I just began this project on August 9. The purpose on this new thread is two fold. First - to provide you the blow by blow as it rolls out. And second - to avoid any critical errors along the way by understanding and applying your feed back.


Background: Project began 3 weeks ago. I spend 2 wks in Sweden teaching lean, then 1 at home, then repeat this process over 4 months.
Environment: Manufacturing - Union Environment - In our first sit down the union representation unit, their first statement was " we just tried this in one of our other European branches and it failed. Why should we do it here?
(The response was in Swedish also " we had a group of Americans come over, they did most of the work, then they left")

(Don't you just love walking into a "tried that, didn't work attitude"?)

Have support from Division level, but everyone in a fog on how to roll out successfully, and everyone in doubt as to its value.

So, how to begin.

I started by putting together a "reason for change" presentation that takes about 3 hours to present. (PPT 108 pgs). I then spent the rest of the 1st week examining both the visible and invisible barriers.
The rollout began with training by myselft to a core team which consisted of a leading member of the union, one of the manufacturing managers, the Managing director of the plant, as well as key management leaders. The presentation was given in English with full disclosure hand outs in Swedish, as well as an overhead Power Point presentation (PPT) that was prepared also in Swedish. ( of course, English speaking core group ).

I set up a special program with the union representative to train weeks in advance of the VSM program, 5 S program, as well as the Standard Work/Kaizen program. (TPM to be done later as this environment has mostly very low tech machinery). The purpose of which was to provide as much information as possible to the union stewart before roll-out, for acceptance and understanding.

Other invisible barriers included: Many of these people spoke good English, but I was not comfortable with the fact that I thought they understood Swedish better. So, in preparation, I had all of the training overheads as well and participation documentation converted to Swedish, so if they did not understand what I was saying, they could refer to the overhead.

So, how did the first week go? The union steward is already spreading the word in support, the managing Director is giving the presentation with the help of one of the Manufacturing managers as well as the union steward to the entire shop floor, and three suppliers have already been brought on boad with 3 more being scheduled.

During this week that I am off, another trainer is doing the VSM presentation. (Personally, this kind of set uneasy with me :mad: but I will get over it).
Some early feed back from this program expressed some concern about the accuracy of data, (primarly cycle time at each process), so I will examine this when I return next week.

My next entry should be an update from my 8/27 -9/9 visit. My intent is to verify the VSM data, and roll out 5S.

Please stay tuned.... Same bat time, same bat channel.

Background: Project began 3 weeks ago. I spend 2 wks in Sweden teaching lean, then 1 at home, then repeat this process over 4 months.In Sweden, no less? Now I'm curious. Whereabouts? their first statement was " we just tried this in one of our other European branches and it failed. Why should we do it here?
(The response was in Swedish also " we had a group of Americans come over, they did most of the work, then they left")

(Don't you just love walking into a "tried that, didn't work attitude"?).I hear you. I suppose most of us spend a lot of time fighting it . http://elsmar.com/Forums/images/smilies/lol.gif Many of these people spoke good English, but I was not comfortable with the fact that I thought they understood Swedish better. Good call. Most Swedes speak passable English but we don't always have proper command of the language (missing out on idioms and such). I know that native speakers sometimes feel a bit bewildered by this.My next entry should be an update from my 8/27 -9/9 visit. My intent is to verify the VSM data, and roll out 5S.

Please stay tuned.... Same bat time, same bat channel.I'm looking forward to it. Have a good trip.

/Claes

Thank you,
Looking forward for round 2.

I will be in Kalman.... I think thats about 5 hours south of Stockholm.

Nice place, lot of tall ppl.

Was in the sauna last week and a guy stripped down to his birthday suit, and then jumped into the hot tub.... very strange.... I asked the hotel clerk if this was normal for this part of the country. She replied no..... Which may be a little too bad... I was hoping for the ladies track team to be next.

Oops, did I type that out loud?

I will be in Kalmar.... I think thats about 5 hours south of Stockholm.Yes, more or less. Hey, make sure you get yourself over to Öland if you get some time off (The big island just off the coast).Was in the sauna last week and a guy stripped down to his birthday suit, and then jumped into the hot tub.... very strange.... I asked the hotel clerk if this was normal for this part of the country. She replied no..... Which may be a little too bad... I was hoping for the ladies track team to be next.

Oops, did I type that out loud?:lol: LMAO. A bit exotic, eh? Yes, the further north you get, the more saunas you'll find (They keep us from freezing solid in the winter). Ok, the standard procedure is to spend a good while in the sauna and then go jump in a lake (NB: It is a good idea to cut a hole in the ice first;) ), not a hot tub.... Of course, you'll have to wait a few months for the winter in order to try it, but maybe you'll find the track team?

/Claes

On topic:
3 hours seems a little long for ANY presentation on any topic - I sure hope you have bathroom breaks. Any chance for audience interaction or questions during this presentation? I'm a big fan of Socratic method when I present "Change" - hoping to lead the audience to self-realization of the need for change without beating them over the head. During this week that I am off, another trainer is doing the VSM presentation. (Personally, this kind of set uneasy with me http://elsmar.com/Forums/images/smilies/ranting.gif but I will get over it).
Have you monitored the session at least once to see if it jibes with what your vision is?

