Tag: continuous improvement

The Best Time to Kick Off a Continuous Improvement Initiative

Prosperity is perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to continuous improvement in manufacturing. When things are going well, we don’t feel the need to make improvements quite as keenly. For example, instead of focusing on removing waste in our factories to become more cost competitive, we might opt to add capacity so we can keep up with demand.

There really is no better time to make improvements than when things are going well. In this post, we’ll take a quick look at what the research says about the short-term outlook for manufacturers. Then, I will explain why now is the best time to kick your continuous improvement efforts into high gear.

Things Are Looking Up

After nearly a decade of belt-tightening, many sectors are returning to a renewed sense of optimism. This is especially true in manufacturing. An amazing 93.5% of respondents to NAM’s 1st Quarter 2018 Manufacturer’s Outlook Survey registered a positive outlook, the second highest level recorded in the survey’s 20-year history.

Of course, because NAM is reporting on human sentiment, there’s always the chance that their results aren’t indicative of what’s actually happening in the market. Humans are not always the most objective source of “data.”

MAPI (Manufacturer’s Alliance for Productivity and Innovation) looks at a number of variables to project growth rates for the manufacturing sector. In March of this year, they nearly doubled their projected average growth for the U.S. manufacturing sector for the 2018-2021 period from 1.5% to 2.8%.

It’s not that you can’t find anyone who thinks things are not as rosy as they seem, but much of the negativity stems from a concern that the economy will grow too fast. That sounds to me like what an old colleague of mine in the manufacturing sector used to call “a happiness problem.” For now, most manufacturers I know are just trying to make the most of the opportunity presented to them.

Optimistic Workers Make the Best Change Agents

As anyone who has ever tried to implement a continuous improvement effort knows, the more secure your shop floor workers feel, the more likely they are to support change. While neither the NAM survey or the MAPI analysis look at worker sentiments, there’s no doubt that the optimism at the top has a way of filtering down.

Consider these two very different scenarios:

Scenario A: The Mandate to Cut Costs

A machinist has just stepped out of a company-wide meeting in which executives issued a cost-cutting mandate due to a slowdown in orders. With support from the COO, production managers decide the best way to cut costs is to lower inventory levels by implementing constraints management.

Now they need to explain it to the machinist and other team members in similar roles.

What the operations manager says: “We’ve identified the painting station as the constraint in our operations, so we’re going to set the pace of production to maximize capacity at that station. We don’t want you working on anything other than what the system tells you to. This may mean you have more downtime, but that’s OK. We’re not measuring utilization rates right now.”

What the machinist hears: “We need to cut costs, so we’re going to cut back on production. We know you’ve been making more than you needed to anyway. You’ll probably have more idle time because we won’t always have enough work to keep you busy.”

During one of those idle times, the machinist starts to wonder how long it will be before the cost-cutting measures include his job.

Scenario B: Let’s Pick Up the Pace!

This time, the company meeting is about increasing the pace of manufacturing. The sales pipeline is fuller than it’s been in a long time, and sales believes that if the company can decrease lead times they’ll be able to have a banner year and increase market share.

Once again, the operations managers decide to implement constraints management. This time the focus is on increasing velocity.

What the operations manager says: “We’ve identified the painting station as the constraint in our operations, so we’re going to set the pace of production to maximize capacity at that station. We don’t want you working on anything other than what the system tells you to. This may mean you have more downtime, but that’s OK. We’re not measuring utilization rates right now.”

What the machinist hears: “Business is good, but we need to determine how to step up our pace. We’re going to try this thing called constraints management. It will seem a little strange at first, but it’s all part of the process.”

In this scenario, the machinist does some reading on Lean and attends a few workshops during his downtime. Instead of worrying about his future, he starts to think about how he might contribute to the initiative. Maybe he’ll even work to become a green belt and advance in his career.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Nothing lasts forever, and that includes a great economy. The continuous improvements you implement now can set you up to weather the hard times ahead with both better processes and better people. The sun is shining on much of the manufacturing sector. Now is the time to take advantage of it.

