There is no reason to let the lack of measurements get in the way of starting improving activities. I was reading an eWeek essay by Peter Coffee, Counting the Ways, that got me thinking about the 6σ approach to improvement. That approach is basically data-driven. Without measurements there are no improvements. Coffee said,

"Most businesses have no idea what they spend on unproductive hours."

And we know unproductive hours — waste — exists everywhere. What can you do? Start with the Last Planner System®.

One of the first things I do with clients is to do a time-value analysis (TVA) of their value streams. Inevitably, about half of employee time is spent on non-value-added activities. In lean terms, this is both type-1 and type-2 waste. In addition, white-space — waiting for something to happen — makes up more than 50% of the cycle-time duration. These rough numbers are good enough to get you started with kaizen.

Removing white-space has an immediate effect on the business. It shortens the cycle-time and produces a one-time increase in cash flow. As attractive as that is, it isn't necessarily easy to accomplish. It requires reliability throughout, particularly in the project setting. The one way I know to do that is with the Last Planner System® and a practice of securing reliable promises. Get started on removing the waste associated with variation. Use the Last Planner.

Each year Industry Week (IW) profiles the best manufacturers. The recent years's lists have been dominated by firms employing lean approaches. Batesville Caskets is one of those firms, A Daily Routine of Continuous Improvement. In addition to their build just what is ordered and their commitment to continuous flow manufacturing, Batesville has become a benchmark company for many different manufacturers based on their commitment to kaizen.

At Batesville they call their continuous improvement efforts "Daily Improvement Target Countermeasures" or DITCA. While it's a mouthful, their most recent efforts have saved the firm over $1 million. Their approach is like the Quick 'n Easy Kaizen (QnEK) approach. As we've profiled before, QnEK is a numbers game. It's like shots on goal. Over the season, the team that shoots more eventually scores more. Whether you're working on a production line or on a project, making your job easier, safer, or doing something that adds just a little more value will eventually pay off in a big way. Batesville takes that approach. And they've recently been recognized by the National Safety Council for their outstanding safety record. Kaizen and safety go hand-in-glove.

In 1991 Norman Bodek published the book 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System, Productivity Press. During the 40 year period Toyota got more the 100 adopted ideas/person/year. (The book is no longer in print, although there are used copies available through Amazon.) 15 years later, Norman is touting a simple kaizen approach. He calls it Quick and Easy Kaizen (QnEK). In 2001, he co-authored a book with Bunji Tozawa, The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen, PCS Press. Having spent 2 days with Norman visiting Toyota's Georgetown, KY plant, QnEK came up over and over. We've been using it with our clients. You should too.

The QnEK approach can be introduced using this simple form:

©2001, The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen, PCS Press

Quick and Easy Kaizen
Before Improvement:	After Improvement:
"We had this kind of problem."	"We took this corrective action."
The Effect:
"We improved a little bit."
Date:	Name:

The secret of the QnEK approach is encouraging people to change what could make their work easier for them and is in their control. Writing down the change helps people think more clearly about what they are doing. It also provides a basis for sharing and continuing to improve the same situation.

Try the QnEK approach on your project. Encourage each person on the project to make 2 changes each month. Use the QnEK Report as the ticket to a twice-monthly meeting where results are shared.

Check back here for more on the approach. I'll have a Project version of QnEK for you.

Kaizen efforts can put customer satisfaction at risk when people fail to understand what it is that the customer assesses as value. In this month's CRM Magazine, Lior Arussy urges us to Meet Expectations before Trying to Exceed Them. He says that a company's restrictive procedures are often at the source of not meeting expectations.

"The first order of business in meeting customers' expectations is to identify those conflicting procedures and remove them."

"Why do you say that?" is a more important question.

He couples this with four questions to identify where policy is getting in the way of goals:

1. "Are these the procedures of a customer-centric company?
2. "Are they designed to protect and delight customers, or to protect and delight CEOs?
3. "Does it make sense to conduct business this way?
4. "Are these procedures designed to address abusers or mainstream customers?"

These questions are a great start to focus improvement efforts. Ask and answer the questions as a workgroup with the intention on making improvements. Avoid the yes or no answers implied by the questions. The follow-up to each question, "Why do you say that?" is a more important question. It will lead to something that is actionable for the group.

I have one addition to Arussy's four questions.

5. What are the customers' experiences with the procedures/processes? Are they indicating that they are restrictive or conflicting with their service?

Improvement efforts go astray when we lose sight of the customer and their assessments of value. Keep those assessments front and center when doing kaizen.

I had the pleasure of working with Norman Bodek a few weeks ago. I asked him to give a keynote speech for a client conference. During his talk he referenced that Japanese companies look for a minimum of two adopted improvements per person per month — 24 adopted improvements originated by each employee each year. The benchmark for U.S. firms that paid attention to this used to be 2 per person per year. (I'm not sure what it is now.) Based on Norman's comments, my client set a target for each person to be the originator of two improvements each month.

Help them get their improvements adopted while encouraging them to improve again on what they have already done.

Turning targets into benchmarks comes down to execution. This level of improvement is achievable, however it takes work. There are many factors that go into success. I'll mention two in this posting. I'll come back to the other factors in future postings.

Kaizen is a Team Sport

I've noticed a predisposition in the U.S. to individual goals, measurements, and rewards. Targets like 2 per person per month can be interpreted as a threshold for satisfactory performance for each person. It doesn't work that way. We are far more innovative together than we are as individuals. Further, understanding what to change and what to change to are often the easy part. How to effect the change may require help from many. To succeed at that level of improvement you must make the goal for the team that everyone on the team is the originator of two adopted improvements.

Adopt a Helping Disposition to Change

I hear managers concerned about approving changes before they get adopted. It is a legitimate concern. In a 50 person operation a team meeting its goal would have 100 improvements that would need to go through some sort of process. Unless…you make it the exception to approve proposed changes. Toyota reports they had 1.4 million adopted improvements in a recent year. There's no way they could achieve that level if each improvement went through an approval process.

Most improvements are small changes. Initiating these changes in a team environment is usually good enough to ensure that a real improvement will be made. No approval is needed. So what is management to do? Stay close enough to the teams' efforts to help them get their improvements adopted while encouraging them to improve again on what they have already done. The team that wants to spend real money will come with a request. But as Norman Bodek has noted most changes are low cost or no cost. Putting an approval process in between idea and implementation is just waste.

In next week's post I'll write about two other factors for succeeding with project kaizen. Don't miss it. Subscribe to this feed or by email.