Category Archives: Continuous Improvement

Diving into Lean 1

Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Lean, Learning, Motivation • Tags: , , , , , ,

What a great week!

I spent most of it in Orlando Florida at the Peabody Hotel participating in meetings and discussions around “lean culture” with members of the Lean Enterprise Institute’s Lean Transformation Summit 2013.

http://www.lean.org/Events/2013_lean_transformation_summit.cfm

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The Institute is a non-profit organization made up of people like John Shook and Jim Womack who are certainly no strangers to the people who have decided to try and aspire to lean thinking.

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The first day was spent in a workshop focused on Management Standard work.

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In lean manufacturing initiatives, we often focus on the Gemba where the work actually takes place. The lesson for the day was a renewed emphasis on the management/leader Gemba where other kinds of work need more focus on standardization. The problem with many groups is that the leadership does not completely align itself with a lean culture and the conflicts that arise are hindrances to advancing the progress of the whole unit.

The core part of lean is linked to an old retail saying:

“Location, location, location”

Proximity to the work and ultimately to the problems is linked with an iron band to the solutions that can be found. The more distance between the Gemba and the leadership, the harder it is to see problems and be a part of the solution. The mantra about problem solving is for the people involved to be where the problems occur. How can you achieve that if the managers are separated by space and time for most of the working day? Not only that, but meetings are very counterproductive if they are not linked to helping the people in the Gemba solve the things that keep them from being successful?

Can I get a witness?

The summit’s power is in bringing together thousands of lean practitioners from all around the world. Every major continent was represented in one way or another and the understanding of common struggles was obvious in the workshops and plenary sessions. As speaker after speaker identified common problems, you could see people shaking their heads up and down and smiling as if to say, “Yes, that is happening in my shop”.

The exciting thing is to see the principals of lean spreading to many industries. From the humble beginnings at Toyota, lean has spread like oil on water from manufacturing to healthcare, financial to insurance, services to education. The ideas of waste identification and elimination are useful in any industry with the vision to see what the possibility’s are. Mergers and acquisitions of companies have created untold opportunities for waste creation so finding ways to adapt this process is critical for all of us.

The common ground for all of us attending is the seeking of better ways to practice the beliefs and understand the way to apply the tools.

I learned some new facets of A3 thinking (both strategic and problem solving) from Tracey Richardson (Teaching Lean, Inc.). Tracey was a production worker at Toyota’s Georgetown plant in Kentucky and later became one of their trainers. She now teaches lean across all industries in her own business and is a dynamic speaker and presenter. Her tools for A3 problem solving will be shared with my team at my current location.

http://www.teachingleaninc.com/

Laura Murray from IBM spent 90 minutes with us in a workshop that talked about TWI (Training within Industry). While much of the information was review for me, it was interesting to see the application in a process related industry and how it affected their lean journey.

Overall, the time was well spent for me. There were no moments of light bulbs popping over my head. But there was a great opportunity for me to sharpen my sword, learn a few new ideas of merit and meet with some fellow members of what some call a quasi-religious order.

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The single best Plenary experience was hearing the success story of a young woman named Stacy Skinner who works for Herman Miller in western Michigan.

Herman Miller is one of the great lean success stories and you owe it to yourself to do a little research on the company and the way they do their business.

Stacy was a floor associate who was selected for one of Herman Miller’s leadership programs. HM identified that there was a gap in the middle and in order to expedite their lean journey they needed leaders at all levels. Tracy was selected for the program and currently serves as an Operations Facilitator. Her story about going form a floor worker and adopting the lessons learned in the classes was motivational and inspirational. There were some seasoned speakers before and after her, but none of them left the same impression with the crowd at large. Her ovation was the loudest and longest. Thank you Tracy and I hope you continue to grow and teach all of us.

Lean is about continuous learning.

I can honestly say that I spent the week in a way where some learning occurred. I wonder if there is a way we can spread waste elimination in a meaningful way to our government?

At the Peabody, that is like getting your Ducks in a Row…

 

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http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/most-outrageous-peabody-hotel-ducks.htm

Mister Mac

Conflict? My Team?… oh yeah, it’s Monday… 1

Communication, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Learning • Tags: ,

Sunday afternoons are a great time around our house. We read the paper, settle the schedule for the week, walk the dogs, and sometimes take a nap.

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Dinner will be grilled “something” in every season but deep winter, and the TV gets a break until later in the evening. The routine has developed over the years as an antidote to the day which soon follows: Mondays.

I have been a part of teams and a leader of teams for most of my adult life. From the early days in the Navy to my later days as a civilian, the combinations of teams and Monday mornings have come to represent an endless opportunity for learning how to manage conflict. I have participated in and watched many others deal with this source of negative energy for as long as I can remember. Sadly my observation in most cases has been that the people leading those teams are not very skilled at it.

Leadership is a mix of theory and practice. There are probably as many books on leadership as there are on any subject you can imagine. Why so many books? Why have so many people made so much money on something that continues to struggle no matter how many books like “Seven Secrets to Successful Stupendousness” get published?

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I was noticing the other day in a few of my professional journals how many formulas there are for success and they all have numbered steps. Because I have not yet published my book on “Seven Steps for Superior Speaking using the Submarine Service Style” I will refrain from criticizing the need for numbers. Perhaps that will be my next book: “Seven reasons why highly successful writers don’t need seven reasons”.

Conflict often begins on a Monday for a number of reasons.

Conflicting goals within teams, conflicting goals within the same team, interpersonal communication conflicts, too many beers on Sunday afternoon and evening, boredom, lost tools, and… wait, conflict just kind of happens in and of itself sometimes. In a perfect world, you would just let the warring parties go off into a large room someplace and knock each other silly until they came to their senses. But that wouldn’t actually be a perfect world since they would somehow find a way to sue the company for not providing the loser with a safe and comforting workplace.

In the real world, schedules need to be met, production needs to run in harmony. Your customers really don’t care how you do it as long as the quality is high, the costs are reasonable, and the product or service gets there just in time. Unresolved conflict will stop all of these from happening.

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If your team members are focused on the C.O.O.D. (conflict of the day) instead of their regularly assigned work flow, your product quality will be reduced. I have seen this effect many times as we did root cause analysis on spikes in deficiencies. Operator inattentiveness more often than not can be traced as the real root cause (except in very hard core union shops where evil management and lack of care for the worker by that evil management is always the root cause.)