Overall impression:
Good topic. I'm looking forward to more.

http://elsmar.com/Forums/images/smilies/offtopic-d2.gif I thought it was Finns who were big on Sauna (did I pronounce it correctly? The Finns in Minnesota always laugh at my pronunciation.) They do some flagellation with branches as part of the ritual. Personally, I think the reduced sunlight in winter addles them a little. They do some rolling in snow, too! They claim the shock to their system improves circulation and makes the complexion clear. http://elsmar.com/Forums/images/smilies/confused.gif

I started by putting together a "reason for change" presentation that takes about 3 hours to present. (PPT 108 pgs).
This seems at odds with your advice in this thread: http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=118558#post118558 where you said, Where to start..... 1st.. start of a brief presentation on why it is necessary to change. (emphasis added)
If 3 hours is "brief" I don't want to attend a long presentation.
Also, it would be helpful if you told us a little more about the project itself; what are you trying to accomplish? Are you doing this as a consultant, or do you work for this company?

3 hours seems a little long for ANY presentation on any topic - I sure hope you have bathroom breaks.

I usually break for 10 to 15 min after each 45min. (The text presentation is 2 hrs, I add actual viewed shop floor activities in anamation form to liven up the presentation...)

I have found that with 20 yrs of "I've always done it this way, It's always worked before, Tried it, didn't work" syndrome, that it is difficult to over come in 1 hr presentation.

Any chance for audience interaction or questions during this presentation?

Although I encourage questions during the presentation, I rarely get them. (In any country). I suspect that no matter what country your from, you still have " I dont want to sound like a dummy" syndrome.

Have you monitored the session at least once to see if it jibes with what your vision is?

Yes, the presentation is good... My fear was that 1) When one is speaking to another in their own tounge, the speaking is usually fast pace. I found that this leads the speaker to forget the "base-line" of their audience and speak too quickly losing impact as well as interest. and 2) I personally perfer to do the VSM after the Kaizen event so that with greater understanding of available tools, comes a greater success of realistic Future State Mapping results. ( I was over-ridden on this request).

This seems at odds with your advice in this thread:[I]

I will try to be more exacting in my choice of words for your edification. (From my perspective, 10 day Kaizen even, 5 day 5S event, 2 Day VSM event..... the term brief seemed appropriate.)

[I]Also, it would be helpful if you told us a little more about the project itself; what are you trying to accomplish?

It appears I was too short in my background description.
Our attempted accomplishments include the following;
Reduce cost by 3000 Euro per unit to increase market share on smaller size units.
Increase efficiency by 20%
Increase delivery to 95% accuracy
Reduce lead time and inventory by 20%
Introduce O.E.E.

Are you doing this as a consultant, or do you work for this company?
I am a consultant for a corporate lean team... (Yes, I found that amusing also).

Sorry for the long delay in up-dates.... I spoke with my ISP about my outgoing mail box and we corrected the problem. I should be able to send mail from Europe again.

Anyways ... In my 1st vist, the purpose was to provide information to the plant on why we want to implement "Lean", hence, I did many training sessions as well as train the trainer sessions in continuing "Reason for Change".

So... What were the results? The training is continuing and we are now about 50% complete for plant wide "Reason for Change" training.

The next phase was to introduce 5 S.
Needless to say, my expectations were to have a flawless execution and roll-out. I certainly was not surprised to find it was not.

This facility can basically be broken into three parts. The management team, Welding department, and Production Assembly.

We began with "Sort" in both the Welding and Assembly areas in an area where both the Managers felt that had very little excess material in the work area. (These work areas were about 16' X 40'). (These areas were identified as bottleneck process's from the VSM done the week before).

In both areas we pulled 4 pallets of unnecessary materials from both of these areas (which was of course a bit of a surprise to the Managers as well as the group leaders).

The welding mgr said, "this is great, we got rid of a lot of stuff". (Yes, we set up a "Red Tag" area, and yes, we took many before and after pictures).
The assembly mgr said, "we need to try not to interrupt the workers so much when working in their area". ( We will discuss this problem in a little more detail later ).

We then went to Cleaning and organizing. The welding floor was so dirty, it could not be cleaned the first day, even after 3 times doing. Assembly was much easier. We set up a facility wide grid lay-out and plan, and used this lay-out for these two areas as well as for future roll-out areas.
We were able to complete about 95% in welding and 70% in Assembly.
The welding manager said "this is amazing, it is clear to see what I need, what goes where, what is needed, and what orgainzed looks like. I can find anything, and put back anything, where it belongs".
The assembly manager said " why are we moving all our stuff to boards where they are farther from the line". (Grrrrrrrrrr... we will discuss this later).

