Good afternoon and thank you for joining me today for my presentation. Today I am going to introduce you to the concept of Lean Manufacturing. We will start by talking about what is meant by "Value." Followed by a discussion on a "Value Map." And finally we will talk about ways to improve your process. But before we do that can anyone tell me what is meant by "Lean Manufacturing?" Yes, you with your hand up.
"Lean Manufacturing has something to do with building cars with higher quality. I think Toyota or Honda invented it."
That's very good. What else does Lean Manufacturing mean? Yes, you back there.
"It has to do with cutting jobs."
That is certainly one thing that Lean techniques have been used for. However we will talk about how any Lean initiative will ultimately fail if that's what it is used for. Anyone else?
Ok those were some good responses. I think most people have some sort of idea of what Lean Manufacturing is when they hear the phrase. And there are as many definitions as there are management consultants. I like to define Lean Manufacturing as the never-ending pursuit of perfection as defined by your customer.
So where do we start? Well any Lean Journey must start by understanding what Value your process or organization provides. So lets start by having some of you explain to me exactly what this group of people do. Anyone, shout it out.
"We fix heavy equipment."
Good, what else?
"We perform preventive maintenance on the equipment to keep if from breaking down and to help it last longer."
That's sounds impressive. What else?
Anyone?
"We do tons of things. Do you want a list of every Standard Operating Procedure that we have?"
Are they all part of fixing equipment and performing Preventive Maintenance?
"Pretty much."
Ok so if I understand you correctly the "Value" you add is in fixing all the big machines that I walked past on my way through the shop and the yard. And performing routine maintenance and inspections to make sure they don't break down in an unplanned way. Is that it?
general nodding of heads.
Ok so what Lean Manufacturing tells us is we need to start with our customers in order to verify the Value that we think we add. A key concept of Lean says we should all be spending as much of our time adding "Value" for our customers, and as little time not adding "Value" for our customers. Make sense?
somewhat less nodding of heads.
So who are your customers?
restless shuffling mixed with impatient annoyance.
You do have customers don't you?
"This isn't a car factory. We don't have customers like that. We work for the city."
Oh ok. Well let me ask you this. Who pays for all the work that you do?
more annoyed shuffling.
When you look at your pay stub what name is on it?
"The city pays us. We all work for the city."
general grumbling and shaking of heads.
Good, now we're getting somewhere. So who is this "city" person? Or is it "city" people? Because if they're paying your salaries then I'm pretty sure we're getting close to figuring out how your customers are.
"Taxpayers."
Taxpayers are the city?
"Taxpayers live in the city. They pay taxes to the city who pays us."
Aha! I knew we'd be able to figure all this out. So are we in agreement then? The taxpayers are our customers?
more upbeat nodding of heads.
Ok so the taxpayers are our customers. And we provide Value by fixing equipment and performing preventive maintenance. And Lean Manufacturing says we need to verify with our customer when we are adding Value and when we are not. With me so far?
awkward silence.
Did I miss something?
no response.
Moving on. What I would normally do at this point is bring in a bunch of associates to help me conduct a statistically significant survey of your customers asking them to rate the relative level of Value they get from the two activities or services that you provide. This would take a few weeks after which we would put together an impressive presentation showing you the results. But in the interest of time let's walk through this exercise in our minds. I'll make it easy for you. When I was a kid I had a paper route - back when kids actually had paper routs. Anyone in here ever have a paper route?
a few hands go up. a few knowing smiles are exchanged.
Well on my paper route I had a customer who's name actually was Mrs. Smith. I'm not making that up. That was her name. And any time I provided anything short of 100% Value to Mrs. Smith she would take the time to call the office of The London Free Press to file a complaint. And the next morning there would be a bright orange "Complaint" slip in my bundle of papers. And I would read how the previous night's paper had been wet or torn or late or blown away in the wind, or anything other than of 100% Value in the opinion of Mrs Smith.
Let's stop there for a second and try and define "100% Value" to Mrs Smith when it came to her newspaper. Who wants to take a shot at it?
"She wanted it on time, folded neatly, and not ruined by wind or rain."
That's pretty good. You sound like a newspaper customer.
a few chuckles.
But you are absolutely right. I'll throw in one more criterion. Mrs Smith got very upset if I showed up to collect and I didn't have enough change for her.
So let's summarize; I was adding Value in the mind of my customer if and only if I was doing one of the following tasks:
- Carefully (and quietly) placing a dry, neatly folder newspaper between her screen and front door before 5:00pm
- Carefully (and quietly) closing her screen door making sure it was tightly latched
- Providing the correct change for her and her receipt after she handed me her money
snickers around the room.
Oh you think that's funny do you? A 12 year old kid being harassed by a picky customer? Well guess what. Now that 12 year old kid is a grown up management consultant. And Mrs Smith is now your customer. Let's see how well you do. Now what were the services your provide to her? Oh yes, this whole group does the following:
- Fix heavy equipment, snow plows to be exact.
- Perform preventive maintenance on snow plows
takes out Blackberry. Dials Mrs Smith's number. Waits for her to pick up.
Hello. Mrs Smith? Yes. Is this Mrs Smith? Hi it's Kevin Flynn. Your old paperboy. How are you tonight Mrs Smith?
Pardon? No no. I'm not your new paperboy. No I think they have grown-ups doing that now. Yes....that's right. They drive around in cars and deliver the papers early in the morning.
What's that? They don't? Not even close? Well I appreciate that. Yes, yes it did take me a while to get it right.
No, no I realize it's not that difficult. You're right.
Well I appreciate you saying that. It means a lot to me. Thank you.
Oh wait! I almost forgot. I'm a management consultant now and I'm with a group of city workers doing a workshop of Lean Manufacturing. Yes that's right - from the Toyota Production System. Yes, TPS. I'm impressed that you know that.
No no, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that... Listen Mrs Smith could I ask your opinion on a couple of things that these folks are pretty proud of? As a customer I mean? I can? Great. So I was wondering if you could tell me how Valuable the following two services are to you as a homeowner and taxpayer. Could you do that for me?
Great. Ok listen carefully. The first thing they do is this: they fix the snow plows.
Mrs Smith? Are you there? Yes that's right. They fix the snow plows. They have a huge shop with lots of equipment. It's really very impressive. They have hoists and cranes and ... pardon? No value? None at all?
No of course, I realize you don't own a snowplow yourself. And that's probably true, even if you did these folks probably wouldn't fix it for you. No, they focus more on the city snow plows.
What's that? No, no they don't drive the snow plows. They fix them. Someone else drives them.
Ok so that's a zero on value for 'fixing snow plows' is that right?
Well maybe the second thing then. This one is really impressive. Not a lot of shops do this well. And believe me it can be very effective. Are you ready? They perform preventive maintenance.
Mrs Smith? ...oh yes. Good. No I said "preventive maintenance." That means they...
Oh you know what it is too, wow. I am impressed....And no they don't do any on your snow plow....which is because you don't have a snow plow.....and even if you did....yes, yes we already covered that.
Ok listen Mrs Smith it's been really good talking to you. I appreciate your time. And you sound great after all these years. Good luck with the new paper boy? Bye Bye.
press End key on Blackberry. Put it back in its case. Look up at my audience.
silence
I don't know if you caught all of that. But that's one particular customer who doesn't see much value in pretty much anything that you do here. Now what do you suppose we should do?
