Point Kaizen

Point Kaizen describes improvement actions concentrated on one workstation = on the spot.

In general, all lean activities are striving to increase the output of your processes by simultaneously increasing the level of quality by shorten lead times and using less resources. But not all lean initiatives are reaching these targets. Typically the cause lies in the lack of clear targets by the management combined with a misinterpretation of kaizen activities and organizational change.

Kaizen is the Japanese term for “change for the better” on a continuous matter. Point Kaizen refers to a compressed focus on one workstation and improvement actions during a few days, where e.g. in the end the station is no more the bottleneck of the line/cell. For many people this is considered as “Lean”, but it is only a small part of the journey to real operational excellence.

As mentioned Point Kaizen is a scheduled event. When you have an own Lean Management Team or Kaizen Manager these are the guys who are in charge for the upcoming days. Once the team is gathered the action starts.

5S all over: Yes! Let’s start! Use the euphoria and sort out, get rid of all unwanted objects. Clean-up and proper arrange tools needed. Install e.g. flow racks following the 2 bin principle to ensure straight material flow. The Kanban System and FIFO can’t be skipped. Once the workstation is transformed - everybody is proud to have been part this lean activity and communicates the success story.

If you continue with Point Kaizen activities you will reach a better performance on each isolated workstation and probably everybody thinks that you have a great lean initiative. But the real long term results are missing out. So why to continue with lean activities?

Take a step back and see what you have so far. With the improvement actions on each workstation you have raised the efficiency of all single steps but didn’t consider the flow of material in between. It might be tiring to put all this effort in and then the management comes along and sees no obvious progress. This is the point when you move from Point Kaizen action to a systematical organizational change. This process is focusing on the underlying targets of the organization, such as raising performance, decreasing lead times, improving quality and making more profit.

The A3 format comes back in the game. Not only the A3-report and A3 problem solving but more the target setting on an A3 format that tells the story of how the targets can be reached by preset measures. Combined with the future state Value Stream Map showing all Kaizen Bursts each representing a Point Kaizen activity. All those measures lead to a future state of material and information flow that drives your organization into new spheres. In the future with the new Value Stream your bottlenecks will shift along this stream and always creating new point kaizen starting points. Bottlenecks by this can be either stocks of material, high process times or a lack of information. All Kaizen activities, no matter concerning material or information flow, are implemented following a prioritized list. You not only will have to reallocate resources, but also actively participate on the process of organizational change. You and your mid-management are in the driving seat, you have to know where your organization is heading, so make sure that you and your management are participating on Kaizen activities.

Point Kaizen is the first brick of the foundation for organizational change. With the systematic identification of bottlenecks, Point Kaizen activities can be planned and conducted. To have quick changes but is still able to deliver, one bottleneck after the other is worked on. Each Point Kaizen delivers one piece of improvement for the overall improvement needed. These superordinate targets are an increased output, reduction of lead times by simultaneously achieving Zero Defects Policy and all this combined with lower labor costs.

Visual Management

Hej there! Great to have you back! In this article we want to show how visual management can help you to keep track in daily operations.

Generally speaking Lean Management can be seen as a clearly organized workflow that defines the way your organization should work following given principles. Above all principles existing lies to avoid waste in any kind following the 5S Principle as foundation: 1 Sort out 2 Set in order 3 Shine 4 Standardize 5 Sustain.

For a clear visualization of running process in your organization, cleanliness and orderliness is the main part of it. Clarity of your processes on the shop floor is the foundation for all lean manufacturing activities. Having the clarity the implementation and maintaining of visual management methods will guide you to a real state of flow.

In the following we want to describe key basic visual management elements that every production, following the lean principles, should have.

Boards, Notes, Infographics, Brochures and even Movies

Don’t panic and try to explain all those Japanese words it works well without being too technical. Many instruments of the Lean Manufacturing Methodology are very useful to raise the awareness of your employees about lean management. Once implemented and continuously driven by the management the incentives are there to drive daily improvement measures.

The target with visual management and those methods are all the same:

1. Create transparency

2. Visual representation of procedures processes and services

3. Making problems (or bottlenecks) visible

Kanban Boards

Kanban can be literally translated as “card” in the context of a production system. No matter what processes you have, it all starts with a customer’s order. The Kanban card is then used to inform upstream processes about the need of materials, pre-assemblies or process steps. This automatically leads to a cycle that triggers itself through the complete value creation chain.

This is the so called pull principle the advantage if this principle is that, in best case, you have no work in progress which means you have no stock of semi finished goods built up, because only what the following process steps need is produced.

A3 Reports

The term A3 Report comes simply from the size of paper which is used for the documentation of the report. The structure itself follows the PDCA methodology.

The A3 Report is the representation of a problem to be solved. In this case the responsible person from the quality department takes the A3 Report, starts the problem solving actions and follows a systematic structure that makes it possible to describe the effects that are currently leading to a deviation from the standard. Using the A3 only makes sense when you don’t know the root cause yet. If you already know the root cause don’t waste your time. Fix it and go back to normal.