We then continued to on the subject of "Cleaning". We set up a matrix of what needed cleaning, by who, buy when and defined what supplies we needed to accomplish the task.
The welding manger said, "this is great, we now know who has to do what by when, so I can see if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing just but looking at the task list". The assembly manager said " this is just common sense, there is no value in defining who should clean what and when, we just need to tell people to clean". (Grrrrrr, my patience is growing thin, however we will discuss later.)

We then put together a 5S audit check list, and performed an audit.

We then put together a Radar map to examine progress of 5S activities.

In conclusion I tasked each manager to provide me with a plan over the next six months as too what areas they well complete 5 S for the rest of their plant.

This looks like its getting a little long, so bare with me as I start another page.

I will be going back to Sweden to start Kaizen/CPI next week.

Feel free to recommend some course of action to improve the thinking of the assembly manager.

This person has been doing the same thing for about 20yrs. He mico-manages his group leaders to the point that they do not know what to do about anything, nor do they do anything unless directed to do so.

What I would recommend for myself is the following;

1. I know that 5 S or any program by itself is simply a program. It only has face value. From my experience, the key to any program is to understand the underlying purpose and phylosophy of why such a program is benicificial to the user.

From this perspective I purpose to tell the assembly manager;

1. This program is not going as well as it should because you do not belive in it.

I also have been in manufacturing for over 16yrs and I have done the same things that you are doing now; focusing on how much you can produce. As a result you are micro-managing your team, running around like a chicken with your head cut off, fixing the same problems today that you have had last week, last month, last year and the year before. From this perspective, you are absolutely no value to this company. I can hire 100 people off the street just like you.
Stop focusing on making parts and start focusing on systems that help you manange the manufacturing of quality products.
2. Stop interrupting the class duing my training excercises and if you continue to voice opposition, and negative defiance to this activity or any other activity that we are working on, I will have no other recourse but to recommend to the managing director, to move you to another position.
3. What I need you to do is; ask questions that support this activity, give positive feed back to your team about this activity, and monitor and support this activity throuth your entire team. - Do you have any questions? -


Any thought here?

I will be going back to Sweden to start Kaizen/CPI next week.

Feel free to recommend some course of action to improve the thinking of the assembly manager.

This person has been doing the same thing for about 20yrs. He mico-manages his group leaders to the point that they do not know what to do about anything, nor do they do anything unless directed to do so.

What I would recommend for myself is the following;

1. I know that 5 S or any program by itself is simply a program. It only has face value. From my experience, the key to any program is to understand the underlying purpose and phylosophy of why such a program is benicificial to the user.

From this perspective I purpose to tell the assembly manager;

1. This program is not going as well as it should because you do not belive in it.

I also have been in manufacturing for over 16yrs and I have done the same things that you are doing now; focusing on how much you can produce. As a result you are micro-managing your team, running around like a chicken with your head cut off, fixing the same problems today that you have had last week, last month, last year and the year before. From this perspective, you are absolutely no value to this company. I can hire 100 people off the street just like you.
Stop focusing on making parts and start focusing on systems that help you manange the manufacturing of quality products.
2. Stop interrupting the class duing my training excercises and if you continue to voice opposition, and negative defiance to this activity or any other activity that we are working on, I will have no other recourse but to recommend to the managing director, to move you to another position.
3. What I need you to do is; ask questions that support this activity, give positive feed back to your team about this activity, and monitor and support this activity throuth your entire team. - Do you have any questions? -


Any thought here?
There are two possibilities:

This person is doing what has worked for him in the past, and his bosses have apparently not had a problem with it, as he's still doing it. You can't do any good with a full frontal attack on the guy himself--you're an outsider, and he knows you're going to be gone soon. You can't provide the inspiration needed to change a person like this by threatening him, especially if the threats are impotent.
He might be too far gone. When making radical changes in the way business gets done, it's important to have a plan in advance for dealing with this type of employee, and a decision has to be made to let him go if all else fails. This person's boss--not you--will have to explain the alternatives to him, and then follow through decisively. Note that sometimes letting a person like this go (as a last resort) sends a positive message to the rest of the company, and tells everyone that management is serious about adopting the new philosophy.

I will be going back to Sweden to start Kaizen/CPI next week.

Feel free to recommend some course of action to improve the thinking of the assembly manager.

This person has been doing the same thing for about 20yrs. He mico-manages his group leaders to the point that they do not know what to do about anything, nor do they do anything unless directed to do so.

What I would recommend for myself is the following;

1. I know that 5 S or any program by itself is simply a program. It only has face value. From my experience, the key to any program is to understand the underlying purpose and phylosophy of why such a program is benicificial to the user.

