Lean Six Sigma Academy

My friend Kevin Meyer is on the Gemba Research Japanese Kaikaku Experience this week.  He just posted his first article that summarizes his thoughts about one of Toyota’s top plants - the Kyushu operation.

I also had the good fortune of making this trip with Gemba Research last year.  Here are the articles I wrote.

• I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane! 
• JKE Day 1: Toyota and Harmony
• JKE Update: Information Overload
• JKE Update: One Million Spark Plugs per Day
• JKE Upate: Reflection and 122 degree sand

Kevin has a way with words so you will definitely want to follow his posts.  Here is the first article and if you want to subscribe to Kevin’s blog to make sure you don’t miss the rest simply click here.

From time to time a blog article absolutely knocks me out of my chair.

This morning was one of those occasions. One of the blogs I always, without fail, read is Evolving Excellence which is written by my friend Kevin Meyer.

Today, Kevin had to write the type of post no one wants to write.

Yesterday I got the 5am call all of us dread: one of my manufacturing team members had lost her life in a car accident on the way into work.

I was inspired by Kevin’s words and how he, as President of the company, reacted to this tragic situation.

I was also inspired how Kevin reminded us that the folks we work with – often times just some number in our massive ERP systems – also have dreams and families and aspirations.

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about authentic continuous improvement is its focus on the person. Stated another way, authentic continuous improvement practitioners don’t just talk about respecting people – they actually do it.

Kevin obviously gets this and I truly admire him for it.

I’m going to kindly request that you not leave a comment here on LSS Academy in response to this particular post… instead I’d really appreciate it if you would take the time to visit Evolving Excellence and then leave a comment there, if you so wish.

Harish, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent the following question via email.

Dear Mr. Pereira,

I have been reading your insightful posts on TPS. I also came across your post on VSM. I have a quick question, of all the books I have read on TPS by Japanese authors, I have never come across VSM nor Value Stream Managers. I have seen similar methodologies like arrow mapping or process mapping in a few Japanese books.

I am curious as to the origin of VSM. I have read in Learning to See about it. Do you believe that there is Japanese version of lean (TPS) and there is US version (Jim Womack’s Lean Manufacturing)? Do you think these two differ a lot or are they the same?

Looking forward to hear your thoughts,

Harish

Regarding VSM… Toyota actually refers to value stream maps as material and information flow diagrams which probably explains why Harish has never read about them in any old Japanese books.

While the VSM question was excellent… I am totally intrigued by the last question:

“Do you believe that there is Japanese version of lean (TPS) and there is US version (Jim Womack’s Lean Manufacturing)? Do you think these two differ a lot or are they the same?”

First of all, I am very appreciative of all the good work people like James Womack and Jeff Liker have put out through the years. Womack’s Machine that Changed the World was the first “lean” book I ever read and I’ve often referenced Liker’s work over the years.

And while I have some strong opinions as to whether there is a difference between Womack’s “lean” (one of his research assistants actually coined the phrase lean) and the vaunted “TPS” I am more interested in your thoughts. What do think? Is there are a difference?

Where were you when history was being made?

I was pacing in front of my TV while holding my new born baby and screaming at the top of my lungs as Jason Lezak held off his Australian competitor in the 4×100m Medley Relay.

Once it was final, I sat down and quietly pondered what I’d just witnessed.

Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian ever. At just 23 years old, Phelps has won 14 gold medals overall – 8 in this Olympics alone. He’s also smashed just about every world record in his path. And, while I am probably a little biased as an American, I think he’s done it with tremendous class and humility.

Others in his sport, like his old nemesis Ian Thorpe from Australia, made it clear that they didn’t think 8 gold medals could be won by one person.

Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, one of his present day rivals, said he thought it would be good for the sport if Phelps lost at least one race (I’m assuming he meant the 100m butterfly where Phelps beat Cavic by one-hundredth of a second).

None of this mattered. Phelps would not be denied.

It’s just hard to fathom how one person can accomplish so much over the course of 9 days and 17 swims.  It’s also unbelievably inspiring for me personally. 

What I’ve Learned

There are so many things to learn from something like this.  The most obvious things are that we must prepare, work hard, and believe in ourselves. 