In the world of Lean/Continuous Improvement, we look for eight types of waste that do not add value to the product or service.

(I know, more numbers, but its acceptable across the whole Lean/CI world so who am I to fight it?)

Waiting, Unneeded Motion, Defects, Transport, Overproduction, Inventory, Over-processing, and unused Employee Input. If you think about an unresolved conflict in the workplace you can probably see where all eight of these can be impacted by unhappy or angry workers/leaders.

Solutions?

The first part of the solution is to accept the fact that its going on. The saddest and most ignorant comment I have ever heard a leader say is: “They are being paid to work and I expect them to do just that. We are not running a babysitting service here.” No you’re not but if you don’t find a way to manage conflict better, you might not have a business either. Constantly threatening your workforce adds no value and actually encourages a culture where the lack of trust and respect will eventually create a toxic work environment.

Here are some facts: You paid money to hire and maintain those employees at some point in their career or service. Whether the training was in a classroom or in the Gemba, their knowledge represents the corporate knowledge and skills that ultimately generate the income and bring your customers back for more of what you do. Firing the whole lot just means you will have to retrain a new group and you may lose your customer base in the meantime as you retool. Customers often have their own customers so there is no luxury of waiting for you to retrain your workforce.

Unresolved conflict adds to stress in the leadership team as well. The conflict will pop up in the worst possible places at the worst possible times. Instead of solving real problems, your leaders will have their attention focused on almost everything but the real issues of the day. Demoralized leaders leave. Sooner or later even the most loyal of your leadership will see an end game with no good outcome. Why would they continue to come into a pressure cooker every day when they can find another place that values their technical and leadership skills enough to create a great place to work?

The answer is simple. Using my five step model  you can magically transform conflict into productivity!

(You see, not a seven step model, a simple five step model which not only saves two whole steps – LEAN – but it’s magic!)

Actually, no it won’t. Nothing short of a transformation in your workplace will do that long term but you can start that transformation by not ignoring the fact that there is conflict. There are a number of processes out there that can help you on your journey to managing conflict but the real first step is the same as that required by every Alcoholic since AA was born: admit you have a problem.

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Here are my life observations about conflict management:

  • Conflict doesn’t exist because you have dysfunctional people, it begins because you have a culture that allows them to act in dysfunctional ways
  • If people trusted each other and their leadership, they would communicate with more effectiveness
  • If people communicate with more effectiveness, they will react to and solve problems more quickly
  • If people had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in your culture, they could navigate more safely between the little daily “conflicts” that are going to occur in the best run organization
  • If people understand that conflict isn’t always negative and learn how to engage each other, your creativity and innovation will grow exponentially

There is no five step, six step or seven step process to managing conflict over the long term but you must work on building trust, communication, and clearly defined shared goals to make conflict work in your favor.

How do you know if there is conflict in your workplace? I always use the Monday morning test. Sit someplace quietly and observe your workforce (and their leadership) as they come in on Monday morning. Are they tired already? Do they interact with each other in a way that doesn’t include who won the game yesterday? Do they look like they want to be here at all no less than on a Monday morning?

For the people leading other people, here is another step:

Over the next few weeks pull out your Monday measurements including quality (rework) and overall results. Schedule a time with your leadership and have an honest talk about what you have observed. If you have been running the organization in a trust vacuum, this make take some time. But at some point, you have to figure out a way to manage the unproductive culture of unresolved conflict. Either that or plan on doing something completely different on Monday mornings in the future.

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Mister Mac

Searching for Superman – why CI/Lean initiatives often fail (Part 2) Reply

Change, Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Lean, Production Systems • Tags: , , , ,

Failure is not an option… but most of the time it is assured

One common set of factors that can affect success or failure for a Continuous Improvement/Lean Initiative is the recruitment, selection process, and use of a CI/Lean leader. Leadership at all levels has an impact on every initiative but this becomes more critical during a cultural change initiative like CI/Lean. Selecting the wrong CI/Lean leader can set the organization up for failure. Worse yet, a poor start can actually make it harder for the next time when it is even more important for success.

From Part 1, its not hard to imagine the scene in HR when the company decides to move forward with its CI/Lean Program. This is how I imagine it looks like:

“Lois, get in here and bring your stenography pad”

“Yes Chief, what’s up?”

Chomping on his unlit cigar “Lois, the big office has ordered us to find a Lean Leader. Get on the internet and find out what that is. Get back to me before close of business. The BIG Kahuna himself is hot on this one so we have to execute quickly”

“Alright Chief, I’ll get on it right away”. She leaves his office and jumps on a search engine to find out what a Lean Leader is supposed to look like. The good news is that there are only 6,700,000 pages about lean leadership. The bad news is, there are none of them which really tell you what an individual company needs in the way of lean leader competencies.

Lois found out that there were CI Leaders, Lean Leaders, Lean Six Sigma Leaders, Black Belts, Green Belts, no belts, Mentors, Coaches, Master Black Belts, TPS Trained, Lean Change experts and on and on. There were more competencies listed than for any other position she had ever encountered.

In the end, she went back to the Chief and said “Chief, we need Superlean-man”.

“Great Lois, get him on the phone right away. What’s it gonna cost us?”

“Its not that bad Chief, 250 a year”

“Holy smokes Lois, we can’t afford that much. Hey listen, what about that kid in the mailroom, Jimmy something or other…”

“Jimmy Wholesome? Why Chief, he doesn’t have any of the super-competencies of Superlean- man.”

“No Lois, but he has been hanging out with him so he probably knows just as much. Plus, if he fails, we won’t take the blame… get him up here this afternoon.”

 

Based on the research I have been doing, the poor HR community has been using a number of cobbled together job descriptions. There are some that look like they may have had some input from an engineering manager or existing lean guy. But most are so broad and far reaching, it is no surprise that CI/Lean leaders are passed over in exchange for a candidate that looks better on paper. Here are some of the CI/Lean Leaders that actually show up.

Flat Leanly

Flat Leanly is normally a recent college graduate with an engineering or technical degree. (His cousin Stanley was the basis for a popular children’s story back in the sixties). Flat Leanly doesn’t have a great range of actual experience but he looks like everyone’s mental model of a bright young engineer.

