I’ve recently been involved with a SMED (single minute exchange of dies) kaizen event. The event itself was extremely effective and tons of fun… and while I could share the specifics of the event with you I won’t.

Instead, I want to focus on one particular part of the kaizen that I feel greatly attributed to our success – the video taping process.

Specifically I want to share some tips that may help you out if you decide to use video in the future.

1. Get Permission

First of all, before you even think about rolling video on someone… be sure to get their permission and their manager’s permission.

In some cases it’s probably not a bad idea to let human resources know as well. If you work in a union environment or in certain parts of the world video taping may or may not be allowed.

2. Talk to the Operator and Explain What You’re Doing

Next, once you have permission you need to spend some quality time with the “talent” meaning the person you plan to tape.

During this time you must explain why you are taping them, how the footage will be used, and how you are not out to catch them making a mistake.

In many cases an operator will feel a tremendous amount of anxiety when being video taped so please take the time to put their mind at ease.

3. Go to Gemba

Now, there are a few ways to go about recording the video. You can set the camera up in such a way as to see the entire process. This method probably helps relieve the stress of the operator a little.

The downside to this approach is you are often limiting yourself as to what you can see. For example, it may be nice to zoom in once in awhile. Also, if you are watching a process like a CNC lathe it may be difficult to capture everything from far away (I learned this the hard way).

With this said, I am personally a fan of getting as close as possible while not being in the way to record footage.

4. Have their Colleague Run the Camera

Another tip that has worked well for me is to ask one of the operator’s colleagues, preferably someone they really like, to operate the camera. This helps relieve anxiety and can even make the process fun for all involved.

Further, the “friend” may be quite familiar with the process being recorded in which case they can offer a small narration as to what is happening. This makes the analysis of the video tape much easier.

5. Involve the Operator in Analysis

Finally, it is absolutely critical to include the operator in the analysis of the video tape. The main reason is they are the best person to help you identify the various “elements” of the process. Also, they’ll likely have the best ideas for improving the process once you have taught them the basic principles of SMED.

What about you?

These are just a few tips I’ve learned… what video taping tips do you have?

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I have the honor of hosting the 46th edition of the management improvement carnival.  So without further delay here are some of my favorite articles from the past few weeks.

• Kevin Meyer, of Evolving Excellence fame, recently traveled to Japan and was kind enough to write up some amazing summaries of what he saw and experienced.  The company tour reports are here: Toyota, Saishunkan, TOTO, and an electronics company.
• My friend, Mark Graban, broke one of his personal blogging rules and wrote while he was mad.  You can check it out by reading This WSJ Article (as do Many Organizations) Misses the Point of 5S.
• I’m never quite sure how he gets these ideas… but Jon Miller managed to tie leadership and mountain goats together in 7 Leadership Lessons from a Mountain Goat.  Great stuff!
• John Hunter offered up some interesting data showing that the US is still doing OK when it comes to manufacturing in Global Manufacturing Data 2007.
• A blog I’ve recently started to follow and quite enjoy is The Lean Thinker.  Be sure to check out A3 by PowerPoint for an example of what I mean.
• If you are interested in being more productive I have a must read article for you, and I really mean it’s a must read.  So be sure to check out The Ultimate Productivity Toolbox for Creative People.
• Finally, I leave you with one of the best marketing minds on the blogosphere as Seth Godin tells us about Reacting, Responding & Initiating.

Here’s the situation… the cycle time to produce one unit in our widget making factory is 300 seconds and the takt time for this product is 50 seconds per piece. In other words, in order to satisfy customer demand we need to produce a finish unit every 50 seconds.

How Many People?

OK, this is straight forward enough… but the next question is how many people do we need in the cell? One of the team members remembers hearing about some formula that looked at the ratio of cycle time to takt time to come up with the, so-called, optimal crew size.

Well, by taking 300 seconds (cycle time to produce one part) over 50 seconds (takt time) the team figured they needed 6 people in the cell. Is this correct?

