Stark strong message

Saw this message posted a few other places.  If you were to swap "change" for "learning" this would epitomize a lot of Lean.  In fact with out learning there can be no change as everytime we change something we learn.  At the worst we learn what does not work and can learn and change again.

Event to share

Build the Optimal Environment for Business Success
Cancelled and rescheduled for 6th June

 CME is proud to present with Productivity Alberta Don Bell, one of the founders of WestJet to Calgary on March 21^th.

 Don Bell, one of the founders of WestJet, is widely credited with helping to make the company one of the most successful airlines in North America.

Don strove to create a unique atmosphere for his employees, realising that happy staff members create happy customers. Recently retired, Don encourages business leaders to take their businesses to new heights by aligning the values and interests of their company with those of their employees, along with a little dose of common sense and a large dose of heart.

Come hear Don Bell and how his approach to business applies to your company.

Breakfast will also feature the 2011 IRAP Regional Awards for New Technology.

Date:  Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Place: Delta Calgary South

135 Southland Drive SE

Calgary, Alberta

Cost:  $49.00 plus gst CME Members

$59.00 plus gst Non-Members

Includes Hot Breakfast

To register, please Click Here:

Or please contact Linda Withers at (780) 426-6622
or linda.withers@cme-mec.ca

 For more information, please Click Here:

Unfortunately I won't be going, I'm in a training session got to keep learning.  If you can make it I highly recommend you do. Watch out for  my colleague Carla Ciepliski who will be there. 

87% Less walking happening in Lethbridge

Not all the changes required huge outlays of funds.
Using principles of lean manufacturing to improve flow, Mr. Quinton arranged to move all the grinding operations, which had been spread throughout the building, into the back, along with the ovens. The move led to a travel-time reduction of 87 per cent, he said. 

That is an awesome reduction in motion achieved by Sandberg Labs in Lethbridge.  Also great to see that the Quintons thought long and hard about investment and put it into steps that reduced over processing:

With the old, manual method of testing feed, “it had to be smartest chemist to figure out what was going on,” explains Mr. Quinton. “The most expensive person was tied up all day for 10 samples. Now the system is so automated that any technician can run it, while the chemist still does quality control.”

They didn't stop there they went after duplication, more over processing, over production, defects and even added some poke yoke.

“Sometimes we were using three or four different systems for the same sample,” Mr. Quinton says. “There was a lot of duplicate data, which made it prone to error. We were catching those but it caused delays. Now with the receiving person entering all the data once, we’ll be able to do bigger volumes with accuracy.” The new software also registers acceptable limits on results and automatically flags any out of range. 

 The whole article is at the Globe and Mail.  Lean does not have to be complicated and my bet is that the Quintons wouldn't even describe what they are doing as Lean.  And that is a good reminder for the rest of us.  Implementing Lean should not be about perfect 5S or going from push to pull it is about increasing value add for the customer.  Something the Quintons seem to be doing very well.

Neat ≠ Organized

Listening to Dave Allen seminar and this nugget of wisdom was shared

Neat ≠ Organized

There is a reason why 5S is done in the sequence Sort, Set, Shine...  To Set and to have not Sorted is only to make neat, it does not make Organized.  Even with many proficient Lean organizations I often see areas where Sort has not been done well.  In these situations the occasional or just in case tooling is still front and center.  Of the whole range of drivers or wrenches is kept when only a fraction are used.  The Sort step has to be done with bravery teaching those involved to challenge if a tool or the amount of parts are really needed.  In fact much great Lean work comes from asking do I really need this tool and exploring how that tool can be eliminated.  This is when 5S kicks off from being an organizing tool to a Lean tool that drives waste out of work.

Classic story of not going to the Gemba

 A short story for engineers, although you don't have to be an engineer to appreciate it.

=================================================================

A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes,  without the tube inside.  This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timing so precise that every single unit coming out of it perfectly 100% of the time.  Small variations in the environment (which can't be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don't get pissed off and buy another product instead.

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they  decided to start a new project in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to re-start the line.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share.  "That's some money well spent!" he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.

It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use.  It should've been picking up at least
a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report.  He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers
come back saying the report was actually correct.  The scales really weren't picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that
point in the conveyor belt were good.

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed.  A few feet before the scale he spots a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off of the belt and into a bin.

"Oh, that," says one of the workers. "One of the guys put it there cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang".

1.4% versus 2.2% anually adds up

 The Conference Board or Canada lays it out pretty clearly, Canada is getting left behind when it comes to improving productivity.

Ottawa-based research firm used a simulation boosting Canadian labour productivity growth by 0.8% per year higher from 1988 to 2008, the same increase as the difference between annual labour productivity growth in the US (2.2%) and Canada (1.4%) over the 20-year period.  The Conference Board notes that since the 1980s, Canada’s performance has been sluggish in multi-factor productivity (or innovation) and capital intensity, while labour quality has been relatively stable.  Previous Conference Board research found that Canada’s relatively well-educated workforce does not have the physical capital required to maximize productivity performance. 

What to do about it?  The report blames "physical capital", they mean equipment, machinery, computers, software and the like.  This is part of the answer, but is not the right answer.  Here in Canada and especially in Alberta productivity is not talked about enough. And when it is talked about there is not enough understanding about what it means and what to do about it.
I come from the UK, Lean manufacturing awareness is so much deeper than here in Canada.  Most regional colleges do a basic diploma in 5S and lean.  To quantify the difference, if you Google 5S training, Google Canada gives 54,000 results while Google UK gives 471,000 results.  A difference of 10:1 for a population difference of 2:1.  We simply do not have the awareness in Canada especially here in Western Canada about what drives productivity and what can be done about it.  Alberta Productivity is doing a great job of raising awareness.  Sadly if reports like this continue to come out and point the finger in the wrong direction it will only reinforce current misunderstanding and the opportunities that Lean offer companies will continue to be missed.

To read the report in its completeness, Canada’s Lagging Productivity: What If We Had Matched the U.S. Performance. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/documents.aspx?did=4486

Klaus - The First Day At Work

Edited highlights of the soon-to-be-classic-if-it-isn't-already German Health and Safety video. Our hapless star is Klaus the fork lift driver on his first day at work in the warehouse. He's clearly unaware of the basics of Health and Safety, taking lethal gambles with a Stanley knife and some sheet metal, and getting too easily distracted. Enjoy!



For the full version dubbed in English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPpwLCvPAME&feature=related
For the full version with the original German http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oB6DN5dYWo&feature=related
Serous message awesomely communicated.