Lean For Everyone

Book Review: In-N-Out Burger (A behind the counter look.. by Stacy Perman)

If you put your customers first, work closely with your suppliers, offer the best quality and treat your employees well then you will be successful.  That's what IN-N-OUT learned over the past 60+years.

Background:   IN-N-OUT was started by Harry and Esther Snyder in 1948. After 62 years it is still a family owned business with over 200 + locations and has an almost cult following on the West Coast.  The menu has remained virtually unchanged after all this time.

 

"QUALITY, CLEANLINESS, AND SERVICE!" Is the foundation for the success of this family business.  In-N-Out has its own butchers, bakes its own buns, uses only the highest quality vegetables and its fries are all made in house from raw potatoes.

 

Only the store managers flip the burgers:  A manger can be paid over 100K and is the only one running the grill.  "It was the altar upon which the whole enterprise rested".  Talk about the Gemba...they live it.

In-N-Out has its own University for training managers.  "Since every burger was made to order- a beef patty didn't go down until an order ticket went up.  It required a tremendous amount of coordination and speed, requiring three to six months just to learn to operate and manage."

It's a combination of standardized work with respect for people.  "While those at the store level were expected to rigidly adhere to procedure, the company had a real "respect for creativity and judgment."  This sounds like a Lean company to me.

The book talks more about the family than the systems: The book chronicles the history of the Snyder's and the growth of In-N-Out.  It's more of a biography of the family:  their successes and failures both in their personal lives and the business.  It begins in 1906 with Harry's father and ends in 2008 with his granddaughter Lynsi (heiress to the burger fortune) giving birth to twins...and the opening of store 215.

I ate my first In-N-Out in 1996 when I moved to California.  The sheer volume they do in a store is mind boggling while still putting out a high quality product.  The employees are happy and the customers don't mind waiting in long lines.

This book talks much about the Snyder family and by understanding them it's obvious to see that great leadership and a respect for people has produced another American icon.

How to Have a Lean Party: LeanBlog Guest Post

Mark Graban, a Senior Fellow at the Lean Enterprise Institute and author of the book Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction (winner of a 2009 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award), kindly asked me to provide a guest post for his blog.

Check out the post at: http://www.leanblog.org/2010/06/guest-post-how-to-have-a-lean-party/

He also has several other talented and intelligent individuals posting — read the complete list below:

The guest bloggers will be:

Date	Post Author
14-Jun	Tracey Richardson
15-Jun	Mark Jackson
16-Jun	Alicia Simmer
17-Jun	Jim Huntzinger
18-Jun	Mark Hamel
19-Jun	Brian Buck
20-Jun	Jon Wetzel
21-Jun	Matt Wrye
22-Jun	Andy Wagner
23-Jun	Patrick Anderson
24-Jun	Liz Guthridge
25-Jun	Jeff Hajek
26-Jun	Joe Dager
27-Jun	Ankit Patel
28-Jun	Tim McMahon
29-Jun	Dan Markovitz

I would also like to make a special note.  The entire above sections was shameless taken from Alicia Simmer.  She did such a great job doing the intro for Mark...I just couldn't see the reason to do the re-work. 

Is putting up a tent as simple as 1, 2, 3 and 4?

I was at my cousin's graduation party and we had to set up a spare tent.  The 10 minute assembly took about 15 minutes.  That's about 33% longer then it should have.  The question is why?

The sun was starting to heat up one of the tables so I was asked by my cousin A. to set up a spare 10' x 6' tent.  I elicited the help of my cousin M. and my other cousin's boyfriend E. to help.

 

 I told M. to connect poles 1 and 2 and connect the other poles in the following configuration 3 - 4 - 3.  I even showed him a picture of what it would look like. M. started to connect the poles and E. began to help. 

After 4 minutes we had a pile of connected poles and three poles that weren't connected.  All three extra poles  said "#2" on them.  I immediately realized....."I've got a new Blog post!!"

 

Why were the poles connected wrong?

1. M. didn't hear 100% of what I said and started assembling
2. E. wasn't there when I gave the instructions and started assembling
3. I didn't make sure they knew exactly what to do

In retrospect it's easy to see how the confusion occurred and that everyone had the best of intentions.  These same types of verbal instructions are given to people everyday causing a loss of time and an increase in defects.  In a company this can add up to big money.  For us it didn't have as much of an impact.

The cost of wasting 5 minutes due to improper instructions?  Minimal.  Cost to spend some quality time with my cousins and have something to laugh about? Priceless

300 miles + 1 empty suitcase = NOT a Lean trip

If you're going on a trip you might want to recheck the luggage before you leave otherwise you might be carrying bags that contain...nothing, nada, zippo!

I love my family because whenever they visit I always have additional items for my blog.

In this instance my sister H. and nephews N. and C. arrived at the train station with all their luggage including 1 empty suitcase (picture at left)

What ensued was a fun filled 5 Why exercise and root cause analysis as to how they accidentally brought an empty suitcase.

We were able to conclude that N. was originally planning on taking the black suitcase but changed his mind and packed his duffel bag instead.

The suitcase however still stayed in the "pile" of luggage and when they were running behind C. was told to load everything into the truck and he did what he was told.