Not So Fast

Well, as Lee Corso often says… “Not so fast my friends.” You see in order to accurately determine the optimal crew size the team needs a little more information.

Instead of stating the cycle time is 300 seconds, the team must first understand how much of that 300 seconds is “manual” cycle time – or the time an operator is actually needed – and how much is “automatic” cycle time – or the time the operator is technically not needed (such as when they hit the start button and commence reading their newspaper).

The Real Calculation

Now then… back to our widget factory. After some quick time studies the team learned that the manual cycle time is 100 seconds and the automatic cycle time is 200 seconds.

So, when they divided the sum of the manual cycle time – 100 seconds – by the takt time – 50 seconds – the optimal crew size came to 2 people (instead of 6 when the total cycle time was used).

Moral of the Story

So, the moral of the story is to calculate the optimal crew size of a work area by dividing the sum of manual cycle time by takt time. Of course, at this point the fun has just begun as the team must now determine what those 2 people will actually do! But let’s save that for another discussion.

Is this how you calculate optimal crew size in your organization?

Allow me to introduce Joe, the plant Industrial Engineer. Joe is a nice boy fresh out of college.

On this particular day old Joe comes popping out of his cubicle in his Dockers and white polo shirt holding a clip board and stop watch.

Joe then rolls out to the shop floor and spots his victim – a young lady about 22 years old named Sherry.

Sherry is a nice girl trying to do the best she can. She received a whopping 20 minutes training and was set on her way assembling product.

Blood Pressure Rises

The next thing poor Sherry knows old Joe is in front of her fondling his stop watch. He explains he is collecting data for a value stream mapping exercise.

Sherry has no clue what value stream mapping is and can’t take her eyes and mind off Joe’s stop watch. She’s also getting a little freaked out the way he keeps fondling it and smiling (his stop watch).

Joe goes on to explain, “Just work as if I’m not here. I am not timing you… I am timing the process.” Sherry isn’t buying it. She is a shy girl and is now so nervous her hands won’t stop shaking. Sherry is in great shape but begins a nervous sweat down the small of her back.

The next thing she knows Joe yells “START!” She does her best to assemble the product. Once she completes it Joe slams his finger down on the stop watch and quickly writes something down on his piece of paper.

This cycle goes on for what seems like eternity. While Sherry eventually settles down she never performs her job as well as she can. She is just too nervous and anxious.

Thanks, Sherry

Finally, Joe collects all the data he needs. He quickly thanks Sherry and rolls back into the land of cubicles. Sherry still has no clue what the data is for and wonders if she did good or bad?

Nonetheless, Sherry breathes and sigh of relief and quickly settles right back into her normal groove (if only he could time me now, she thinks).

While I may be over dramatizing this (maybe not) I’ve been Joe before. Well… I never fondled my stop watch!  But I’ve stood in front of many people with stop watch and clip board in hand.  And I’m sure I’ve been the cause of lots of high blood pressure along the way.

The Alternative

Then I learned a trick.

Instead of pummeling people with a stop watch I simply went out and over explained what I was doing and why I needed to collect some cycle times.

Then, with their permission, and their manager’s permission, I set up a video camera and let it roll for a few hours. I explained that I didn’t want to make them nervous standing over them with a stop watch and that I’d like their help collecting the data once the video taping was done.

Sure, people are still a little nervous for the first few minutes. But after 10 minutes or so they normally forget all about the camera and begin to work normally.

Involve them

Once we have all the footage we need I ask them to watch it with me. We collect cycle times (turning the little timer on makes this a breeze) and also talk about how we could improve the process. Most operators really appreciate this once they realize you are there to help them do their job better.

And once you get the operator’s to this point the battle is nearly won. Not only will they let you tape them again and again they will start to think as they work. They’ll think about their every move and how they could possibly do things better.

And while thinking is really good… the best part of this new process is people like Joe will stop freaking people out with all their freaky stop watch fondling.

What about you? Have you had any luck using video cameras? What about stop watches? No fondling I trust?

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