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Selecting and Sequencing Work Processes for Improvement - Raphael L. Vitalo and Joseph P. Vitalo

Problem

 

You have narrowed your focus for doing Kaizen events to several candidate work processes. You cannot Kaizen all of them at once. You ask for guidance from leadership and are told that improving every one of the candidates is urgent. How do you proceed?

Solution

We suggest using a criterion rating approach to prioritizing the candidate work processes. It evaluates each work process against a set of criteria that represent your business improvement goals. This approach allows you to evaluate to what extent improving each work process will contribute to realizing these goals. Use the results of this activity to rank order the candidate work processes. The first ranked process is where you begin your improvement efforts. Schedule the remaining work processes for Kaizen events beginning with the second ranked process and proceeding to the lowest ranked work process. Here is how it is done.

1.  

Build a table with the names of the processes as column headers (see example in Exhibit 1, below).

   
Tip: Use an electronic spreadsheet to build your table. It will complete the computations that you need to do in the steps below.
 
2.   Create a row for each business driver or key business concern.
Tip: A business driver is your business' near-term for improving its operations and the results. Use the name of the business driver as the name of each row. Examples of business drivers are "improve profit margins," "elevate customer satisfaction with delivered product," and "increase revenues." Add to this list any concerns management may have with regard to making improvements. For example, management may feel that it is critical that improvements occur speedily, that success in making improvements have a high likelihood, or that the cost expended to make improvement be minimized.
     
3.   Establish a rating scale for evaluating work processes against drivers and concerns.
Tip: Keep the scale simple until it is clear you need greater precision in your judgments. Consider using a qualitative judgment of how well doing a Kaizen event on each work process will satisfy each business driver or concern (e.g., "not at all," "a little"). See a description of a simple qualitative scale in the footnote to Exhibit 1.
     
4.   Rate how well the improvement of each work process would satisfy each driver and concern.
Tip: Apply the rating scale. Use the best information you can obtain from people knowledgeable of the work process and its affects on business drivers. Use your knowledge of Kaizen and the work setting to judge how well the improvement of the work process would satisfy listed concerns. Record your ratings in the table you prepared.
     
5.   Compute the total score each process receives.
Tip: Sum the ratings for each candidate work process. You can also average the ratings. If you use the latter approach, the number reflects the typical rating the work process received on the scale you created.
     
6.   Rank the candidate work processes.
Tip: The work process with the highest score ranks first, next highest second, and so forth.

 

 

Exhibit 1 - Example of Table and a Qualitative Scale1

 
 

Business Drivers/Concerns

Name of Process #1

Name of Process #2

Name of Process #n

 
  Improve profit margins 5.00 2.00 2.00  
  Elevate customer satisfaction with delivered products 3.00 5.00 2.00  
  Increase revenues 4.00 2.00 2.00  
  Produce results fast 4.00 3.00 1.00  
  Have a high likelihood of success 3.00 4.00 5.00  
  Least cost expended to get improvement 4.00 3.00 5.00  
  Etc.  
  Totals 23.00 19.00 17.00  
  Average 3.83 3.17 2.83  
  1. Rating Scale: Level 1 - Will not satisfy this driver or concern at all; Level 2 - Will satisfy this driver or concern a little; Level 3 - Will satisfy this driver or concern somewhat; Level 4 - Will satisfy this driver or concern a great deal; Level 5 - Will satisfy this driver or concern completely.  
           

Make Finer Distinctions

To make even sharper judgments about what priority to assign improving each candidate work process, use the importance of a driver and concern in your evaluation. For example, you can assign each driver or concern an importance score ranging from 1 to 10, where 1 is least critical and 10 is most critical (see Exhibit 2). Complete your ratings as before. Now, however, compute the cell value for how well a process satisfies a driver or concern by multiplying the importance of the driver or concern by the rating you assigned the candidate work process (see Exhibit 2). Sum the ratings for each candidate work process—however, do not compute the average rating.1. This method produces finer distinctions between candidate processes that otherwise rate evenly.

 

 

Exhibit 2. Example of Table and a Qualitative Scale1 Using Weights

 
 

Business Drivers/Concerns

Name of Process #1

Name of Process #2

Name of Process #n

 
  Improve profit margins [10] 2 [10x 5 rating] = 50 [10x 2 rating] = 20 [10x 2 rating] = 20  
  Elevate customer satisfaction with delivered products [10] [10x 3rating] = 30 [10x 5 rating] = 50 [10x 2 rating] = 20  
  Increase revenues [9] [9 x 4 rating] = 36 [9 x 2 rating] = 18 [9 x 2rating] = 18  
  Produce results fast [8] [8 x 4 rating] = 32 [8x 3 rating] = 24 [8x 1 rating] = 8  
  Have a high likelihood of success [7] [7 x 3 rating] = 21 [7 x 4 rating] = 28 [7 x 5 rating] = 35  
  Least cost expended to get improvement [4] [4 x 4 rating] = 16 [4 x 3 rating] = 12 [4 x 5 rating] = 20  
  Etc.  
  Totals 185.00 152.00 121.00  
 

1. Rating Scale: Level 1 - Will not satisfy this driver or concern at all; Level 2 - Will satisfy this driver or concern a little; Level 3 - Will satisfy this driver or concern somewhat; Level 4 - Will satisfy this driver or concern a great deal; Level 5 - Will satisfy this driver or concern completely.
2. The single number in brackets ([ ] ) that appears after each concern indicates how important satisfying that concern is to the business. "1" is least important and "10" is most important.

 
           

Summary

By applying the criterion rating method described above, you can resolve the question of how to sequence work processes for improvement. The method offers several benefits. First, it allows you to explain, step-by-step, how you arrived at your decision. Second, your approach incorporates the major goals of the business and concerns of its leadership. Leadership, therefore, will be better able to understand your explanation and see it as responding to the business's needs. Third, the entire process can be done with a team of people. You can involve your Action Team, if your lean initiative is using such a vehicle for organizing and implementing improvement events. Or, you can do it with representatives from the various work processes. The point is, the method allows you to engage and involve others and that builds the participation you need to make and sustain work process improvements. Finally, the method is transferable. You can use this criterion rating approach to make any complex or difficult decision. Simply define the goal for the decision, identify the key concerns related to accomplishing that goal, generate alternatives, and evaluate each alternative against each concern. We use this method during Kaizen events—e.g., to decide which improvements to proceed with when the team is undecided or the consequences of error are high. We also use it with lean planning teams, since it allows everyone to express their views and enables a better buy-in on whatever the final decision is.

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Footnote

1The meaning of the average rating has changed given the use of importance scores.

Published April 2006; Revised October 2006

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