Andon: Lean management with boards and ripcords.

Andon again a Japanese word meaning “lantern”, at least in the context with lean manufacturing. It is a visual aid that is there to draw attention to problems on the shop floor when machines or processes are causing defects or simply stop working.

You might think you have seen them all by walking through production and seeing all those PLC signal lamps indicating green or red, but there is so much more. Just have a look at the Andon article.

Just want to name administration, maybe there is nothing to indicate, but when you think about a document that is needed in a different department, waiting for this is one of the TIMWOODS MUDA. The time waiting is probably the best indicator to start with lean admin activities.

Andon Cords - Please pull the rip cord in an emergency!

Andon Cords are rip cords or a simple button straight at the operation on the shop floor that gives the operator in the process the possibility to instantly stop the line when problems or defects occur.

Andon Boards

Andon Boards are displays or nowadays mainly TV screens that are showing the actual status of the manufacturing line e.g. PPM, down times, etc. Typically it is automatically feeded by the machineries of the production line. With the standard defined color indication everyone sees if they are doing great or not so great. In the second case an automated alert to supervisors or maintenance is triggered.

You see there are many possibilities, but the target is always the same. One hint at the end: Make your boards, infographics or brochures as simple as possible! (or just use mine ;))
WHY? As with processes > it is only a good process when you can’t cut anything more away from it. In other words: What is the value you get from something that nobody understands?

If you take the principle of visual management seriously it will help you to bring all processes in your organization to live.

Turtle Analysis

Turtle Diagrams are an effective method to understand the processes from both a managerial and workforce perspective. These diagrams can also be used to identify gaps in the organizations structure and further develop organizational procedures. From these activities further measures can also be developed for efficiency improvement.

How to use Turtle Diagrams
We will go through the diagram step by step:

INPUT:
Enter details of actual process inputs such as raw material, requirements, information, documents, etc.

PROCESS:
Enter your management process.

OUTPUTS:
Enter your expected or defined output of your process. This can be finished goods, products, records, documentation, etc.

CONGARTS you already described your main process. Now we will complete it with details.

WITH WHAT:
This is asking for materials and equipment. Enter details of materials, components, machinery, test equipment, software, etc. all you use in the process.

WITH WHO:
Resources and competencies. Enter human resources requirements, including qualification, competencies and training requirements or restrictions.

HOW:
The how goes for the supportive processes, procedures and methods. Write down linked processes, pre-processes, supportive processes, instructions, procedures, standard work described, etc.

WHAT FOR:
Key Performance Indicators. Enter the targets, KPIs, performance measures, etc. to measure effectiveness and efficiencies.

Example of a Turtle Diagram

How to use the Turtle Diagram for auditing
When running an internal audit, you can use the Turtle Diagram to understand the relation between input and output for the audited process or activity. In order to get full advantage of the audit, the auditor needs to assess not only the process itself but also the complete surrounding such as the process owner, stakeholders of the process, standard work procedures, training and qualification matrix of persons involved, as well as linked processes. Based on the Turtle Diagram Layout the auditor has a guide to follow through the process audit.

Running the Turtle Analysis
When talking about quality management, process analysis is a key part of daily business. With the Turtle Analysis and the resulting Turtle Diagram you will have the chance to describe processes in a simple and clear one pager. The summary of this one pager is the description of the most important process characteristics. This overview can then be taken to identify risks and weaknesses of the process and build the framework for upcoming quality audits.

The Turtle Diagram gives a clear picture of the links between two process steps or different processes. As usual in manufacturing environment the output of one process step is the input of the other. This can be made visible with the the Turtle Analysis. You starting point is then when interfaces do not run smooth or e.g. important information is lost during hand over phase.

In addition after a Turtle Analysis or audit with the diagram and identified risks and weaknesses you can define specific objectives to be addressed. As mentioned above you can steer and control your improvement actions with pre-defined KPIs, this helps you to visualize deviations from the set course easier.

If you think you need a deep dive on one specific topic found during the Turtle Analysis, we recommend the ISHIKAWA or the 5Why methodology.

Makigami

The Japanese term Makigami is developed out of two. First the MAKI (yeah like the Sushi) meaning roll or rolled and KAMI meaning paper. Before you go wild, in the word combination you write kami with “g”. So the question that rises is: What you do with a rolled paper? You use the Makigami to draw and redesign administrative processes. Like with all Lean or Opex activities, once the process is visualized with the help of a Makigami “value-adding” and “non-value adding” activities are marked. On the bottom of the Makigami you will find a time axis which shows the operating time and the pure value adding time.

With the help of the Makigami process analysis, the process is always viewed from the perspective of the process itself, never from the perspective of the employees. This has to be clear also for the waste attack activities in the process. With the Mantra of OPEX: the central question that must be brutaly honest answered: Is the customer willing to pay for this process step/activity? Is this what you are doing adding value to the final product or service?

After you recorded the current state of your process you start to redesign it by asking yourself permanent the following question:

What should the ideal process look like?

Take your planned future development and corporate vision into account to make sure you are not running in the wrong direction.