Continuous Improvement

 “An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

  Jack Welch

What Is Continuous Process Improvement

Process Improvement is the task of identifying, analyzing, and improving upon existing work methods or processes. This is done to reduce waste and achieve a higher level of optimization or quality. It usually involves a systematic problem solving approach such as lean, six sigma, Kaizen, and others. Different approaches bring different methods, tools, and perspectives. None of them are better than another they are simply different schools of thought.

It Starts With Culture

Before you can move yourself, your team, or your organization into a process improvement mindset their are a few things you need to come to grips with. In order to adopt a path of process improvement it is vital that you are aligned with each of these principals. 

They are the base of everything and with one missing it becomes a two legged stool.

1. Belief that you can – and your teams must believe they can and that you want them to. They need to know they have the authority to make changes and the ability to be successful at it - tell them so daily.
2. The WIN is the long win - not the short game.
3. Do things because they are the right things – not for immediate return. If there is a change that is simply the better way but it does not have a dollar savings or a clear waste reduction do it anyway.
4. Defined and Understood Vision of Success (what is perfection). Everyone at all levels needs to understand the values, the mission, how it is tracked and how there individual work connects to the overall goal.
5. Respect People (and develop them).
6. The methodology and tools are for everyone – teach them to everyone.
7. Shop floor consensus is best if not required.
8. The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results.
9. Accept failure – it is the key step in learning (true for individuals and true for organizations).
10. Build a team of solid players - no superheroes or cowboys.
11. Add value to the organization by adding value to your people. Invest your time, your training, and at times invest your patience.
12. Go to the source – get the information first hand. Go to the source and the people. Go to the people.
13. Process Improvement is for everyone – not just the egg heads, engineers, and manager types. It needs to be the be owned and used at the shop floor.

Scrutinizing your own work and the systems that have always been in place must become the cultural norm. Identification of waste needs to become the cornerstone behavior of your organization. Implementing these changes must become the rewarded behavior in your organization.

The emphasis of continuous improvement is to produce incremental improvement without capital expense. Without upheaval or major retraining or retooling. This is the skill set that must be adopted, rewarded, and visibly promoted.

Improvements must be based on frequent small improvements rather than radical modifications. New technology or new capital expense is not the way. The focus must be a return to fundamentals that embraces going as close to the work as possible. Close to the work and close to the people. Not new software, new equipment, or some other flavor of the month.

As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement. Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes. The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as opposed to using research, consultants, or equipment upgrades – any of which could be very expensive.

All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance. It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team work and collaboration, thereby improving worker motivation.

"I Can" and Locus of Control

Locus of control refers to the extent to which people feel that they have control over the events that influence their lives. When you are dealing with a challenge in your life, do you feel that you have control over the outcome? Or do you believe that you are simply at the hands of outside forces?

 If you believe that you have control over what happens, then you have an internal locus of control. If you believe that you have no control over what happens and that external variables are to blame, then you have what is known as an external locus of control.

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.”

Henry Ford

Internal locus of control behaviors:

• Take responsibility for your actions good or bad
• Less influenced by others opinions
• Work harder than most
• Sets their own pace and it is usually brisk
• Confident
• Healthier
• Happier
• Independent

 External locus of control behaviors:

• Blame outside forces for results
• Credit luck or chance for successes of others
• Don't believe that they can improve
• Feel hopeless
• Seek entitlements

“If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing.”

W. Edwards Deming

Brainstorming 

 Brainstorming combines a relaxed informal approach to problem solving with lateral thinking. It encourages people to come up with ideas that can seem a bit crazy. Some of these ideas can be crafted into original creative solutions. Other ideas will spark even more ideas. This gets people broken out of their paradigms.

The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking. ~Albert Einstein

Brainstorming Tips

Defer judgment – just catch the ideas. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas. Welcome wild ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, wild ideas are encouraged to have. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking might give you better solutions.

Be respectful of everyone. Let each person provide input in turn. One at a time. Your rank or position does not matter in the brainstorming. Every idea is equal. No one speaks over anyone.

No criticism is allowed. When brainstorming the criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead, participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process.

Quantity. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated, the bigger the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.

This will; reduce inhibitions, stimulate the team’s ideas, and increase overall creativity. One of the basic skills in all improvement is the ability to sit back as a group and brainstorm every possible solution you can think of - you will hit upon ideas you never dreamed of. Remember brainstorming is a skill; it needs practice, and coaching. Spend the time on this - it will pay off 100 fold....

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker

Understanding Waste

Movement - each time material is moved it requires energy and resources, it risks damage, and it is a cost for no added value. Transportation does not make any transformation to the product that the consumer is willing buying. Reduce movement. I lump movement and transport together. Spaghetti diagrams and MIFA (material and information flow) are great tools for this waste type.

