Implementing Lean Office / Office TPM in a technical sales team

[MattBat]

I am confronted with a complex challenge.

Background:
My company is a family owned traditional manufacturing company. By traditional I mean strong on tradition, weak on change.
A little over a year ago a TPM project was initiated in our manufacturing department. As of now, about 2/3 of the machines/work stations in one of three manufacturing plants have been integrated. This has been guided by three different persons in these 16 months, none of which are in the QM department. Now the (to date informal) request was made by our VP of Manufacturing to implement TPM in our administrative areas with the first area to be the sales.

Recent past:
In the past few years we have experienced excellent sales growth (current recession excluded) and have allowed our ISO 9001 system to degrade to the point that less than 10% of our written procedures reflect the current way of doing things and still less than half of the business processes are define, no continuous improvement projects are running, the whole chapter 5 is unknown to our management and our customers have started to question our ability to maintain a quality management system (failed audits). In addition, there have been considerable changes in the management including a new executive board and quality manager. These characters, however, have only very limited understanding of the quality management philosophy.

Aside:
I am currently working on a post graduate degree in quality management (in Switzerland) and have been eyeing this topic for my dissertation.

My Challenge:
I would like to establish a functioning lean (TPM) office project that addresses not only the relatively superficial clean desk / organized storage etc. aspects but also addresses the fundamental processes and information management systems.

My Idea:
I am thinking that I would need to start by having the main processes and information flows defined and instill the quality management and continuous improvement philosophies into the daily work (the ISO 9001 part). Then I would remove all the non-required material and information (the lean/TPM part).

My request:
Am I aiming too high with lean office when the foundation is in ruins?
What would be the most reasonable way to go about this endeavour?
What is a reasonable timeline and what would be appropriate milestones?


I look forward to your suggestions and comments.

Cheers,
Matthias

 

[Stijloor]

Any TPM experts who are willing to help Matthias?

Thanks!

Stijloor.

 

[DrM2u]

I am not an expert but do have some knowledge and experience with Lean principles. So, here's my on the topic:

Once upon a time a very wise man said that you cannot improve what you do not control. Was it Deming, Juran?!? Can't remember. Anyway, implementing a QMS system like ISO 9001 will help the organization understand and control its processes. Once this is achieved then the Lean efforts can follow to drive improvement. So it seems like we both have the same line of thought. Are you aiming too high?!? Depends on how much time you have to devote to this. If it is just a school project that lasts a few months, then you are aiming too high. The least you should achieve in the short run is to strengthen the foundation so you or others can build on. Go straight for the Lean efforts and the system could crumble and dirty your reputation. Lean is not something that an organization does once in a while but something that is done on a daily basis as part of the operating practices.

 

[samsung]

I find some variance when you say you had an excellent sales growth with a 'ruined' management system. How could these two divergent aspects sustain coherently ? Or is it like saying if you had a well maintained 'system', the growth rate could have been far better than you experienced ?

Please enlighten me.

 

[MattBat]

Thanks for your replies!

DrM2u,
You bring up a good point, it's vital to have a stable process-based management system before more provokative things like lean can be tackled.
I have two intentions behind this initiative. The first, of course, is to really help my employer. And I understand that the journey from where we are now to where we want to be is a long one, probably 2-4 years. For this journey, I need to propose a reasonable implementation plan to get management buy-in. Coincidentally this would be the basis for my disertation.

So I am aiming to have the implementation plan, roadmap and milestones defined within the next 2-3 months.

How did your implementation plan look like?

Samsung,
what I mean to say is that our management, and especially our middle management, intentionally set the (quality) management system on its head to achieve short term financial sucess. They thought that the end (higher revenues) justify the means (taking the system out of the management system).
I mean, we were able to double our revenues to over $200M since 2004. And in the end, money talks, right?

Thanks again for your support!

Cheers,
Matthias

 

[samsung]

what I mean to say is that our management, and especially our middle management, intentionally set the (quality) management system on its head to achieve short term financial success. They thought that the end (higher revenues) justify the means (taking the system out of the management system).
I mean, we were able to double our revenues to over $200M since 2004. And in the end, money talks, right?

That's fine and I am glad to hear that your company achieved a tremendous success in a short span of time which confirms that your organization met the true intent of ISO 9001, not only in letters but also in spirit - Customer satisfaction as evident from the sales growth & financial results and continual improvement; i.e. consistent growth since 2004 which wouldn't have been possible without having an effective system in place and this is what your auditors awfully failed to recognize since typically they are accustomed to looking for the 'system' in papers and manuals which further confirms that your QMS, in every respect, was not designed & documented the way it should have been.

Now, it's also true that 'making profits' is not the ONLY aim of the business and the ultimate goal of establishing a QMS is to enable the the business to sustain and attain competitive advantage while meeting the needs and expectations of all the 'interested parties' (not the customers alone) in an effective and efficient manner. I'm sure what you have now planned, will certainly enable you to realize these objectives.

Good luck.

 

[sixsigmais]

I would like to suggest to break the objectives to few. As per your information, it will be better to first improve on the quality management system. And then only consider on the TPM. TPM actually need to stable system to backup, else it hard to success.

Regarding the timeline, it depends on the project leader ot person incharge. S/he need to study on the actual situation and determine the timeline. The timeline is always depend on the project. However, not suggest to make the timeline too long such as year, it doesnt motivate the company. Again, suggest to break them down to small projects.

You can still make a year planning as your main objective, but try to set individual objective on the break down project, so that management can see the result and leader can be more focus on the project.

 

[734N651GM4]

I agree with sixsigmais's first point, if your quality system is in shambles that is where you should first focus your attention. Using Change Control in your quality system will allow you to stablize and add control over your manufacturing process. Hopefully once this is accieved a Value Stream Map will help you identify the waste in your process and give you a direction in your Lean implementation. I personally would start where the money is being made (your value-add operations) and work outward from there if you really want lean to work for your company. Hope that helps!

 

[Sean Butler]

The conversation sounds very interesting with a wide range of acronyms and methodologies. however, the business is a family business and I would class as a medium enterprise, irrelevant of size or turnover to succeed in implementing change and improving the performance of the business you have to have commitment from the Management/Directors/Owners, then you have to convince, educate and develop the workforce so the take ownership of the processes and understand why they work in that way. A simple step would be to introduce 5s into the office by presenting and getting buy in, it doesn't have to be perfect as long as its an improvement, a lot of companies wait until they have dotted the i`s and crossed the t`s. the key is getting people to understand there is a better way and why. the first thing will be why are we changing this again? answer to remove waste and improve our efficiencies. translated reduce jobs! this has to be explained up front and centre in the beginning.... what are you going to do with the improvement expand or contract? Keep it simple, identify the quick wins, educate, motivate and develop. hope this helps

 

[TWIBlogger]

Am I aiming too high with lean office when the foundation is in ruins?

My experience with "lean" says that yes, your aim is way too high. All of the advice provided by fellow Covers is very sound and you should heed their warnings about taken on too much given the situation.

What would be the most reasonable way to go about this endeavor?

Focus on your school objectives and wrap your thesis around the business situation. You have a grand opportunity to demonstrate with clear evidence how the vast majority of organizational cultures fall prone to the "epic fail," which consists of misguided management, short term zero-sum thinking, resistance to change and resentment of criticism.

What is a reasonable timeline and what would be appropriate milestones?

They call it a journey for a reason. Focus on your school work first since it is the beginning of the journey, but don't pass up the opportunity to learn what not to do and to share that with others.

And good luck.