His enthusiastic appearance hides his lack of any actual experience and he travels well. You can find Flat Leanly all over the factory or office. The workplaces are organized and clean and all of the bosses are initially pleased with Flat Leanly’s influence. As time progresses though, Flat Leanly starts to show the scars from being moved all over the shop. No longer fresh and vital, Flat Leanly ends up being shuffled off to more and more obscure locations and finally discarded all together.

Don’t cry for Flat Leanly. Every year, new ones are produced by the schools of the country. There are never any shortages of replacements for Flat Leanly. Doesn’t it seem funny though that almost every lean leader job description requires some kind of coaching and mentoring experience. Yet the required years experience in over 80 percent of the job advertisements I have read is 1-3 years. Really? 1-3 years???

Attila the Implementer

Attila the Implementer will leave a lasting effect on the business whether they are successful or not. Attila believes that culture change comes at the business end of an audit. Shove them through and they will change regardless of their personal needs or preferences. Mass training events that measure success by the number of butts in seats. Chart after Chart showing progress regardless if there is any linkage to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

Other leaders run from or stop taking meetings with Attila forcing him (or her) to start sending emails to their sponsors asking for help. Attila only lasts a few quarters. No one misses him/her when they are gone.

The Green Intern

The Green Intern was a High Potential internal engineering candidate and ended up being selected as a cost avoidance measure (not having to hire a new “Expert” not only gives the Chief Engineer resource he can trust, but allows him to hire a new engineer as a replacement). Traditionally trained in Frederick Taylor’s Scientific management theories, the Green Intern and his mentors agree to give this “Lean stuff” a try as long as it doesn’t upset the status quo.

The Green Intern is well managed by his mentors and while the plant does look a little sharper, no revolutions will occur on their watch. After punching their ticket, they plan on continuing their rise in the company so no real waves will be created.

Plant managers like the Green Intern. The really bad ones see an opportunity to deflect personal responsibility for the lean initiative since:

a. They supported lean by appointing this go getter. They can say their plan was to succeed by this person’s success.

b. They can set arbitrary KPIs and the CI/Lean leader has no choice but to try and meet them

c. Failure to meet the KPI’s allow the plant manager to remain free from blame since the CI/Leader works directly for HR, Engineering, Continuous Improvement sections. Their department heads need to fix “their” problems.

Superlean-man

Superlean-man seems on the outside to be the perfect choice. This person has a mastery of every single tool and theory in the CI/Lean box. They are everywhere and create the best projects they are directly associated with. They speak with authority, influence with ease, impress the leadership and save everyone. The problem with this candidate is that they are so good on their own, they never feel the need to develop anyone else. Its easier to simply do everything by themselves. In time, everyone lets them.

Then one day, someone finds a box of kryptonite and Superlean-man fails. As he lays on the boardroom floor slowly wilting away, no one thinks seriously about closing the kryptonite box. Chances are, they never heard of kryptonite. He was so busy, he neglected to tell them about it.

Captain Ameri-lean

Probably the best choice for a chance at success. Brings a strong balance of knowledge, skills, and experience. Coaching and mentoring have been gained through many years of experience. Team builder and great team member. Training and facilitation skills. Cultural awareness is a high point but it has been bought and paid for with a lot of mixed experiences.

This person has a fair amount of failures in addition to a fair amount of successes. They may not have a traditional engineering degree but they have a broad range of experience with engineers. Leadership is a critical factor in everything they do.

I think the point is clear. Who you choose for your CI/Lean Leader is one of your most critical decisions as you decide to enter or continue on a CI/Lean Journey.

Here are some things to consider:

1. Get rid of any preconceived notions about what they should look like. Youth and unbounded energy may be great if you are putting together a touch football game. But there may be a better case for experience and developed skills if you want to successfully implement and influence change.

2. What are your real needs and motivations for implementing a CI/Lean initiative? Make sure there is a careful review of the current and anticipated competencies. Match those against the master plan and prioritize.

3. Considering the importance of the cultural change to success, make sure the CI/Lean leader is placed in the proper place within your organization. The members of the organization will treat the CI/Lean leader exactly the same as the leadership does: If they report to the assistant training manager attached to the HR department, everyone in the organization will measure their importance by that position. If they are speaking with the plant or business manager daily, that too sends a message.

I am continuing my work on competency mapping for an ideal CI/Lean leader. I would welcome comments on this article and your thoughts on what you have seen in this role.

Thanks

Mister Mac (Lean)

Searching for Superman – why CI/Lean initiatives often fail (Part 1) 1

Change, Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Lean • Tags: , , , ,

Starting a Continuous Improvement (CI)/Lean Journey

I have been working on a project for a few weeks that categorizes what companies are looking for when they seek a lean or continuous improvement leader candidate. While that sounds rather boring on the face of it, the project has actually been a very interesting look at why so many companies still don’t get it when it comes to continuous improvement (CI), lean and six sigma. For the purposes of this article, I am going to use CI/Lean as an all encompassing term. (Sigma is fast being absorbed into a quasi-lean mode anyway and that is a story for another day.)

Why does a company decide that it wants to enter into a CI/Lean journey in the first place?

Based on fifteen years of experience with a large number of companies, the answers are pretty straightforward

  1. It seems to be the right thing to do

  2. Everyone else is doing it

  3. The CEO/CFO/Board/Guiding Coalition said so

  4. We have no other choice

Besides the last one, the list isn’t exactly a compelling case for a successful cultural change initiative. The unfortunate thing is that once a company does reach the point where there is no other choice, they will probably fall into the traps that help to ensure their failure. While reaching for the bottom, they will actually accelerate their progress.

Looking at why: The Root Cause

In CI/Lean, we spend a lot of time on root cause analysis. The goal is to make sure we understand why something really happened and hopefully build up a defense for it not to do so again. The first real problem I have seen is that the very people who are supposed to initiate the initiative have no experience actually using the very tools that could keep them from making mistakes.

1. “It seems to be the right thing to do”

In most cases, companies who use this approach are moderately successful and have fairly good cash flow. Besides some minor structural issues they are cruising along and have their share of the market. CI/Lean is something they have heard about but since it was an important part of their DNA, selecting candidates prior to this has not included seeking out specific competencies related to it.

