When are you done with Continuous Improvement?

 

Recently an individual who just witnessed several lean sigma project reviews asked, “When are you done with continuous improvement”?  The discussion that followed is worth summarizing to reinforce the idea that continuous improvement is just that, continuous.

 

My initial response was that not only must a company change; it must change faster than its competition.  Most everyone would all agree that companies are competitive and all want to be number one in their field.  Assuming that as a fact, the non-field leading companies are striving to improve to over-take the leaders.  Should the up and coming companies change and improve faster than the leaders, they will eventually over-take them. Without change, even companies that are number one in their field will eventually be surpassed. 

 

One person in the discussion likened this to a scene in the 1990 movie “Days of Thunder”, starring Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall.  The individual described one scene in which the pit crew chief (Duvall) was talking via radio to the racecar driver (Cruise).  The pit crew chief was complaining to the driver that he was going too fast and abusing the equipment.  The driver responded that he had not sped up, but everyone else had slowed down. By simply going a little faster than the competition, he finally passed all of those in front of him to become number one; winning the race.

 

Continuous improvement is a marathon and this marathon has no end, simply minor course adjustments as you continue in the race. 

 

We are in a changing and challenging time.  Many companies will be tempted to retrench and cut expenses by blindly cutting costs including eliminating their continuous improvement activities.  This is not the time to be timid, this is the time to aggressively attack waste by pursuing continuous improvement.  Less non-value added waste equals more profit.

 

For a company to be successful, they must have a strong culture that promotes continuous improvement.  They must strive to be better than they were six months ago while realizing that they are not as good as they will be six months from now.

 

I’ll close this post as I closed the discussion, with one of my favorite business quotes. “When the pace of change outside the organization is greater than the pace of change inside the organization, the end is near.”   John R. Walker

 

 

Post Author: Royce Williard

Copyright 2009, The Williard Group

A Case For Lean In Sony’s Front Office & Fulfillment Operation

Recently, I had a Sony Bravia LCD digital color TV fail a short period of time after the manufacturer’s warranty had expired.  The failure was catastrophic in that the repair would cost over 50% of the original purchase price. I called Sony to express my dissatisfaction with the now discontinued unit and Sony agreed to replace the unit with a new model for a deeply discounted price.  Had the replacement gone smoothly, that would have been the end of the story. Unfortunately, what transpired over the replacement transaction serves to highlight a lean continuous improvement opportunity in Sony’s front office and fulfillment operation.

 

In order to verify the authenticity of my claim, the Sony representative asked that I remove and submit the serial number label from the defective unit.  Information retrieved from www.usps.com on February 14, 2009 at 9:12 AM MST indicates that my package arrived and was signed for by a Sony employee at their Fort Myers, Florida location on February 4 at 11:00 AM EST.   Now the frustration begins.

 

According to a Sony call center agent, the replacement order was not placed into their system until approximately 11:30 AM EST on February 10, 2009.   Assuming a generous 30 minutes for order placement, the order request sat incurring the lean waste of “waiting” for 4 business days!  While waiting for input into the Sony systems, the letters may pile up and occupy unnecessary space.  The letters are also at risk of being lost or being input out of their arrival sequence.

 

After being entered into their system, the order waited again until February 12, 2009 before actually being shipped.  The order had now waited another 2 plus business days prior to shipping. 

 

The entire process from receipt of the information until the replacement unit was shipped was over 6 business days! By my estimate, the only value added activities during this time were receiving the information, entering the order, and the pick/pack/ship of the replacement unit. Assuming 1 hour for the value added activity and 8 hours per business day, the value added activity comprises 2% of the cycle time.  The other 98% is viewed as waste!

 

Applying various lean tools would help identify the root cause, eliminate the waste, and install management systems to have the changes become engrained in their culture.  Consider the following ……

 

• Included in Morning Market is a review of the previous day’s performance.  With the proper customer centric measures, the cycle time would be visible to the leadership.
• Value Stream Mapping would provide a visual representation of the process including queue time.
• A 5 Whys exercise would enable the organization to identify a root cause of the problem. 
• A kaizen would provide for identification of an improved process.
• Standard work would document the new and improved process.
• Gemba walks would enable leadership to reinforce the new process and adherence to standards by visiting the workplace on a regular basis.

 

Does every case at Sony take this long? I don’t know, that is for Sony leadership to determine. The purpose of this post is simply to provide a real world example of waste and how lean can be used for continuous improvement purposes in non-manufacturing processes. 

 

In these turbulent economic times, companies must maintain a high level of customer service. Compressing cycle times on orders is just one of the ways to improve customer service. Satisfied customers are repeat customers. 

 

Should someone from Sony view this post and want to verify the detail presented, they can refer to case number E39586838.

 

 

Post Author: Royce Williard

Copyright 2009, The Williard Group

Root Cause Analysis Using 5 Whys

My 4-year-old grandson was visiting recently and almost every sentence he spoke contained the word why. Why this and why that, he asked nonstop as only an inquisitive 4 year old can do.  As I patiently answered his questions, I was struck by how his constant questioning resembled the 5 Whys technique used in lean enterprise problem solving.  The 5 Whys is an extremely effective method used to getting to the root cause of the issue. 

 

The premise of the 5 Whys is very simple.  As the name implies, when conducting a root cause analysis you ask yourself and your team a series of 5 questions all beginning with the word why.  Each successive question builds on the previous answer.  Sounds simple.  In practice it is harder than you may think. 

 

To illustrate, suppose there was an issue involving tape on a packing carton coming loose.

 

1. Why did the tape come loose on the packing carton?
1. The tape was not applied with the necessary tension
2. Why did the tape lack the necessary tension?
1. The spring that applies the tension on the taper was loose.
3. Why was the spring loose?
1. The spring had been on the machine too long and had loosened due to wear.
4. Why had the spring been on the machine to long?
1. The spring had been on the machine to long because it was not replaced during preventive maintenance.
5. Why was the spring not replaced as part of the preventive maintenance schedule?
1. The preventative maintenance schedule only addressed the new model taping machines, which do not require use of a spring.

 

Solution: Update the preventative maintenance schedule and ensure that all items requiring preventative maintenance are scheduled.

 

While this sounds easy, it isn’t.  Your first several attempts will prove difficult and the tendency will be to stop before reaching the 5^th Why.  I would urge you to press forward in an attempt to reach that 5^th why and get to the true root cause of the issue.

 

Post Author: Royce Williard

copyright 2009, The Williard Group