In my blog post, “It's Day Two of Kaizen Week: Time to Start Grasping the Current Situation” I presented the key aspects of data and fact gathering and analysis to help the kaizen team understand the target process before making improvements. This is the third article in the Kaizen Event Leadership series, and it is focused on how to enable a successful Day 3 of making improvements during “Classic Shop Floor” Kaizen event.
While Day 2 is all about gaining process understanding, Day 3 is dedicated to active experimentation, making physical improvements, creating a new process and drafting Job Instruction Breakdowns.
No matter how well the team has prepared for the event, Day 3 is often "make or break" for success. Make sure all team members know and understand the roles they were assigned to prior to the event including Team Facilitator, Kaizen Team Leader/ Assistant Team Leader, Photographer, Presentation Manager, and designee to attend Start of Shift meetings.
The team can run into significant challenges on the third day: some common pitfalls are identified towards the end of the article.
Kicking off Day 3
At the beginning of Day 3, review the scope and objectives of the kaizen along with the accomplishments and action plans from the prior day. Make certain that members of your kaizen team have attended the Start of Shift meetings, and have provided information to and gathered feedback from area workers and Team Leaders. These same team members should report their findings with the entire kaizen team. Review key process data from Day 2, including your flip charts where you have identified "What is Working Well" and "Areas of Opportunity".
Explain to the team that the primary goal for Day 3 is making improvements to the process. The day will be spent almost in its entirety on the gemba, executing rapid PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycles of experimentation and problem solving
Day 3 Initial Game Plan
Review your action plans from Day 2, including the items you identified as:
Just Do Its are simple improvements that can be done quickly and easily during the event.
Problems & Opportunities to address during the event are in line with the scope and objectives of the event.
Safety & Ergonomic Improvements identified that need to be resolved during the event.
As a team, create a high-level plan for Day 3 that will address the major identified opportunities. You will want to type this directly into your Kaizen Newspaper if you are using an electronic management system or write it neatly on flip chart paper. Your plan needs to include what is going to be worked on first as well as specific assignments for team members as appropriate. You will use the overview plan throughout the day to manage Kaizen Activities and to stay on track. Stay flexible - as the team experiments with the process, the plan may need adjustments.
Experimentation via Rapid PDCA Cycles on the Gemba
Your team grasped the current situation thoroughly on Day 2 and should now have understanding of the process problems and opportunities. One or more hypotheses should be ready to test at the beginning of Day 3.
For example, if the focus process currently has five operators, but the theoretical number of operators calculated using the operator cycle time and takt time calculations is four, the team’s first hypothesis might be that through elimination of waste identified on Day 2, the process can be completed with one less operator in the area if the process is operating at takt time.
One of the simplest forms of scientific experimentation on the gemba is conducted using the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Your organization may use different terminology, but the gist is similar. See the diagram below for one high-level depiction of the PDCA Process.
Please Note: the terms "WSBH" and "WAH" refer to "What Should Be Happening" (the Standard) and "What is Actually Happening" (the Current Situation). The gap between WSBH and WAH is the definition of the problem.
When you go to the gemba, your team needs to have a clear and consistent understanding of what is being worked on. Discuss the Plan to test the first hypothesis with the area team leader and operators before trying anything out. Engage everyone and listen to their feedback and ideas. Explain to the area workers that the team will first make a change, have the workers try the process, and adjust the process on the fly. Make sure everyone understands that the team will be repeatedly asking the operators for ideas, suggestions and feedback. Area workers are an extension of the kaizen team: their involvement is crucial to the success of the event.
Continuing with the example above, the team might create a Plan to eliminate waste quickly, and then try the process out with four operators.
As a facilitator or Kaizen Team Leader it is your responsibility to ensure that the team is "together" in its approach (PLAN). The team will make (DO) rapid, small changes and adjustments, stay with the area workers as they try the process (CHECK) for enough cycles to stabilize somewhat, and then gather and respond to feedback and observations (ACT).
Making Improvements and Creating a New Process
It is sometimes helpful to distribute team members across the entire process to balance the changes being made. The process of experimentation and making improvements is highly iterative, and very interactive. After several Rapid PDCA Cycles, the process should have changed significantly in a short time period.
Depending on the starting point, a process may undergo so many changes during Day 3 that it may look almost unrecognizable after only a few hours of concerted efforts. As changes are being made, keep a close eye out for unintended negative consequences on Safety, Quality, waste creation, or workload balance.
At various times in the process there may be breakthrough ideas that require larger change: physical moves of people, materials, process or equipment. When this occurs, it may be necessary to enlist outside support, resources, or to build or procure something to facilitate change. This may require all or part of the team to step away from the gemba to develop the next Plan or execute this work. When or if this happens, always communicate with the area team leader and workers to let them know what is happening, and to solicit their input.
