The Kaizen Wall of Fame

Whenever I have a really good idea, I'm anxious to share it with my friends, my boss, or anyone else who is willing to listen. Part of what makes us feel productive and fulfilled when we come up with a solution is the ability to share it - to gloat a little. Steal This Idea: The Kaizen Wall of Fame suggests a way to celebrate the ideas of a Kaizen event's participants and to give credit for the team's accomplishments. They suggest holding a simple Kaizen event, targeted at seeking simple problems and solutions. Adding a recycling bin by the copy machine to eliminate clutter could be one of the basic improvements implemented. Although this is a rather small improvement, giving credit to the person or persons who identified this need, created a solution to the problem, and implemented the change helps to create a culture that offers intrinsic rewards for participation. When I was involved in the early stages of process improvement, the affirmation I received from the team and the management was the reason I continued to brainstorm and create more cost effective solutions to be more efficient.

Mike Wroblewski suggests a Kaizen Wall of Fame for several reasons:

By posting the idea on the wall, you give instant recognition to your employees for making the improvement. You also encourage the small, frequent kaizen approach. Another benefit is that you create a company-wide communication board to share all these ideas. Finally, it helps motivate everyone to join in the fun of Kaizen.

Photo courtesy of relaibleplant.com

What's the point?

Have you ever noticed how projects tend to deviate in unexpected ways, to end up different from your original vision? Fix Your Bottleneck was conceived for the purpose of exploring Lean applications outside of the factory walls where it was born. Instead, as I've been told and have noticed in reflection, it has almost become more of a journal, explained from my experience in the trenches. I suppose that's because I've always felt pressured to justify the reasons I liked to do Lean work. It's true that someone whose job is identifying cost saving projects and implementing the necessary changes may wind up creating a business so Lean that the next cost saving project is to downsize the Lean Team. Anyone who really gets it knows that this could be the natural evolution of the process. I'm definitely not saying that makes it okay, but when someone is really skilled in seeing simple ways to reduce waste and streamline flow, they should be in high demand for all kinds of jobs.

This week, to celebrate the fact that I refocused and remembered the grounds for this blog, I thought I'd share this fun illustration of a bottleneck, then give you a glimpse of what Lean actually looks like in action.

As much as I enjoy this commercial, it is important to point out that Lean (and Visa) are both customer focused. Implicating a purchaser for an efficiency issue would certainly be a misstep. Take a look at the next clip to see how Lean really is a customer driven initiative.

I hope this is helpful in tying together some of the things I have been discussing in the past few weeks. It wasn't easy for me to understand how making one piece at a time could be better than the assembly line where we had dozens of parts being produced at once, but over time it came into focus.

After standing back and looking at my somewhat disjointed discussions, it was obvious that even my blog could benefit from some continuous improvement! 

Compliance or Commitment?

Try Googling Lean Systems or Continuous Improvement.

A technical theme emerges in the results, which is probably okay IF you are a business professional with refined knowledge of your specialized skills and have been asked to lead a cost saving project in your department. Most of us, however, find the mechanical nature of "Lean speak" to be unbearably dry and very easy to tune out. As an advocate for Lean thinking and a student of communication, I believe the language we use to persuade our team is just as important as the improvements we hope to see. You do yourself a disservice when you intimidate a project crew by speaking a confusing new language derived from Japanese (gemba, kanban, takt time, poka yoke, etc.). They will learn it and might even speak it, so long as it is used in a context that is useful and interesting. Give it time. After all, no one ever thought Google would become a synonym for query, but it is kind of fun to say.

When your business implements a change, do they make an announcement OR do they provide communication? Doesn't an announcement feel a lot like orders, a briefing, a declaration? News that is happening to me, that is not a question or a conversation, invites a defensive reaction. What about communication? If you open an email with the subject: Inter-office Communication, it feels more like something that invites engagement, feedback, or input. These nuances make a world of difference when a business needs a cultural shift in its staff. By inviting suggestions and engagement from the workers, a positive and productive environment will likely be the result.Would you rather have their compliance or their commitment?

I read this interesting bit from Brian Buck's blog, Improve With Me. He explains that there are a variety of reasons an employee might not follow standard work instructions.

A leader must go and see the actual condition that is causing the employee to not follow Standardized Work. Leaders need to ask why SW isn’t followed. Here are some potential reasons: 

They don’t know about the SW: How was the change communicated? At a team-meeting where not everyone was present? Via email buried under other announcements? 

They aren’t trained or capable to do the SW: They may not have the tools or the environment does not allow them to follow it. The training provided might not have been enough for them. 

All situations not considered when creating the SW: In order to respond to customers, the SW may not be capable to meet their needs. Do not jump to the conclusion that there isn’t a good reason why an employee did something different. They are on your team because of their hearts and minds and not just a pair of hands right? 

They already discovered a better way: Help them know how to spread improvements discovered by frontline workers. 

No leadership involvement: If leadership does not show they care whether the process is being followed on a regular basis or helping to solve problems uncovered after implementation, then how can you expect employees to care? 

Outcome not achieved but SW still being required: Standardization is not a Lean goal, but is a tool to help improve outcomes. If your hypothesized outcome didn't come true, why are you still requiring staff to follow the SW? 

You are not improving the SW: Over time, the SW will unconsciously change if continuous improvement is not part of your culture. The SW may have had elements missing or wasn’t fully tested. 

Leadership has placed the wrong person in the role: There are some people who willfully refuse to follow SW. Leadership must take responsibility for this as well, since they either tolerated bad behavior in exchange for productivity, or have been so uninvolved that they didn't realize the worker doesn't fit in their new culture.

If the knee jerk response was to report this guy to HR for performance issues, problems will persist, good ideas may remain buried, and employee morale diminishes. Determining root cause can be everyone's job. An image we used for Lean Projects in my office explains this scenario in a way that is easy to understand. The rocks just beneath the water's surface will continue to damage the vessel unless they are exposed.

Image courtesy of: http://www.handsongroup.com/lean-articles/forcing-continuous-improvement/