In this post, I focused on constraints management, but there are many other types of continuous improvement initiatives. If you’re still defining your approach, we have plenty of resources you can mine for ideas. Here are just a few.

Paper: 4 Ways SyncKanban eKanban Technology Drives Continuous Improvement

Paper: Get Lean on Scrap

Post: How the Internet of Things Can Shorten Lead Times

Post: How the Internet of Things Can Help Lower Inventory Levels

Video: How Orbital ATK is Leveraging the IIoT and Visual Factory Technology to Drive Continuous Improvements

Post: Turn Your Gemba Walk Into a Power Walk

For additional ideas, visit our Resources page on our website.

July 23, 2018
Three Ways Leaders Create Lean
Three Ways Leaders Create Lean

“Relentless” leadership and team empowerment drive lean change

For those of you who have heard this before, it bears repeating. For those of you who have not, this is important – leadership is the single most important component to lean success.

It is exciting to talk about bottom-up change and expect that a ground swell of individuals in virtually every level of the organizational chart can succeed with lean—in spite of those in the C-suite that just don’t get it. But in practice, this has to happen early on or there is little-to-no chance of success.

Who’s driving this thing?

I am not saying that lean changes cannot start from the bottom-up; but the situation needs to flip quickly to leadership driving the bus. That’s because at some point early on in your lean journey, your methods will start to conflict with some long-standing processes and metrics. These formerly sacrosanct topics need to be addressed by leadership (those with the power to change them) before your journey can continue.

Once leadership is on board, the leader(s) can come from anywhere in the company. But to prevent stagnation at a higher level, leaders must carry the torch of continuous improvement tirelessly and relentlessly.

80/20 rule

They can start out leading the kaizen events but they need to mentor and train those doing the work in order to keep continuous improvement alive and well. Mature lean organizations expect 80% of their improvements to come directly from those closest to the work. This is the only way to fully utilize the talents and capabilities of your human assets. Give the people closest to the work the tools and the support necessary to astound you with their creativity and innovation.

Out on the floor

Gone are the days where leaders sit in their offices sending out directives to the rest of the organization and lead mainly by pounding on the rest of us when those directives are not met. Today, leaders are responsible for training and mentoring their people. They equip them with the tools of continuous improvement and empower them to remove the obstacles that block their way. Here are some ways I have seen manufacturing leadership create a more demand-driven culture:
- Of machines and men (or women) – Leaders who think of their production staff as extensions of their equipment are making a fatal error. Empowered people who feel their bosses care about keeping them on staff by growing their skills and offering development opportunities are the people who will drive the changes needed to make your business excel.
- “Scaffolding” support – It is a huge mistake to treat your people like their only role is to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) handed down from above and that the only way they drive value is when their direct labor hours are being absorbed into products. You are under-utilizing the most valuable assets in your organization. It doesn’t happen overnight and without any effort, but you must build the scaffolding needed to support your people by giving them the tools, confidence, and authority to make changes. It is the people closest to the work – and who know the most about the process – that can provide the greatest innovation if you build the foundation on which they can innovate.
- Training rolls on- Training should never stop. I hear the complaints and the unending list of obstacles – no time, no budget, where to begin, no senior-level support, and so on. But every moment spent training your people yields ongoing hours saved in fixing mistakes, putting out fires and trying to explain your poor results to the powers that be. Equip them with the tools, confidence, and abilities to speak up when something’s wrong; show them how to look for solutions and take ownership of results, and you are tuning up the “true improvement machine” on your shop floor and beyond.
I have been working with supply chain professionals and manufacturing leaders my entire career. If there is one thing I can say about the successful ones, it’s this: Effective change agents in manufacturing environments invariably spring from a leadership culture that supports the people not just the change — every step of the way.