Documenting the New Process with Job Instruction Breakdowns
In the afternoon of Day 3, document the process in the form of Job Instruction Breakdowns (JIBs), which are alternatively called Job Breakdown Sheets (JBSs) in some organizations. Each operator will have one or more JIBs to describe their portion(s) of the new process.
Review the draft JIBs with the Operators and make adjustments as needed. If later shifts will continue working with the new process, plan for shift overlap so that the shift your team worked with can assist in training the next shift.
It is a great idea to take several photographs and/or video of the process prior to the end of the day. Sketch the area layout to scale, markup an engineering layout drawing, or footprint equipment corners with temporary marking tape to ensure that process and layout changes are not "lost" on other shifts.
Managing Day 3 Activities
Schedule periodic short breaks during the day in the Kaizen Room to discuss learnings, adjust the overall Plan, and/or to assign tasks to team members. Compare anticipated results and achievements against the Kaizen Objectives.
The Kaizen Facilitator and/or Kaizen Team Leader should be aware throughout the day of how the team is performing against its objectives, and should be prepared to switch gears/adjust as required to ensure success.
Be sure to update the Kaizen Newspaper as you go. Post each of the flip chart pages used around the room, in order. Keep them neat for use in your report out or for use in presenting results on the floor. The presentation manager should continue to incorporate all information into the presentation throughout the event as it is developed.
Daily Management Review
Towards the end of Day 3, the team will conduct a Management Review Session. The goal of this meeting is for the team to discuss the results of experimentation and improvement on the gemba, identify barriers to achievement of objectives, present potential results, and solicit feedback from the Management team and Kaizen Champion.
If the process will continue to run on other shifts, plan to have a Kaizen Team Member, or a support person from Continuous Improvement or Manufacturing Engineering "on call" to address issues encountered by other shifts. Notify Planning, Quality and Safety representatives if process changes could cause variations in output, quality or safety. These plans should be reviewed during the Management Review Session.
Each member of the team should participate in the review, using the flip charts and the Kaizen Newspaper to present event progress. During the review, be sure to take notes, and document the questions and suggestions from the session to help guide actions for Day 4.
The Best Laid Plans...(and what to do when it goes awry)
Despite great planning Day 3 is often the toughest day of any Kaizen Event. Energy levels flag, process variation rears its head, and panic may set in as the team questions whether or not they can achieve their objectives.
Below are some of the key things that go awry and possible ways to avoid them (especially for newer lean practitioners):
The team of operators working when the team studied the current process on Day 2 is different than the team on Day 3... and when the team observes on Day 3 the process is barely recognizable. This can also happen shift to shift. Walk the process prior to the event; conduct Standard Work Audits across the shifts and multiple workers. Talk to the Team Leaders and Planners prior to the event about who will work in the area during the week. Verify that the workers assigned in the area are fully trained (check the training matrix). Enlist support from the area manager to select workers if necessary.
Equipment, tools or other supplies are not available when needed. Create a Kaizen Kit, and pre-order supplies that are frequently used. Make sure that the team has access to a means of purchasing low dollar, short lead time items and that these are identified early in the week or prior to the event.
Support personnel are not available. Pre-planning is essential; work with managers to ensure availability of people prior to the event. If you are managing using a Kaizen Calendar, and are communicating needs clearly, other than emergencies, resources will be available.
The product variation changes mid-event. When a variation that the team was unaware of starts running on the line due to demand or an unanticipated order, this is an opportunity for learning. Can the process be optimized for all variations? If so, it may be worth expanding the scope to include the other variation.
Experiments all fail. It's uncommon, but it can happen. If on Day 3 the team tries everything they can think of, but nothing they do seems to be working, step back to "Grasping the Current State" of the original process. Re-observe, re-document, re-evaluate. When this occurs - Day 3 is likely to be an exceptionally long day.
It's the End of Day 3: Bringing It All Together
At the end of Day 3, significant changes will have been made to the process. A "Draft" of the new process will have been documented. And, if the team has kept up, the presentation is taking shape.
Meet with your team at the end of the day to review what has been done. Review the event objectives, anticipated results and any objectives that are still not yet achieved at the end of Day 3. Day 4 will be spent refining the process, developing and documenting Standard Work, and completing objectives.
Remind team members to attend the area start of shift meetings for Day 4 to update area workers on the Kaizen activities and to gather feedback. Using the Kaizen Newspaper, create a game plan for Day 4. Identify specific actions and assign them to team members. Thank your team for all of their hard work and confirm the event start time for Day 4.
©2017 Dawn Armfield, ValueFlo Consulting LLC
Please look for the next article in the Kaizen Leadership series, "It's Day Four of Kaizen Week: Finishing Touches to Make Change Sustainable" coming soon. If you have any questions on this or any article in this series, please post them as comments on the article.