The finance folks are traditional financial people with detailed knowledge of traditional financial metrics. Even the engineering folks have been selected because they came from the “right” schools with the training and discipline that matches the existing engineers. All of the management folks are used to traditional methods of measurement and definitions of what success looks like. Their pay and bonuses are built around a certain model and that is just fine with most of them. Even the workforce understands that as long as they do their tasks in the appropriate manor, they get to go home at a certain hour and watch their favorite sports team win (or lose). Life is very pleasant.

2. “Everyone else is doing it”

These companies often look like the first set of companies but they have one difference. They are feeling a bit more pressure from the market place (including their customers and suppliers). The supply chain often provides a stimulus since they are trying to improve in order to compete better. It is literally a chain reaction that impacts even the unsuspecting.

For instance: a customer has implemented a just in time approach based on an a need to improve their product flow reliability to their customer. Once that kicks in, you may start feeling pressure to change the timing, quantity, packaging, unit of issue and so on. That change will also include a request for some pricing differential too.

A company that gets caught in this loop is often forced to change at least part of its process. When Toyota tells you to dance, you dance or else you face the loss of some pretty important business.

3. “The CEO/CFO/Board/Guiding Coalition said so”

This is actually one of the most dangerous reasons to undertake a lean journey. The people in the internal chain of command in most cases do not know the root cause for this “request”. In a traditional company, there will be layers and layers of people who will deflect the answer to the “why” question with many clever corporate responses. That is assuming the corporate culture even allows them to ask the question in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong. There are probably some companies that have visionary CEO’s who honestly see the need to move towards a system that perpetually improves itself. But remember that these are the same people who have had their own mental models of success ingrained into their life’s experiences. My favorite saying about change applies directly to them: Everyone wants change but nobody wants to change. The higher up in the company a person is, the more resolute they are about this maxim. Good luck with changing that culture.

4. “We have no other choice”

Market conditions have finally caught up with the stagnant company. Material prices, labor costs, energy, infrastructure, insurance and so on are all rising with no relief in sight. Business regulations from government are also growing choking off innovation and growth. The only way this company can survive the endless recession is to find ways to drive waste out and develop a culture of continuous improvement.

The main problem these companies will find is that there are three cultural influences at odds.

The first cultural influence is the culture of grief for the way things were.

  • “We used to be so good. What happened to us?
  • “If only we could go back to the way things were.”
  • “Its not fair. Management should have seen this coming and done something sooner.”

The second cultural influence is the culture of survival in the current state.

  • “I only have three more years until retirement… if we can just last that long.”
  • “What we have is working, why mess with this and risk screwing it up.”
  • “Corporate is just looking for another reason to shut us down.”

The third influence will come from trying to implement a culture where change is not only needed, it is required to survive.

  • “We’ve always done it that way… not anymore.”
  • “I am the subject matter expert. Improvement is not possible.”
  • “We innovated this process. No one does it better than us.”

We need to fix this and fix it quick.

Quick, somebody call HR and find us a CI/Lean leader!

 

See Searching for Superman – why CI/lean initiatives often fail (Part 2)

 

 

I Came To Learn About Lean… and All I Got Were These Legos ™ Reply

Change, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Learning • Tags: , , , ,

Today’s post is in honor of all those who are seeking a better and more productive workplace

(Trying to put some Lean back into theleansubmariner)

Establishing a “lean” culture based on continuous improvement has been a very sought after goal for many organizations over the past fifteen years. With the rising costs of labor, raw material, utilities and infrastructure of all kinds, manufacturing and other industries have struggled to contain their costs. With foreign and now even U.S. competition seeking better and more efficient methods, continuous improvement programs can provide one of the last truly competitive advantages. As many companies have found though, the concepts are indeed “foreign” and the tools are only as effective as the culture they grow.

Using Legos as an example, the core issues of eliminating waste, creating flow and demonstrating the need to have a climate of change can be shown in a small area with minimal costs. Properly done, it is a framework for future lean learning and can help to being participants more quickly on board with the ideas that continuous improvement has definite strategies and goals. Lean and continuous improvement activities have been around long enough to create concerns about ambiguity and confusing goals. I believe that is the direct fault of people who tried ot oversimplify lean and sold it to unsuspecting companies who were desperate to fix problems that had already gone past the date of no return.

One of the hallmarks of many continuous improvement implementations since 1996 has been the use of some kind of experiential learning device. These devices are used primarily when dealing with large groups in group settings to try and demonstrate the concepts. Normally time is a critical factor and finding a way to introduce game changing terms and ideas required some out of the box thinking. Companies such as Ford, GM, ALCOA and others have all tried corporation wide initiatives and at one point or another tried a cookie cutter approach to achieve lean.

Experiential learning has been around for a long time in business and industry and comes in many forms. According to David A. Kolb, an American educational theorist, knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. He states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience, certain abilities are required:

1. The learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience;

2. The learner must be able to reflect on the experience;

3. The learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and

4. The learner must possess decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience.

The particular types of experiential learning experiences used have evolved over the years. They can be as complex as making paper airplanes in a make believe factory setting with takt times and production goals plus quality issues. The very first lean exercise I helped to facilitate involved dozens of people in a number of these “factories” with a centralized planning and deployment activity. The sales team that sold the implementation project to the customer must have promised that unicorns could actually fly since managing such a chaotic process almost created a riot among the participants. Imagine a roomful of unhappy hardened union factory workers being told they will learn a new skill from folding paper into airplanes.

Subsequent implementations have been a little less insane in scope and size. This has allowed me to make some observations over time as to which methods are more successful and how they can actually be used to have a good effect. This is not a how to list for a person with no adult learning experience by the way. If you are reading this because last week you got a new assignment from your manager to spread lean in your workplace, you probably should start working on polishing up your resume. You have just been set up to fail.

Facilitation of an experiential event of any kind requires some background work. As identified above by Kolb’s study, getting the people to participate is a critical factor for success. Forcing them to participate in any event against their will often leads to an unmitigated disaster. There are some important steps that can be taken but let me give you one last warning: the learning I am about to relate has come from a number of years of success and FAILUREs. If it possible at all, seek individual help from someone who has examples of both under their belt before you try this on your own.

Still here? Great. Let’s get started.