From this perspective I purpose to tell the assembly manager;

1. This program is not going as well as it should because you do not belive in it.

I also have been in manufacturing for over 16yrs and I have done the same things that you are doing now; focusing on how much you can produce. As a result you are micro-managing your team, running around like a chicken with your head cut off, fixing the same problems today that you have had last week, last month, last year and the year before. From this perspective, you are absolutely no value to this company. I can hire 100 people off the street just like you.
Stop focusing on making parts and start focusing on systems that help you manange the manufacturing of quality products.
2. Stop interrupting the class duing my training excercises and if you continue to voice opposition, and negative defiance to this activity or any other activity that we are working on, I will have no other recourse but to recommend to the managing director, to move you to another position.
3. What I need you to do is; ask questions that support this activity, give positive feed back to your team about this activity, and monitor and support this activity throuth your entire team. - Do you have any questions? -


Any thought here?

What industry is this plant in? What are the current performance results of this plant? PPM, Delivery, Productivity, etc.

I find that arguing opinions gets me nowhere. It's my opinion against there's. However, when I use the client's own data to demonstrate they have poor performance, then there is little basis for them to argue with. Generally, those debates end quickly. (When Johnny is getting D's in school, there is little basis for him to argue he is doing well.) Fortunately for me, plants with managers like that usually have rather below average performance. Kind of a cause and effect situation.

Any thought here?JSW05 already said what I was thinking.... more or less word for word. hjilling makes a good point too.

If you confront him head on you are likley to have a head on collision. My advice would be to allow him to save face if possible, and your best option would probably be to leave it to his boss to straighten him out.

I must also add, that letting a person go is a much bigger deal in Sweden than in many other places: Our laws are pretty stringent in that respect, and our unions carry quite a bit of clout (Fortunately, they are not nearly as confrontational as they could be. We have a history of cooperation between company and union).

/Claes

I may be in the minority in my view.

As an outside consultant or advisor, I always come to the table with the message:
"Everyone is capable of redemption, even I."

So when I encounter someone witha diametrically opposed view to my plan, I arrange for a little "one on one" to try to understand the guy's position. Whether it is because of

faulty understanding of the proposed plan (bash and trash what you don't understand)
fear of being displaced (often this is valid and may be true that the person's job hangs in the balance)
jealousy or envy at not being the honcho in charge of a change initiative (I usually seduce the guy by making a deal to put him in charge if he helps "sell" the deal to co-workers. I normally don't care who gets the glory as long as I get a big paycheck and I can convince the top management such a ploy is necessary to smooth the transition - AFTER the transition, they can do what they want, but why create a rancorous event to compete with the change initiative?)
Does this seem overly Machiavellian? Yep. I'm probably guilty of that sometimes. - In such cases, I believe the expedient thing is to keep everyone on track until we reach one of many plateaus during the transition. When everyone is celebrating a minor success, they don't seem to notice the transfer of a former naysayer to a remote location, followed by "isolation" to prevent rallying fellow rebels to some sort of foot dragging or work stoppage.

In my view, I didn't "bribe" the person, I merely pretended to succumb to short-term "extortion," while plotting a long-term resolution.

"Everyone is capable of redemption, even I."
But not everyone, in every case, is worthy of redemption.
I usually seduce the guy by making a deal to put him in charge if he helps "sell" the deal to co-workers.
This would depend, of course, on the scope of your authority as a consultant. It's always a good idea, though, to encourage people to think that it's their idea.
When everyone is celebrating a minor success, they don't seem to notice the transfer of a former naysayer to a remote location, followed by "isolation" to prevent rallying fellow rebels to some sort of foot dragging or work stoppage.
If no one notices, the person wasn't that big of a problem to begin with. The conspicuousness of the absence will be celebrated, if quietly, and it also delivers the message that management is serious about the change that's going on.

I usually seduce the guy by making a deal to put him in charge if he helps "sell" the deal to co-workers.Yes, I guess that could be one way of letting him save face. I also agree with JSW05's comments.

/Claes

Sounds like good strategy. Thank- you.

hjilling, usually I like to use data as well to support the validity of a good 5 S program. I have seen many times a 4 to 10% increase in productivity just by putting things where they belong, and as much as 80% decrease in PPM by not allowing material on the line that doesnt belong there. Unfortunate, this company does not track productivity by cell. And in-process defects is an alien termenology. They only track products per day and products per week.
They do track in the computer, how much time each unit is in each cell, but only use it if someone is curious. Another problem with this is that each cell knows how long they have to complete their assembly, and if that means taking a 1 to 4 hr break to meet that time, they usually do.

To offset this, I am planning in the welding department, to set up a one piece stock flow throughout the body and tail section. (This product can be broken into 3 sections, body, tail, and assy). This will allow easy visability as to how much wait time there actually is between each process while at the same time establish a pull system based on assembly.
I have already noted that there are 5 extra tails waiting in assembly, just so they can do something, while falling behind in other cells. Easy to see poor balance.

Will try to make entries every other day or so, so that I dont have to keep you in suspense. Also, so I can get quick responses.

Thanks.

Will try to make entries every other day or so, so that I dont have to keep you in suspense. Also, so I can get quick responses.Great.... A running commentary from an ongoing project. This will enable all of us to learn a thing or two. I'm really looking forward to this. :agree1:

/Claes

5 more days of rest before I begin again.... yea right.