Some of the other things I’ve taken away are to not let others make you angry when they “do you wrong.”  Instead, if we can take that potentially negative situation and channel it positively we will be much better off.  This is exactly what Phelps seems to do.

What about you?

What have you taken away from watching Michael Phelps make history?  And if you watched the final race yesterday what were you thinking?  Was you heart pounding with excitement?  Mine sure was.

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“Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward.”

~Psalm 127:3

Yesterday my family was blessed with the arrival of our 4th child, a baby girl. While the births of all my children have been amazing, this one was extra special since we decided to not find out the sex of the baby before hand.

Words simply can’t describe how special it was or how proud I am to have four beautiful children to call me Daddy. This, as they say, is priceless.

I’ll be taking some time off to play, what I can best describe as, a one man zone defense against my 3 “older” kids (almost 6, 4, and 2) as we get settled with our newest addition. With this said, blogging will be light over the next few weeks.

Until then, you might want to check out (if you don’t already) some of my favorite blogs. Here is a short list and you can find more in the related sites section.

• Lean Blog
• Evolving Excellence
• Seth Godin
• Curious Cat Management
• Gemba Pantarei
• shmula (Pete and his wife just added their 8th addition to his growing family!)

Mark Graban’s book Lean Hospitals will be released soon.  If you want to get a sneak peak inside the book I come with good news since you can actually download the first chapter of the book for free.

I’ve read it and was very impressed.  I suppose I expected nothing less from Mark.  I am always amazed to learn how different industries are applying lean.  And the work that folks like Mark are doing in our hospitals is nothing short of life changing (and potentially saving).

And if you want to pre-order the book and get a 15% discount (until August 31) click here and look at the Update Mark left to this post.

So go ahead and download your free copy of the first chapter and when you’re finished reading please come on back and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Leo Babauta is the founder of one of the most popular blogs around called Zen Habits (almost 60,000 subscribers as of this article).

While he doesn’t write about lean manufacturing, per se, he does touch on many lean philosophies like achieving goals, productivity, being organized, simplicity, etc.

When I first came across his site I decided to buy his ebook, Zen to Done (ZTD), which basically summarizes his entire philosophy.

Not only is the book one of the most visually pleasing things I’ve ever layed my eyes on, it is chalk full of wonderful tips and advice all continuous improvement practitioners – and really anyone looking to improve their lives – should know.

What is ZTD?

Simply put, Zen To Done is a system to get you more organized and productive, and keep your life saner and less stressed, with a set of habits. ZTD teaches you:

• The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified … and no more than that.
• How to implement these key habits … tips on forming a habit.
• How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in your life in its place.
• How to simplify what you need to do.
• Minimal ZTD. Also includes an even simpler version called Minimal ZTD.

I’ve read the book, which costs $9.95, and highly recommend it. Click here for more information.

Full Disclosure: I do earn a small commission if you purchase the book from the links above. As always, I will re-invest 100% of these earnings into LSS Academy in my attempts to provide a better product for you, my fine readers.

I’m exhausted – both physically and mentally.

For the past 5 days I’ve been involved in an extremely intense kaizen. One could even call it a kaikaku – or radical change event.

I’ve coached, learned, cleaned, painted, and sweat (a lot) alongside some amazing people.

We went to battle with muda (waste) and won. In fact we won big. And while we made huge improvements as it relates to 5S and throughput, the biggest success, at least for me, was watching the employees pour their entire beings into the event.

Today, during the report out there were a few occasions were grown men, including me, came close to tears. It was an emotional and even spiritual occasion for me personally.

I am a man of deep faith and prayer. As such, I’ve been praying for wisdom and guidance all week long. And today, all my prayers and hard work – and more importantly the hard work of my colleagues – came to fruition.

If you think continuous improvement is only about reading books, training, and certifications you couldn’t be more wrong.

No, continuous improvement is about engaging others. It’s about attacking the problem at hand with fury and intensity – no matter your job title or salary. It’s about making people’s lives better. And at times, at least for me, it’s a deeply spiritual and emotional journey.

And now… I need to rest.

A can of soup falls if you drop it, your car tire blows out when a nail punctures it, and eventually my barbeque grill cools down after grilling steaks, even in the hot Texas air. Why is this? Allow me to explain.

While these things are all different, they do share a common denominator. They’re all explained by the second law of thermodynamics – entropy.