– John Maher

John’s passion for demand-driven manufacturing is equal to his interest in how this method improves the lives of employees within these environments. “I’m here to help, not to judge” comments John whose posts reflect why demand-driven matters and are based on his experience working in manufacturing environments and expertise in ERP, MRP, APS, supply chain, manufacturing planning and scheduling systems and constraints management.
May 21, 2018
Fast Results Using TOC for Demand-Driven Manufacturing – Part Two
Manufacturers use constraints management first to gain the most demand-driven change

Last time, we talked about focusing on enterprise improvements rather than local efficiencies using constraints management (TOC). We discussed that continuous improvement tools such as TOC, Lean and Six Sigma work like “sandpaper” on an organization’s processes, smoothing various stages of their demand-driven journey.

I likened TOC to the “coarse” grit of sandpaper—the one to use first to get the best results–faster. Before discussing the other tools (which I’ll address in future articles), I wanted to share how the TOC principles we discussed last time have brought real results to two manufacturers.

Constraints management improves throughput, on-time delivery, more

My first example, a discrete manufacturer of test equipment for semi-conductors, decided that they could do better and that TOC was going to be the philosophy they utilized to do it. They had a lot of difficulty in production and in meeting their client requirements. They began by implementing drum buffer rope (DBR) scheduling. As part of this, they identified a drum for the organization and began managing it as the constraint. It is important to note that TOC people do not regard constraints as bad things per se, instead, they look at them as leverage or control points that allow you to simplify management of your system. There are many people that I come across who think TOC is about identifying and eliminating constraints. However, Goldratt viewed constraints as a positive item in that in an interconnected environment, the constraints provided the leverage points that greatly simplified management of the system. Goldratt once told me that the constraint within an organization should not move any more than once every two to three years.

Once the drum was identified, the next steps were to exploit the constraint and subordinate all other resources to the constraint. As part of this, the company identified a number of policy and process changes. First, they changed what they did when a constraint resource needed a first-article inspection before continuing to run. They began moving the parts requiring inspection to the front of the queue and, in some cases, removing parts from the test equipment in the middle of the test, in order to service the constraint faster. Soon, the team carried this first-in-line mentality throughout the organization with a laser-like focus on clearing anything that got in the way of the constraint producing to current customer demand. Here are their results:
- Increased constraint throughput by 120%.
- Increased on-time delivery from low 70% to 95%+.
- Cut cycle time and lead-time in half.
Before this change, the company was outsourcing 50% of the work for the constraint. They have since brought it all in house where the yields were much higher, plus, they added another 20% of throughput.

All of this was accomplished within four months and without making one physical alteration to production. No 5S, no kaizen events, no SMED, no value-stream maps, no re-laying out of the production process, no Six-Sigma projects. Also, no additional people or capital equipment were needed. The tools of Lean and Six-Sigma were critical to continuous improvement and refinement of the process, but Constraints Management (harkening back to the sandpaper analogy) served as the coarse sandpaper, taking a rough board and making the dramatic change of smoothing it out.

60% on-time delivery to 90+

Another example – During my work with a discrete manufacturer of capital equipment, with hundreds of parts needed to move through a spaghetti-type flow and meet up in final assembly. Chaos and stress reigned throughout this organization, with the head of final assembly serving as chief expediter. Our aim was to increase their on-time delivery rate which was in the low 60% range and their replacement part fill rate which was less than 50%.

We turned it around by focusing on synchronization and the pacemakers of production. We began by “choking work” into production at the rate the system could handle and subordinated all other resources to the constraints and to final assembly. Soon parts were delivered on time to final assembly, and, ultimately the customer. The results?
- On-time delivery up to 95%+
- Increased fill rate to the upper 90% range
- Returned profitability to the organization for first time in four years
- The head of assembly spent time managing assembly rather than expediting parts.
All of this happened in less than six months. Again, not a resource was added, not a single resource was moved; the physical flow of material was unaltered– yet these were the results.