As I reflect over what has already been done, and consider what next needs to be done. I find I am a little disappointed in my up-front analysis to obtain flawless execution of the 5 S project.

The error appears to be very obvious to me. I did a ****-pour job of identifying all of my invisible barriers. I did identify that the "work council" (union) played an important part in the production environment and included a leading member in the pre-roll-out of everything that was to be discussed as well as accomplished before implementation. This resulted in excellent buy-off of what we want to accomplish and buy-off from the "union" before implementation. I also identified "Language" (Swedish VS English) as a major barrier and had every overhead presentation and hand out converted before each presentation. This also resulted in good feedback and response during the events. The union leader was one of the participants in training some of the classes in the "Reason for change" program, which helped to facilitate change. (Other trainers included the Dir of Operations, Welding manager, and Group leaders).

From experience, I know that every environment has their share of nay-sayers. My original arrogant thinking told me that this will easily be overcome by the "reason for change" program.

Not

So, I am faced with two problems. The first, I need to add to my "Invisable barriers" check list, identify nay-sayers in critical leadership positions. The second, correct the mistake of critical leadership nay-sayers that slip in, by having at least one person of authority at the top level management there to assist in buffering public display of nay-saying.

Nothing like another lesson learned.

I did a ****-pour job of identifying all of my invisible barriers.I think you're a bit hard on yourself: The fact that you are preaching your gospel in a foreign country shouldn't be underestimated. That is a very big deal. Company cultures differ too. At least you tried to identify them. I did identify that the "work council" (union) played an important part...
I also identified "Language" (Swedish VS English) as a major barrier See what I mean? You got a few things right too. Nothing like another lesson learned.Exactly... and thank's to your tale the rest of us are able to learn too.

/Claes

Moving forward.

I have finely decided on what I feel is an appropriate Kaizen event structure.

This company has about 80 shop employees. Their tracking system, what little they have of one, is not used for any benifet.

The goal of this format is to provide a structured approach to CPI through Kaizen activities that provide for idea generation, tracking, completion, and support.

As I have mentioned in the past, I am not fond of Kaizen Blitzes, but that is another story for another time.

Kaizen Training Outline

1. Introduction to Kaizen (Pre-training to participate in Kaizen events)
a. Kaizen philosophy
b. Kaizen tools
2. Kaizen Event / not Kaizen Blitz

INTRODUCTION TO KAIZEN
Use presentation of philosophy and tools

KAIZEN EVENT

1. Selecting the Event
a. Kaizen Event Request and tracking
· Kaizen event agenda
· Put on Kaizen event schedule

2. Preparation
a. If 5 S has not been done, do 5 S first
b. If new to Kaizen, schedule Introduction training
c. Schedule Room and room supplies (Flip Charts, wipe board, markers, post-its, copier)
d. Meals

3. Tools (Perform the analysis)
a. Standardized Work Chart
b. Standardized Work Combination Sheet
c. Time Study Sheet
d. Production Capacity Sheet

4. Do the Kaizen

5. Presentation of results
a. Schedule presentation
b. Make presentation (2 to 5 min/Kaizen item)

6. Post results on team board (store previous Kaizen)
a. Mgt meet at site of improvement, ask questions, congratulate team

As you can see by this outline, there are a lot of assumptions. I will try to clarify them.

Regarding the Kaizen Training Outline. I am trying to use KISS system. First explain what knowledge is necessary for process improvement, what tools are to be used and how their used, and how to conduct the event. Again, a reminder, this is not a Kaizen Blitz, it is a CPI event using Kaizen as a base line.

In step 1, selecting the event. The only purpose is to get permission to do an event. Manufacturing is very busy and has limited resourses. We want to control these resourses to provide the best results in targeted areas. (That is why the VSM was completed first). Also, we want to promote the easy wins.

I have completed Kaizens events that have lasted from 4 hours to 3 months. If there are easy 1 day events that do not interfere with production, lets do it.

The next step is to schedule the event so that they do not conflict with other activities that are currently going on in the plant.

In step 2, Preparation..... You can not succeed in a Kaizen event if the area looks like crap. It must be clean and organized. Also, if you are trying to intregrate new people into this event that have not participated in a Kaizen event, they their knowledge is insufficient to keep pace with the rest of the team, resulting in numerous other problems.

In Step 3.... Data, data, data, data. (Of course, included in the Pre-training are the basic 7 tools of Quality, as well as brainstorming, teamwork, etc)

In step 4, now that we have a clean picture of where we are and where we want to go, we just "do-it".

In step 5, this is another reminder that I dont need a group of over-paid bench warmers for half a day listening to people talk. What I need are Managers and leaders that get off their duff, come to the improvement area and see, before and after results. Not imagine them in a room some where.

And finely, ask questions and congratulate the team.

Is this a plan?

And finely [finally?], ask questions and congratulate the team.

Is this a plan?
As Coach Vince Lombardi famously said,
"Every play theoretically ends in a touchdown. The difference is
EXECUTION! EXECUTION! EXECUTION!"

