Lean Nation:
(Part 5 of 7) I am continuing to blog on a seven part series on how to create a world class organization. As a reminder, here are the steps to creating a culture of continuous improvement:
1. Find a Sensei - You need a coach to make the journey.
2. Select your Organizational Wide outcome measures - these are known as the True North measures.
3. Prioritize and Map your Value Streams - select the areas with the most leverage.
4. Deliver Improvement - Use A-3 thinking and lean principles to make the changes identified in your value stream mapping sessions.
5. Sustain your improvements using visual management and leadership standard work.
Results are only realized if the gains are held.
6. Support your improvements with ongoing training and leadership development.
7. Spread your improvements to other parts of your organization.
This week I will expand on step 5: Sustain your improvements. This step is by far the most difficult for any organization to navigate. Why? Because your culture has shaped your organizational behaviors and actions. You are what your results say you are.
Chances are you didn't design your culture. It likely evolved and improvement is not about executing the mechanics of step one through step x, it is about changing your culture. And changing your culture will be time consuming, and require great fortitude, persistence, tenacity, and consistency. I'll be blunt here, most management teams teams do not have the energy and commitment to do all the little things required to change the culture of their organization.
There are two great tools in place to help with changing the culture. Both of them are lead by management. The first is visual management. The principle of visual management is commonly thought to be a system that shows normal conditions from abnormal conditions. This is generally true. However, visual management is much more than that. Visual management is the system that provides the staff the knowledge and motivation to succeed. Succeed at what? Succeed at satisfying the customer; succeed at developing oneself and one's team; succeed at meeting organizational targets, and succeed at improvement. Taken all together this visual management system is a pretty powerful tool.
I have now settled on the opinion that there are three facets to visual management. The first area of visual management is the management of outcomes. This system is a collection of trend charts showing results and targets, as well as the corresponding action plans to deliver on these targets and the status of these plans.
The second area of visual management is the system of managing process. This system shows hour by hour status of the process and highlights when the system is not operating as designed. Variations from standard are identified and if possible fixed in real-time. If the issues cannot be resolved in real-time, then the sources of variation need to be identified through a histogram/Pareto diagram so they can be prioritized for problem solving. Problem solving is best done using a 5W and 2H approach that gets to root cause, where the direct cause can be identified and the problem can be counter measured for permanent solution. we'll discuss problem solving in a future blog. The final piece of the visual management for process involves the action plan for resolution. Summarizing, visual management of process involves seeing normal operations from abnormal operations, capturing the frequency of deviations from standard, and documenting the corrective actions for resolution. All posted in a transparent manner for everyone to be able to see.
The third area of visual management involves management of the workplace. What I am talking about here is a robust 5S system. this will be the topic of next week's blog. 5S is a management system that visually creates a high performing work area. Many wastes are eliminated through 5S, and I consider 5S to be a basic staple of any improvement system and everyone should begin with this system.
A world class organization has all three elements of visual management in place, current, and followed. These elements include visual management of outcomes, visual management of process, and visual management of the workspace.
The second tool is leadership standard work. (Note: I'll create a later blog on leadership standard work) Leadership standard work involves disciplining yourself to go to Gemba at set intervals during the day and focus on setting and maintaining, then improving standards. In short, this implies paying attention to the signals in the visual management system and taking action to ensure compliance with work standards and to identify wastes creeping into the system. The wastes can be prioritized, then eliminated. A great visual management system will tee up these wastes and make them readily obvious.
Doing these two things exceptionally well will go a long way in ensuring sustainability of your improvements.
Lean Blessings;
Ron
Ron Bercaw
http://www.breakthroughhorizons.com/
(Part 5 of 7) I am continuing to blog on a seven part series on how to create a world class organization. As a reminder, here are the steps to creating a culture of continuous improvement:
1. Find a Sensei - You need a coach to make the journey.
2. Select your Organizational Wide outcome measures - these are known as the True North measures.
3. Prioritize and Map your Value Streams - select the areas with the most leverage.
4. Deliver Improvement - Use A-3 thinking and lean principles to make the changes identified in your value stream mapping sessions.
5. Sustain your improvements using visual management and leadership standard work.
Results are only realized if the gains are held.
6. Support your improvements with ongoing training and leadership development.
7. Spread your improvements to other parts of your organization.
This week I will expand on step 5: Sustain your improvements. This step is by far the most difficult for any organization to navigate. Why? Because your culture has shaped your organizational behaviors and actions. You are what your results say you are.
Chances are you didn't design your culture. It likely evolved and improvement is not about executing the mechanics of step one through step x, it is about changing your culture. And changing your culture will be time consuming, and require great fortitude, persistence, tenacity, and consistency. I'll be blunt here, most management teams teams do not have the energy and commitment to do all the little things required to change the culture of their organization.
There are two great tools in place to help with changing the culture. Both of them are lead by management. The first is visual management. The principle of visual management is commonly thought to be a system that shows normal conditions from abnormal conditions. This is generally true. However, visual management is much more than that. Visual management is the system that provides the staff the knowledge and motivation to succeed. Succeed at what? Succeed at satisfying the customer; succeed at developing oneself and one's team; succeed at meeting organizational targets, and succeed at improvement. Taken all together this visual management system is a pretty powerful tool.
I have now settled on the opinion that there are three facets to visual management. The first area of visual management is the management of outcomes. This system is a collection of trend charts showing results and targets, as well as the corresponding action plans to deliver on these targets and the status of these plans.
The second area of visual management is the system of managing process. This system shows hour by hour status of the process and highlights when the system is not operating as designed. Variations from standard are identified and if possible fixed in real-time. If the issues cannot be resolved in real-time, then the sources of variation need to be identified through a histogram/Pareto diagram so they can be prioritized for problem solving. Problem solving is best done using a 5W and 2H approach that gets to root cause, where the direct cause can be identified and the problem can be counter measured for permanent solution. we'll discuss problem solving in a future blog. The final piece of the visual management for process involves the action plan for resolution. Summarizing, visual management of process involves seeing normal operations from abnormal operations, capturing the frequency of deviations from standard, and documenting the corrective actions for resolution. All posted in a transparent manner for everyone to be able to see.
The third area of visual management involves management of the workplace. What I am talking about here is a robust 5S system. this will be the topic of next week's blog. 5S is a management system that visually creates a high performing work area. Many wastes are eliminated through 5S, and I consider 5S to be a basic staple of any improvement system and everyone should begin with this system.
A world class organization has all three elements of visual management in place, current, and followed. These elements include visual management of outcomes, visual management of process, and visual management of the workspace.
The second tool is leadership standard work. (Note: I'll create a later blog on leadership standard work) Leadership standard work involves disciplining yourself to go to Gemba at set intervals during the day and focus on setting and maintaining, then improving standards. In short, this implies paying attention to the signals in the visual management system and taking action to ensure compliance with work standards and to identify wastes creeping into the system. The wastes can be prioritized, then eliminated. A great visual management system will tee up these wastes and make them readily obvious.
Doing these two things exceptionally well will go a long way in ensuring sustainability of your improvements.
Lean Blessings;
Ron
Ron Bercaw
http://www.breakthroughhorizons.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment