How can you teach lean problem-solving to employees?

No problem solving regime is going to work unless: A)Time is created for it to happen and… B) Problems are arising in a way that they are actually solvable. Make sure that the work is organised for one-item-flow. If not the workforce will be overwhelmed and overburdened.

In order for Lean to be effective the employees must be able to take charge of the problem solving project. The project must be fully supported by their management otherwise, the employees will feel isolated and as though they are wasting their time. Having management show a real interest in the project is a powerful motivator. Also, the employees need sufficient time and resources to complete the project. This is where scale comes in. A large project might need to be broken down into multiple smaller projects. Celebrate successes and milestones along the way to help boost motivation and morale and make these achievements visible for all to see (posters, company newsletter, announcements during staff meetings, etc).

Employees learn problem-solving by solving problems. You need to set up a work environment where it is safe for them to engage, and give them challenges that meet three conditions: 1. Solving the problem must enhance performance. 2. It must be a learning experience. 3. The target activity must have a sufficient remaining life. A learning experience builds on what you know. You challenge operators to improve workstation layouts but not to work like engineers. Then, you provide training that is focused on the problem. Finally, you tailor the project to its content. It's not necessarily a Kaizen event.

1. Make the intent clear to everyone that lean is the way to thrive. 2. Build in-house capability of subject matter experts (SMEs) who understands process and people well 3. Through these SMEs, make lean as way of work life. 4. All the leaders review progress using lean framework only.

Teaching problem solving to shop floor is one of the biggest pitfalls as I have experianced. Before you go in to that step, you need to tick some mandatory pre steps. - Ensure standadrs are in place - Standadrds are.communicated and trained - Shop floor workers follow the standards with attention to deatial. These standards may be STWs, CLs, CILs , MPS etc. Once this phase is passed, you can think of teaching problem solving to shop floor and I belive they shoud not get overloaded beyond why whys and simple QC tools..

It's important to think of PDCA as a learning mechanism - it's the use of the scientific approach to continuously refine our understanding of how our processes work, and how they can work better.

Continuing from the 'Explain the benefits', let the teams brainstorm and find ways to further speed-up the process and improve their delivery performance. Have 2-3 iterations following the PDCA cycle. i.e. Plan a cycle, Execute the strategy, check the results and identify the root causes for wastes/ delays/ constrains/ bottlenecks, and take corrective action. This method of experiential learning will be highly effective and the trainees will also enjoy the experience. At the end of game, you could have a more formal workshop to drive home the learnings.

Sorry to tell you this but PDCA is not a problem solving activity. PDCA can be used to implement the solution to the problem. Plan your action, Do your planned action, Check, study the results of the action. Act based on the results of the planned action. As expected, desired, make it happen all the time. Not as expected, desired, understand why by using a problem solving methodology. Five phase, 8D, DMAIC or whatever problem solving methodology you are familiar using.

Why not simple DMAIC as a five step problem solving method for the entire organisation? All employees DMAICThinking Every Day!

I train problem solving via PDCA through Kata. In my opinion, practical application of a lean tool is the most efficient way to teach lean tools. Plus you get the benefit of changing culture for the better. Simple, and works like a champ!

What allows the most abundant growth and success of team members is to allow them to experiment in their area of expertise. The assembly technicians will desire and be motivated to help fix what is within their control, quality will be motivated to do the same. When the kaizen leader provides the direction and then get out of the way….the problems will be more quickly, easily and sustainably solved!!

Just allow them to do their job according to the given job description.Encourage them to understand their job role with given authority and accountability.Avoid micro management and frequent interventions even there is a chance of mistake. Keep tolerating mistakes while they are learning

Everyone wants to know "what I get from this". Explain that the extra efforts required for lean manufacturing is to achieve better quality assurance thereby increase the product performance and acceptance by the customer. It should be demonstrable and to be Innovative. Fear of job loss will definitely throw cold water on lean efforts. So, all improvements definitely should lead more out put and more job. Hence, improvement should start from marketing and sales who are always demanding more. If the down stream is dry, no one can stop the flow.

Empowering people, means to trust them that they can perform and be the best at what they can do, to showcase their skills and be added value to your team. Delegation is a first step and then guidance trough process can really help them grow.

Empowering your employees means letting them pick the problem(s) that plague them and letting them solve them! By solving their own challenges, it will increase engagement, commitment, and help those on the front lines witness the power of Lean. A word of caution: When first starting out, Leadership/Lean Experts should step in is to ensure the problem to be solved is within their span of control allowing effective implementation. Nothing ruins initial momentum more than putting solutions in place that then need to be escalated for approval & implementation.