Is this a plan?I'll say it is. Good luck:agree1:

/Claes

[QUOTE]As Coach Vince Lombardi famously said,
"Every play theoretically ends in a touchdown. The difference is
EXECUTION! EXECUTION! EXECUTION!"

Ooops,

Forgot to mention. This company has established an internal tracking system of cost reduction. This will include savings as a result of kaizen as well.
Of course, this will track "True" efficiency. Not "Apparent" efficiency.

Day 1 went well.

The team consisted of ; Mfg Mgr, 2 Group leaders, 1 line associate, 1 engineering, Q.C. Manager, and 1 maintenance person.

The event sheet was kept simple describing the team, current situation, goals, scope, and required resources. (Just a reminder, this was set up as a kaizen event, not a blitz).

On day 1 we spent 7 hours in a class presentation covering the specific tools and concepts required to do a well planned Kaizen. This covered teamwork, quality tools, and brainstorming, kaizen priority, kaizen tools, etc.

The purpose of this introduction was to provide information to the team about what is expected to be understood and completed in a Kaizen event. Also, to allow an easy training format for new members before they are allowed to participate in a Kaizen event. By doing this, we do not isolate new members by over whelming them with activities using concepts they have not previously heard of before.

On Day 2, we began construction of a standardized work combination table. I chose to do this instead of the standardized work chart because the process under study takes about 6 hours. As a result, the std work chart would have looked like a spaghetti diagram. (On day 3, we will break this process down into 3 or 4 sections and make 3 or 4 std work charts.) We were able to finish about 85% of the standardized work combo chart and will complete this today. We will then spend about 4 hours on the line making time studies of the critical or key process, complete the std work comb table, and std work chart before analyzing points of Kaizen. (It has already become apparent that the people working in this cell are only working 70% of the time they are recording as actual work, so by implementing standard work, we should gain a minimum of a 20% provided we reduce the manpower associated with this activity).

On Day 3 we completed the standardized work chart and went to the line to capture the time. Everything went perfect. The line began and continued welding in their normal random order. The team could not tell when to start the timing and when to stop. After 1.5 hours, the team decided it was time to stop because they were getting nowhere and we regrouped to explain what happened.

We discovered that nobody knew what anyone was supposed to do or when. The team was a little troubled because they just had a product change and many things on the list now had to be redone and no one knew how we were going to finish.

We wrote our new target “without severely effecting productivity, how will we capture the data we need, regardless of model type?”

We came up with 5 methods.


On Day 4 the vote was 4 of 1 item and 2 of another. The team discussed these items by themselves and we made a final decision.

It was my opinion that we did the wrong item and that the other two members buckled under pressure. I then gave a supporting argument that the other team members chose the option that was more beneficial and told them why. We took another vote and it was a unanimous agreement to change. I then talked to the team and said if you make a decision, do not bend to peer pressure.

I then gave them another convincing argument about changing to option 3 and said that their decision was wrong and why. It was voted on again and everyone stuck to their previous decision.

We then assembled a plan to implement the capture of data required and evaluated it for problems, and finalized the plan.

Day 5 plan was executed and finsied according to plan.
The standardized work combination table clearly showed that we can actually complete this product in 28% less time than we typically document as work time.

Since we have no base line, everyone has decided that this will be the base line.

Also during this study, many improvement ideas were documented. On Monday, we will use these as well as brainstorm others to generate a list to quantify, stratify, prioritize, and implement. We have 3 days left to complete this project with the 4 day as presentation. I may take a vote on whether to have the presentation on the floor or in a formal setting. Personally I like the floor better.... Don't have to use overheads (can use origional docs), Can see before and after at line (not on pictures in a room), and nobody likes to stand at a line as long a period of time as they like to sit in a room....

Monday... another good day.
Completed 90% of the work manuals to implement standard work. (of course includes safety and quality items).
Quantified the top 9 of 18 improvement ideas, and began 4 of them.
2 easy, 1 medium, 1 difficult. When completed, I will post the results.

Lets see what tue brings.....

Sorry for the late post... been busy.

Tuesday
The 1st Kaizen is on Standardized work, completed the standardized work combination table, and 1st draft of the work manual looks great.
2nd Kaizen is on “no grinding – interior, defined only one area on the tailgate (sliding portion) that needed to be grinded, and did no other grinding. Put a special instructions sheet on the tailgate to review after blast and prime for review and again after paint. Will take a few more days until this goes through all the processes.
3rd Kaizen in on “no grinding-exterior, defined “A-B-C” appearance levels on the tail gate and followed the same process as above.
4th Kaizen is on safety-, problem was that we had to move large parts many time to get to small parts that needed to be used first on the “Kit-pallet”. Decided to go with 2 pallets.
5th Kaizen was on “do not grind parts before using”. Two parts had to be reworked before assembly before fitting. Working with engineering, we found that they had to be reworked because we welded the seam before fitting the part. The part was to be fitted then welded. It was decided to move these two parts to the robot process.

