Clarification for those still confusing the two as somehow related or similar - they're not.
They’re two different things. One is tool for reducing variation. The other is a customer focused philosophy.
read on:
The Next Big Restaurant Chain may not own any Kitchens.
Welcome to 2020. In a world where most business’ are being run like it’s pre 2010, this article from 2018 should seem futuristic. Except it already happened.
Link to article: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/07/the-next-big-restaurant-chain-may-not-own-any-kitchens
Are you practicing Operational Excellence with your Sales team?
Excellent summary of Daily Management including practicing daily management in the Sales & Marketing department.
link to article: https://planet-lean.com/lean-transformation-daily-management
Burnout Is About Your Workplace, Not Your People
quotes from article, my comments in italics
"Instead, business leaders may need to change how their organizations operate.
One great way to start?
Ask employees what small changes will help them most."
When was the last time you engaged your employees?
Successful turnarounds often start with the (new) CEO meeting everyone in the business, getting to know them on a 1 to 1 basis, and what problems they experience. Involving themselves in the business helps them understand what impedes it, so they know what needs to be worked on and how they can facilitate it.
One reason people get burnt out is from banging their heads against the wall with issues senior management fails in addressing.
“When Stanford researchers looked into how workplace stress affects health costs and mortality in the United States (pdf), they found that it led to spending of nearly $190 billion — roughly 8% of national healthcare outlays — and nearly 120,000 deaths each year. Worldwide, 615 million suffer from depression and anxiety and, according to a recent WHO study, which costs the global workforce an estimated $1 trillion in lost productivity each year. Passion-driven and caregiving roles such as doctors and nurses are some of the most susceptible to burnout, and the consequences can mean life or death; suicide rates among caregivers are dramatically higher than that of the general public — 40% higher for men and 130% higher for women.”
“FACT: companies without systems to support the well-being of their employees have higher turnover, lower productivity, and higher healthcare costs, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). In high-pressure firms, healthcare costs are 50% greater than at other organizations. Workplace stress is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion dollars, and, each year, 550 million work days are lost due to stress on the job. Another study by the APA claims that burned-out employees are 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job, 63% more likely to take a sick day, and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.”
“gold standard of measuring burnout — the eponymous Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) — and the coauthor of the Areas of Worklife Survey. Maslach worries about the new WHO classification in the IDC11.” “Categorizing burnout as a disease was an attempt by the WHO to provide definitions for what is wrong with people, instead of what is wrong with companies,” she explains. “When we just look at the person, what that means is, ‘Hey we’ve got to treat that person.’ ‘You can’t work here because you’re the problem.’ ‘We have to get rid of that person.’ Then, it becomes that person’s problem, not the responsibility of the organization that employs them.”
“a survey of 7,500 full-time employees by Gallup found the top five reasons for burnout are:
Unfair treatment at work
Unmanageable workload
Lack of role clarity
Lack of communication and support from their manager
Unreasonable time pressure
The list above clearly demonstrates that the root causes of burnout do not really lie with the individual and that they can be averted — if only leadership started their prevention strategies much further upstream.”
“It’s hard for leadership to then ignore needs after witnessing them first-hand.”
What is Margin Retreat?
- avoiding price competition by moving into higher-margin products or services
Develop your self awareness around whether you are avoiding price competition by moving into higher-margin offerings (called Margin Retreat). It is a common response in business to increased competition, however it can “lead to corporate suicide”
When you do this, someone will pick up the business you’ve decided to leave, establishing a presence. Over time they continue picking off the parts of your business they want, driving you into smaller & smaller pockets of demand, however you are focused on higher & higher profits and do not notice. Seeing the higher margin business reinforces this decision.
As your company retreats, its costs & footprint likely stay the same (or rise), while you leave a bread crumb trail for competitors to expand up.
As competitors are now fulfilling your vacated ‘low margin’ positions, your revenue base stops growing. It may eventually shrink to the point it can no longer support your fixed costs around the operation. The typical levers managers pull in response are ‘restructuring’ and ‘cost cutting’ feeding more ‘reason’ to chase higher margin business, repeating the cycle, driving further shrinkage, which unchecked can spiral to extinction.
This idea has been around since 1990 and still worth being mindful of.
Do you have self awareness around where you may be doing this?
Post examples where you see this in comments
ways to start 5S and implement Lean in a job shop environment
“I recall you inquired about ways to start 5S and implement Lean in a job shop environment.”
– email excerpt I recently sent that may help some others on this who are also looking for more of the ‘how to’
For 5S:
You can find a lot online and many books may provide a good guide; where in your facility you start may provide additional leverage.
I prefer to let problems determine the counter measures, so perhaps you have a problem this can potentially address. Initially focusing on this 1 spot that would make the biggest difference to help people experience benefit. You’re probably familiar with the 5 steps – Sustain seems to be the one most people do not ensure, so Sustain may be the one to place more emphasis on regularly after.
Communicate with everyone what’s being done & why. There’s a typical 15% productivity improvement from a #5S rapid improvement event the operators in that area will experience. We had an operator who was quite pleased because they didn’t need to search the shop for their tools.
Once you’ve done this, look for the next area. Once you have a few done, you may want to have a similar system to your Job Instruction where different people support each other on progressing areas and it’s visible to all. I like my employees to have friendly reviews of each others areas. We also have a map up of each area in the plant to clarify zones, however you might not need this.
