Walkabout - Developing Awareness - #2

Part 2 of 3 in a series.

Option 2 - Focus on Production

The "Focus on Production" has a defined path of discovery (fact finding), weigh and decide (choosing the segments that will make the most impact), convergence on how people do the tasks; their 'one best way' (Job Instruction - JI), then improving the process (Job Methods - JM) and training to the new 'best way'.

Our purpose is to develop a clear understanding that the primary objective in creating an adaptive production system is for creating flow.

We start by developing awareness of the problems encountered along the process flow. You may already track the safety, quality or productivity issues; we want to heighten your awareness to some of the hidden barriers. Often, the hidden barriers have only some symptoms visible. Ohno created a way to more easily identify symptoms that are hidden barriers - he started with the 3 M's.

Muda or the 7-Wastes are the best known of the 3-M's. Here is an example of the 7-Wastes from that has been filled in.

We can start by walking your process flow and having people identify examples.

Once the disruptions to flow are well understood, we will walk the process sequence again and list the activities. This is a starting point to build a basic process map.

Once the process map is outlines, we can begin to link each of the problems to the activity.

Before you make a decision about a problem or symptom discovered, there is a fact finding phase.

First, we make sure we actually see the problem. Better - have an example of a 'good' and 'bad' part for more accurate data gathering.

Second, observe with all your senses.

Third, question for fact finding, not finding out who to blame. (We have a series of example questions that can be asked to draw out information.)

Fourth, the objective is getting facts so you can make accurate decisions. We use the 5-Whys + FOG (Fact-Opinion-Guess) to get to the root cause(s).

Fifth, classifying the problem is a 'weigh and decide' step. Do we have a 'people' problem where there is no consistent method used by all? The first step will be getting a standardized way of doing the task. Do we have a 'process' problem that needs improvement? If so, then we select the activity that needs to be improved and apply the 'challenge' questions to help develop ideas.

Optional - Heat Map

Creating a Heat Map is an optional way to select which problem area needs the most attention - will make the most difference to the process if resolved.

Example: The Heat Map above was used to search for possible root cause(s) for about 30% scrap and rework on an air compressor intake manifold; primarily porosity, but also internal defects.

• Why #1 – What do you think is the contributor for the casting porosity?
• “We think that it is related to the Sand Core placing.” (This guess will require validation – an experiment.)
• Why #2 – What are the Important Steps in the sand core placing?
• “It has three Important Steps and two of these are equal possible contributors. The possible contributors are defective sand cores that are not identified before using and the other is the damage that can be done to the sand core while placing it in the steel die.”    
• Why #3 – Do you have a process (JBS - Job Breakdown Sheet)
• “No.” (The next steps will be to create a job breakdown sheet with subject matter experts and then train all the operators to the new process as defined in the JBS.)

An experiment will be used to track the defect rate after training to see if this reduces the number of defects.

The training was successful and did reduce the number of defects, but the ‘Whys’ should not stop there. Both Important Steps are using the operator to check for the quality of earlier steps. The ‘Whys’ need to continue to eliminate as many of the causes in the earlier steps as possible.

• Why #4 – Why do you need to check the sand core for defects? What defects are you looking for?
• “Sometimes they are cracked, or have mold lines, or uneven coating on the sand core that affects the finish.”
• Why #5 – Do you have processes (JBS) for making the sand core?
• “No.” Next step would be to create JBS for each of the steps for the making of the sand core and training all the operators to the new standards.
• Why #6 – Why do you need to be careful in placing the sand core in the steel die?
• “You can break or crack the core while trying to seat the alignment pins of the core.”
• Why #7 – Why do you need to be so careful, is the sand core that brittle?
• “No, most of the time we crack or break the sand core because of the poor fit of the alignment pins in the mold. The operator has a file to shape them to fit, instead of forcing it.” (Any sort of rework or sorting operation is a 'red flag' indicating a problem.)
• Why #8 – Why is this fit not checked during the finishing of the sand core? (This process should have a fixture to test fit the sand core before sending them to the casting department.)

The problem solving process migrates upstream to the production of the sand cores. When you do the Problem Discovery in this process, it is normal to uncover problems originating further upstream in the process flow.

The 5-Whys starts with the discovery of a symptom. Be careful you do not define a solution or what you think is the cause in the beginning. This is a discovery process.

To improve the effectiveness of the 5-Whys process, validate each response. Assume that the first answer is a guess. By seeking to validate it as a quantifiable fact may slow you down a bit, but it will also lead to better next questions and improve the likelihood that you will discover a root cause that you can resolve.

