Guest Post: Stephen Ruffa on Lean Manufacturing

The following is a guest post from Stephen Ruffa, author of Going Lean.

A growing number of organizations have turned to “lean” as a way of dealing with today’s challenging business environment, seeking to lower operating costs by targeting processing excesses–or waste. While doing so can offer near term savings, a deeper benefit is critically needed today: the ability for more smoothly introducing the kind of fresh, new products that inspire customers to buy in the first place.

How can going lean help in promoting greater product innovation? The answer comes from going back to its roots. Lean methods were developed decades ago by some of today’s most successful corporations as a means for overcoming volatile business conditions. By building in mechanisms for maintaining a smoother, more predictable flow of operations, information, and decision making in the face of even serious external challenges, they substantially dampen disruption–a major cause for waste to accumulate. These same mechanisms also streamline the introduction of new product designs by dampening variation and start-up problems that come from shifting to new procedures and configurations.

Why is this important? Developing products to make their transition into production speedier, less costly with far less operational uncertainty lowers the barriers to making more frequent product changes–a critical need for responding to today’s dynamic, competitive marketplace. However, doing so takes applying lean principles not as an add-on, but as part of a rigorous structure that progressively advances toward sustainable excellence that includes:

Demanding business transformation. Going lean takes a fundamental shift from traditional business practices, which goes beyond targeting continuous improvement efforts wherever waste is found. Instead, lean activities should be deliberately sequenced in a way that integrates product development, beginning with building a solid foundation for attaining substantial, lasting results.

Designing for dynamic stability. Lean product development includes practices intended to increase coordination between design disciplines and reduce product complexity–but its emphasis should extend further still. For instance, developing products in a way that leverages processing commonalities supports the fundamental lean objective of managing based on product families–a key to sustaining smooth flow even during uncertain and constantly changing business conditions.

Fostering a broadened span of insight. Implementing lean methods relies heavily on ideas and input from the workforce–however, it is important to first increase individuals’ span of insight to make their contributions most meaningful. In product development this might include restructuring roles to extend beyond traditional boundaries, enabling designers to better see what characteristics will make products easier to introduce into production–and to help with structuring production operations to become better suited to produce them.

Targeting new opportunities. Lean product development should include gaining a deep, specific understanding of customer needs, enabling organizations to better anticipate and respond to what customers want across the range of circumstances they might face–a key to promoting trust and gaining the insight for developing products and services offering the greatest value.

Stephen A. Ruffa is the author of Going Lean: How the Best Companies Apply Lean Manufacturing Principles to Shatter Uncertainty, Drive Innovation, and Maximize Profits and the upcoming The Going Lean Fieldbook: A Practical Guide to Lean Transformation and Sustainable Success. He is an aerospace engineer, researcher, and business consultant specializing in applying lean principles to overcome the challenges of dynamic business conditions. He is a winner of the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research, and the author of Going Lean and The Going Lean Fieldbook.

And now for the GIVEAWAY! The first five commenters on this post will receive a free copy of Stephen Ruffa’s book Going Lean. Good luck!

Guest Post: Brian Cole Miller on Working As a Team

The following is a guest post by Brian Cole Miller, author of Nice Teams Finish Last.

“If you can’t say something NICE, don’t say anything at all!” That’s my mother talking. And every other adult from my childhood. And your childhood. Growing up, we were taught to keep our mouths shut. Don’t rock the boat.

In many manufacturing environments, a similar message is reinforced: never give real feedback. Avoid conflict. Be agreeable. All this in the name of being NICE. Because when you’re NICE, people get along. No one has hurt feelings. Everyone is happy.

The problem is, it’s just not true. Teams that play too NICEly together don’t reach their full potential. They’re productive, but often just marginally. They don’t consistently exceed expectations, or blow their competition out of the water. That’s because NICE gets in the way of true efficiency—a must for most manufacturers.

NICE Gets in the Way of Successful Teams

Why? Every successful team passes through four stages of team development. In forming, members work independently as they figure out how they fit in. But conflict is bound to happen: storming. On the other side of storming is norming, where members resolve differences and normalize how they’ll operate together. Finally, in performing, they become highly interdependent and highly productive. They work through conflict efficiently, respectfully, and effectively.

Most NICE teams think they are in performing, when really they are stuck at the doors of storming. When conflict arises, they work to get rid of it. They may step into storming briefly, but all they want is harmony (even if it’s superficial) so they hastily retreat to the safe and familiar territory of forming. With no real resolution, they create a work-around, shut someone down, or compromise the quality of their work.

