I have developed a scoping tool to enable businesses to benchmark themselves against what we believe is required to to enable continuous improvement into their culture. The tool will be free to download as it supports us to achieve our goal to save 10,000 businesses, enable 100,000 leaders and enlighten 1,000,000 people.

In order to reach your goal and to be a business that continuously improves you need to know where you currently are. The scoping template aligns with the ‘Your Way’ methodology as they both focus on influencing the desired behaviours and application of the GIVE Model throughout. The scoping tool tells you where you are and the complete methodology supports you to improve this score.

Process
For each process you work or for each value stream you will need to complete a separate template. The template is separated into 4 levels of staff, those that work the process, the team leaders, area/senior managers and directors/owners as in the majority of businesses we have worked this is how they can be grouped. You score each statement from 0-4 dependant upon what you see when visiting the area and speaking to the relevant level. ensure you utilise the comments field to note what you see.

Output
Once you have completed the template you will be provided with a score and a ‘Your Way’ level identifying where you can focus on to improve and work towards developing your CI culture.

You can download your free copy of the template here:
Download Scoping tool - Your Way V1.1

I hope you manage to use this template and it helps you to move forward as a operation, I would welcome any feedback on this tool as we continuously try to improve what we do to GIVE you the support you need.

On with the improvement

Lee

Over the last few months the topic that has intrigued most people and what has generated the most questions has been around demand that is generated due to a failing in the process/system/organisation, commonly referred to as Failure Demand, Bad Costs or Rework (I will refer to these terms from now as Failure Demand).

They 3 main things I have been asked are:

What is my take on this?

How can it be tackled?

How do you visualise it?

Therefore the aim of this post is to address these 3 questions from my perspective

My take on this ‘Failure Demand’

What is it? Failure demand as I define it, is any demand that is generated due to a failing in the process/organisation/company – collectively these are often referred to as an overall system, can you can visualise your whole operation as a system, the inputs, the outputs, the interdependent processes etc?

This type of demand is rife in Service Industries and there are many organisations who deal with this demand as their sole purpose.

Let me ask you a question, do you perceive any of the following to be failure demand ?

Person A who is going to the Hospital/Doctors for an appointment apart from to the maternity functions?

Person B who has got themselves into debt and chooses to use a Debt management company?

Person C who has just been put into prison?

Person D calling a contact centre to report a fault?

Person E progress chasing their bank loan application?

Person F has broken down at the side of the road and calls their roadside recovery company?

If we look at the definition above then all of the examples I believe to be ‘Failure Demand’ however not all the organisations would want you to remove 100% of that demand i.e. the debt management company or roadside recovery company. So this comes back to your purpose (step 2 of the “Your Way” methodology)

How can it be tackled?

Once you have defined your purpose as an organisation you know whether you should be trying to remove this type of demand wholly or not.

A large organisation in the UK I have supported with this, had a customer failure journey costing them over £500m per year and their actual purpose was to generate revenue by providing a working service and not expecting it to fail and having to fix it, so that was £500,000,000 wasted each year.

The approach I would take to tackling it follows a 4 step approach which focuses on Root cause analysis, this has to be completed by/with the management team and more importantly the people who work the process. I would do this initially under trial conditions to prove the approach before allowing everyone to capture everything as you will need to refine it as you gain a greater understanding of the specifics that are hurting you and generating failure demand.

The 4 steps:

1 – Define and agree an understanding of what you mean by the term ‘Root Cause’.

2 – Review with the team the way data is currently captured and does it give you the agreed root cause or not

3 – Develop a data capture mechanism to capture the root cause reasons for demand, I would have a high level selection criteria (to make analysis easier) followed by a box allowing for verbatim comments to capture the true root cause.

4 – Visualise and review the data, feeding back to all interested parties, identifying any opportunities for improvement and implement those quick wins

As you can see the above aligns to the GIVE model, the GIVE model is the approach that will allow you to improve your organisation and that’s why we ensure it underpins everything we do.

How do you visualise it?

The visualisation of failure demand is dependant upon your operation, if your operation is small to medium and you receive growth and cost demand then I would encourage you to plot your findings on a Value/Irritant model this is shown in “Your Way”. However if it is majority failure demand you receive in a particular department, I would say a run chart to display the quantity and a pareto to allow you to prioritise the main reasons for demand followed by a sheet to enable you to problem solve, showing problem,cause & solution.

Once you have visualised it remember the E of GIVE is to:

Enable those who work the process to ELIMINATE it, and continue this cycle ensuring it becomes business as usual activity.