In both of these cases, it was still critical to employ the tools of Lean and Six Sigma to continue the path of continuous improvement, and we’ll talk about that the next time I write to you. However, these cases prove that nothing gets results as fast as the use of Constraints Management. The board will never get as smooth as when Lean and Six Sigma are used after TOC– but to take a really coarse board and make it relatively smooth quickly and efficiently, you need the coarse sandpaper (TOC) –and then the medium (Lean) –and then the fine (Six Sigma)– to make it as smooth as glass.

This is part two of a three-part series. Here are the links to the entire series.
- Part 1, What Sandpaper Will You Use?
- Part 2, Fast Results Using TOC for Demand-Driven Manufacturing
- Coming soon
-John Maher

John’s passion for demand-driven manufacturing is equal to his interest in how this method improves the lives of employees within these environments. “I’m here to help, not to judge” comments John whose posts reflect why demand-driven matters and are based on his experience working in manufacturing environments and expertise in ERP, MRP, APS, supply chain, manufacturing planning and scheduling systems and constraints management.
April 23, 2018
Turn Your Gemba Walk into a Power Walk

Gemba is a term that is increasingly familiar in the manufacturing world. Loosely translated from Japanese, it means “the place where the work is done.” The originators of the Gemba Walk – the practice of walking the shop floor to identify waste – knew that manufacturing process issues could not be identified or solved in the conference room or behind a desk. Management needs to visit where work is done to get a true sense of what actually happens.

Say, for example, you want to reduce changeover time in a particular work center to increase flow velocity. You know what the average changeover time is based on data collected from the shop floor. You can also see that there is a wide variance between minimum and maximum changeovers. What you don’t know is WHY. The only way to get that information is to head out to the shop floor to watch what happens during changeover and talk to the individuals involved.

Information is Power

The purpose of a Gemba Walk is not to confront employees about their performance, but to learn from them, and there are plenty of sources for information on the best way to conduct an effective walk. Unfortunately, many workers have learned to expect criticism every time management shows up on the shop floor. If your organization has a poor history of management/employee relations, you’re probably going to need to put some extra effort into training your managers on the best way to create an environment where employees feel safe about being open and honest about what happens on the floor.

The other trick is to know, ahead of time, something about what is happening as well as what is possible – and that requires data. In the example I gave above, management had collected actual data from the process, so they had a pretty good idea of how long changeovers took and what could conceivably be possible with the right process improvements.

Having system-gathered data is important for two reasons. First, like eye-witnesses to an accident, employees on the front lines may not be the best source of information because their focus was elsewhere. It’s not that they are purposefully deceptive, it’s just tough to recall details of an incident you didn’t anticipate. If you’re tracking something like changeover time manually, your perception of how long the process takes may be wildly off. Even if you write down the start and end time, manual recording processes are prone to error and misrepresentation.

Having data is also important because it gives you a purpose for your walk. Even though it’s not held in a conference room, a walk with no purpose can feel a lot like attending a meeting with no stated purpose or goal. We’ve all been to one of those. The meeting takes up the allotted time, nothing is decided, and everyone leaves wishing they could get that time back.

You can ask work center personnel open-ended questions about their daily challenges and ideas for process improvement. If you watch them work, you may even identify areas for improvement that they didn’t see. But having a purpose for the walk – in this case, reducing changeovers – gives the discussion structure and direction and helps workers feel like the time is well spent and makes them more likely to get into the spirit of the Gemba process.

Orbital ATK Uses Synchrono to Power Up Their Gemba Walk

The Synchrono Demand-Driven Manufacturing Platform has a number of tools that increase visibility to the shop floor. At the Industry Week Technology Conference and Expo, the Aerospace Structures Division of Orbital ATK, a manufacturer of composite parts for the aerospace industry, spoke to how they use the dashboards made possible by SyncView to support their Gemba Walk process. You can access that video on YouTube.

