The Art of "Making Things"

How you think about work shapes your approach to improving processes.

At the top level, you have Systems Thinking,?also known as "Ohno's River System"?or the?Toyota Production System. It is based on four Flow Principles. In a system, the weakest link or the slowest process determines the overall ability of the system to deliver.

To go over your production system for flow, please map the process sequence, noting the velocity of each process (time-based production), any barriers encountered, and the proximity of processes to each other. To reorganize a production operation for flow, you first put the processes in sequence. This can start with pairing up sequential processes with similar velocities as close as possible. Ideally, the process can be handed off directly to the next one, which reduces the amount of work in the process. As you begin to synchronize groups of processes, you can create clusters that work together (also known as 'cells').

At a process level, you have First Principles Thinking. Each process step should undergo a transformation that adds value to the product. Once you have identified the change at a step, you can challenge its purpose and necessity and remove all unnecessary activity.

The fastest way to improve performance is to copy the best practices others have developed. (You are probably one of many locations making this product.) Close the gap between your current performance level and what is proven by best practices.

At the task level, we break down the task into important steps and define the key points in each step required to get the desired outcome.

Detailing the task is critical before you can effectively develop possible improvements. Once you?understand?the important steps and key points, you can?challenge them to develop potential improvements.

While you examine the activities closely, be sure to identify and remove all the unnecessary details. Your goal is to be able to use the least effort to achieve the maximum output.

Challenge - You can do it too

Pick a product or service you want to improve. Outline the flow sequence. Don't worry about making it look pretty—you want to begin connecting the dots between the sequential activities. You are looking to make an impact. The fancy presentations can be made after you create a few success stories.

This is your discovery stage, where you identify the problems, weak points, and areas where improvement will have the most impact. Get facts as things are, and avoid blaming or 'finger-pointing.' Making a visual representation of the process flow makes it easier to get input from multiple sources and develop possible solutions.

The fastest improvements involve solving problems. One way to do this is to create a job breakdown of a task to train everyone on the best way. If you have scrap or rework, you need to understand why before you can make improvements. Stop wasting time working only to throw it away or repair it.

Fix one thing at a time to validate whether the improvement works as you thought it would. Then, pick out the next problem to resolve and repeat.

• 1st Step: Get the 'making' process capable
• 2nd Step: Adapt the process to people
• 3rd Step: Simplify the process to be effective and efficient for people and machines

People - Work Smarter, not Harder

It's too easy to fall into the trap of pushing to speed up a process rather than focusing on making the task easier to complete. Focusing on 'making the job easier' will yield lower costs and improve productivity and quality. Pushing to speed up production may have the short-term effect of increasing production, while the long-term impact is a negative workforce engagement.

Rethink Work: How can you improve the performance success for people?

My life is driven by helping others apply these thinking principles.

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