encourages you to reflect upon the results, what work, and what didn’t. The discussion of the lessons learned opens the gates of innovation by opening minds to endless opportunities.

Reflection

Reflection generates learning by making us look at our actions and their consequences. Doing this requires looking at assumptions and reactions while examining the lessons learned. The act of reflecting upon our actions also help to develop creative thinking skills.

Once your mind starts to question how things work or how you can do it better, you will keep looking for answers. Curiosity is the source of invention. Being curious about things keeps your mind sharp on what happens or not. Being curious opens your eyes to new ideas.

Engagement and innovation

Boredom is a leading indicator of engagement. Doing the same thing every day is boring. And boredom kills engagement and consequently innovation. They have time to think about how much they don’t like their work and start looking for a new one. On the other hand, if they feel that their skills are valued and can visualize themselves growing with the company, their engagement increases.

One tenet of continuous improvement is to respect the people. One way to show respect is to provide the environment and opportunities to learn new skills. Being able to contribute to the company’s future in a meaningful way is a great motivator. It will not only improve their work performance but also their attitude towards life. A team member that finishes the workday feeling good about it will arrive home with much better humor. Therefore, family time will be as rewarding and positive as it should be.

A mind free of work concerns and frustration is a mind ready to create and innovate!

Conclusion

CI does not restrict thinking. On the contrary, it provides a way to standardize routine tasks, allowing time and energy to use their talents and creativity. When they have the power to change and improve their workplace, they will engage in finding ways to improve. With self-discipline, they will pursue daily small improvement steps. With each step, their curiosity will grow. And with it, the appetite for asking why and getting answers with data will grow as well. As a result, they will have breakthrough ideas, new concepts, and ways to do things. Curiosity is the source of invention. It is not a matter of whether innovation will happen, but when.

CI Basics

Do you still think that continuous improvement is not for you?

Some companies have been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic much better than others, at least for now. Over the past few weeks, I have seen and shared through my Twitter and Facebook accounts examples of how lean companies have handled the crisis. The common denominator for all of them is they keep the focus on the same things, people, and customers. They also use different continuous improvement tools to learn and adapt to the new normal in record times. How did they do that? Using lean thinking and not taking their eyes from the basic principles.

The term “lean thinking” was coined by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, it is used to describe the process of making business decisions based on the Lean Principles. Womack and Jones book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation presented and talked in detail about those principles.

Customer Value
Identify all the steps in the value stream and eliminate waste.
Make the value-add steps flow.
Let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.
Continuous Improvement

Since the first principle is to define value from the customer point of view, it is logical to start the crisis response looking at how value changed for internal and external customers. As a leader, you are responsible for your employee’s health and well-being while they are working. To provide a safer possible workplace, revise the value stream to identify how it needs to change, how the flow will be affected and corrected, and finally implement the changes. While doing this, keep the communication with your employees and customers to make sure that you are adapting to their new needs and priorities.

Improving the process is an activity that never stops. Every day new information comes out that makes it necessary to change something on the process. Lean companies can face this challenge easier than others because they developed people to become problem-solvers. They focus on the problem cause and possible solutions using PDCA, 5 Why, and other tools. It is better to have an army of problem-solvers than just a few people, or worst, just you.

The heart of the lean system is people involvement, a highly motivated team continuously seeking the best way. To keep the heart healthy, you need to maintain a respectful, free of blame, and honest work environment where the team feels they are being cared for, and their feelings and ideas matter.

I don’t know if lean or continuous improvement is the antidote against the economic crisis, we are living in. Based on my experience, I know that it is better than traditional management, and it works for any industry, of any size. Industries with a small profit margin, like restaurants, will benefit from this type of thinking more than anyone. Changing the decision-making process and how you conduct business is a better route to become profitable and flexible.

If you keep doing what you always did, you will get what you always got. Henry Ford

CI Basics

Take Baby Steps for Continuous Improvement

How do we learn to walk? The first step is crawling. As the babies become stronger will start pulling themselves up with the support of someone or something. Once they are up will learn balance and how to keep themselves up without any help. The next stage is walking with the mom or dad’s help, learning how to move their legs to take steps. Their curiosity will drive them to use that learning to wander around the house, using the furniture as support. They build confidence in their skills and keep practicing. Those small steps show them how much independence they gain, and they don’t want to lose it. One step at a time, they finally learn to walk.

The business process improvement is very similar. The goal is clear you want to thrive during good times and survive the inevitable challenges and economic downturns. You know that you need to improve your processes to accomplish on-time delivery of quality goods or services at the lowest cost. You want to change but do not have a clear idea of how. Like the baby learning to walk, you need to take small steps, one at a time.

Continuous improvement (CI) or Kaizen is the daily practice of creating small changes using low-cost common-sense solutions. Before you start complaining about the Japanese words, let me explain its origins. The USA Department of War created in the early 40’s a training program named Training Within Industry (TWI). It was developed within the industry to help ramp up the production of war materials and equipment. TWI introduced the concepts of job instruction training and job methods. Job instruction training teaches the “one best way” to do the work, which we now call standard work. Job Methods taught employees how to break down jobs into smaller steps questioning each one as a way to generate improvement ideas. As a result, a high volume of small incremental improvements from individuals was delivered.