By asking yourself the following questions, you can anticipate and create countermeasures for the activity you are about to enter into. It is by no means complete and I don’t have the ability to fully go into every step but these are some examples.

 

· First and foremost, will you be using this as a part of a comprehensive plan and not just a stop gap measure? Experiential learning can be as useful as any other tool at your disposal if you have built it into a complete plan. Just as teaching someone how to organize their workplace does not make your factory lean, teaching a few concepts using any methodology will not create a lean workforce. The oldest adage in the book: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

 

· What is the target audience? Age, experience, position in the company, length of service and so on can be factors in understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead of you. Younger age groups will more than likely feel more affinity with hands on learning since their generation has already been accustomed to learning through unconventional means. More seasoned workers will probably push back if the ground is not properly prepared for their participation. In no cases should you set up an experiential learning experience where any age participants will lose too much “face”.

 

· Why are they here? Are they prisoners sent against their will or are they willing participants. I would love to encourage you and tell you that all participants came to your class to better themselves but we know better. In most cases, they have been sent to learn this “new stuff” and it is already a little threatening to the way of work they are accustomed to. Some will be worrying about the future of their jobs, some will be annoyed at having to be in a classroom setting and most do not want to reveal any personal weaknesses in front of their peers that will be heard later that day in the lunch room. The facilitator can make or break a program by displaying his or her own attitude towards what may appear to be push back and rejection in the early going of the class.

 

· How many facilitators are needed for each group? The answer depends on the complexity of the “game” selected. I have managed a typical Lego game by myself with small groups but try to have a co-facilitator/helper to manage the mechanics of the process. Special warning: Do not try and teach the co-facilitator the morning of the event. You will not only have a potentially hostile class, you will also have an actively hostile co-facilitator.

 

· The method for using an experiential learning device is deceptively simple which makes it all the more dangerous to someone with little experience. Understanding the adult learner is a critical first step. Understanding the need for properly laying the groundwork before using the experience is just as critical.

 

· Time and resources. How much time do you have to develop the process and where will the resources come from? Is there a place that can easily be converted for the task? Set up and tear down are also important. Even with an experiential learning experience, your participants will be much more at ease if everything is already set up and there is no “fumbling” around on the facilitator’s part. I will never forget when a very large truck assembler in my first event in Kentucky walked over to the obviously distressed facilitator’s table and asked “Do any of you educated people have a clue what you are doing?” I am afraid we didn’t. But no one had to actually tell him that as he walked away in disgust.

 

We get few chances to overcome a first impression. Any improperly used learning experience will have long lasting effects. When you are using one in an already uncomfortable setting, those effects most likely will spill over into all of the areas you are trying to change. Even though we often use children’s toys for examples, this is anything but child’s play. If it is done effectively as a part of a comprehensive program, you have a chance to help move the needle in a positive direction.

Mister Mac

A new day 4

Built In Quality, Communication, Continuous Improvement, Just in Time, Leadership, Lean, Motivation, Preparedness, Production Systems, Standardization, Submarine, Teamwork, The Challenge of Change, Uncategorized, Value Stream Mapping

Today was a special day.

My business web site went live today!

I will still continue to add stories and commentary to the Lean Submariner but the website bobmacpherson-speaker.info is my way to satisfy my passion for business process improvement, training services, and speaking.

Check it out if you get the chance. In the next few days, I will be talking about how ship’s are named…

Thanks!

Mister Mac

http://bobmacpherson-speaker.info/index.html

The Price of Wishful Thinking … Sinking the American Fleet 4

American History, Built In Quality, Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Preparedness, Submarine, Underwater Technology, US Navy, Value Stream Mapping • Tags: , , ,

 Note: I have to apologize to all of the places I posted the article this afternoon. I realized too late that I was inadvertently placing Michael Moore’s photograph in plain view of anyone who stopped by your site. Normally I refrain from posting obscenities and would like to humbly ask for your pardon in this particular case.

When I see an internet news story like the recent one detailing the shrinking of the American fleet, I get a kick out of reading the comments in the remarks sections.

Socialists  Moore

If you ever want to determine the lack of knowledge of the average internet news story reader, spend a few minutes looking at the remarks from people who are trained to turn on their computer but not their intelligence.

My favorite for today was from a reader who pontificated on the reasonableness of destroying the Navy and all of the armed forces. From their post:

“Also, the international security climate as a whole is becoming more peaceable, there is less need for ridiculous spending on certain parts of the military.”

Before you enlist

Hmmm. Makes you wonder what planet they are living on.

The unfortunate thing is that there are a whole lot of people who feel the same. They are so convinced that everyone else in the world can see their logic that all will be well with just a few more reset buttons pushed by the current regime. How’s that working for you?

Syria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Russia, Georgia, All of the Stans, Venezuela, the Euro collapse, endless financial problems at home, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, all of Sub Continent Africa, Pirates in Somalia, Jihadists everywhere, Afghanistan, Pakistan with their lose nuclear weapon program, Chinese threats in the far east against the shipping lanes, and on and on. Yep, peace in our time.

Being a Submariner and a historian, I am intimately aware of the history of our country not being prepared for the next war. We seem to be always ready to fight the last war but constantly overwhelmed with leadership that is confident that the world will match our passion for the glory days. I have spent a number of posts talking about attitudes towards sail versus steam, and newfangled toys (submarines and planes) versus battleships. But I am also aware of the cost of not being ready to fight with the weapons we did have because of short sightedness.

Mark_10_torpedoes_problem_fish_early_WWII_800

I have no intention of repeating the torpedo stories from the beginning of World War 2 since they are well covered in other places like these:

http://www.ww2pacific.com/torpedo.html

http://www.fleetsubmarine.com/torpedoes.html

Captain Edward Beach, the submariner-historian said: “The torpedo situation during the first half of the war was a national disgrace and the negligent perpetrators responsible should have been severely punished”.

Torpedo Room     Grunion

The negligent perpetrators were following their national leaders. Before World War 2, the country was just emerging from the Depression. Awareness of costs for things like testing of new torpedoes was a major factor in not properly preparing them for a time when they would be needed.

Is it any wonder

Think about it for a minute

. We had enough submarines to get the war started. They were in the right places. But without torpedoes that worked, we were essentially crippled in our efforts to conduct the type of warfare that may have slowed down the Japanese in the first year of that conflict.

