One Day Kaizen Blitz: How did you do that?

This week I was working at a military apparel company and my client assigned me to one particular department that was running significantly behind schedule.

Assessing the situation, I asked the operators, lead, and the QC inspector if they were willing to conduct an experiment? They agreed, but I could tell from the proverbial "deer-in-the headlights" stares that they weren't too sure...but they trusted me and they were willing to have a go at it.

We took a few minutes to organize our game plan and create in-and-out queues for the work. I drew arrows with my sharpie of the flow so that everyone could see the direction the work in process and the product were supposed to take. We labeled each of the machines by taping orange paper so that everyone could "see" what operations where at each machine, and which operation was next.

Bottom line: We finished the entire day's demand in two hours! One-piece-flow literally ran the area out of work. So we started setting up for the next day's demand. One of the interns asked "How did you do that?" we've been trying to improve this line for weeks!

Folks, you HAVE TO BELIEVE that when we follow a solid process, we will get solid results. In this case, you must believe that one piece flow works, but you have to have the knowledge and experience to make the changes "on-the-fly."

Besides setting up for tomorrow's work, we now had time to cross-train team members on other skills, like trimming, and set-ups. We moved the die rack closer to the point-of-use, we laminated the die guide and ordered a 4x4 poster of the Die Guide which shows all the dies and their numbers and the pertinent operation that each die is related to. The operators will now be able to more easily find what they need. The interns will be organizing this rack even more on Monday. They will take pictures of each of the dies and create a four-color shadow board, so operators know what slot to place the die in when they return it.

The beauty of this was that we got a second gem out of this immediate improvement: One of the operators called me over and said to me, "Now I know why my lead has been so strict on me about making sure that tabs fit perfectly..." When people get cross-trained or participate in kaizen activity, they see with new eyes for quality. We also set up an area for data collection so we can review to conduct root-cause analysis, and of course, I could not resist lining out the floor with proper markings to create a more visual environment.

At the end of the day I went around and individually thanked each person for their openness to try the "new way" of doing things. I thanked them for their time, and their ideas. Folks, this is essential! Employees want to be valued for their contributions. Once they realized that this was for real, the ideas just started flying, they moved tables, fixtures and materials closer to where it was needed in order to do a better job. As leaders we need to facilitate continuous learning and knowledge transfer in our organizations.

As I was leaving work, I looked over my shoulder one last time, I noticed how relaxed everyone's posture looked. They looked happy. They were no longer behind schedule.