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Explaining the Lean Management System Part 3 Managing for Daily Improvement

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Lean Nation, In this five-part blog series on introducing the lean management system, the series focuses on discussing some of the key elements of the daily management system.  This work, completed by organizational leaders at all levels, is essential in having a thriving improvement system.   I find four elements are essential in engaging all employees, building the correct improvement habits /behaviors and sustaining improvement.    These four include: 1) Process or production control - This is used to ensure standard work is performing as designed and to provide hourly insights into waste creeping back into the system 2) Daily tiered huddles - These are used to monitor outcomes of processes aligned to true north measures 3) Kamishibai task audits - These daily audits are used to satisfy your curiosity that things are operating as designed with special emphasis on key standards, best practices, compliance, safety, etc.  4) Leader standard work - This pra...
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Explaining the Lean Management System Part 2 Production (or Process) Control

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  Lean Nation, Continuing our blog series on introducing the management system this blog focuses on  discussing some of the key elements of the daily management system.  This work, completed by organizational leaders at all levels, is essential in having a thriving improvement system.  The first essential tool in the management system is known as production control.  Since many organizations are service organizations, this term has also morphed into process control.  As discussed in the previous blog, I find four elements are essential in engaging all employees, building the correct improvement habits /behaviors and sustaining improvement.   These four include: 1) Process or production control - This is used to ensure standard work is performing as designed and to provide hourly insights into waste creeping back into the system 2) Daily tiered huddles - These are used to monitor outcomes of processes aligned to true north measures 3) Kamishib...
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Explaining the Lean Management System - Part 1 - The Key Elements

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  Lean Nation, In the spirit of sharing process improvement knowledge, I am offering a small blog series explaining important pieces of a lean management system.  To begin this discussion, I should share the key elements of an entire improvement system.   It is sometimes helpful to break the improvement system down into two parts, although I want to emphatically state that both elements are essential to delivering sustainable, operational improvement change in both performance and culture.  The two elements of the improvement system include the operating system and the management system. The operating system is used to generate breakthrough improvements through the application of the scientific method.  When discussing breakthrough improvements, think 10% plus improvement.  The management system is used to maintain standards, provide data, insights, and behavior to sustain gains, and can be used for incremental improvement of existing processes.  ...
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Another Major Risk to Transformational Efforts

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  Lean Nation, In the prior blogs located here See Beyond the Horizon ,   I commented on how data shows that 98% of all institutions stop their transformational efforts in their entirety after eighteen months.        History has taught me the following lessons as to why this is the case. As discussed in previous blogs in much more detail, the four common reasons why organizations abandon transformation are as follows: 1) Organizations waste the first six months of their improvement efforts 2) Organizations fail to monitor the breadth and depth of change 3) Organizations failure to get everyone involved 4) Organizations operate in two systems One of things I frequently ask organizations is if they do not want to use process improvement as a structured approach to improving operational performance, reducing product development cycles, and strategically growing their business,   what is their plan B? Since everyone is trying to perform better a...
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