The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize. ~Shigeo Shingo

Inventory - raw materials, work-in-progress, or finished goods, represents a cost outlay that has not yet produced an income. Anything in these three silos does not add value and is a waste.

Waiting - Whenever products are not in transport or being processed they are waiting. In traditional processes a large part of an individual product's life is spent waiting to be worked on, waiting to be shipped, and waiting to be completed. Value stream and process flow mapping are great tools for this.

Over-processing - any time more work is done on a piece other than what is required. This includes using tools or material that are more precise, higher quality, or more expensive than required.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. ~Peter F. Drucker

Over-production - When more products is produced than is required at that by your customers. One common practice that leads to this is the production of large batches. Overproduction is the most dangerous since it hides all the other waste types. Overproduction leads too much inventory - which requires storage and is prone to decay and spoilage.

Defects - Whenever defects occur, it causes rework, rescheduling, replacing, and even more frequent “checking”. This results in more labor costs, more time spent, and more work in progress.

Under leveraged Talent – This is the waste associated with underutilized talent. It is the shop floor worker who only does his assigned job even though he can bring greater value through his understanding of the work process, the machine, and the defects. Every employee has other skills - it is wasteful not to take advantage of every skill. Capitalize on the skill and creativity of every employee without regard for their title or tenure or position.

 5 Why

Go as close to the problem as you can and see it for yourself. Ask why is this happening? This means that its decision making is based upon in-depth understanding of the processes on the shop floor. This is most effective when the answers come from people who have hands-on experience. It is easy; when a problem occurs, you uncover its nature and source by asking why? No fewer than five times.

The 5 Whys is a simple tool. It is easy to teach and easy to use. When a problem arises, simply keep asking the question why? Until you reach the source of the problem, and until a clear counter-measure organically emerges

Problem: Your customer is refusing to pay for the material produced for them.

1. Why? The delivery was late, so the material could not be used.
2. Why? The job took longer than we anticipated.
3. Why? We ran out of raw material.
4. Why? The raw material was all used up on a big, last-minute order.
5. Why? We didn't have enough in feed stock stock, and we couldn't order it in quickly enough.

 Counter-measure: We need to find a supplier who can deliver raw material at very short notice.

For more complex or critical problems use a cause and effect analysis or a more complex tool that might be more effective. This technique can often direct you to the root of the problem. The simplicity of this tool gives it flexibility. It is often a good first step in solving a more complex issue.

Build The Tool Box

For me understanding waste and asking why are the basic tools that build on the foundational  beliefs. There are literally hundreds of tools and methodologies that have been developed overtime. Here are a few of them in short. Learn them each well, one at a time, with a strong instructor – than as your team masters each of them gradually add one more. Do this forever. Have a skilled practitioner review your work frequently and ensure the tools and methods are being applied well.

Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) one of the many lean production methods for reducing waste in a manufacturing process. It provides a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from running the current product to running the next product.

5S is the name of a workplace organization method that uses a list of five words – sort, set, shine, standard, sustain. This helps organize the work space for efficiency by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining the new order. This usually comes from a dialogue about standardization, which builds understanding among employees of how they should do the work.

Poka-Yoke is any mechanism in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment operator avoid) mistakes. Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. A simple example is lines painted in a parking lot to aid the parking of cars.

Ishikawa diagrams are product design and quality defect prevention tools used to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify these sources of variation. The categories typically include: people, methods, equipment, materials, measurements, and environment.

Idea Pick chart. A PICK chart (Possible, Implement, Challenge and Kill chart) is a visual tool for organizing ideas. PICK charts are often used after brainstorming sessions to help an individual or group identify which ideas can be implemented easily and have a high payoff. 

MIFA - Material and Information Flow Analysis. This is a kind of value stream mapping used to create a structured image of the material and information flow on the shop floor. These can be useful but can be difficult to facilitate the first few times.

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Tim

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Tim Crocker currently is engaged with the SASOL LCCP Cracker Project in Westlake Louisiana as the Utilities and Infrastructure Manager LCF. During his 25-year career, he has worked on infrastructure development at BASF, Biofuels technology development with British Petroleum, and Utilities Management at Georgia Pacific and Domtar. His areas of expertise are Process Improvement (Kaizen), Steam and Power Generation, Water Treatment Systems, Chemical Recovery, Energy Management, Waste Treatment, and Performance Management. Tim received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Portland along with a second Major in Philosophy. Later he earned his MS in Paper Science Technology from the Institute of Paper Science in Atlanta, GA. Currently, Tim lives in the Moss Bluff community with his wife Cathy and daughter Yuri. They enjoy gardening, amateur astronomy, cooking, and model rocketry.