Instead, we sent many of those shipmates to a certain death.

We were unable to slow the Japanese which helped to ensure the slavery of millions and death for an unimaginable number of men, women and children both civilians and service personnel. What price would you have been willing to pay to prevent the torture and suffering of those many people? What treasure could have replaced the fallen Navy man in his Mother and Father’s eyes? How do you put a price on being prepared to prevent another slaughter?

Its unfortunate that our “leaders” have spent us into the poor house trillions of times over. I think a good start in solving that. Lets round them all up and take back the money they accepted for screwing up everything they did. I know that won’t actually happen, but imagine in your lifetime if you cost your company more money that it was capable of earning in the next ten years. Would you still be working?

National defense is not a luxury item that you only fund when its politically correct.

National defense is an investment to ensure we have a future. In all of man’s history, there has never been a country like the United States. In all of man’s history, there has never been a time where we have not had wars and conflicts. There should not be any question based on that history that there will be another global conflict. The only question is “when” that conflict will occur.

What about the cost?

There is always a cost. A manageable way of controlling those costs is to ensure that an efficient value stream is maintained on a regular basis. Continuous improvement in cost, quality, delivery, price and manufacturing can result in a steady stream of needed innovation to give the United States a technical and practical edge. True competition and investments in national priorities can help to ensure we are looking at the next need. There is even a school of thought that says that if we do it right, we can prevent wars through preparedness.

If you shut off the value stream, there are consequences.

The companies that provided the ships, planes, weapons, electronics, and so on will gradually lose their ability to provide those items and services on demand. With the loss of business, you also lose the knowledge and skills used to provide those resources. The suppliers that were in their value stream fall away and take up other occupations. So even if the flow was turned back on, something as simple as a screw being missing could prevent the missile from being manufactured in the time frame needed.

In my last job, we went through the agony of seeing the workforce laid off.

The recession cut deep into manufacturing and we could not sustain having so many highly paid technicians standing idly by without orders to fill. Months went by and our suppliers also had to react to decreased orders. Many did not survive the downturn at all.

Then one day, our customers started calling again. Their customers were seeing some light and they needed our components. So we called back our workers and retrained many of them to the newer jobs (as well as some of their old ones). We ramped up production and hit a solid stone wall. Our suppliers (the ones that survived) had a limited amount of inventory on hand and some of it was obsolete. We raced to get new suppliers but even they had to go through the proving process to ensure quality assurance in our final product.

Do you think the customer gave a crap about our problems?

Not a bit. They just saw an opportunity to make money to survive passing them by. It was obvious that the alternative was for us to fill his orders or he would make the decision to go somewhere else.

When it comes to defense, there is no place else. Because of a great number of factors (most of them political) we have a limited amount of primary providers. The value stream of parts and services to support them is just as fragile. We have not protected our manufacturing base as we “globalized”. If we do not carefully manage this current trend in “right-sizing” we will find ourselves for want of a nail at the time we need it most. I wonder if the next enemy will be polite enough to wait for us to ramp back up again?

As you look at your leaders in the coming months, look carefully at the ones who recognize the consequences of these decisions. Call them out on it. If the answer does not include a plan to defend this nation, carefully consider if this person is worth the vote you will cast. No Party’s. Only a person who will eventually make decisions that effect all of our futures.

As the old saying goes, you can pay me now, or you can pay me later. But you will pay.

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Mister Mac

Pardon me, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall? Reply

Continuous Improvement, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: , , ,
Altogether now: Practice, practice, practice

 

Getting from one place to another has always been a core competency of human kind. Man has made an evolutionary journey since the earliest recorded times on how to accomplish the journey more efficiently. Stars were pretty useful once the early navigators figured out that they moved around. Understanding their movement was a science (remember they once thought the earth stood still and was flat). As man’s knowledge increased, so did his methods for understanding that the stars were probably not moving at all and in fact appeared differently to different parts of the globe at any given time.

sextant

The problem with stars has always been that on really cloudy nights and especially during storms, they are virtually useless in keeping a ship out of danger. The use of a sextant was very dependent on measuring the location of the stars so dead reckoning would be needed until the sun or the stars returned. Along the way the compass was discovered. It was actually first documented in Chinese literature but since the Chinese felt that they were in fact the center of the universe, the compass quickly became a notion and eventually ended up as a diagnostic tool for Feng Shui and fortune tellers.

Later, the Chinese actually did create a useful compass for navigation simultaneously with a number of other countries and cultures. This created the usual fal dara between cultures about who was first but the matter passed into into obscurity as people actually started to use the inventions to discover how limited our vision had previously been.

Compasses led to the development of better and more accurate maps

These maps not only created a way for vessels and people on land to travel more efficiently but gave people an indication of dangerous challenges along the way. Mariners were warned about rocks and shoals, caravans were able to determine areas where bandits and thieves were laying in wait, and armies could avoid rough terrain in their travels from place to place.

thumbnailCALLBLVV

Map innovation has gone through many stages too over the years. All of us have probably used a modern day map that we got from AAA or a store in order to accurately plan our travel. As the country has grown, more and more roads and cities have needed to be added. There is nothing more frustrating that finding that the map you are using has not included a brand new shopping center that has been built smack dab in the middle of your previously unencumbered trip.

In today’s day and age, you have a seemingly endless choice of ways to get from point A to point B. The internet has brought us many “compasses” that can detail the trip, the obstacles, hotels and motels, restaurants and comfort stops (even down to the number of stalls in the men’s room I suppose). You can get ratings from previous customers in addition to normal references from professional guides. The only thing the internet can’t do is travel with you. Unless of course you have GPS.

GPS is phenomenal.

The girl who talks to you will tell you how to start, every left and right, all of your approaches and she does magic with her picture screen as well. If you screw it up by ignoring her advice, she is very forgiving and will tell you that she is “recalculating”. God Bless her. Depending on the model, GPS can also get you to amazing places like restaurants and theaters.

A standard throughout modern history for navigational maps has been to indicate places that could be dangerous for the traveller. The Notice to Mariners is published frequently and indicates areas where physical dangers and man made dangers could exist. Old bombing ranges, shipwrecks, sea mountains and so on are identified as best as possible. Can you possibly imagine how many wrecks and incidences would occur each day if there were no warnings.