John in the tool room is actually a great example - even if not through the 5S steps – of how much easier work can be through organization;
I can provide examples from several different plants I’ve done if it helps
also read Getting at the Larger Purpose of 5S by Karl Ohaus here: http://www.lean-transform.com/articles-by-our-partners/getting-at-the-larger-purpose-of-5s
Implementing Lean in a Job Shop
Every job regardless of quantity has repeatable processes, they just might be more broad. For instance, you still receive an order, order material, receive it, setup a machine, do the work, and ship it. Even if it’s a single piece order.
Always being set up, and preparation for each new job for quick turn around may enable time based competition; you’ve already started quick changeover which is a big part of this, and 5S will help reduce search times.
You can look for commonalities in parts or setups; you may want to look into how Procedure Quantity Analysis helps you route product. I would do both
Pay attention to whether the most common problems are due to materials; supplier relationships can play a big part if you are experiencing external delays regularly; this may show up through value stream mapping or some other method of tracking defects in your process.
For us it is missing information: 49% of all problems are due to missing information, initially in the sales process and if it isn’t available up front it triggers 2-3 problems due to the same missing information (plus associated rework increasing lead times to customers)
I have yet to see a job shop where it cannot be applied
I hope this helps; curious how things are going; and feel free to reach out anytime
Best,
Ryan Cartier
Scientists Store Data in Synthetic DNA Embedded in a Plastic Bunny
A new method for preserving genetically encoded data into common manufacturing materials is reported
This Toy Stores Data in DNA
"All of the technologies we use to build computers today are reaching their limit"
American Factories Demand White-Collar Education for Blue-Collar Work
Within three years, U.S. manufacturing workers with college degrees will outnumber those without
“Many CEOs will tell you they spend time on the floor. But those visits are often tourist or diplomatic visits”
@nicochartier Founder CEO startup Aramisauto
“even though you trust your teams, reality is probably not what they tell you with PowerPoint...”
“Many CEOs will tell you they spend time on the floor. But those visits are often tourist or diplomatic visits”
from “Command and Control” to “Orient and Support”
“last year our EBITDA grew by 44% versus the previous year; a key part of this result comes from better teamwork within the executive team.”
“One of the main missions of a CEO is to build teamwork in the company, and this must start with the Executive Committee”
“realize as a CEO that you’re more useful as organizing conditions for teamwork than being the one who knows everything and decides everything.”
full read: https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=1092
4 day work week
Are you a humble CEO or a 'knower' CEO?
Getting to Better Organizational Performance Means Consciously Being Humbled
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/getting-better-organizational-performance-means-being-karl-ohaus
Toyota Flow System
"with something as complex as a business transformation, sticking to a one-size-fits-all methodology is dangerous."
"In today’s hyper-competitive and complex world, we must be able to serve customer needs incredibly quickly – lest we become a victim of disruption."
"Given the speed of business today, the iterative nature of improvement we are used to is no longer an option: there is no time for changes after a product hits the market, because it’s already time to develop the next one."
Already-struggling retailers face a new challenge: Finding a CEO
Excellent example of a company focusing on people instead of tools happening at NORMAC.
Employees & staff demonstrated a better understanding of current operational practices than most management I meet. Period.
Employees led the tour instead of management, explaining the lean concept for attendees to understand, and then how they applied it to solve a particular business problem in their area. This included how they shifted focus from just reaching a certain # to how it’s achieved.
What stood out different here was the practice of behaviours by all staff & employees, and how they were sustaining them instead of just showing off the typical before & after application of a tool. In addition to TWI JI they also practice Job Relations, and some of the learnings of how they’ve changed the conversation & work to treat everyone as an individual.
ideas
Tour participants provided feedback & an ‘outsiders perspective’ to further NORMAC’s business.
It was an honour to present the AME award. I hope to visit again and see how they’ve continued to progress their business.
Things Lean CEO's outperforming you understand about it:
"fundamental to the means and methods of the firm."
"a complete, coherent system of thinking that addresses the strategic concerns of senior leadership."
Voice initiated job applications
McDonald’s is now accepting job applications through Alexa and Google Assistant.
Presumably before AI automates the job you’re applying for.
The Economics of Preemptive Replacement in Aggregate Operations - Aircraft or Rock Crushers
Aggregates Manager, September 2019, page 24-27
Lean Product & Process Development TechnipFMC sub-sea oil & gas
"Investors have noticed, upgrading stock to buy and an immediate 3% jump in stock price"
TechnipFMC in developing a seafloor production system
“ in some ways these systems would be easier to install, operate and service if they were in space.”
“controlling 10,000 barrels of oil per well per day at 1,000 psi and at temperatures higher than 100 degrees F.”
“targets for the project: half the size, half the part count, half the weight, and half the cost, which would make it the foundation of a completely new way of doing business.”
conventional manifold compared to new design from LPPD principles
“The team achieved the objectives of half the weight, half the size, and half the part count, and did so at a dramatically lower price point and it delivered the project on time, at cost, and at a projected lead-time reduction of 1/3 on future orders.”
“LPPD was key to enabling the disruptive change we were looking for.“
full article link:
LPPD Under the Sea: Efficient Product Design with Subsea 2.0
Follow up MRI 1 - InternalBrace ACL Regrowth
Aug. 24, 2019 - 1 year, 3 months post surgery
Follow up MRI completed at Foothills Medical Center, Richmond Road Diagnostic, AHS, Calgary Alberta
Radiologist interpretation influenced by lack of exposure to this type of repair and therefore may not accurately reflect actual condition in tissue remodeling.
This is a general problem, despite ACL regrowth being practiced for 10 years most orthopedic surgeons are not practicing current method, and as a result radiologists do not have exposure they otherwise would have.
