Harnessing the 8th AND 9th Waste of Lean Six Sigma

Yes, you heard me right, there is a 9th Waste ! We all know the 8th waste is the under-utilisation of our people but what about the 9th waste; the under-utilisation of our customers.

An underestimated factor in all Lean Six Sigma deployments is the underutilized talents of our collective and collaborative potential and this isn’t just talking about our staff, as in the 8th waste of lean. We often get so busy with what each of us are doing individually, that we lose sight of how much more powerful we could be, if we combined our efforts!

In our opinion, herein lies the secret of Lean Six Sigma …
WE HAVE TO GIVE EVERYONE (Including our customers) THE OPPORTUNITY TO PARTAKE AND PARTICIPATE, SHARE IN THE EXPERIENCE FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS!
Ask yourself how you can make the most of people’s time and investment in CI or LSS practices and how it will/could affect/benefit your business? Your resources, employees and customers are important assets – how are you using and utilizing them all in this process of becoming a more agile and cost-effective organization/business/operation ?

Always, start by asking what can I do? This personal hands-on approach can truly make a difference in any business.

Ways to avoid your LSS initiatives becoming frustrating, failing or coming up short:

Pay special and close attention to what the business culture really is! It could be totally out of alignment with the principles and fundamentals of Lean Six Sigma and cause some stress, tensions, or even resistance within and throughout the organization.
• Ask and answer yourself/your team, your business, partners and customer honestly what the existing climate is that would support (hinder/help) Lean Six Sigma working methods and how it will benefit all stakeholders?
• Here is another useful question: Is our organization hierarchical, rigid and autocratic and not a people centered company?
• Learning what not to do from the mistakes and discoveries, shared learnings and insights from others is critical. This is especially crucial from our customers, listen to their complaints, survey them regularly to ascertain what current products they would like more of, or variants of and what additional products that we don’t currently offer would they like to see in our catalogue? They are the people who pay all our wages and without whom, the business would not exist!
• Be aware that not everyone will necessarily share your enthusiasm for Lean Six Sigma. Some might dread what it does to their work load and world. Some initial resistance to any change is normal. Showing the value or the WIIFM (what is in it for me) is a very important part of the whole Lean Six Sigma initiative.








If you enjoy reading my blogs, please take a look at my many other on-line resources,

Website, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/
Blog, http://leansixsigmauk.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/leansixsigmacert
Follow me on twitter, https://twitter.com/DrLeanSigma
I have also recently launched a new range of Lean Six Sigma on-line training courses which you can read about here, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/programmes/




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What is Kaizen Jitsu?

I received an award last week from the CEO of the major Government Department that I’m currently engaged with, which was a great honour and made myself and my family very proud. At the dinner celebrations, a colleague asked what it was that the team that I’m part of did that was so different from the ‘Other’ Improvement people that they had worked with previously. I knew this person, like myself had a long history in martial arts, so I tried to put it into a language that I knew would resonate with him.

I told him that what we did was ‘Kaizen Jitsu’, or the 'Art of Improvement'.
The name comes from the Japanese 'Kai' = Change, 'Zen' = Good (Change for the good, or 'Improvement') and 'Jitsu' = Art.

After all, it's pretty pointless making changes in any organisation if, once you walk away, the organisation simply go back to the old way of doing things. (Does this sound familiar ?)

There is a way of implementing change in any organisation and at the same time ensuring you have the full buy in of all staff, whilst subtly but steadily changing the corporate culture into one where the changes will be embraced, sustained and ultimately improved upon moving forward.
This however, has to be done 'during' the change process, not as an afterthought or a bolt on as part of a 'cultural change process' or 'people change' process as employed by some of the big consultancy players.