Wednesday
Continued to work on work instructions manual. Did a practice presentation. Completed as much as we could on the open Kaizens and updated the presentation documents. I also reviewed with Quality the tick chart presentation that was converted into Swedish…looks good. Will be making a management presentation on Thursday to include a time line of when all of the open items will be closed.

Thursday... Today we will be presenting to management of what we accomplished.
On the 1st Kaizen (Implementation of standard work) we showed a 5.5 Hr reduction from EST (Eng. Std. Time) resulting in a savings of 39.29% on model type 1. When work manuals are completed, we will implement this as our current std. wk, and change the wk time in the system to maintain this savings. ( labor will be reallocated out of manuf (temporary wker) when this occurs to capture true savings. On model type 2 we were able to reduce the time by 3.56 Hrs from EST resulting in a savings of 25.48%. On Kaizen 2 - remove internal grinding - we currently spend 6 min, final determination of how much we will spend can not be determined until after the assy is inspected from our trial. Same with Kaizen 3 external except that the grinding time is 50 Min, On Kaizen 4 still waiting on scheduling throught robot process... potental savings is 21 mins, net savings will be about 15. And Kaizen 5 was a safety item and we will not track savings on this because it is impossible to realistic know what this will be... just happy to prevent a possible injury.

Over all, a good 8 days of work...... will do this again in a couple weeks in another cell.
Will be a little tougher because no one in this next cell speaks English...
(Hey Claes ..... want to be on a Kaizen team wk after next?)

Over all, a good 8 days of work...... I'l have to say that sounds very successful :agree1: Will be a little tougher because no one in this next cell speaks English...
(Hey Claes ..... want to be on a Kaizen team wk after next?)Actually, I would love to, but alas... the time. Anyway: How about bringing an English speaking member from the previous cell along when you get to work on the new one? Apart from helping you out with the lingo, he has seen it done too. That would probably make the task easier rather than tougher.

/Claes

I'l have to say that sounds very successful :agree1: Actually, I would love to, but alas... the time. Anyway: How about bringing an English speaking member from the previous cell along when you get to work on the new one? Apart from helping you out with the lingo, he has seen it done too. That would probably make the task easier rather than tougher.

/ClaesWOW! Talk about common sense! Great tip, Claes! That definitely will go down in my book, regardless of whether there is a language barrier. Kind of like making sourdough bread - keep a little of the dough from the first batch to use as starter for the second batch.

Just think! If you establish credibility with the first group, you have a head start on credibility with the next!

The more I work through permutations on this idea, the more I LOVE it!

Yes,

Originally, I was going to have the welding manager give the presentation (The formal presentation is in Swedish). After some serious thought, I decided to do it myself. I find that I am able to command a little more respect during the presentation and that my presentation animation seems to help. I have also spoken with him to provide me with any nay-saying if it occurs, and when it occurs as this crowd is a little more tough. This way I will be able to address any concerns immediately.

Anyways, as this is a running diary... no doubt, this may get a little boring repeating the same program to the same company (only a different crowd), but I may get some new unexptected results. So, we will continue, atleast for another two weeks and see what happens.
This facility is very lean in regards to reporting structure so I am running out of resources for additional programs. (TPM, Kanban, etc). Over the next two visits I will attempt to get them to standardize their Std Wk / Kaizen progam over the next year or so. They certainly have enough cells to keep them busy until then.
(How lean is their reporting structure? 1 QA Mgr, no staff, 4 mfg group leaders, 2 mfg mgrs, 2 planners, 2 engineers, 2 maint staff, Plant Mgr, and a couple odd staffing positions).

As one frog said to the other frog, "time sure is fun when your having flies."

Day 1 went well.

The team consisted of ; Mfg Mgr, 2 Group leaders, 2 engineering.

The event sheet was kept simple describing the team, current situation, goals, scope, and required resources.

On day 1 we spent 5 hours in a class presentation covering the specific tools and concepts required to do a well planned Kaizen. This covered teamwork, quality tools, and brainstorming, kaizen priority, kaizen tools, etc. This was cut a little short because of other pending meetings. The remainder of this lecture will be taught Tuesday.

There was good participation and interaction with this team. (Despite it all being in Swedish). Scheduling causes the major cause of excess work. Whether the chassis is here or not, production still builds. I strongly recommended that they do not build if the chassis is not here, to move the vehicle back one day in the schedule and move the next one up (assuming it was here). They thought this was an excellent idea.

Day 2 went well.

We completed the rest of the orientation today and completed the standardized work chart on the chassis mounting portion. We will not be able to do the std wk on the assembly portion until Friday, as the current demand is currently 80% Kits, 20% Chassis. Tomorrow we will attempt to do the actual time studies. (normally this is 50/50)
A one minor problem which is in the flow path. Currently assembly runs their kits and cassis through the same path, as a result, the kit must sit or wait until the chassis is finish for run it through another path. It is possible to establish a path for chassis and another path for Kits; however, assembly is a little reluctant to do so at this time.