Screen used in a Gemba Walk at Orbital ATK

The Gemba Walk segment is about nine minutes into the overall video, but if you have the time, the rest of the presentation by Paul Hardy, Orbital ATK’s Application Architect, is really informative as well – especially for those of you looking to leverage the IIoT in your operations. Also, in the second half of the presentation, John Maher, Vice President of Product Strategy at Synchrono, talks about the metrics manufacturers will be using in the factory of the future.

We’ve also posted an on-demand demo of SyncView on our website so you can take a closer look for yourself. Or reach out to us, and one of our Demand-Driven Manufacturing specialists would be happy to give you a personal tour and answer your questions.

April 16, 2018
What Sandpaper Will You Use? – Part One
What to Use to Get the Most of Your Demand-Driven Changes

Demand-driven manufacturing leaders are always refining their tools and tactics to ensure they’re spending their time wisely. This blog marks the first in a three-part series about using the tools of TOC, Six Sigma and Lean to help manufacturing leaders gain the most benefit from their demand-driven transformation.

Three in One

TOC, Lean, and Six-Sigma should all be part of the continuous improvement (CI) journey at your company – and knowing which tools are right for the job will help you realize your CI goals faster. And even though these three methodologies are not the end all, be all of continuous improvement, they offer proven frameworks and tool sets that are very effective at improving organizations.

During this discussion, I want to explain how the methodologies of TOC, Lean, and Six-Sigma work like sandpaper. TOC is the coarse, Lean is the medium, and Six-Sigma is the fine-grit sandpaper. The company is the board –or piece of wood in a particular state of roughness – and you have to know which paper to use, based on the state of the board. At Synchrono, we use all of these methodologies together—leveraging the right tools at the right time —and apply them strategically in our customers’ demand-driven transformation.

TOC to Start

I have never seen a more effective approach when you are just starting out than TOC. The methodology is all about understanding the entirety of the system and based on that, knowing where the leverage points are in the organization that, if affected, will bring about a rapid change to the entire system. It recognizes the interconnectedness and cause and effect of organizations, their people, resources, processes, and most important, policies.

When you first start a continuous improvement journey, the opportunities for improvement are great. They are everywhere within the organization and once the workers in the system have approval and the tools to change the system; they will do so with great effort. However, if we want to get the most out of these efforts, we need to focus these improvement efforts on the constraints/ leverage points of the organization to yield global results, not just localized effects. Said differently, we need to focus on the areas inhibiting enterprise performance, and I have not seen a more effective approach at doing this – and doing this quickly – than the TOC methodology.

Next time, I’ll talk about how to use TOC to pinpoint the changes necessary to get the most out of your continuous improvement efforts. Then, I’ll address the role of kaizen events and drill down into how Six Sigma – the finest grit of sandpaper – can refine your process change and ensure that each moving part works harmoniously together. Like many jobs, having the right tools makes all the difference in the world. The right methodologies, along with ongoing refinement, will steer your demand-driven environment towards embodying the best in form and function.

This is part one of a three-part series. Here are the links to the entire series.
- Part 1, What Sandpaper Will You Use?
- Part 2, Fast Results Using TOC for Demand-Driven Manufacturing
- Coming soon
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-John Maher

John’s passion for demand-driven manufacturing is equal to his interest in how this method improves the lives of employees within these environments. “I’m here to help, not to judge” comments John whose posts reflect why demand-driven matters and are based on his experience working in manufacturing environments and expertise in ERP, MRP, APS, supply chain, manufacturing planning and scheduling systems and constraints management.
April 9, 2018
Guest Blog Part 3: Listen to the Process
Through this guest blog series, my intent is to share some of my experiences implementing supplier quality and Lean manufacturing initiatives by focusing on eKanban systems. My first post offered advice for planning an eKanban rollout (advice that could be applied across any Lean manufacturing project). In my second installment, I reviewed strategies for rolling out an eKanban project that have proven successful for me. In this final entry, my focus turns to continuous improvement.