In the words of the old Japanese saying, 'If the student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught', or in my words - 'If the changes didn't stick, you didn't do your job' (Assuming you're the person who implemented the changes)

The short video clip below will expand a little more and I'll be covering more on this topic over the coming weeks. Specifically around the 'How'  https://youtu.be/OS1afWi_fZE









If you enjoy reading my blogs, please take a look at my many other on-line resources,

Website, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/
Blog, http://leansixsigmauk.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/leansixsigmacert
Follow me on twitter, https://twitter.com/DrLeanSigma
I have also recently launched a new range of Lean Six Sigma on-line training courses which you can read about here, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/programmes/


#leansixsigma, #beyondlean, #leansixsigmacertification, #leansixsigmatraining lean six sigma, lean six sigma training, lean six sigma certification, lean six sigma

What is Lean Six Sigma Office?

Lean Six Sigma Office is the application of Lean or Six Sigma methodologies into an office or service environment.
Many un-educated people have said in the past "This is not a car plant, you can't use Lean Six Sigma tools here", when speaking about an office or service environment.

How wrong they were!

Lean six sigma in an Office or Lean Service is spectacularly successful, often more so than when applied in a manufacturing environment. The tools and methodology is the same but the application is tailored to the specific sector and business, preferably guided by experienced practitioners and not left to internal people who have read the latest 'Lean' book.

Some results that have been attained recently by projects within office and service environments:
Sales Conversion increase of 81% within media Telesales business.
Right first time quality increase of 120% within media Telesales.
Productivity increase of 161% within UK bank divisions.
FTE reductions of 20-40% in all recent Lean Six Sigma Service implementations.

Lean Six Sigma Approach In An Office Environment
Some of the tools to use:
Standardised Work
Process Mapping
User Guides
Capacity Planning
5S
Line Balancing
Heijunka
Visual Management
Work Organisation

But most of all, Basic Management. Many companies aren't very good at the real management basics and the most worrying part of this is that they don't even know they aren't very good.

A solid training plan for the management team at all levels will bring about startling results, once they begin to apply what they have learned. A good way to get this application going is to get them signed up to a Lean Six Sigma Certification course, where application is part of the certification process. Lean Six Sigma Certification courses offer online training for green belt and black belt certification.









If you enjoy reading my blogs, please take a look at my many other on-line resources,

Website, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/
Blog, http://leansixsigmauk.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/leansixsigmacert
Follow me on twitter, https://twitter.com/DrLeanSigma
I have also recently launched a new range of Lean Six Sigma on-line training courses which you can read about here, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/programmes/




#leansixsigma, #beyondlean, #leansixsigmacertification, #leansixsigmatraining lean six sigma, lean six sigma training, lean six sigma certification, lean six sigma

The Consultant’s Mindset

In the course of my day to day work with clients, one of the key roles I undertake and thoroughly enjoy is mentoring the internal consultants or change agents, depending upon what the client wants to call them.

I may have told you before that part of my background is in sales, which gave me an enormous advantage over many of the people in my field as I was trained in the art and science of sales by some true masters of the game. So when a client asks “what are you going to upskill my people with?”, I simply reply “The art of getting what you want” but it is much more than that and here are a few examples of the skills that a great consultant needs to master to get to the top in their field:

“Understanding what needs to be done & developing solutions” which means…. enquiring, researching, analysing & developing solutions.
“Influencing others” which means….. winning support of the key stakeholders directly or indirectly.
“Being oriented towards change” which means….. active commitment to development of self and others & continually driving for change.
“Delivering results” which means….. acting with a sense of urgency & planning and delivering what is promised.
“Working with others and relationship building” which means…. giving and receiving feedback, actively supporting others, participating in team activities, developing rapport and acting with integrity and fairness.

In addition to these, an unwavering degree of self-belief is essential, which generally comes from intensive coaching and mentoring or simply from the person’s desire to continuously get better at what they do through learning and self development.





If you enjoy reading my blogs, please take a look at my many other on-line resources,

Website, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/
Blog, http://leansixsigmauk.blogspot.co.uk/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/leansixsigmacert
Follow me on twitter, https://twitter.com/DrLeanSigma
I have also recently launched a new range of Lean Six Sigma on-line training courses which you can read about here, http://www.beyondlean6sigma.com/programmes/




#leansixsigma, #beyondlean, #leansixsigmacertification, #leansixsigmatraining lean six sigma, lean six sigma training, lean six sigma certification, lean six sigma