Day 3 went well.
Had a minor problem with acceptance from the floor in performing time studies, (Why are blue collar people doing time studies on other blue collar workers?), as well as some of the members upset because not everyone was available to help with the time studies. We held two separate meetings. One meeting was held with the team to agree as to who is supposed to do what, and the other to discuss how we would handle the meeting for the floor.
Chassis mounting portion of the time study was completed and updated the 5’S schedule, Training schedule, and Kaizen schedule as well as open items on the Kaizen tracking sheet.
Thursday ---- Today, many meetings which inturrepted the flow of our program. (Out side-VIP's). Countermeasure is to determine who is visiting when, and will this effect training? If this is so, we will pre-plan the training around the visits so that we can maintain our schedule.

Thursday - had to cancel due to VIP visit.

Friday went as expected. Finished the time study on the mounting portion, and to complete the time study on the assy portion on monday. Brainstormed for improvement, process flow, and process procedure.

Guess I should have wrapped this up months ago . .. sorry. . .. been away.

For what ever its worth, we finely ended up in tailgate assembly on the welding side with numerous gains from 20 to 40%, but the real challange was in final assembly . . . which . . by the way . . . never did fully buy in to lean . . even with extensive training . . . Well, as push comes to shove . . . back at the end of December . . . I gave a very, strong argument to begin one-piece flow in assy . . when push come to shove . . . it was decided to wait . . . so, I did the next best thing . . . . . I left. (They sent another lean guy who has yet to get them into 1 piece flow).

On the happy side, I am still with the company, but in the U.S. In the last 3 months my project has taken us up 37%, (about $5MM net). And in this project, the management staff is saying yes to everything.

so, as they say . . . . a silver lining in every cloud.

as

Guess I should have wrapped this up months ago . .. sorry. . .. been away.

For what ever its worth, we finely ended up in tailgate assembly on the welding side with numerous gains from 20 to 40%, but the real challange was in final assembly . . . which . . by the way . . . never did fully buy in to lean . . even with extensive training . . . Well, as push comes to shove . . . back at the end of December . . . I gave a very, strong argument to begin one-piece flow in assy . . when push come to shove . . . it was decided to wait . . . so, I did the next best thing . . . . . I left. (They sent another lean guy who has yet to get them into 1 piece flow).

On the happy side, I am still with the company, but in the U.S. In the last 3 months my project has taken us up 37%, (about $5MM net). And in this project, the management staff is saying yes to everything.

so, as they say . . . . a silver lining in every cloud.

as


...To quote W.C.Fields, (a well respected "Quality Commentator" in the USA many years ago - for those Covers who are not familiar with US history),

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again...Then quit. There's no point in being a d__n fool about it...).:D

Apparently you have proven that axiom...

Guess I should have wrapped this up months ago . .. sorry. . .. been away.No worries, but it's good to hear from you again.so, as they say . . . . a silver lining in every cloud.Indeed :agree1:

/Claes

I would concentrate on 5 S first since it is usually considered the corner stone of Lean.

For what ever its worth. I typically focus on 5S first. In this of my lastest assignment (here in the US), I began with std.work charts and combo charts and went immediately into 1-piece flow. ( I needed to get an immediate increase in product volume).

In regards to 5S, I have found that many places miss the main focus. . . . . Work place organization . . . a place for everything and everything in its place. The purpose is to suport material flow, work flow, and product flow. What typically transends is a p-poor attempt to sweep and mop floors which has no value except to clean surface areas.
as

[/I]On Day 3 we completed the standardized work chart and went to the line to capture the time. Everything went perfect. The line began and continued welding in their normal random order. The team could not tell when to start the timing and when to stop. After 1.5 hours, the team decided it was time to stop because they were getting nowhere and we regrouped to explain what happened.

We discovered that nobody knew what anyone was supposed to do or when. The team was a little troubled because they just had a product change and many things on the list now had to be redone and no one knew how we were going to finish.

We wrote our new target “without severely effecting productivity, how will we capture the data we need, regardless of model type?”

We came up with 5 methods.


On Day 4 the vote was 4 of 1 item and 2 of another. The team discussed these items by themselves and we made a final decision.

It was my opinion that we did the wrong item and that the other two members buckled under pressure. I then gave a supporting argument that the other team members chose the option that was more beneficial and told them why. We took another vote and it was a unanimous agreement to change. I then talked to the team and said if you make a decision, do not bend to peer pressure.

I then gave them another convincing argument about changing to option 3 and said that their decision was wrong and why. It was voted on again and everyone stuck to their previous decision.

We then assembled a plan to implement the capture of data required and evaluated it for problems, and finalized the plan.
Would it be possible for me to get a template (excel would be great) for a Standard Work Combination Chart? It looks like you've been doing a great deal with standard work and I'm just getting started with this at my work place. Management wants to see the standard work in a chart form (I've had it shown similar to a time line for each work task.). Thanks in advance. Dave @ email address removed. Please click on their name above and send a message to them via this site's tools. Thanks!