Exploring the Opposite of NICE: The FIERCE Team

So if being NICE isn’t the answer, what is? Being mean? Not exactly. In a team setting the opposite of NICE is FIERCE. And at first glance, FIERCE looks like an appealing alternative. They are direct. Important feedback is shared. Ideas and opinions are challenged. But their singular focus is on the task, so people’s needs and feelings take a back seat. The difference between healthy debate and harmful conflict is blurred.

So NICE teams are too NICE. FIERCE teams are too FIERCE. The sweet spot in the middle is BOLD. BOLD teams realize it’s not just what they do that’s important, but how they do it, too. What they do gives short term success. How they do it sets them up for future success. BOLD teams balance FIERCE’s courage, risk taking and honesty with NICE’s compassion, consideration and caring.

This balance is delicate, and it comes by living 4 BOLD Principles. Principles that will help a team override their tendency to be NICE and transform them into a more effective BOLD team.

Be BOLD: Live the Four BOLD Principles

Principle 1: Assume Innocence. It’s easy to make assumptions about someone’s underlying intentions. It takes effort to withhold judgment. It takes patience and trust to assume innocence, and approach others from a place of curiosity, rather than accusation.

For example, Carmen is offended by something Scott did. “Why would he do that?” she wonders. Then she answers, “He’s so lazy. And now he thinks we’re going to jump in and help with the quality checks just because he’s behind in his work?!” Her next interaction with Scott can’t go well. If she’s NICE, resentment and distrust will build as she whitewashes trouble. If she’s FIERCE, she’ll blast Scott.

If BOLD, she does neither. She suspends judgment until she gets the facts from Scott. Meanwhile, she trusts that Scott did whatever he did because, from his perspective, it was the most appropriate thing to do. Until she understands better, she refrains from taking inappropriate action.

Principle 2: Build a Bridge. Confrontations feel threatening when they come without warning. People feel attacked and get defensive. So once you assume innocence, initiate a meaningful conversation by building a bridge first. Seek to understand their perspective before you share yours. Then use that understanding to introduce yours.

Carmen may ask Scott, “Will you tell me more about how this happened, Scott?”

Principle 3: Speak Your Truth. Notice the word your. There is no absolute truth in human interactions. Carmen has hers. Scott has his. Each believes their perspective to be truth. Each is right: they each have a different truth.

Carmen may say, “Scott, you didn’t complete your work on time. And you didn’t warn us that this would mean you wouldn’t do your quality checks. This made it difficult for us to follow our normal break schedule and also increased our scrap rate.” See how this is Carmen’s truth, and she says it without labeling Scott or condemning him.

Principle 4: Invite Dialogue. True resolution can only come when there’s dialogue. Sharing your truth is only half of the story. Invite your teammate to do the same.

Carmen may say, “Scott, how do you see this?”
Only when you hear your teammate’s truth can you have a meaningful conversation and eventually reach an efficient, effective and lasting resolution. NICE teams don’t get there because team members back off as before they share truth. FIERCE teams don’t get there because team members insist on being heard first (so no one is heard). BOLD teams encourage curiosity and understanding, not abandonment or insistence.

So if you can’t say anything NICE, great! Say something BOLD and help move your team to the success you know you’re capable of!

Brian Cole Miller is the principal of Working Solutions, Inc., a management training and consulting firm whose clients include FranklinCovey, Nationwide Insurance, and the UPS Store. He has over 25 years experience in Training, Human Resources, and Organizational Development in various industries. He is the author of many books including Nice Teams Finish Last: The Secret to Unleashing Your Team’s Maximum Potential, Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers: More Than 50 Icebreakers, Energizers, and Other Creative Activities That Get Results, the bestseller Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes, and More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 New Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes. He lives in Dublin, Ohio.

Guest Post: Susan Page on Facilitating Business Process Improvement

The following is a guest post by Susan Page, author of The Power of Business Process Improvement.

You may have worked with Lean Manufacturing for years, but is everyone in your organization on the same page? How do you facilitate business process improvement (BPI) in a manner that empowers your workforce? How do you retain the improvements achieved post implementation?

If you want to standardize your approach to BPI and sustain your improvements, these 10 steps provide structure and organization, enabling you to engage more colleagues in the work.

Step 1: Create the Process Inventory. Develop criteria that you can use to prioritize the items in your inventory. Completing this step quickly shows you where to initially focus your energy.

Step 2: Establish the Foundation. Describe key elements of the process so that you can avoid scope creep as the work progresses. This includes writing a user-friendly description of the process, deciding on the boundaries (where the process begins and ends), identifying the customer and their needs, and how you will know if the process succeeds (measurements of success). This will help your team develop a common understanding and allow you to stay on track.

Step 3: Draw the Process Map. Decide whether you should draw a high-level or more detailed-level process map. Use the boundaries established in step 2 to get started by looking at what you wrote as the “beginning” of the process.

