A few months ago I met with a group that wanted to learn about Lean Six Sigma. As we began our discussion, they assured me everything was going well. They just wanted to get more information on how we might consider a continuous improvement process.
As we talked, it became apparent that there were several potential areas that could be evaluated. These included a very complicated production process, a multi-stage transportation process from factory to warehouse, and a lot of variation in the intermediate and final products that they were producing.
I asked them about bottlenecks -areas where things are not going as smoothly as one would hope or expect. As we delved into the processes that they were using, they began to realize that there were multiple areas that, while not broken, could certainly use a tweak here or there to help improve productivity.
Our discussion led into several areas of Lean, talking about transportation, over-engineering, and loss of time. We decided however to focus on a bigger issue dealing with defects, and that a Six Sigma project would be very appropriate for what they needed to evaluate.
It’s often interesting to talk to individuals or groups to understand how things are done at their company. At first, everything is fine. But the more you talk, the more anecdotal information you get about what is really happening — problems that have bubbled up or excess resources devoted to working around issues. One of the first steps in any continuous improvement program is admitting that there is room for improvement. A “perfect” system doesn’t need any help, because the people using it won’t admit they need help.
It’s important as one considers either a new cip or one that’s been well established for some time to keep an open mind about what could be changed and what could be gained by those changes.
How are you helping your employees to work smarter by reducing the amount of time they spend on non-productive activities and correcting errors? If your business processes need a “check-up,” please email me at michael@leadingchangeforgood.com! I’d love to help you get back to a healthy, productive workplace.
Recent Comments