Once upon a time, Mrs. Mac and I were travelling from our home in Indiana to Chicago for a business conference. This was a special occasion since wives were allowed to come and the season was right for an enjoyable visit. At that time, we did not have access to a GPS so we used Yahoo maps. It gave us turn by turn details. I had been extra harassed at work so didn’t sit down to do my idiot check. The impact of this lack of foresight fully dawned on us as we entered the South Side of Chicago (most direct route). We have travelled all around the country and many places in the world. I have to tell you that I have never seen a more devastated landscape.

Youngstown OH

As we tried to carefully navigate through the maze of streets (or what used to be streets), the local folks looked at us with sheer amazement. It was almost as if they were saying “Hey look, some body forgot to validate his Yahoo map and is now discovering our unique culture!” (Or something like that) And friendly? Why, many of them waved and even indicated we should stop the car and come over for a quick chat about the natural beauty of their surroundings. Making the task of getting into the actual city difficult were a number of burned out vehicles that blocked the streets we were supposed to be turning on. Its almost as if someone planned the challenging obstacle course.

I’ve talked about fear recently but have to admit that until that moment, I only thought I knew what fear was. I was never so happy to see green grass again as we managed to move slowly north and eventually the barbed wire and bars on the windows slowly thinned out. We got the map out for the trip home and discovered that the skyway lets you go completely above the “zone”. It was worth every cent.

The buzz today comes from some folks in Texas worrying about a new “Ap” for their phones and computer toys. This Ap will apparently warn travelers about areas to avoid. Having had a unique experience in my past, I automatically said, sign me up. The local NAACP however is up in arms about this.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/01/17/app-that-would-guide-users-away-from-high-crime-areas-proves-controversial/

From the story:

“I’m going to be up in arms about it if it happens,” said Dallas NAACP President Juanita Wallace.

Wallace spent her afternoon at a rally on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and said she felt safe there, but fears the app may project otherwise.

“Can you imagine me not being able to go to MLK Blvd. because my GPS says that’s a dangerous crime area? I can’t even imagine that,” she said.”

I am not sure if Juanita understands the limitations of GPS at this point. I am fairly sure that even the most sophisticated unit will not actually prevent you from going someplace.

More from the article:

Michael McNally, who was visiting Dallas Tuesday, said an app shouldn’t have enough power to label a community.

“It may have a high crime problem but have some great cultural, social things you can do there,” McNally said.

I will have to do some additional research on this stimulating idea. Maybe afterwards another trip through the South Side. Or maybe not.

I don’t think Juanita has heard but there are actually a number of web sites that can tell you interesting places to avoid if you are unarmed or otherwise disinclined to become a wealth redistributor. There is one for every state but here is an example

http://spotcrime.com/pa

From the map you select the city and it will take you to another map with statistics. Click on Lancaster PA for a specific example.

You may want to reconsider your night out. The map I looked at today was from a weeknight. In winter. With no major events going on.

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I know that being progressive is supposed to make us all more open and full of tolerance. But I honestly hope that the people who are working on this Ap don’t get sidetracked. Personally I think it might be kind of a good thing to have.

One last point. If the election this year goes to a Republican and you find yourself in your car on the corner of Martin Luther King Street and Barrack Obama Blvd. you may want to get your GPS recalibrated. Especially if you have a “Nobama” sticker on your vehicle.

Mister Mac

SWOT you talkin’ about Willis? Reply

Communication, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Teamwork • Tags: , ,

The Drummonds

I am taking a break from the cares of the world today and having a little lean and continuous improvement fun. The old TV show Different Strokes is pretty appropriate for a day like today. It was fiction of course, but you get a 1%er taking on the responsibility to raise a couple of kids from the 99%. Oh the fun and frolicking as they try to fit into each other’s worlds. Of course, this was in the carefree world before pants on the ground, hip hop sound, and designer drugs (at least not that we knew of…)

Gary Coleman

The show centered around all of the antics of the cast. One of my favorite episodes had a huge social message. As a reporter for the school newspaper, Arnold learns that drugs are being sold on school grounds. This attracts the concern of First Lady Nancy Reagan, who comes to the school to talk about her anti-drug campaign.

 C13387-9

Sadly, the lessons didn’t last very long for the actual crew members. I wonder if Mr. Drummond would have taken the risks he did if he had conducted a SWOT analysis?

What’s a SWOT analysis?

One of the best exercises in planning I can think of is the exercise called a SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats). If properly done, this exercise can help a team put together a plan than gives them a greater chance at success or can identify that they have enough obstacles in play that might delay their progress.

There are probably just as many ways to do a SWOT as there are consultants (meaning a lot) but over the past few years I have experimented with a few that seem to have a good rhythm. My favorite is a combination of different tools that lead to an actionable plan.  There is nothing better than taking a concept and seeing it turn into something that adds value to the group you are working with as well as the end customer.

The concept is always first. It can come from anywhere but in order for it to grow into action, a careful examination of the risks and benefits is probably a great first step.  Like many of you, I have run into concept people all through my professional careers. They have these brilliant streams of energy in a new idea but after a short bit you realize they have absolutely no clue on how to actually do it. In many cases, these people have another name: The Boss. It may be possible to whack some young engineer upside his or her head and send them dejectedly back to their cubicle carrying their goofy idea. But when the person who writes your evaluation and decides your next merit raise has one of theses ideas, you are a bit more reluctant to turn them off.

(Note: I was kidding about the young engineer part… any great company will cherish innovation and reward the fresh young minds that dare to step outside of the comfort zone. If they truly are inspired, they will end up being your boss at some point anyway so keep that in the back of your mind as well before you go smacking them around.)

