The fastest way to resolve an issue might actually be by using tools focused on change.

In
this rapidly changing environment, if you find that process changes are occurring on a
regular basis, your process improvement initiatives also need to have the speed and agility
to change with the times. Gone are the year-long teams to determine feasibility of a process
change or product enhancement!

It is not to say that a Kaizen event is the end-all, be-all solution to fix all of todays economic
issues, but it is a good start to solving some of them. As the U.S. government steps in to
enact change and provide support to the various institutions in the country, there are
additional changes that must take place within these institutionssome large, some
procedural and some, hopefully, cultural.
Kaizen as a methodology has the ability to speed up that change process and more
importantly finalize the solutions into standardized processes expeditiously. This benefits
the organization by not having floating processes in place and the end-user by making a
seamless process easy to use. Kaizen does this by having a structured approach, with
specific deliverables, and ownership of the changes after the Kaizen is completed.
Facilitating a Successful Kaizen Process
A refined approach to completing a Kaizen is the key to ensuring results. More importantly,
the approach needs to be facilitated by an individual who has good people skills, excellent
team work capabilities, quick conflict resolution skills and in-depth negotiating skills. This
type of leader, coupled with an empowered team, is best poised for success. We can all
relate to a project we were exposed to that did not quite reach its full potential, either
because of the lack of direction in the project management or the lack of experience in the
project manager. Kaizen can easily mitigate issues by using the above criteria for the
facilitator while following a rigorous application of a 10-step methodology.

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Kaizens Ten-Step Process

Your favorite process improvement methodology can be molded from Kaizens 10 steps,
including Six Sigma, Plan Do Check Act (PCDA), or even Select Clarify Organize Run
Evaluate (SCORE). This flexibility gives the Kaizen an ability to be used throughout your
organization by any experienced facilitator. These 10 steps are the process map through
which the event is kept on track and participants remain engaged. See the steps below to
compare the other methodologies to the Kaizen process.
1.

Define the problem

2.

Document the current situation

3.

Visualize the ideal situation

4.

Define measurement targets

5.

Brainstorm solutions to the problem

6.

Develop Kaizen plan

7.

Implement plan

8.

Measure, record and compare results to targets

9.

Prepare summary documents

10.

Create short term action plan, on-going standards and sustaining plan
Empowering Process Change
Additionally, it is imperative that the participants in the event be empowered to implement
any changes. This is a key to success otherwise the new processes or process changes will
be short lived and the people doing the work on a day-to-day basis will quickly revert back
to the old methods.
There are also key people that need to be present in a Kaizen event: the subject matter
expert, the process owner, one or two of the front-line workers (those people that
experience the process on a regular basis) and an outside novice (someone unfamiliar with
the process). However, none of these positions should be filled by the facilitator. Id suggest
that you use a facilitator from outside the area to prevent that individual from unconsciously
steering the event in a particular direction, or, even worse, consciously steering the event in
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a particular direction.
Timing is Key
The difference between Kaizen and other events is timing. Kaizen by definition is small
changes for the better. Today, Kaizen events are known to have the results implemented
before the conclusion of the event. This just-in-time process improvement capability also
hinges on all of the participants buying-in to consensus that the changes are correct and
beneficial. This also leads to an inherent pride of ownership in the changes (also a factor in
ensuring sustainability).
As you can expect, there are always exceptions to the rule, and some things can not be
changed during an event. If your organization is regulated, then you may not be able to
instantaneously change processes or procedures. Keep in mind that anytime this is an
issue, the topic may be too complex for a Kaizen. For some of these items, the Kaizen
sponsor should oversee the completion of a 30-day action plan. This plan should be tightly
monitored and reviewed on a weekly basis to ensure that the items on the list are being
addressed appropriately.
Some examples of the 30-day action items are updating procedures, printing out new
brochures, distributing new forms to users and reconfiguring offices (in a manufacturing
environment this may be a simple task that can be easily completed in the event; however,
in a services organization it may require vendor support and purchasing and facilities
coordination).
Identifying Topics for Kaizen
Here are some common themes that may be addressed for Kaizen:

Improving customer forms received in good order.

Improving first time call resolution in a call center.

Streamlining the order to payment process in purchasing.

Streamlining the reporting of hours worked to payroll.

Reducing time to hire and onboard new employees.

Reducing the submission to completion cycle time for facilities requests.

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Co-designing forms or content (for a web application) with the largest single user
(this may be an external Kaizen with great partnering opportunities).

