Archive for the 'project kaizen' Category

This is not a book review. That will come later. I'm only sharing the news that there is a new Shigeo Shingo book: kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking. Norman Bodek gave me the chance to review an early version of the book. I'm quite impressed. I've wondered for quite some time if there is a systematic behind Toyota's success other than PDCA. We now all know the answer. Shingo developed an approach that helps everyone to be more creative. And that approach is readily learned.

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The QnEK Horse Has Left the Barn

Quick and Easy kaizen is said to be the direct inheritor of kaizen teian — a program of continuous improvement at the initiative of the workforce. kaizen teian functions as a suggestion system. The usual approach is to have workers propose their improvements to their direct supervisor. The Japan Human Relations Association (JHRA) took it one step further. In the spirit of respecting the well-trained worker JHRA created an approach where workers report the improvements they adopted without getting approval. They call this Quick and Easy kaizen. Bunji Tozawa and Norman Bodek introduced this approach in their book The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy kaizen (QnEK).

I've been introducing QnEK to clients. It hasn't been an easy introduction. The thought that people would just change what they want to change scares some managers. I understand that. In many companies there is skepticism that workers will make a change for the better. In the situation where people are thrown into jobs — to sink or swim — they might not make changes that are better. Also, in situations where there is no standard work, everyday change might destabilize an already unstable situation.

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For the last ten years Jim Womack, co-author of three best-selling books on lean ¹, has been advising people to start their lean initiatives by going after waste (muda). Only after a concerted effort at that has he said to pursue reductions in variation (mura) and overburdening (muri). I never quite understood why he was so adamant. I just learned that he's changed his mind. In his latest email LEI newsletter Jim gives the following advice:

"Take a careful look at your mura and your muri as you start to tackle your muda. Ask why there should be any more variation in your activities than called for by customer behavior. Then ask how the remaining, real variation in customer demand can be smoothed internally to stabilize your operations. Finally ask how overburdens on your equipment and people — from whatever cause — can be steadily eliminated."

At Lean Project Consulting, we've given that advice for years. First, make sure the project has the appropriate resources for the challenges expected. Next, attack variability of promised task completion using the Last Planner System® ². When you do those two things the project will be stable. Then it is time to attack waste using Project kaizen.

Jim finished his essay with a little warning and encouragement:

"This will be hard work and will require courage because it will often require you to rethink longstanding sales, management, and accounting practices that create the mura and muri. However, if you can eliminate mura and muri at the outset to create a stable environment for your sales, operations, and supply management teams, you will discover that muda can be removed much faster. And once removed it will stay removed."

I can agree with Jim on the hard work, particularly on projects. Overburdening is just the way it is. Way too often projects start without the full complement of staff. The right people might be stuck finishing up a late project. Or, the project started late for whatever reasons requiring people to be assembled in a making do fashion. Starting projects well makes all the difference to finishing projects well.

Let's all thank Jim Womack. Lean projects require an all our attack on muri, mura, and muda — in that order.

1. The Machine that Changed the World, Lean Thinking, and Lean Solutions [ ⇑ back ]
2. Registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute, www.leanconstruction.org. [ ⇑ back ]

People who've studied Total Quality and Six Sigma are quite familiar with the Seven QC Tools ¹ and the New Seven Tools ². They are all approaches to structured problem-solving.

One of the tools in the first group is cause and effect analysis. In the 70s a variation to the approach was introduced called CEDAC³. CEDAC works for a number of reasons. First, it's a visual approach that encourages people to reconsider what they've proposed and it brings others into the problem-solving process both in planned and serendipitous ways. In my posting Revisitng the Toyota Way earlier this month, I mentioned that I was working with a client team using Jeffrey Liker's book, The Toyota Way. One of the decisions we made was to put CEDAC boards in prominent places at each of the divisions. We've got four more days of group discussions with the book. Following that I will be introducing the team to alternatives to cause and effect diagrams. I'll be using David Straker's book, Rapid Problem Solving with Post-It® Notes.

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1. run chart, Pareto chart, flow chart, cause and effect diagram, histogram, scatter diagram, and control chart [ ⇑ back ]
2. affinity diagram, relations diagram, tree diagram, matrix diagram, prioritization matrix, arrow diagram, and process decision program chart [ ⇑ back ]
3. Cause and Effect Diagram with the Addition of Cards [ ⇑ back ]

The first week of December 2005 was a great collaboration of practitioners and lean thinking advisors. We've certainly added to the recorded wisdom of project kaizen. And we have a long way to go. For my part, I'll continue to write about the best practices, project experiences, and lessons, especially those learning moments.

Identify an annoyance in your own work and eliminate it. And then do it again!

Lean thinking is transforming one industry after another. That is a really good thing. It's time to bring lean thinking to the project space. In my opinion there's no better place to start than by introducing project kaizen. So, I'm doing my part by launching the project kaizen website. You'll find it at www.projectkaizen.com. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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Do your projects sap your energy and that of your project team members? Projects can be a fantastic way to do something important — to learn something invaluable — to meet wonderful people. But too often it is not like that. Projects can be taxing. (For me anyway!) If you've done more than one project you know first hand:

Projects are exciting.
Projects are difficult.
Projects are exciting.
Projects cut into family time.
Did I say, "Projects are exciting?"

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Earlier this week I was discussing this project kaizen series with a colleague who practices agile project management. He told me he does project kaizen routinely. In fact, he was off for two days of project kaizen. I encouraged him to write something on his weblog when he got back. It occurred to me afterwards the he was talking about a kaizen blitz. He was joining a project team to rethink and replan how they would go about organizing the work and themselves to do the project. This is the big bang of kaizen activities. (Read Norman's recount of the Birth of the kaizen Blitz.) In the case of my friend, the project circumstances had changed to such an extent that it made sense to come back and do a complete revisit and rethink of the project. This is the time for innovation.