After World War II, the American occupation forces brought in experts to Japan to help to rebuild their industry. Edward Deming introduced TWI, and the Japanese love it so much that they give it a Japanese name, Kaizen. Kaizen comes from two words, Kai (change) and Zen (good). It is commonly translated as a change for good or continuous improvement (CI). The strength of CI comes from the participation of workers, of all levels, in the business improving effort. These efforts are driven by three major activities, standardization, 5S, and waste elimination.

By approaching change in small, incremental steps, CI reduces the fear of change. Like the babies learning to walk, the small steps increase your confidence to keep trying until you find success. If you need help on your journey, reach out, I can help!

This article was originally posted by Jina Rivera in Organization and Efficiency Solutions.

CI Basics

Do you believe in these lean misconceptions?

Do not makes these mistake, learn about lean misconceptions. — Do not makes these mistakes, learn about lean misconceptions

Like many other things in life, continuous improvement is often misunderstood. During my journey, the following are the most common lean misconceptions that I have encountered.

Most common lean misconception

CI is not a department store. Therefore, you don’t get to pick and choose what you think you need. CI is a system where you can only achieve consistent results is by using all its parts. CI is a business management system designed to provide customer value with fewer resources. It is made up of a group of principles, best practices, and tools.

The heart of the system is the people, and you show respect by developing them. Moreover, these motivated and engaged teams participate in the improvement process and create value. In other words, you cannot focus on the tools while ignoring the people’s part.

Delegating the culture change is another lean misconception

The second misconception is the idea of delegating the implementation. CI thinking is opposite to traditional management. For a successful transformation, the company culture has to change. This change only happens if it is coming from top to bottom. Top leaders need to learn and practice CI every day, everywhere, just like the rest of the team. They show commitment by supporting and actively participating in the transformation.

Lean or continuous improvement is not a cost reduction tool

Another mistake is believing that CI is a cost reduction tool. Do not start this journey without a clear purpose. Why do you want to do it? If the answer is cost reduction, think again. Go and see, ask why, and show respect will lead you to achieve cost goals. But that cannot be the purpose. Instead, think about changing lives or creating value.

The biggest lean misconception is that it is for manufacturing only

The biggest misconception is believing that CI is only for manufacturing companies. Have you heard about Continuous improvement, Best Business Practices, Danaher Business System, or Lean Manufacturing? All of them are different names for a way to conduct business.

The foundation for those systems is the Toyota Production System (TPS). The name Lean Manufacturing shifts your attention to manufacturing. Also, TPS makes people focus on cars. I prefer to use continuous improvement or Best Business Practices. Those are general terms with no reference to any industry.

Now you know what not to expect from continuous improvement. If you haven’t yet, read my post What is Continuous Improvement and Why you Need it? You will see why you need it in your business.

CI Basics

What are the rules to fix problems?

One common mistake for a manager or business owner is trying to “fix” problems by looking at reports. Those reports are full of old information. They are good to know what happened, but they don’t tell the whole story.

Learn from basketball coaches

If you are a basketball coach, you won’t try to call the shots just by looking at your team stats from the office. You will go to the basketball court, where the action is. You will observe how the individual members of the team react to the defense or offense play of the rival team. If you see something wrong, you will ask for a time out to discuss a change in strategy. You are observing every move, focusing on what the team needs to do to improve their game, and win. You can not be effective in doing the same thing looking at the score only.

How to fix problems

As a business owner, when problems arise with a specific process, you need to do the same thing. Always go to the area where the action happens first. If it is a problem with customer service, observe how your employees interact with customers. If it is an issue related to the quality of the food, try it yourself. Does it look and taste as it should?

Sometimes it is not obvious what is wrong. In that case, focus your attention on the process tools, equipment, and standard work. On the food quality example, you confirm something is off with the quality but don’t know what. Focus your attention on how close is the execution to the standard work or recipe. Observe if the cooks are using the right ingredients, the right quantity, or following the recipe steps.

As soon as you find out the issue, take a temporary fix on the spot. This temporary fix will not solve the problem. To fix it, you need to find the root cause of the problem. Do not try to guess or assign a cause based on your experience, engage the team on this exercise. Once you know the cause or causes of the problem, you can plan how to fix it. To prevent a recurrence, you need to update the standard work.

Simple rules to fix problems

To succeed in your continuous improvement journey, follow these simple rules while fixing problems.

When a problem arises, go to the place where the action or process happens first
Check all the relevant things: equipment, tools, materials, standard work
Take temporary solutions on the spot
Find the root cause
Standardize to prevent a recurrence

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. – Marilyn Vos Savant

CI Basics

What is a system?

A system is a set of principles or procedures working together to achieve a defined goal. Continuous improvement or Lean is a business management system designed to create customer value with fewer resources. Each part of the system has a purpose or objective. Many times only one or two lean principles are implemented, but not the system. Perhaps that is the reason why the expected results are not obtained.