Why Kaizen Can Work for Your Organization

Kaizen is an excellent way to formalize some simple improvement activities that are not
always run in an optimal format. Kaizen also avoids the stigma of a formalized project that
may be drawn out over several weeks or months. Most importantly, Kaizen provides just-intime process improvements. By using the above 10-step methodology, ensuring the
relevant parties are participating and empowered, and that those steps not able to be
completed in the event are completed within 30 days, Kaizen can enable significant and
sustainable improvements to any organization.

ARTICLE #2 Lean Material Management

During the past 20 years, lean has expanded well beyond manufacturing. Along this journey, much
has been learned about the use, application and effectiveness of lean techniques. We can take
these lessons and reapply them to some of the original areas of activity, such as material
management.
Lean in material handling and control, from the shop floor and out into the extended supply chain,
needs to be reexamined for two reasons. First, the majority of lean efforts to date have been based
on tools and their deployment. Instead, lean should be about principles, or thinking, including the
constant progress toward an image of the ideal state of the process. Many companies state this in
training but in practice the focus is still on the tools.
The second reason is that lean in material management has always been an extension of lean in
manufacturing. Just copying or extending lean manufacturing can be a mistake. Instead, materialhandling managers need to take a fresh look at what lean material management is all about. Five
key concepts must be integrated into any lean approach to material management.
Concept No. 1: Avoid the information blizzard
As computing power becomes a commodity and software solutions get more press coverage, the
push for more " visibility" into every part of your system has grown. Phrases such as "real-time" and
"unit-level data" appear more and more frequently in marketing material and magazine articles. The
underlying theory: if you can get real-time information, you will be more capable of reacting to events
faster and more effectively.
Reacting by another name is " firefighting." A true lean approach eliminates firefighting and instead
designs systems that respond. Here's one analogy: Air traffic controllers know the speed, direction
and location of every aircraft. They assess the situation constantly and tell each individual pilot when
to turn, when to change elevation, and when to slow down or speed up. Imagine that there were
traffic controllers for roads who would assess the location, direction, and speed of every car and
truck. They would filter what is important and tell drivers when to speed up, brake and turn. If we
were writing an advertisement for this system, it might read: "Make your organization respond rapidly
to changing needs in the marketplace dynamically creating an efficient and controllable supply
chain." Sounds good, right? Put into practice, however, and you can easily imagine the chaos and
accidents that would result.

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Most material management systems are similar in nature. People, companies and machines make
many independent decisions. But each needs only a few critical pieces of information to make
effective decisions, for example, when the person in front of them puts on their brakes.
Material managers should design systems that give people exactly what information they need to
determine their next action and nothing more.
Concept No. 2: Eliminate white space
Every activity, whether it involves handling material or information, has both a beginning and an end.
But the next person's activity often does not pick up exactly where the previous activity left off. There
is white space in between. If you fill out section A of a form and send it to have section B completed,
anywhere from one to 20 people may touch it in between. This is where the waste can be found.
Every process in every industry has five distinct steps: queue, setup, run, wait and move. For
decades we have focused a great deal on the run part of the process: running the machine, building
the forecast, unloading the truck. But this is only the value-added step. It's important but it is not the
most wasteful because we have focused on it for so long, and because it lends itself most naturally
to improvement. The other four steps, where we apply the least amount of attention into managing
and improving, are where most of the waste lies.
Consider this example. You visit Disney World and go to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. What's
the first thing that you do? You wait in line (queue). When you get to the end of that line, you don't
just hop on the boat. The operators have to get the other people off and get it ready for you (setup).
Then you get on and experience the ride (run). When the ride is over you have to wait for other
people to get off before you can exit. Finally, you pull together your family and move to the next ride.
Now, imagine you wanted to improve your lead time through Disney World. Most managers and
industrial engineers would focus on making the boat go twice as fast. But that's only the valueadded
step, the run. To find real opportunity we must focus on the other areas: queue, setup, wait and
move. Disney has in fact focused its operational improvements on exactly that, and visitors'
valueadded time while going through the park has significantly increased.
Concept No. 3: Right-size everything
I hardly enter a warehouse or distribution operation without hearing someone say, "We need
updated software, more space and more capable equipment." While life may be easier with all of
these things, it doesn't make you any better if you improve expenses by 10 percent but add 300
percent to capital requirements.
Likewise, if someone buys a piece of software and only uses half of the features, that is waste. The
person who bought the software will insist that they have to use more of the features. But if those
features don't add value, they shouldn't be used and more importantly, they shouldn't be bought.
We tend to start with the solution (the "thing") and then go looking for a problem. Instead start with
the problem (the "pain"). Only when you truly understand the root cause of the problem should you
pull out or create the solution. Lean is about using creativity before capital.
For example, one company we worked with made syringes. At one corner of the plant they made the
needles. At the other end, 100 yards away, they injection molded the housings. Although they used
some automated assembly equipment located near the needle manufacturing operation, a massive
amount of waste was generated getting the injected molded componentslight but bulkyto
assembly. This included boxing, packing, moving, and unpacking. Some of the parts would even
become damaged during this transportation process. A team was tasked with finding a solution.
Their first idea: move injection molding next to machining. This solution wouldn't get rid a lot of the
problems and would have cost a fortune because of the process and documentation requirements of
medical device manufacturers. Their next inspiration: install elevators and overhead conveyors. This
solution was dramatically cheaper but also didn't get rid of most of the waste.

