Getting Ready for the Kaizen Event
Every Kaizen event begins with defining a scope and building a strawperson
direction. The scope document is developed with the key stakeholders.
These are the people who either have authority over whether the Kaizen
event happens or whether the changes proposed for the target work process
are implemented. The scope document records information that describes
the business, the target work process, and what the key stakeholders
seek from the Kaizen event. Using the scope information, the Kaizen leader
creates a mission for the event, a set of goals, and a statement of the
do's and don'ts for the Kaizen team. These components make up the strawperson
direction for the event. The mission states the purpose the team will
pursue. It always includes the business results the event will produce
and the improvement in the performance of the target work process it
will make to generate those results. The goals set out the specific areas
the team will address. The do's and don'ts tell what the team is empowered
to do and what it may not do. Each of these is a "strawperson" because
it is based solely on what the scope says. Later, once the event begins,
the Kaizen team will rebuild each of these based on the facts in the
workplace and reconcile any differences that emerge.
After talking with Sandra, I prepared a scope document and a strawperson
direction for the event. I then shared these materials with both Sandra
and Mike, the two key stakeholders. Exhibit 4 presents the strawperson
mission, goals, and do's and don'ts for this event. |
Once the scope was verified as correct by Sandra and Mike, my next task
was to analyze whether to conduct the Kaizen event. As a professional,
I am responsible for ensuring that what my clients seek is in their best
interests and that a Kaizen event on the target work processes they are
specifying can deliver what they want. My responsibility is not to second
guess my customer but to independently verify the customer's thinking
so that if a problem exists from my perspective, I can raise it and we
can work it through together before resources are expended. In essence,
I analyze whether to conduct the event assuming the perspective of the
business that is asking for the event and my knowledge of Kaizen. In
doing this, I apply five tests. I test whether (1) the focus of the Kaizen
event makes sense, (2) the business case for doing the event is reasonable,
(3) people will support the event, (4) the setting and resources available
to the event are adequate, and (5) the timing of the event will not interfere
with business. To complete this analysis, I must estimate the resources
needed for the event and talk with prospective team members to get a
sense of their thoughts about the work process, its problems, and the
prospects of improving them. I also gather more specifics about the work
process such as its overall operating cost and factor costs (e.g., labor,
machine, raw materials). Once I have brought my thinking to a conclusion,
I get back with the key stakeholders and let them know my perspective
on the event.
My analysis of the proposed event for ABC Gases indicated that the event
could achieve Mike and Sandra's purpose. The focus was to improve a work
process that, in talking with team members, was having problems that
affected cost and timeliness in fulfilling customer orders. While the
amount of cycle time controlled by worker execution (as compared to machine
execution) was limited, my conversations suggested that actual cycle
time and "official" cycle time were not aligned. In fact, there was a
lot more labor going on than management assumed. Even without this discovery,
a significant reduction in labor time would accelerate the work process
and, most importantly, based on the economics of the work process (90%
of unit cost is labor), have an impact on unit cost. Also, this work
process was negatively affecting a key customer value— on-time delivery.
With respect to blended gases, the on-time delivery rate was only 84%.
To increase this rate, the work process would have to be accelerated.
My contacts also suggested that both management and workers were on the
same page with regard to wanting improvements—even if not for quite
the same reasons. Management wanted the cost down, and workers wanted
the frustration of the work relieved. From the workers' perspective,
the way the work process was currently operating led to a lot of wasted
time and effort on their part.
All other factors supported doing the event. Preparation for the event
looked quite possible given the resources at the site and the time we
had in which to prepare. Also, as Sandra said, the timing of the event
would not disrupt any other priority in the work process. She had enough
staff to participate in the event and keep the work process rolling.
Even if some of these issues had turned out to be problematic, we could
have found ways to address them and still do an event. The value of the
analysis is in raising the "red flag" early so that any issues can be
resolved and success ensured. On the other hand, the analysis has turned
up situations where doing an event—even after discussion with all
key stakeholders—just made no sense.
With a sound event clearly specified, my next task was arranging logistics
(e.g., meeting room, equipment, materials, meals, travel, lodging); gathering
any additional business information I needed (e.g., work standards, safety
procedures, management of change procedure); preparing communications
to stakeholders; and connecting with stakeholders (e.g., the team, workers
in the target work process) to prepare them for the event. Connecting
with these people up front and staying connected with them throughout
the Kaizen process is important to the success of any change effort,
especially Kaizen because it is about engaging, energizing, and enabling
people and not just about making process improvements. So I prepared
a flyer to be posted in the blending area a week before the event, announcing
the Kaizen event and asking workers for their ideas and suggestions.
I communicated with the team members from the area ahead of time so they
would be able to explain the flyer and the event and collect ideas from
fellow workers. I also alerted the safety, maintenance, and work standards
supervisors about the event and made sure that they would be available
to us during the week the event was scheduled so we could get their counsel
as needed. Finally, I inquired whether any best practice databases existed
that might contain ideas relevant to the work process the event was to
improve. If such a database existed, I wanted to be sure we could access
it and draw ideas from it. Similarly, I inquired as to whether any other
sites had developed improvements to the blending work process that might
not yet be implemented at Oakland. Kaizen is about advancing improvement
and not reinventing the wheel so if there were improvement ideas already
uncovered and in use elsewhere, we wanted to incorporate them and add
to their effectiveness and not spend the team's time rediscovering them.
In this case, there was a best practice database, but its contents were
poorly organized and its information was deemed of little value. Also,
no other site had yet tackled the blending work process. It was this
event that management hoped would seed improvements elsewhere.
With preparations complete, I finished the arrangements for my own travel
and made sure I arrived sufficiently ahead of time to verify that the
meeting room was properly set up and all the materials we needed were
in place. |