Notice the last section of the form - "Major impact if neglected". This is a practice exercise to consider the effects that the problem has on downstream events. This can also drive a sense of urgency to implement a containment or solution.

Ranking - weigh and decide - If you improved one activity, which one would make the most difference in morale, safety, quality, productivity or cost? The fact finding discovery process or the 'Heat map' helps you focus first on solving problems that will make an immediate difference.

Building the Job Breakdown is best done by a team of three where the job is done. One person is the team leader or supervisor, the other two should be the most skilled employees that do the job. You can use a paper form, or a blank piece of paper, or a small whiteboard (I prefer the whiteboard so all participants can see the one working 'document' and quickly make changes).

Start with listing the Important Steps. When you have agreement between the three people, then go back and start listing the Key Points for each Important Step (if there are any - it is possible that there will be none). Defining the Key Points is where you are drawing out the unconscious knowledge that the skilled employee has. This is also the place where you are most likely to have disagreements. A Key Point is a detail that must be done to ensure safety or quality, or a technique to make the job easier (productivity). Once the team agrees on the Key Points, start detailing the Reason Why for each of the Key Points. This draws out information to validate the necessity of the Key Point. (Having a reason why for each Key Point also shortens the learning curve as well as improving the probability that the learner will understand and follow the instructions.)

The next step is trying out the Job Breakdown by the team. One acts as the trainer, one as the learner, and one as the observer. Everyone takes their turn as a trainer, learner and observer. The trying out practice brings out missing details, helps them define the materials required to teach the job, and helps them break up the job breakdown into proper coaching units. Most job instructions start with trying to teach too much at one time. By the time they have the job breakdown refined, you have three people with experience training this job segment.

Once you have the job breakdown sheet validated, it is time to define who needs to be trained.

It is normal to discover more problems that need to be addressed when you are building the job breakdown sheet. Some of these are problems that can be solved only by improving the process. The 'Green Card' (Job Methods) is a structured process that helps you quickly focus on the problem and has a question sequence to help you consider a full range of ideas.

Once you have some ideas, then you start an evaluation process to weigh and decide which ideas have the most promise of improving the process. Once you select one or more ideas that have promise, you design an experiment to test (validate) the idea before implementation. Often the testing will generate different results than what you expected (which means you can learn something). Are the results good enough, or did you learn something that suggests that the idea could be improved, or did the results invalidate the idea as a solution?

The 'Experiment Record' can be used for more than just to validate a proposed new method. It can also be used to validate a guess when you are doing a 5-Whys investigation. Or to validate whether the Job Instruction training has a measurable impact - Safety, Quality, Productivity, Cost, Morale.

Work on improving one activity of a job at a time; don't try to reorganize the whole shop at the same time. Changing one activity at a time allows you to document the effect of each change.

Coaching Action Sheet - a Kanban system for continuous improvement

This form was developed to assist the team leader and supervisor keep track of the problems that they are working on - their continuous improvement log. The team leader or supervisor updates the form daily, documenting activity on the floor. The supervisor and manager use it as part of their weekly 'gemba walk' coaching exercise. The manager is learning about the progress on each problem while observing if the supervisor followed the problem solving pattern. The manager is responsible for coaching the supervisor where they have weak follow through in the problem solving pattern (kata).

We are now doing experiments where the form is posted in each work area as a poster and the team leader or supervisor uses this as an outline for the short daily meetings. They have a whiteboard on the left where any employee can add a problem or symptom observed, as well as any details. The employees vote on the ranging of the problems, with the highest once going to the first open slots. To the right of the Action Sheet posters, they have a poster board for the completed projects - their success stories.

Below are examples of a filled in Action Sheet:

In this example, the #1 problem discovery has been completed and the Blue Card (Job Instruction) is chosen as the next step.

Problem #2 has completed the validation step - they have the facts about the problem, now they move to choosing the next step.

Problem #3 and #4 are still in the discovery mode - getting facts before deciding on the next steps needed.

Two Job breakdowns have been defined as needed.

Once the Job Breakdowns are ready, the people to be trained have been identified.

Two activities have been defined as needing challenge and idea development. The need for this was discovered when they were creating the JBS.

The Experiments to be done were defined during the cycles of applying the Blue Card (Job Instruction) to reduce defects. Each iteration of JBS improved the results, but also uncovered new weaknesses. The Yellow Card (fact finding - discovery) process uncovered that other similar operations had applied some solutions. This is a test to validate whether these same solutions would have a positive impact.

Want to find out what you can learn and accomplish through coaching in a few days?

Interested enough to apply? Contact Mark Warren ([email protected])