Step 4: Estimate Time and Cost. Add how long each activity takes directly on the process map to identify the process time. To define the cycle time, add the elapsed or waiting time to the process time. Once you have identified how long each activity takes, you know how much labor a business process consumes and you can then add the annual volume handled by the business process and employee salaries (or total overhead costs, if desired) to identify the total annual cost.

Step 5: Verify the Process Map. This step will help you avoid someone challenging an improvement statistic that may surface later.

Step 6: Apply Improvement Techniques. Going through a series of techniques in a particular order helps you obtain the most from each step. The key is to stay customer focused as you work through eliminating bureaucracy and non-value added activities. Avoid the politics! Consider automating an activity as the last resort, so that you make certain that the activity should remain part of the process. For example, do not create a spreadsheet to automate an activity when it should be eliminated.

Step 7: Create Internal Controls, Tool, and Metrics. Flag potential problem spots in the business process and develop an internal control to prevent human error from occurring. Also, take inventory of what applications you have available and don’t forget everyday applications that you have on your desktop. Develop any tools you identified in step 6 during step 7. Lastly, revisit the “measurements of success” you identified in step 2 and turn the key ones into metrics. If you have too many potential metrics to start with, try to include at least one effectiveness, one efficiency, and one adaptability metric.

Step 8: Test and Rework. Before introducing change to your organization, you want to make certain that everything works as planned. Test the changes you plan to make and focus on any new tools you developed. The time spent here can vary depending on the degree of change.

Step 9: Implement Change. This step is really the change management process. You should identify any potential challenges you expect to encounter as you develop the improved process map in step 6. Identify the rationale for the change, who is impacted, and details about the potential challenge. Also, develop the communication and training plans during this step so you know who to communicate with or train.

Step 10: Drive Continuous Improvement. Look ahead and put a plan in place to revisit the process on a regular basis. This will help you to stay competitive, make certain you continue to meet your customer needs, and ensure you keep pace with changing technology. This is where you decide, for example, how often you plan to revisit your customer needs or metrics.

These simple steps help you develop a business language you can use with colleagues that doesn’t sound too technical. Over the years, I have found people I work with to be more open to BPI when I avoid quality-related terms and use simple, everyday terminology.

For more information on how to enhance your BPI, check out my book The Power of Business Process Improvement: 10 Simple Steps to Increase Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Adaptability.

Susan Page is an experienced business process improvement consultant for the computer, banking, and entertainment industries. She has a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems and is a graduate of the WOMEN Unlimited LEAD program. She currently works for a major entertainment company in Orlando, Florida.

Guest Post: Dantar P. Oosterwal on Lean Manufacturing

The following is a guest post by Dantar P. Oosterwal, author of The Lean Machine.

Don’t Bring Lean Manufacturing Upstream

My learning journey to adapt lean manufacturing principles to product development began with a call to Jim Womack, head of the Lean Enterprise Institute. I had met Jim briefly while I was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had been involved in the seminal study in association with MIT that uncovered the notion of “lean.” The term had been coined in the book The Machine that Changed the World to refer to the lack of waste in the Toyota production system.

Jim was the researcher and author who brought “lean” to the world’s attention, so I enthusiastically called him for his advice. His advice: “Don’t try to bring lean manufacturing upstream to product development!” burst my bubble. It was not what I wanted to hear as I started my journey on wobbly legs. “We’re focused on manufacturing,” Jim had told me when I asked him for help. “Try calling Allen Ward; he studied the Toyota product development system.” My hopes were rekindled when Jim suggested I contact Dr. Ward at the University of Michigan.

It took a while to track Allen down. When I finally did, the reception I got was not much warmer than what I had received from Jim. I began to wonder why no one wanted to talk about lean product development. Perhaps no one wanted to share their secrets, or maybe they didn’t really understand it, I mused. “Buy my book and call me when you’ve read it,” Allen told me over the phone. I ordered the book from Dollar Bill books. I remembered Dollar Bill as a little hole-in-the-wall photocopy shop at the University of Michigan from my college days. I did not expect much from a copy shop, perhaps a syllabus or class notes. When the book arrived, it consisted of eighty-four spiral-bound 3-inch by 5-inch photocopied pages filled with unintelligible gibberish between two laminated card stock covers. It would have been generous to call it a book. My initial instinct was to drop this crazy notion of lean product development, or just go against Jim’s advice and implement lean manufacturing techniques on my own. I had already talked to a number of the big consulting companies. Most were still promoting implementation of phase gate methods. Others had lean manufacturing people applying the manufacturing tools in the non-manufacturing space. I wanted more and expected more, so I slogged on, determined to get someone’s attention.

