Hands-on experience of NAGOI.
NAGOI can rely on a broad experience, lasting many years.
Most of this experience comes from a pharmaceutical background, but also from other industries.
Coming from a technical background, a large maintenance and project management experience is gained.
These experiences are now being used to define, implement and sustain improvements.
NAGOI is active as a Black Belt for more than a decade, and has implemented organizational changes, process improvements and implemented new processes.
For this all the standard Lean tools have been used when applicable.
A large experience in defining and securing standard work is built in this period, using Training On the Job, either by using a standard 4-step model and/or TWI (Training Within the Industry). This is where the Learning expertise adds to the Lean contribution.
Both the Lean and Learning component will help you to transfer your organization from 'just' using the tools to becoming a true Lean company.
In short, Lean is about creating a flow in activities the customer wants by removing all waste in the process.
In detail, Lean consists of these 5 principles:
- Value
Who is my customer, what activities are value add (where the customer wants to pay for),what activities are business value add (I have to do them) and what is waste?
- Value stream
Once you have defined what the value is (the product or service), what are all the steps and processes involved in making this?
- Flow
Once all the waste in the process has been removed, make sure the process runs smoothly, without interruptions, delays or bottlenecks.
- Pull
Customer demand is leading, this demand pulls all activities in the value stream. This is opposite to making product and stock until (hopefully) a customer ever orders it.
- Perfection
In Lean thinking, much energie is spent in improving, and one way to improve is to remove waste (principle #1).
There are 7 types of waste:
- Transportation
Moving material from one location to the next.
- Inventory
The raw material in the beginning, all intermediates, all finished good you store: they all cost money.
- Motion
This includes all unnecessary movements by machines or employees,being to big or to difficult.
- Waiting
Two process sections waiting for each other, man waiting for a machine.
- Overprocessing
Any unnecessary actions you perform, anything you add that the customer does not need or want.
- Overproduction
Producing more or faster than required by the customer.
- Defects
Errors require time and energy to be fixed.
And finally there's an extra waste: Not using the full (improvement) capacity from your employees.
Organizations that start with a lean journey do not always realize that it's not a quick fix.
Eventually you change the mindset and culture of the entire company, and that will take time.
You see the next phases occur over time:
- Phase 1: Beginning
'This is not for us', 'we are different', 'we've tried that before' are all things you hear in this phase.
What you need now is:
- Committed managers
- To keep it simple
- To have patience
Do not overburden middle manager and personnel, use a few selected tools like Value Stream Mapping, Visual Management and 5S.
This is the fase in which you invest and will get low hanging fruit, but not yet the big ROI.
- Phase 2: Transitioning
The first pilots have been successful, more and more areas start working in the new Lean way and even more quickly than the first pilots ever could.
The negative thinking decreases while the successes increase. This is an exiting phase, things change for the better, less defects, more product and a positive spirit to change for the better.
- Stretched targets
- Shared and celebrated successes
- Phase 3: Advancing
2 out of 3 organizations will not get here..
The last part of the previous phase was not easy any more, the low hanging fruit was picked, the flavor of the month (even though it took a few years) has changed, there's an urge for something new, something sexy.What you must do is:
- Increase implementation budgets
- Use advanced tools
- Increase autonomy in teams
The easy and simple things have been done, so now it's time to do the difficult and challenging things.
For this you need experts and time, thus budget.
On a positive note: the shop floor is now mature enough to be self supporting, so let them. By doing this you'll free up the middel management and the implementation team.
- Phase 4: Best In Class
You are now where most will never come, don't become complacent, keep pushing.
It is getting more difficult than ever to keep improving, but if you do: most likely you're the only one who does!
What you must do:
- Keep going!
- Teach others (within the company)
- Calibrate and learn from external
Stopping now is no longer an option, so keep pushing.
Positive energie will be found by teaching peer sites within the company. As you have been through it, this makes you the best mentor for them.
At this level you will learn from other Best In Class organizations, even though they might be in a completely different industry.
As stated earlier, most organizations never pass beyond fase 2.
So be careful in your consideration as to where you are in this fase in order not to overrate yourself.
Your maturity can be measured by observing what you are doing most of the time:
- You are Troubleshooting:
You react to abnormal situations, as quickly as possible, to a standard or to 'the way it was before'. - You are handling Deviations-From-Standard
You have moved from just fixing the problem to finding the true root cause, enabling yourself to fix problems once and for all. - You are working on a Next Target Condition
You have a strong standard and now how to keep it, so now it's start to work towards a higher standard. - You are Innovative
There seems to be no limit to what can be done: this is a clear signal you're ready to move to phase 3.
NAGOI has a broad experience in the first three stages. In Visual Management, Process Mapping, Tier (Daily Startup) Meetings, PDCA implementation, Hoshin Kanri processes, KATA implementation or any other Lean tools.
Please visit the other articles under Lean to get more info, and contact NAGOI for any questions or assistance.