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/


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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/




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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/




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Who Can You Trust?

A Lot of clients ask me how I know what kind of person I’m dealing with and how I know whether I can trust them or not. Now, we cover this in great detail in the Black Belt Course but I thought I’d cover the basics here of some of the types of people you may encounter during any change program.

Firstly we have the ‘Pioneers’: These people have vision, are energetic, take risks, challenge conventional thinking, are impatient, sometimes lack a detailed approach, recognise that they need a high quality support team around them, move on once a challenge has been met, find reasons why. These are the people who’ll get things going in the right direction.

Next we have the ‘Settlers’: These are you ‘Steady Eddie’s’, they will ‘Feed’ the pioneers with the physical & emotional resources they need, are more conservative by nature, often have a more methodical and detailed approach, warn pioneers of potential dangers, come to the rescue when necessary.

Now we get to the minority groups and first up here are ‘The Old Dogs’: You’ve all met these guys, they lament about how good things were in the old days, keep their head down, when necessary align themselves with the Well Poisoners in order to preserve the status quo and can sometimes be confused with the settlers.

The most dangerous group and hardest to spot are the ‘Well Poisoners’: They will Find ways to sabotage and/or delay advances by; talking much and doing nothing, setting up committees that promise much & deliver little, spread unhelpful rumours, discredit people, intentionally avoid taking responsibility & find reasons why not. Can be terrific allies if they can be ‘turned’ BUT don’t count on turning them. The biggest tell-tale sign here is ‘Do the actions match the words?’ If they don’t, you may well be dealing with hidden intentions, so beware!






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/

Earn What you Deserve…

A question I get asked repeatedly by internal improvement consultants and client improvement team members, who I have acted as a mentor for is; “How can I earn more”, or more often “I wish I earned as much as you”. Now my response doesn’t always go down that well, as it is very direct but very true! You will always earn what you deserve to earn, not what you want to earn.

So in answer to the question, “How can I earn more”, the simple answer is – Deserve more! By this I mean, get better at what you do, become better educated in your subject matter, learn the skills you need to get paid more. It is hard work and takes effort but the rewards are a by-product of the work you put in.

Let me explain this in language that improvement people will understand – Cause and Effect. For every effect there must be a cause, so if your income is the ‘Effect’, the actions you take and the level of knowledge you have and how you use that is the ‘Cause’. In short, YOU are the ‘Cause’, so to change the ‘Effect’ (your income), you need to change the ‘Cause’ (You). Get better at what you do and the effects of that will be the benefits you reap.

The farmer understands the law of cause and effect better than most. He knows that the harder he works up front, ploughing and planting and being vigilant in keeping away pests, the better the harvest he will get and the more he’ll get paid. The work HAS to be done BEFORE the rewards can be reaped. This is the law of cause and effect. Most people get this backwards and expect to get the benefits before putting in the work but unfortunately for them, the universe doesn’t work that way.

So, if you want to earn more, learn from the farmer who’s been following this simple law for millennia, get better at what you do, study for your black belt, deliver projects on time and deliver benefits out of the back of these over and above what was expected and learn from those who’ve walked the road before you. A good mentor is worth their weight in gold.

Most importantly, take responsibility for your own life and career because nobody else can put the work in for you, just as you wouldn’t ask anyone else to do your breathing for you. Start now, put the work in now and you’ll reap the rewards.

It’s your choice but always remember, you’ll always earn what you deserve!






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 are the characteristics of a truly effective team?

I am continuing my team building discussions with my client and explained that Teamwork is what makes a team work effectively together as a unit.  It also helps team members feel happy, productive and fulfilled as individuals.  As the team’s leader, encouraging teamwork is one of the most important things you can do to help accomplish your team’s and organisation’s goals.

The following list contains signs that can be seen when a team is working effectively:

Team members:

• communicate openly and frankly with each other, both giving and receiving feedback
• can compete and co-operate at appropriate times
• are committed to quality and achieving goals
• support other team members and the team itself
• share responsibility for solving problems and making decisions
• support the leader

Planning
Planning is all about deciding what needs to be done, by whom and by when, in order to meet an objective or a given responsibility.
Or, put another way, it is about plotting a way to get to where you want to be and making adjustments along the way as they are needed.

Why Plan?
Effective time spent up front on planning usually means less wasted time and effort spent on monitoring whether the project is working and on remedying any shortcomings.
             
Remember, in order to produce a quality product, which is of paramount importance, it is essential to take the time necessary to guarantee that we can actually achieve  it.  Planning therefore enables you to focus on what needs to be achieved.

By breaking this down into logical steps you can then:
• allocate and obtain resources, both internally and externally
• prepare for contingencies
• monitor progress against plans
• take prompt action on any variance
• evaluate performance and develop better plans for the future

Of course, planning can never guarantee success.

You must plan and try to stick to that plan, and yet be flexible enough to recognise when it will not work and be willing to change it.  A plan after all is only a detailed guide with signposts.  It does not solve problems, but it can provide a framework for dealing with them should they arise.

Planning Requirements
The author Lewis Carroll once said ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there.’

So when planning you have to have a clear understanding of exactly what it is you are trying to achieve.

What is your objective?
Other criteria which must be specific and clear, include:
• what standards are expected (quality, cost, volume)?
• what resources will be available, internal and external?
• what constraints are there?
• How long have you got?
• are there any other variables that you need to be aware of, for example the environment or situations that may affect the plan?

You must always remember that the plan will be implemented by people:
• who is available?
• what skills/knowledge do they have?
• what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• is any training required
Once you know what information or help you need you can then think about who or where you will get it from.


How to Plan
As we have just said the Planning process begins with the clarification of the objective it is important to understand exactly what is to be achieved.

It is also important to understand any constraints within which you have to work.

A large complex objective may be broken down into smaller tasks which can be then allocated to members of your team accordingly to their skills and strengths.

The order or sequence in which the tasks will be carried out then needs to be determined to give a logical flow.

Some tasks may be dependent on others for their completion and it is important that this is identified and highlighted.  So last step is to draw up a detailed plan of what is to happen.

    This allows everyone in the team to see what is required and allows
    everyone involved to measure progress once the plan is underway.


Implementing the Plan
The implementation process involves a number of responsibilities including:
• briefing
• controlling, monitoring and taking corrective action
• seeking/providing feedback
• reviewing/evaluating performance and results

Briefing
As the plan will be implemented by people, it is vital that they are briefed accordingly.  They will need to know what the overall plan is:
• the big picture
• what their role is within the plan
• responsibilities
• outcome expected of them
• specific targets

Controlling
This is the key activity during implementation:
• are standards being maintained?
• are things going according to plan?
• are people working well together?
• are you on time?
• do you need to take corrective action/modify the plan?

Feedback
Feedback is vital so that individuals in the team know how things are going and how they as individuals are contributing to the achievement of the objective.

To be effective, however, feedback must be handled properly.

Reviewing
The objective is to learn as much as possible from what has happened to improve performance on future tasks.  The review should be based on analysing in detail what went well and what did not go so well.  It is important to be honest and admit mistakes for the review to be of value.  It is equally important to develop a strategy for maintaining the good things as well as improving the bad.


Planning Tools and Techniques
There are many tools and techniques that can be used to aid and simplify the planning process.
These include:
• flow charts
• ‘To Do’ lists
• matrices
• schedule charts






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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