Here are a few steps that I try and follow along the path

  • Seek Clarification. Concept people sometimes have two versions of the same idea. One is a grand earth shattering scale and one may be a bit more readily obtained. Make sure you clarify which one is the primary objective. If they say both, drive towards getting them to commit towards what they can realistically expect given the time frame in mind and the amount of resources and budget they are willing to spend. If the sky is the limit, unlimited resources are provided and you can finish when it is truly finished, celebrate the day! This will probably never happen again in your entire career.
    • If however, it needed done yesterday, no resources can be freed up, and your budget will be minimal, this is the most valuable time to practice your SWOT skills.
  • Once you have gained a greater understanding of the actual task, quickly assemble a few trusted colleagues in a cross functional team. You don’t want people who all have the same skill sets and priorities or you risk missing something critical. Group think is easier in a comfortable setting.
  • There have been times that I have actually included the company “grenade thrower” to sit in on a few meetings. On purpose. You may not be blest with one of these, but they are normally someone who will quietly come into an important conference meeting and wait until you are fully unprepared and throw a grenade into the middle of the room.

grenade

  • Rarely will they actually tell you they have additional information (the grenade). Instead they will wait until just the right time. Inviting them throws them off their usual guard and can actually reveal their hidden information at a more convenient time. You should be warned never to assume they can be fully trusted by the way… my experience with professional grenade throwers is that they have an endless supply of grenades.
  • In the meeting, you quickly reestablish the guidelines for how you will proceed and interact. I try to have a flip chart there and some dark markers (that actually work and are actually designed for flip charts). Start simple with a brainstorming activity to capture the general ideas of what people perceive as the obvious strengths. I like to start with the positive things first since they reinforce that the idea has some merits and is worth spending the time to develop. If the group sees nothing positive about the project, you should still move forward to determine why they think it will not be beneficial.

After you get enough bullet points for each area, prioritize the ideas. I normally use post it note voting. Each person is given an opportunity to rank the bullets for each of the four areas. Using 1 –2 –3 (high to low) the team then continues until a consensus is reached on the most important points. For the plus sides (Strengths, Opportunities) put the sheets aside for the time being. For the Weaknesses and Threats, spend a bit more time fleshing out what you have. Once a true consensus is reached for the top three in each area, put up a fresh sheet for each idea.

Now the team will begin to build countermeasures for each major item. Using a SMART approach (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound) set up plan of actions to mitigate the threat and strengthen the weak areas. Make sure that specific includes the name of the person who will ultimately be called to task for the result.

Great communication is needed from the moment the tasks are assigned until the goals are met. You may require some additional meetings but let the group make the commitment for timing and frequency. In the end, celebrate the wins and learn from the perceived losses. Keep a lessons learned log and document the entire process. I normally use Power Point since it can double as the presentation you will probably end up making to the stakeholders.

Last thought: If at all possible, have some fun while doing the activity. If the whole thing is perceived as nothing more than a time killing activity with no excitement, that will be reflected in your outcomes too.

HI 17

Well, that’s it for now. As always, if you have any questions or comments, they are always welcome.

Mister Mac

Day Two in Hell Reply

Continuous Improvement, Leadership • Tags: , ,

The Naval bombardment at Peleliu had gone on since September 12th. The invasion on the 15th was literally hell on earth for the invaders and defenders. Day two was even worse.

The battleships Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee and Idaho, heavy cruisers Indianapolis, Louisville, Minneapolis and Portland, light cruisers Columbia, Cleveland, Denver and Honolulu, and three fleet and five light aircraft carriers dropped 519 rounds of 16 in (410 mm) shells, 1,845 rounds of 14 in (360 mm) shells, 1,793 500 lb (230 kg) bombs, and 73,412 .50 in (12.7 mm) machine gun rounds onto the tiny island, only 6 sq mi (16 km2) in size.

The Americans believed the bombardment to be successful, as Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf claimed that the Navy had run out of targets. Major General William Rupertus had convinced his superiors that his Marines would have the island secured within four days. The Japanese under Colonel Nakagawa had other plans.

The Japanese had studied the previous attacks and determined that the traditional beach defenses were not effective in stopping the Americans. They also determined that the Banzai attacks were horrible wastes of human life and adjusted both of their strategies to fight a different kind of battle. The Americans were not so blessed. Their strategy remained the same as it had been all through the Pacific War to date and the results could be predicted.

The American’s came to the beachheads in lightly armored Amtracks and quickly found out how ineffective the bombardment had been. The defenders had literally honeycombed the island with a series of caves and used interlocking fire to reap a heavy toll on the invaders. A large cannon on the top of hill was hidden behind several bomb proof metal doors, only emerging between shelling from the ships nearby. This horrible weapon killed many sailors and Marines before they even hit the beach.

The morning of day two revealed another of the tactical changes the Japanese had made. Instead of the shrieking banzai attacks, they snuck quietly into the foxholes of the exhausted Marines and killed them where they lay. The casualty rates were the highest of the Pacific War and took the First Marines out of action until 1945. Another tactic the Japanese realized was the American’s use of stretcher bearers during the attack. Snipers would target those lifesaving men in order to draw out more victims. It is a credit to the men who still went to help their fallen comrades that they continued to do so all through the battles.

The Marines had many enemies on Day Two. The 110 degree heat from the first day was replaced by the 112 degree heat of day two. The hard coral was brutal on the men who kept finding more and more spider holes filled with snipers and machine guns. Even the water they needed so badly worked against them. Someone who was tasked with providing the fresh water for drinking had loaded 55 gallon barrels that had not been sufficiently cleaned from the oil that had been in them before. Many of the Marines succumbed to water poisoning as they tried to quench the unrelenting heat. Add the shell shock effect on many young Marines and combat fatigue resulting from too many horrors to imagine, and it is easier to understand the losses.

By the time the First Marines secured their objectives, they had gone from 3500 men to only twenty seven effectives.  A battle that was only supposed to last four days lasted instead to three months. The Japanese survivors finally surrendered in 1947, a full two years after the war itself was over.

What did we gain? Strategically, not very much. The little island was not very useful for the battles soon to come to regain the Philippines. Many island fortresses were bypassed in the race across the Pacific and the use of the atomic bombs finally convinced the Japanese leadership of the further futility of pursuing the war. In proportion to the number of men involved on both sides, Peleliu would have a lasting mark as the bloodiest and most costly victory of the Second World War.

Shortly after the battle rage slowed to an ebb, MacArthur landed on the Philippines and began the brutal campaign of liberation. The war had a long way to go before its conclusion, but in the heat of the second day it ended too quickly for some of America’s finest. God rest their souls.

For more background… and some very great pictures:

http://thewiredjester.co.uk/2009/04/11/thousand-yard-stares-ruins-and-ghosts-of-the-battle-of-peleliu-1944-2008/

Semper Fi

Mister Mac