Experience vs. Outside Views (or Experience + Outside)
I’m getting some really interesting and constructive comments in
my reader survey. Keep it coming. I’ll reflect, summarize, and
respond to it here on the blog or personally via email. Thanks to
those who have taken the time.
One comment I wanted to respond to (and it’s just part of a
thoughtful comment, the lengthiest of what I received):
I am a bit more on use
of an experienced person to study processes, interview employees,
observe, than some people who believe all you need to do is empower
the existing workforce. There are a lot of tools one needs to
apply, experience in process improvement makes the whole effort
accelerate and increase in impact, and frankly the results are
better, It’s like saying no one knows one’s body better than one’s
self therefore only you can really improve it so why go to medical
people. Rather you know what doesn’t feel right (as do employees in
a process) but without an MD you may not be able to suggest
fixes.
Yes! I agree wholeheartedly that you need to do more than free up
employee time to get real, meaningful, lasting improvements in an
organization (whether it’s a hospital or a factory). I also love
the MD analogy.
I probably do overplay the “get your employees involved” and “just
go to the gemba and listen to your employees” cards a bit. As a
consultant, maybe I’m a bit sensitive to not overplay the role of a
trusted consultant (or, though I shudder a bit to use the term… a
“sensei”). I don’t use the term “sensei” because I’m not Japanese,
nor are my clients, but that’s a different discussion.
I do articulate in my
book that organizations need a good consultant for a number of
reasons (and I just became “that guy who quotes himself” — sorry!
I hope this isn’t the moment I “Jump the
Shark.“).
On page 31 of Lean Hospitals:
Continued coaching, training, and mentoring are
required, whether coming from outside consultants, internal process
improvement leaders, or the direct line management and
administrators themselves.
On page 217:
Regardless of the exact makeup, the Lean team requires
a project leader and coach, either an outside consultant or an
internal Lean leader from a process improvement department. The
coach should not be expected to come up with all of the answers,
nor can he or she be expected to “make you Lean”
without any effort of your own. In fact, many coaches will, after
training the team in Lean concepts, insist on not giving answers.
Instead, the sensei will guide the team by asking questions and
having the team develop its own solutions.
The outsider alone doesn’t know enough (most likely) to come up
with the answers. The staff, on their own, might not push hard
enough or get outside of their usual comfort zone.
A good Lean consultant can teach concepts that the employees might
not have considered before, such as “single piece flow” (reducing
batches) and error proofing as a quality strategy.
The equation I use might go something like this (and maybe it’s
really multiplicative, not additive):
Employee Time + Lean Concepts + Leadership
= Kaizen
Just turning employees loose with some time to “fix
things” might lead to a lot of meetings or just some small
incremental change. At the least, you have to give the employees
time *and* some training in Lean concepts. “Quick
and Easy Kaizen
might get you so far — employees can give “obvious” suggestions
like “get the machine fixed properly” and “get us better lighting.”
But, I think you also need Lean principles and concepts to get to
the big waste in the process. I could be wrong… but I wonder how
many teams, left to the own, would come up with radical overhauls
that can come with Lean thinking?
For example, when I work with hospital laboratories, the lab
employees (as smart and hard-working as they are) probably wouldn’t
come up with the “Lean” layouts that we do without Lean Concepts
(knowledge) and Leadership (the guts to take a risk and try
something new). You’re right — the results ARE better with a
combination of internal and external knowledge.
I think adding good coaching / consulting to the mix will increase
the results even more. Part of that coaching includes the direct
line leaders of the organization, who play a important role in
setting direction and vision, keeping those in line with
organizational values.
If anything is missing from that above equation, you won’t reach
your full potential. If you just have Lean principles (like a lot
of training or reading) without leadership or time to act — you’ll
probably get zero. If you have a great outside consultant with Lean
knowledge, but no involvement from the staff, you won’t get much
(or the change won’t last without buy in from the
staff).
What’s your experience with the balance between internal process
knowledge and outside influence?
factoryprojects commented:
Manufacturing its time to Sink or Swim Manufacturers in the UK are
facing uncertain times as the lack of credit is quickly filtering
through the system. Customers are reducing/cancelling orders
leaving manufacturers with production voids to fill whilst
overheads remain the same. Help seems to be finding its way to
those who shout the loudest ie Car Industry, but what about the
small manufacturers? What will happen to them? Put quite bluntly
they will Sink or Swim. Estimates are being headlined everyday in
the press at the number of small businesses that are not going to
survive the downturn. So what are they to do, do they wait to find
out if they are one of the chosen few, or do they do something
about it, if so what? Companies that Sink The companies that will
sink are the ones who wait for Market changes or Government
assistance. No one has a crystal ball, however we can all second
guess the market isn’t going to start to recover for a
minimum of 1-2 years, As a knock on effect the companies further up
the supply chain will be analyzing there businesses and trying to
take costs out. They will be knocking on your door expecting higher
service levels and lower costs. This will be impossible to do as
your overheads will only be increasing as you inventory levels rise
and sales fall. You either need owners with very deep pockets or
the divine intervention of Gordon Brown and government assistance.
Which if it did happen we can almost guarantee will be too little
too late…. Companies that Swim The Swimmers, well they have
to adapt and adapt quickly. These companies need to step back and
take a look at the business. You cant rely on the same steady
stream of orders, You must become flexible in your approach to
manufacturing. Reducing overheads, reducing inventory Levels and
becoming in General more ‘Lean’. Before people run for
cover expecting a tirade of TLA’s then don’t. Lean
manufacturing can be approached very basically and with common
sense. You need to concentrate on) How to get the required volume
of raw materials into the company at the right time to produce the
exact amount of products as quickly as possible with as few the
minimal resource and minimal waste. Delivered to your customer in
the required timeframe at the required quality level. So how is
this achieved? Unfortunately the very nature of being a small
manufacturer means you tend not to have the in-house expertise to
deal with the complete solution, so people tend to bury there heads
in the sand. At this point you need some help from the
‘outside’. You could go down the consultancy route,
here consultants will look at your business and suggest a list of
actions which you could take. Charging upto £1500 day each
they will produce theoretical solutions to your problem, leaving
you to remedy the situation, This can (will) be both time consuming
and expensive, you will also feel they have only highlighted points
you already knew about… Consultants when used in the right
context can be invaluable to a company, however a small
manufacturer who needs to decide on the way they operate quickly
and effectively and put this into practice is not the right
context. It will leave you with just as many problems and several
thousand ££’s worse off. What’s the
alternative? Utilise a manufacturing projects company such as our
company www.factoryProjects.co.uk who will project manage your
changes. The fees range between £300-£600 per day
depending on what they are doing for the company. What you get in
return are clear options on what needs to be done, together with a
project plan/ costings and a project service that will manage the
project from conception through to completion, allowing you to
concentrate on what you do best. We understand the pressures faced
by small businesses and the limited resources, we can come up with
solutions/costs to suit your requirements then project manage these
changes to allow you to concentrate on running your business. Get a
Grant Their is help out there !!! Grants are available for
manufacturing companies.. Contact business link who will steer you
in the right direction. it is possible that a proportion of the
money can be returned in the form of a grant. Summary Whatever you
decide to do, please decide to do something.. Waiting for change
will result in failure. Formulate a plan, get help and drive the
plan forward. No one can guarantee survival, Making the changes
will make you a more lean competitive force in the market. Whilst
your competition fail, you can pick up market share and your new
approach to running your business will help you adapt to growth as
well as decline.. Good luck and Please act now to help your company
change !! for more info please contact: info@factoryprojects.co.uk
www.factoryprojects.co.uk