“Allen, I read your book,” I said after I was finally able to reach him again. The book only took minutes to read, but reaching Allen had taken days again. “I have to admit, that I don’t really understand it. Would it be possible to get together and talk about it?” I continued.

“I’m really busy and I don’t have much time,” he responded. “I don’t care to waste what time I do have dealing with someone who is not really serious about implementing it,” he continued. I had no clue what “it” to implement, but somehow I managed to convince Allen that it was worth investing a day with me. Perhaps it was just the intrigue of Harley-Davidson, but Allen agreed to come to Milwaukee for a day.
Allen was a former Army Ranger and the influence of his military career was clearly evident when we met. He was fit and trim. Everything about him was concise, blunt, and direct. Although flamboyant in his own way, he was very opinionated and freely shared what was on his mind. He was confident and brilliant. In our initial conversations I quickly realized that Allen had unique insights to product development. He clearly had something to offer, but getting it out in a usable fashion would be a challenge. Over time our relationship grew and Allen began to open up as we debated the virtues of applying lean techniques to product development.

Allen received his Ph.D. from MIT. His doctoral research dealt with the hypothesis of a design compiler. He theorized that if design attributes were constructed based on algorithms and fed to a computer, the computer would be able to optimize the various design alternatives much better than a human and in turn create a better design with less time and effort. After receiving his Ph.D., Allen moved to the University of Michigan to begin his teaching career and he continued to explore the notion of a design compiler. He began to investigate whether any company even quantified design attributes in the form of algorithms. He was intrigued to uncover the possibility of applying the principles of a design compiler to industry.

As Allen sought to uncover the principles of a design compiler in industry, over time a rumor emerged that Toyota may have been utilizing practices similar to the notion Allen had proposed. Toyota was developing new products at an astonishing rate. Although Allen had originally pitched his ideas to the auto companies in Detroit, his theories had fallen on deaf ears. The U.S. auto industry was beginning to cry foul as it struggled to compete against the onslaught of well-designed and well-built off-shore competition. Armed with a government research grant and the good will of Toyota, Allen and a graduate student named Durward Sobek began a research project to compare and contrast the product design principles of Toyota and Chrysler. This study became the foundational understanding in the application of lean principles to product development. As I worked with Allen and we applied these principles at Harley-Davidson, the system became known as “Knowledge-Based Product Development” because we felt it better represented the intent of the development system.

Dantar P. Oosterwal is the author of The Lean Machine: How Harley-Davidson Drove Top-Line Growth and Profitability with Revolutionary Lean Product Development (AMACOM 2010). A pioneer in the application of Lean principles to product development, he has led global innovation improvements as Vice President of Innovation at Sara Lee and as Director of Product Development at Harley-Davidson, which received the prestigious Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award from the Product Development Management Association while he was there. He has also been awarded three US patents for innovative product designs. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He lives in Batavia, Illinois.

Books for Manufacturing Managers

Manufacturing isn’t all about car parts and industrial labor. It’s a complex process that involves excellent communication, waste management, business process improvement and more. To kick off a week of manufacturing themed posts from our guest bloggers, here are some books for the manufacturing manager.

The Busy Manager’s Guide to Delegation by Richard A. Luecke and Perry McIntosh

Don’t let a booming business be your company’s downfall. As the economy picks up, many manufacturing managers are left with too much work and not enough help. Set the stage for excellent results with an organized work flow that will keep operations, and delegations, running smoothly.

The ROI of Human Capital: Measuring the Economic Value of Employee Performance by Jac Fitz-Enz

Management of the human resources department is no longer just a human resources issue. Manufacturing requires extensive cooperation in a team environment. So employees who aren’t carrying their weight can bring the whole group down. Steer your company in the right direction with easy to follow quantifications that assess an employees contributions.

Outsourcing America: The True Cost of Shipping Jobs Overseas and What Can Be Done About It by Ron Hira Ron Hira, Ph.D., P.E., Dr. Anil Hira

Outsourcing isn’t just for call-centers and conglomerate bullies anymore.For some companies, outsourcing provides the facelift needed to keep up with the competition. Determine if outsourcing fits your needs and learn strategies to help make the transition smooth and profitable.

Pricing for Profit: How to Command Higher Prices for Your Products and Services by Dale Furtwengler

The first step to demanding higher prices is having the product to back it up. The second step? Having faith in the brand you represent. Pricing is one of the most essential aspects of manufacturing. Don’t let popular industry misconceptions and lack of knowledge ruin your chances and demanding the prices you deserve for the product you produce.

Coming tomorrow is a guest post from Dantar P. Osterwal on lean development.