On with the improvement

Lee

The question in this title poses me many other questions, such as:

How many methodologies are there? e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, Systems thinking, TQM, Theory of Constraints etc etc

How do you determine your favourite?

What does continuous improvement mean?

And more importantly -

Do I need a favourite?

I have had many conversations with different  people over the last few months on this subject and can put people into buckets like a child receiving a new toy, these are:

1) On receipt of a new toy Child A still preferes to play with their old ones.

2) On receipt of  a new toy Child B disregards their previous toys and plays with the new one.

3) On receipt of a new toy Child C tries to integrate their new toy in with their others (where possible).

4) On receipt of the new toy Child D prefers to play with the packaging.

Before I go on, which child do you think you are, when it comes to reading/learning about a ‘new’ continuous improvement methodology? please think about this before moving on.

OK, this is how I perceive the scenarios above:

If you answered Child A then this new toy wasnt really needed or asked for, in business you have a team/organisation resistant to change. You as a individual may need to accept you need to change first and adopt the new methodology if you/your business have problems or are not meeting your customer requirements.

If you answered Child B then this is probably a slightly spoilt child or one that gets too many toys, remember here though the child will disregard the latest toy when a new one is received. In business I would argue that these are probably the most dangerous. If this is you are you really allowing the initial initiative the time to embed and sustain? or as a individual I would argue you may not truely understand the priciples/benefits of first one, then the second one etc. Do you read one book and then that is your favourite methodology, then the next book you read that is your favourite etc? if this is the case try and look at the principles of each before jumping ship and ensure you have applied them. 

If you answered Child C this is the child who is open to change and arguably the most grateful. In business this can be likened to a company understanding their problems and doing what is best for them and not just changing to the latest learned method because that is what is done. As a individual you look at all you have learned and look at the problems you face and address them using the most appropriate method. You are always trying to and are open to learning but aware of everything you know.

If you answered Child D then really you didnt need the toy or understand what it could actually do for you, in business if this is you, then you are likely to get a lot of ‘new’ methods but not really understand why and they don’t sustain. You have a tendency to introduce a tool or two but not really understand what the true principles of it are. 

Did you perceive the meanings the same as me? if not, please let me know.

The whole foundation underpinning Lean Secrets “Your Way” is not being a slave to a particular method e.g. Lean, it is all about supporting/coaching you to identify what is preventing you from meeting your customer needs and giving you a structure to getting closer to satisfying those needs.

On with the improvement

Lee

We believe at Lean Secrets HQ that the most important skill to have as a lean practitioner is “the ability to influence a behaviour”.
We define a behaviour as “an observed act”.
If lean is to sustain effectively it is vital that the people who work the process are fully utilised and empowered when it comes to developing themselves and their process. If you can influence them to do the right thing as opposed to introducing a tool and telling them to use it, then they are more likely to sustain in the future.

The psychology behind influencing can be quite complex however we have developed a model, that we share with you in our 21 step methodology. YOUR WAY

I would always encourage you before you start any activity to think about what behaviours you want your people to display when you have successfully implemented lean or another improvement enabling programme.

Would you force someone to learn to drive if they didn’t want to?
Would you get a vegetarian to eat meat if they didn’t want to?
Would you get someone to catch the bus to work if for years they’ve always driven themselves?

We have probably all seen in an office environment resistance to applying 5S, or as they see it a reluctance to tidy their desk.

Without the skill/ability to influence the only thing we make easier is the likelihood of failure.

So consider the behaviours you want displayed and how you can influence these.

On with the improvement

Lee

 The only real failure in life is the failure to try…

Although the above is true with life, with Lean there are some things that can help you avoid failure. 

We have been made aware of many businesses over the last few years and witnessed in our early days as employees of large companies, struggling Lean transformations, this has allowed us to develop our 21 step “Your Way” methodology and understand how to avoid failing and for ourselves that failing was part of the learning process. However we don’t want you to fail, we want you to use our experience to deliver a lean transformation effectively and successfully, where you are the enablers to your achievement of YOUR goals.

4 Things you can do to help prevent failure:
Compelling need to change – For most change to be successful and for people to buy into it, there needs to be a reason to change. I have seen these be created by management rather than waiting until something is serious enough to necessitate change. So to prevent the “why do we need to change?” question being asked. Have a think about the “What’s in it for me” for individuals at each level, if things change how will it help them? And develop a need to change if there isn’t one already in this economically challenging environment,

Senior leadership commitment and role modelling required behaviours – If you are in a senior position, you need to change too. The shop floor or the office or the workshop are generally a mirror of the effectiveness of the manager. If you think the office/warehouse etc can improve then so can you. To introduce Lean and other Continuous Improvement methodologies successfully generally require managers to Go & See the work taking place, to fix problems where they occur rather than from behind a desk etc.