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Finally, on his lunch break one of the team members went to the bank and deposited his paycheck at
the drive-through teller. The check got into the bank via a plastic cylinder sucked through a vacuum
tube. He figured that if the bank could suck up an object as heavy as that cylinder, they should easily
be able to vacuum up the light plastic components and dump them directly into the assembly
equipment. That's exactly what they did at a cost of $3,100.
Concept No. 4: One inch is still transport
In the telecommunications industry tremendous bandwidth was created throughout the infrastructure
except for one nagging link, "the last mile" into homes and businesses. While much of the
infrastructure was there it wasn't well utilized because people could not get the data in or out very
quickly. That problem has been mostly solved now, but a similar problem exists in material
management.
A great deal of work has been done to move both material and information over thousands of miles,
across multiple time zones and between companies smoothly and efficiently. Elegant and massive
solutions have been generated, sometimes spawning entire industries. I once witnessed a fork truck
driver put down a bin of parts and then watched as the operator had to move each part no less than
eight times, each one less than a foot. In the same operation the multi-million dollar ERP system
prints out a pick list for the warehouse that is then re-written by hand for a more efficient pick order.
There are efforts to chip away at the "last mile" problem, via technology such as radio-frequency
identification (RFID), but there is no one silver bullet.
One solution, while not new or unique to lean, is autounload, which is deployed more by successful
lean companies by a factor of 10 or 20. Loading a machine of any kind requires articulation,
manipulation and precision, which can be very expensive to automate. Unloading requires one
thing: transport. Auto-unload relies mostly on the most efficient energy source available: gravity.
When designing a work cell industrial engineers should consider these alternatives. First, without
auto-unload: Pick up part from Machine A, put it down next to Machine B, unload machine B, put
down part next to machine B, pick up first part, load machine B, pick up other finished part, take to
machine C. Now, with auto-unload: Pick up part from machine A, move to machine B, load part into
machine B, pick up part from auto-unload tray, move to machine C. Often with little more than a kicklevel, a chute and a tray, you can eliminate incredible amounts of wasteful handling.
Concept No. 5: Eliminate functional tunnel vision
Current reality is not always what it seems. I once asked a plant management team to describe what
lean means to them. The quality manager said "error proofing and firsttime through capability." The
industrial engineering manager responded "efficient job layout and standard work instructions." The
maintenance manager mentioned "total productive maintenance" while the controller focused on
cost reduction. The materials manager had an answer that was as narrowly focused: "it's about
pulling material and reduction of inventory." None of these answers were wrong, they were simply
incomplete.
While everyone has a role to play, we cannot approach these roles with a partial view of current
reality or an incomplete view of what needs to be achieved. Don't just focus on good material
management solutions, focus on the contribution material management can make towards the
development of an effective and complete lean system that serves the customers with what they
need when they need it without waste. This focus is the same for all functions, the ones mentioned
above along with finance, sales and marketing and product development. But for material
management it takes on greater importance because it is often the hub of information through which
the majority of the rest of the organization is connected. If material managers don't approach a lean
transformation from a holistic perspective, then none of the managers from other functional areas
will.
Remember that lean was not invented one day and is not sitting someplace waiting to be
discovered. Lean is continually invented and reinvented every day. Learn from the past, apply it
quickly, then learn from those new experiences to get to the next level. Reexamine the path you are

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on, make your course corrections and then continue on your journey. Just remember to bring two
things with you: a map and a compass. Lean, through it's underlying principles, should provide both.
Happy travels!

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