Defined, entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness in a system. Put another way, entropy helps us measure the energy that disperses or spreads out in a process, any process.

Entropy, our foe

Here is where we begin to understand how this second law of thermodynamics describes a fierce foe to those of us trying to improve processes in our factories, hospitals, and office buildings.

It would seem that entropy never seizes. It never grows tired, frustrated, or bewildered. It’s never sick or complains about a sore back. It just relentlessly presses on.

And while I realize entropy is a measure and not really a thing… I’m pretending, if you’ll allow me, that it is a thing… a relentless thing in fact.

This thing explains why my garage looks great for a week or two after our annual spring cleaning and then falls to pieces a few months later. It’s why the fifth S (sustain) is so darn hard. It’s why control charts were invented (to determine when the disorder is getting out of hand).

And its why, as I’ve stated many times before, I personally believe “controlling” or even “sustaining” gains is next to an impossible task, long-term. Why? Because entropy works harder than you and me and all our friends combined. It’s just a fact of life.

What to do?

Right, so entropy is relentless and never tires and controlling gains are next to impossible. That’s just great. Let’s all just pack our bags and quit, right? Wrong.

Have you ever watched salmon swim upstream? It’s really one of the most amazing things you’ll ever watch.

I can only imagine how hard it is for these fish to battle the current. I wonder how tired they get? I wonder what motivates them? I wonder if they realize many of them will die on the journey?

I can’t answer these questions. But I do know these salmon may be the perfect role models for how we should approach our battle with entropy.

Swim Like Hell

You see these salmon aren’t satisfied with maintaining their present position (i.e. controlling gains). Chinook salmon, for example, swim more than 900 miles and climb 7,000 feet from the Pacific Ocean as they return to spawn each year. So with massive odds facing them they set off against a mighty foe and swim.

And so it is with us, we too must swim (i.e. continuously improve). In fact, we must swim like hell with full knowledge that entropy is waiting for us to relax… so it can do what it does best… bring disorder back to the system.

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These 8 things could prove deadly to your lean and/or six sigma initiative.  How many do you recognize?

1. The number of people trained is a key performance metric. While this may be something worth tracking when first starting out on the continuous improvement journey, I’d say this metric is next to useless as a long-term performance measurement. You can train hundreds, even thousands, and bring zero value to the organization.
2. The number of people certified is a key performance metric. Similarly, if the number of belts or lean gurus certified is a key measure, I’d say you are in it for the wrong reason. Badges and certifications are nice, and rewarding, but handing out marble plaques and T-Shirts should not be the driving force of your efforts.
3. Tools are used for the sake of a checklist. This is a real problem in the six sigma world. In some cases, a magical checklist listing all the tools a green or black belt must use in order to certify exists. Often times this list forces the belt down a path they may not need to travel as far as what tools they use. If, for example, simple linear regression is not needed to solve a problem stop forcing the belt to use it.
4. You spend more time quantifying savings than working on the actual project. I’ve seen people complete a project in a month, yet they spend 2 months battling with their controller over how much the project saved. This is pure waste! Before you start the project make sure you and your controller are in agreement as to what the savings will be if the objective is met.
5. Boiling the ocean. Instead of attempting to improve the on time delivery across your entire plant with a single green belt project, why not focus in on one product variant after some Pareto analysis? You may actually succeed.
6. It’s a program and not a philosophy. Programs, by definition, end. Conversely, the ancient origin of the word philosophy (philosophía) means “love of knowledge” or “love of wisdom.” And true love, as the good book tells us, never ends. So, make sure your lean and/or six sigma activities are part of an overall business philosophy and not a flavor of the month program.
7. It’s all about their resume. If the sole reason an individual is interested in learning new lean and six sigma skills is to pad their resume you have a big issue. Do your best to understand an individual’s true motivation for wanting to learn new skills. This is a tricky one, since we want all employees to learn. If this problem is rampant there may be larger, more systemic organizational issues that need to be addressed.
8. You attempt to control gains. If I had invented the DMAIC roadmap I would have made one major change. I wouldn’t have called the last phase control. Instead, I would have called it continue! You see, I am of the opinion that no gain can be controlled long-term. You are either improving or digressing. So, stop trying to control things… instead never stop improving them!

Do you agree with this list? Can you think of anything I’ve missed?

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