In thinking about this final entry to my eKanban blog series, it may be helpful to review where we’ve been (irony of this to follow). Previously, we talked about establishing a plan to include what we want to accomplish, why and how we will measure results (Real-world Advice for Getting Started on eKanban). We reviewed the importance of engaging leadership in the eKanban project and strategies for turning frontline contributors into change-agents.

Then, we turned toward execution, reviewing replenishment process mapping and rolling out a pilot with examples of how to engage suppliers (Start Your eKanban Implementation with Value-stream Mapping and Engaging Your Suppliers). I left you with the thought of keeping the goals of the mission in mind and continually reinforcing and communicating key outcomes and progress toward the attainment of those goals. The fact is, you need to keep evangelizing the project; particularly after the software goes live and rolls out across the organization. Keep the momentum strong. Communicate results. Win advocates.

“Knowledge speaks; wisdom listens”

These immortal words from the great Jimi Hendrix couldn’t be truer. With regards to our eKanban project, knowledge and communication were critical to complete the first part of the journey, listening comes next.

As the organization starts to use the new eKanban system, start to listen. Tune into the process and listen for feedback from both internal (inside the four walls) and external (customer and supplier) sources. This is the start to the continuous improvement process.

Through patient listening, you’ll receive good – and sometimes surprising – process feedback that can lead to key quality and performance improvements. As you collect feedback, you will need to start assessing your options. Typically, it breaks down into:
1. What improvements can be done quickly. Tackling some quick wins can be helpful in demonstrating to those providing feedback that the organizations is really listening – and behind the project all the way.
2. What is going to take longer to implement. Sometimes these can become projects in and of themselves. In this case, it’s critical to breakdown the issue to ensure it’s executed correctly: Create a plan; test; validate; implement.
For one manufacturer, I was involved in an eKanban implementation across six facilities. After implementing the software – and listening to the process – an issue came up where suppliers would receive replenishment signals, but wouldn’t know which facility initiated the order. The quick fix was to add a source code to the order. Problem solved.

The same manufacturer also required a fix that took a little more time, due to some software adjustments. They wanted to add a date and/or the revision number of the part to the eKanban label. So, we created a plan with our software partner (Synchrono), tested it, and when it was validated, we implemented. An easy fix that needed to be worked into the software development cycle.

While listening is a very important part of the continuous improvement process, data gained from the eKanban system also has value in identifying areas for performance improvements.

For example, a manufacturer using their eKanban system for tracking their on-time delivery rate, was able to identify suppliers who were consistently late. Worse, because these suppliers were known to be late, purchasers (with the best intentions) would trick the system and override the Kanban quantity. Of course, they ended up with too much on hand inventory. Through access to the eKanban system data, we were able to get to the root cause of the problem and take corrective action.

Go Mountain Climbing

Sometimes the continuous improvement process may leave you feeling like things are never good enough. Not true! Just take a moment to take in the view.

The analogy I use in teaching Lean Manufacturing is mountain climbing. When you’re climbing, you’re just focused on getting up the mountain in the most expedient way. And, in doing so, you may start to lose steam.

Re-energize yourself (and your team) by looking back occasionally to see what you’ve accomplished. Look at the new terrain you’ve traveled; the boulders you’ve moved – and how much you’ve saved the company!

You’ll find that sometimes reflecting back is just as important as looking ahead.

Jim Shore is the Principal of Quality Lean Solutions, a Consultant Firm that specializes in Medical Device companies, Supplier Quality and Lean Manufacturing principles. Mr. Shore is co-author of “Proactive Supplier Management in the Medical Device Industry” (2016: Quality Press). Jim has 25 years of quality and supplier management experience in medical devices, semiconductor, aerospace and defense for firms and organizations including Titan Medical, Nypro Healthcare, Boston Scientific, Aspect Medical, Brooks Automation, Raytheon and ACMI Gyrus (now Olympus). He is Six Sigma Black Belt and Quality Manager/Operations Excellence-certified by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), as well as an ASQ-certified Quality Auditor and Mechanical Inspector. A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for more than 15 years.
February 19, 2018

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