You definitely need a practise what you preach mentality a one off is not good enough it needs to be consistent and the behaviours repeated at all levels

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”

Aristotle
Engagement of the people doing the work – It is commonly known that the people who know most about a process are the ones who do it each day. So why are they not utilised more to be empowered to make the changes, this may require workshops with representatives from each step of the Value Stream. Engage the people who work the process, empower them to develop their improved standards and working practices and create a mechanism to enable them to continuously improve.

Standardise the principles and not necessarily the tools – A lot of consultancies have developed successful lean approaches however they are not always transferable to each team in each company they engage with therefore:

Before taking an off the shelf solution and letting consultants “do to”you. Understand fully the principles behind Lean & Continuous Improvement.

We see these as:

To identify waste → To visualise waste → To remove waste

Have a look at the GIVE model (GIVE Model) I created this to give you an approach to help you reach your goals, if you need further support try out “Your Way” methodology here: “YOUR Way” it is not tool based it is a series of 21 questions that enable you to reach your goal by identifying, visualising and removing waste as well as influencing the desired behaviours required to sustain the improvement.

Thanks for reading & remember if you want to join the other 2500+ people you can follow us on Twitter here:

http://twitter.com/leansecretsuk

On with the improvement

Lee

This approach will will enable you to improve your business.

What is the GIVE model, why not just PDCA?

During my Lean career I have been a strong advocate of the PDCA cycle and there has definitely not been enough stressed on its importance in some of the roll outs I have witnessed. One of my mentors stressed to me in the early days that. “PDCA is a fractal of Lean” basically in everything we do at every level PDCA is applicable and should be followed. Whether it be a 5S standard (or any standard), a SOP, QCD process performance measurement, a lean implementation plan or a team meeting etc. then it should be followed to ensure we continuously improve. That one cycle I would argue is the single most important factor in enabling any business improving. In my experience companies believe they are OK at planning and the doing however the checking and acting appear to be neglected in a high percentage of occasions.

Despite all this I have not developed GIVE model to replace PDCA as I see PDCA as the glue that holds the GIVE model together:

Step 1 – Goal – Where do you want to get to? What do you want?
Without intentionally oversimplifying the PLAN in PDCA to understand truly where you want to get to you need a PLAN

Step 2 – Identify – Where you are now & the blockers stopping you from achieving your goal?
This is all about the Do & Checking part of PDCA but ensuring you capture and understand where the gaps are between the PLAN and the DO.

Step 3 – Visualise – & quantify the blockers stopping you.
Now you know what is stopping you, lets make it visible, only when you see a problem can you fix it, or remove the blocker

Step 4 – Eliminate– The main things stopping you from achieving your goal and continue to do all the things that are aligned to your goal
This is all about the removing the blockers and to do this follow PDCA

This is why we have created the GIVE model as it is fully supported by PDCA and has not been developed to replace it, this model is a fundamental part of the Lean Secrets “Your Way” methodology.

Feel free to sign up to our newsletter or GIVE the full Lean Secrets “Your Way” methodology a go if you are having trouble making a sustainable change to your business/team.

Download the GIVE model for FREE here:
GIVE model

You can also follow us on twitter @Leansecretsuk

On with the fun

Lee

Why Lean Secrets

Lean Secrets are a forward thinking partnership committed to enabling you to make sustainable improvements to your team/business/organisation.

We have developed a 21 step “Your Way” methodology to provide you with all you need to make significant steps to improve your profits by reducing your operating costs. The methodology incorporates Lean and Systems thinking but its foundations remain with the Toyota Production System. As well as focussing on a proven structure supported by tools it helps you to identify if you are delivering what your customers want, what behaviours you require from your people and how to influence those behaviours while ultimately reducing your blockers to achieving your goals.

The methodology we are offering comes with a full money back guarantee because we are that confident in what we are offering. The methodology incorporates the PDCA cycle th rough our GIVE model.

We also offer a full consultancy if you feel that’s what your company requires

We hope you have as much success using this as we have and remember we are committed to enabling and supporting you to reach your companies goals in these especially trying global economical times.

Feel free to sign up to our newsletter or GIVE the full Lean Secrets “Your Way” methodology a go if you are having trouble making a sustainable change to your business/team.

You can also follow us on twitter @Leansecretsuk

On with the improvement

Lee & David