Lean Implementation Strategies and Tactics 397

Chapter 19. Lean Implementation Strategies and Tactics 397

Characteristics

Focused process improvement Toyota uses variety of approaches Specific improvement targets

Some companies use kaizen events Isolated process improvements

Some companies use Six Sigma process Toyota drives with hoshin kanri

STRENGTHS

TRAPS

• High interest/support • Point kaizen with no overall vision/strategy • Resources usually available

• No system to support lasting change • Bias for action

• Risk of back-sliding

• Kaizen event approach can make radical • Lacks ownership if driven by staff changes quickly

function

• Opportunity to convince skeptics in • Kaizen event approach can become“the kaizen events

lean program”

• Six Sigma approach uses very rigorous • Six Sigma can lead to analysis paralysis statistical analysis

• Typically projects look for an immediate • Can support value stream approach

payback which means labor costs giving lean and Six Sigma the reputation as head-cutting programs.

Figure 19-1. Strengths and traps of kaizen project approach

2. Management is enlightened on the speed with which things can be accom- plished if a concerted effort is applied. Amazing things can be accomplished with proper focus and leverage of resources.

3. People learn a great deal. The intensity of the experience opens people up to learning in ways that are usually not possible in a traditional classroom approach.

4. Resources are usually made available, including management authority, cross-functional resources, and some money. So things can happen in the week that might otherwise take months of written requests, approvals, and cajoling people to help out.

5. Skeptics can be won over. In a classroom, the skeptics raise their hands and explain all the reasons lean will not work. Those same people in a work- shop are making it happen.

6. As we will discuss later in the chapter, the kaizen event is a great tool for implementing aspects of an overall value stream vision.

The Tenneco example from Smithville, Tennessee, which we describe below, illustrates the positive and negative of kaizen events. In that case, radical kaizen events every other week dramatically turned around a plant. About 40 percent of the workforce were “kaizened out.” Within one year they worked through every area of the plant, moving hundreds of pieces of equipment, making new shipping

T HE T OYOTA W AY F IELDBOOK

and receiving docks near the point of use, and basically remaking the place. The dramatic savings led to great management attention, and helped spur the CEO to invest in lean globally. We should note that an “event” is not necessarily a successful event. The Tenneco Smithville events were well-facilitated by a veteran lean coach who guided the plant and the event toward serious change. There are also events led by “kaizen coordinators” who lack the deep expertise and aggres- sive facilitation skills, and these can easily degrade into glorified 5S activities.

“Six Sigma” programs have some of the same strengths and weaknesses for process improvement as the kaizen workshop approach. They are generally of longer duration (e.g., several months), led by individuals who are earning or have earned “Black Belts,” and focus heavily on statistical methods and measurement. The origins of Six Sigma are in Total Quality Management (TQM), but advocates argue that Six Sigma adds a bottom-line financial mentality. Projects are typically expected to save the company several hundred thousand dollars. In fact, many companies track dollars saved through Six Sigma and even report these figures to stock analysts. Train 1,000 people doing $200,000 projects and in no time huge savings pile up. While Six Sigma uses statistical tools that can be quite powerful in the right hands at the right time, there are some serious traps in the Six Sigma approach:

1. Six Sigma focuses so intensively on analyzing data, picking the right sta- tistical procedures, validating the statistical properties of the data, and developing slick reports, that the analyst can get distracted from the true purpose of the project and lose focus on the gemba.

2. Six Sigma anoints individuals as Green Belts or Black Belts and gives them

a special status in the organization, yet their main skills are the analysis methods and not necessarily deep understanding of the processes they are improving.

3. The Black Belts can do too much on their own, turning the projects into technical engineering projects with minimal employee involvement.

4. The result is often lack of ownership by the people doing the work, and thus the recommended changes do not stick.

5. There is no real philosophy behind the Six Sigma program except to find, measure, and eliminate variation, and save a lot of money.

The find it and measure it, and analyze it and fix it to save dollars fast approach often leads to point kaizen that may even be contrary to lean principles. We have seen the following projects that are successful in saving money on a per piece basis but actually led the organization away from lean and ultimately increased total cost:

◆ Reducing changeover time, reporting labor savings, and increasing batch sizes, instead of decreasing batch sizes (see “Case Study: Six Sigma

Changeover Reduction”).