The goal of lean or continuous improvement is to provide the customer with the highest quality, at the lowest cost, in a shorter time. The foundation of the system is stability and standardization. The pillars to achieve that goal are delivery time and quality. The heart is involvement, highly flexible, and motivated team members that are always improving.
Each program or principle connects with one of those components. For example, 5S and standardize work are critical for process stability. Continuous flow is one of the activities to achieve shorter delivery times.

How do we take care of the system’s heart? One of the most important principles of lean is respect. It is important to treat our team members as human beings and not a commodity. We show respect by taking the time to develop their skills and helping them to be successful. Create opportunities to learn using lean tools and encourage them to improve their work. Employee participation in improvement activities is a way to increase engagement. It gives them a chance to win achieving success in their efforts to create simple and safer processes.

Little by little, I will continue to share other activities or tools connected with the goal, foundation, pillars, and heart of the Lean System. Continuous improvement is not a supermarket of tools to pick and choose those you like more. You don’t need to use all the tools available, but you have to support all the system components. What makes Lean good is not the effectiveness of individual tools, but the synergy between them to achieve the goal.

CI Basics

Do you want to see simple solutions at work?

There different ways to create improvements in your business. One way is through innovations. Another one is using common sense, low-cost solutions. In this post, I want to present to you one example.

Need simple solutions to improve a laboratory efficiency

ChemTest is a chemical laboratory that provides services for the food manufacturing industry. The laboratory had problems to released test results as per the customer demand. It was common to see samples waiting for analysis, piling up on the refrigerator. Therefore, the staff was working overtime to process the backlog. The manager was getting ready to hire an additional lab technician. But I suggested to let me help him. He agreed to walk the lab with me while explaining what he thought was wrong.

Reasons for the laboratory inefficiency

I noticed various boxes on the floor, which is a safety hazard. The working tables looked cluttered. I watched one technician searching for the right sample for almost five minutes. They don’t have an efficient method to store them. Also, I observed another technician walking around the room to work on different workstations to complete his test. While I was watching him, somebody came to drop more samples. She just put them right on top of the piled the other guy did while searching a while ago.

Within the first ten minutes, I identified two causes for inefficiency, disorganization, and ineffective layout. Everything I pointed out was waste from the customer’s point of view. All those things contribute to increasing the testing time per sample without adding value to the process.

We have a short meeting with the staff to explain the situation. Also, we invited them to be part of the solution by participating in an improvement activity called Kaizen. They were happy to do something. Although they like the extra money, they wanted to spend more time with the family.

Simple solutions to reduce processing time and increase tests per day

The laboratory performs on a daily seven major types of tests. One of them accounts for almost 70% of the daily demand. We focused our analysis on that test type. The staff draws a process map with the steps to complete that test. They also measured the time to complete the test and watched the process to identify waste.

We used 5S, a housekeeping and organization program to clean and organize the entire laboratory. The staff used a drawing of the facility layout to draw all the walking between steps of the process. They also measured the distance walked. Based on their observations and suggestions, we moved some equipment and tools to have them closer to where they need them.

Just by doing that, they reduced the walking time by more than 50%, which reduced the test process time as well. Other benefits of this event were: 27% reduction in over-time, 52% reduction in total process time, and 30% more on-time test results released to the customer.

The results

They need some help to move the equipment, but the investment was peanuts compared with the benefits. After the event, the customer noticed the improvement in the quality of service, and the team was able to rest better and spend more time with their family.

You can have similar results by using continuous improvement as your strategy to increase customer satisfaction. Let’s have a good old conversation about how you can do it!

CI Basics

How can you create changes in your business?

Often business owners see something that tells them that something different needs to be done. Perhaps it is a recurring problem or realizes that the business is not reaching financial goals. What is the solution? You need to identify what areas need change and prioritize. How can you create changes? There are two major ways to create change: innovation and continuous improvement.

Create changes by innovating, or not.

More often than not, innovation is a high-cost solution. While it is necessary to keep yourself ahead of the game, I like to start somewhere else. My first stop in creating improvements is to use common sense, low-cost solutions.

Common-sense solutions

What are common-sense solutions? It is to approach a problem using good judgment. For example, let’s use one of my favorite low-cost tools: housekeeping and organization. Will you agree that keeping a clean and organized workplace is common-sense? Why do you think it is? Perhaps because you know some of the following facts.

Clutter and disorganization are against productivity, reduces the ability to concentrate.
A messy workplace causes anxiety, stress, and has the potential to foster a negative state of mind, like feeling overwhelmed.

Your good judgment tells you that an efficient workplace is cleaned and organized. Therefore, a lack of cleaning and organization is a visual indicator of inefficiency. You know that this condition has to change.

Two different ways to create changes

To improve housekeeping, you can buy a fancy computerized program or use a simple low-cost solution. Your new high-cost application will help you to create checklists, assign responsibilities and follow up on the cleaning activities. But it will not help you to ensure the workplace is clean and organized.

An alternative is to use 5S, a housekeeping and organization program. This program along with waste elimination and standardization are the basics of practicing continuous improvement. CI is about creating small changes using common-sense solutions that are easy to implement and follow. When you add up all those changes you will see a huge improvement in the overall performance of your business.