Start by making problems visible. I’ve seen examples where we start by getting into the tools and theory, but if employees don’t know where to look it’s often a moot exercise. Effective visual management, go and see activity etc is a great window into problem solving, and then the tools and training come into play.

Kaizen events are now often the preferred way of improving business performance, but most organisations and their teams still struggle as they overlook two key areas. Firstly, they forget that Kaizen should be carried out at multiple levels. Vertically within teams reducing hours required, secondly horizontally across functions working on processes / value streams, reducing process and customer lead time. Lastly on organisational issues reducing bureaucracy. And secondly, they don’t follow a proven 10 Step- Kaizen Event Planning process that signs off on the problem, scope, carry out pre-work, invites the right people, outlines roles & responsibilities, run the kaizen event effectively and establishes a process to sustain the gains.

I agree that kaizen events help train employees to solve problems. I would even say that for me this is almost the only PS format. Employees need to be involved in kaizen projects with specific boundaries and goals. Before this, we, as CI managers, together with department heads, must analyze the risks and opportunities for the development of the company. Next, we need to draw up a concept to improve the company’s efficiency, (for ex. 6 months), decompose it into small projects, and entrust these projects to employees. It is natural to provide training and provide them with all possible assistance. After completing kaizen projects, combine everything into the overall result of a six-month program. Repeat the cycle for the next 6 months.

This is where consultants prove their value. By having someone with hundreds of Kaizens under their belt, they know how to run the events so that improvements can be realized in days or weeks, not months or years.

I do agree with the 5W2H model outlined by @rod to define the problem. It helps to refocus and further analyze the situation to ensure symptoms are not the focus but root cause becomes more evident. Happy #leansixsigma #kaizen

Sustaining improvement is still a challenge for many organisations, largely due major fractures in their PDCA thinking. We find that: - They do not prove that they have found the root cause before implementing their standardised solution. - Management don’t play their role in the daily management process routines and walk past problems that teams themselves cannot solve and don’t have routines in place to check to make sure that problems related to methods are re surfacing. - Standards within the organisation are poorly defined and are not capable or repeatable of meeting customer & business needs. - Quality is not built into the new standards, leaving teams open to human error and discipline issues

Sustaining the improvement is all about effective communication. Make sure to document the solution and share with all impacted parties both upstream and downstream, and train those involved. Ensure you keep the documented solution in an easy to find location so it can be referenced and not just filed away and forgotten. Remember that just because solutions have been identified doesn't mean they'll be last forever - as business conditions change, its important to revisit process documentation and ensure everything is still current and problems have not resurfaced.

Sustainment is just another word for accountability and authority. If you have someone responsible for the performance of an area, but they don't have the authority to enforce standards, you've failed as a leader.

The right KPIs at a process level help to enable sustainable benefit delivery along with things like process controls, go sees from leaders etc the reinforcement activities need to be in place to embed the new way of working and ensure the standards are set in place. In regards to identifying further improvements is to help people be able to see problems and understand inefficiencies in everything they do, if there are no problems create problems by shifting targets in a manageable way.

From my experience, this is the most important part. Create follow up rutines and add the new improvements to be a part of the disscution in daily meetings.

Lean doesn't fail, leadership fails. If you want to create real and lasting change, the first place to start is with leadership. If the fortitude isn't there to stick with it, it becomes the flavor of the month and it can actually do more harm than good. So, before you start, make sure you are committed and not just curious.

Some interesting starting points. The very first step is 'learning to see’ This is a simple process, go to the ‘gamba’ the actual place and see the problem. Then produce a value stream map VSM. This is the very foundation of LEAN and the starting point.

Important step: Before starting the new process, make sure the rellevant managers are involved and commited. Above to that, insist that all rellevant people will have time blocked in their calendar. This will make the true difference to the project's success

I like to gather a team and go over their specific team level pain points. Start small and build trust amongst themselves. I typically run them through an exercise where I gather random pain points, organize them in a fish bone diagram, then use the 5 Y’s to get to the I root if their issues. Helps for quick improvements with small issues and group collaboration on larger ones.

Use of digital tools to increase the perimeter of application of the lean approach. Today, majority of companies are equipped with digital solutions, from MES, to machine integration, where data are collected and can be used as starting point of the lean methodology. In fact, digitally automated process have the capability to store huge amount of data with close to 0 effort, then transform the data into valuable adding value information is up to the lean team.