In my experience a kaizen blitz must always start by revisiting the promise(s) of the project. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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The team that shoots more through the season wins more games.

There isn't an easier project kaizen approach than Quick 'n Easy kaizen for improving performance on a project and across the project-based company. It comes down to this: The team that shoots more throughout the season wins more games. The quick 'n easy approach increases the (improving) shots on goal by increasing the attempted improvements by individuals. How? By recognizing both the inherent autonomy of the individual coupled with their talents. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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Read kaizen, learning, and coordination and you'll know why we selected this article as our Gang-of-Seven "plus one" co-blogger of the day. I can't tell whether Eric was writing on Workgroup kaizen or Workstream kaizen. Maybe he's writing about Quick 'n Easy kaizen. In any case, Eric's posting will help you understand the nature and the point of kaizen. Eric writes, Read the rest of this entry ¶

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To optimize for client value — the promise of the project — rather than for whatever it is that you do requires understanding where there is a limitation in the value stream. We learned that lesson from TOC. All other improvement is only local. While all improvement may be good for acquiring an improving habit, it is only when we improve at the area of the constraint that throughput increases. Just working on the constrained step with those people who perform that step may not lead to improvement in the whole process. To get a performance gain in your work might require that I change what I do. This is done on projects in the workstreams. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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Kathleen Fasanella is on top again. I don't know where to start commenting on her Great Workgroup kaizen posting. Kathleen writes from experience at gemba. While you might not be interested in cutting and stitching patterns, you will learn from her complete examples.

I started working with teams on improving operations in 1985. For 10 years we called this group work SGIAs, small group improvement activities. It was very Deming-like. We would use the seven QC (problem-solving) tools¹ to tackle an issue the group had in the production setting. At that time I struggled to get plant management to let people off the line fearing the loss of productivity. Another ten years later, things have changed on the factory floor. Now, the common sense in production is to help people closest to the work contribute to ongoing improvement. Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. Cause-and-effect diagram, Pareto chart, checksheet, histogram, scatter diagram, control chart, and various graphs [ ⇑ back ]

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This woman is on a roll!

There is overwhelming support among the gang members for Kathleen's Fasanella's posting on Why Do Project kaizen?. If you haven't read it already, then get yourself a cup of coffee or glass of wine and sit back. Kathleen takes me on. That's right. She takes exception to preparation offered to those blogging on kaizen. She uses her own tentativeness to reveal the always-present reluctance we encounter when inviting people to participate in kaizen activities. Kathleen wrote, Read the rest of this entry ¶

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We know the least about a project at the beginning, the usual time that a team plans their project. Unfortunately, too many teams don't revisit their project plan as they encounter the future that unfolds. Not only do they find themselves struggling to conform to a plan that doesn't match their experienced reality, but they fail to incorporate what learning occurs along the way.

It is also your job to do your tasks with a mindfulness that they can be done better the next time.

Project kaizen is an opportunity to deliberately incorporate learning, innovating, and improving performance into the everyday workings of the project.

Project kaizen cannot be an add-on or afterthought to the way the project is conducted. You need to declare that it is part of each person's role. As a project participant it is your job to carry out the tasks that you accept. It is also your job to do your tasks with a mindfulness that they can be done better the next time. All it takes is noticing what was difficult, what required effort, what didn't go as expected, and what could provide more value to the customer and your firm. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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Starting tomorrow the gang-of-seven will be blogging on project kaizen. We are sticking to the same five themes day-by-day. You might want to know where those themes came from. (My six partners did!) The first theme is making the case for project kaizen. We decided to start with answering why do kaizen on projects simply because we don't find kaizen today in the project setting. What about the other four themes?

Here's a little background on how I've come to think of the four themes the way I do. Read the rest of this entry ¶

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I mentioned yesterday that we'd be featuring one additional blogger writing on project kaizen each day. While we're not starting our co-blogging 'til Monday I couldn't wait to call attention to a great first effort. At least one blogger has jumped the gun! (Not one of the gang members.) Someone from the needle trades!

Kathleen Fasanella writes the weblog Fashion Incubator. Yesterday she wrote What Is kaizen? Kathleen tells a great story of what kaizen is and why it is important to a business. I really liked the story. She writes in a way that I can hear her speaking. This wasn't her first posting on lean manufacturing. Kathleen is interested in the sustainable factory floor. Lean thinking and practices are a big part of that. Look for more from Kathleen over the next week.

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I've been asked about the listing of members at Norman's kaikaku sidebar. The heading reads "Gang-of-Seven (plus one)". Who's the plus one? Well, it's sort of a surprise! Each day we'll feature one additional blogger who's offering their expertise and opinion. Maybe that blogger will be you!

Have a look at our project kaizen themes for each day. You can write something original or provide commentary on one or more of the Gang-of-Seven. Include in your posting the term "project kaizen" in either your post title or first sentence. If you have an RSS feed, then Google will tell us (and everyone else) who you are and you posted. It might also help to link back to one of the gang members. We'll highlight one posting at the end of each day that we think adds something distinctive to our exploration. And, we'll include your posting in our book!

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I've been introducing the Gang-of-Seven members by their blogging. The last of the seven writing on project kaizen is Mark Graban who writes the Lean Manufacturing Blog. Mark covers the gamut when it comes to lean. And, he's snared some great interviews recently with Jim Womack, parts [1] [