When they were unloading the truck at the train station N. noted that the suitcase was really light and asked if there was anything in it.  C. replied "Mom said to load into the truck".

While they boarded the train H. helped with suitcases and realized how light it was and asked "Did you pack anything in here".  This is the "Aha" moment where they all realized they were boarding a train and traveling 300 miles with an empty suitcase.

It was too late to take it back home so it arrived safely at the train station here with a great blog story for you.

There are several lessons to be learned: empowerment, asking questions, ownership, JIT packing of suitcases and batching, to just name a few.

The important part is that they arrived safely and my family is here.  I even helped them carry their bags...guess which one I carried *smile*

Atlas Oil Company in Michigan is a workplace of continous improvement.

I had the pleasure of meeting 3 of Atlas's newest employees and I was impressed by what I heard about this Michigan company.

At a recent Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) event there were 2 hands on workshops involved.  One on Lean Culture and another on doing a PDCA within your company.  When we separated into teams I joined  3 young men (Nick, Joel and Tom) who were from Atlas Oil Company.

As we went through the culture exercise I listened to them talk about Atlas's people, systems, organizational structure and some of the stories about Sam Simon (Atlas's founder and CEO). 

I thought "This sounds like a fantastic company to become a part of."  What shocked me most is that these 3 guys had only been with the company for two weeks.  To have that much knowledge in such a short time meant that Atlas has a great employee orientation program as well.

This is what didn't surprise.

• That Atlas is one of the top places to work in Michigan
• That their leadership culture is prevalent from the CEO on down (Detroit Free Press article)

Going forward the Atlas Oil Company will be on my radar screen as one of the bright stars in Michigan

I also wanted to thank the MLC for being such a  great resource for learning and sharing with other companies.

By attending this event I:

• Learned how to run a workshop on Lean Culture
• Learned how to run a workshop on PDCA
• Met several great contacts
• Learned enough of Atlas Oil to make me very impressed

(NOTE- None of the information mentioned to me by the Joel, Tom or Nick was proprietary or confidential, this same information is available at Atlas's corporate website)

Can the 30 sec elevator pitch help Lean up your communication skills?

Being able to convey a message in under 30 seconds is not as easy as it sounds.  However with enough practice I think I can Lean up my communication skills.  How about you?

 

 

I went to a networking event at TechTown in Detroit last week.  What I enjoyed most was the new "30 sec elevator pitch" they did.   The event was quoted as "Brave entrepreneurs are invited to step up to the mike and give a 30-second pitch for their businesses to hundreds of attendees"

The set up to give a pitch was very well done.

There was a huge timer on a screen that counted down 30 secs and then buzzed to show that your time was up.  There was also a simple formula on the screen you could follow if you wanted:

• Your Name
• Your Company
• What services or commodities you offer
• One word that describes you today

What I found interesting was how difficult this was for some people, myself included.

About 80 out of the approx 250 attendees did give a pitch.  Some I understood perfectly like Ring RIng getting you vanity toll free numbers, others said their pitch but I didn't understand what the company actually did. 

The ones that stood out the most were still talking about "...offering the highest quality and best in class service with over 100 year of combined experience among our professional staff..." when the buzzer went off.  They still hadn't said what service they offered.

How often do all of us use a string of 50-cent words or ramble on instead of getting to the point?

Since this event I've decided to "Lean" up my communication skills. 

Twitter has helped by giving me only 140 characters to convey my message and I've been editing my new blog posts to Lean them up as well.  Even in conversations with my family and friends I've reduced my ramblings and increased valuable content.

How well do you stack up.

Test:  Set a timer for 30 seconds and say out loud what you do for a living.

FYI: I didn't pass this test the first time either.

How to potty train your child using lean methods.

Using Lean methods makes potty training easy to understand for my 2 year old.

"I have Potty Power!" shouts my 26 mo old daughter D. as she puts another sticker on her chart.

Potty training can be very difficult for your little one, however, with proper training and understanding of the end goal it can be much easier.

 

Training videos are a great tool to show how to use new equipment and explain the basics.

Potty Power is an awesome video to help give your kids the understanding of how to use a potty.  They even have a goal statement in their catchy song- "No more diapers for ME!"

 

Get familiar with the new equipment.  Touch it and test it.

If you expect your child to walk in on day one and sit down and use the potty you're nuts.  Seeing it on a video is one thing but actually using it is another. A toddler needs to feel it, sit on it and test out the potty before using it the first time.

 

Standardized work will help decrease the learning curve.

Get a set of procedures that you are going to use every time.  If your are going to have your child sit on the potty for 10 minutes at a time then set a timer so he/she knows when they are done. 

Have a few items around the potty to keep them occupied (many of us still read this way).  Finally,  make sure that everyone (both parents, nanny, siblings) knows the procedure so that everyone can  be consistent.

 

Have short term goals and make them visual.  Reward for completion.

Every time our daughter does number 1 she gets a sticker to put on her potty chart.  An additional, number 2 gets her a 2nd sticker.  A short term goal keeps momentum going and a visual chart to show progress helps to re-enforce it.  In this case it's also a reward for achievement.

Things are going well.  It's a new process with new equipment, so accidents will happen from time to time.  We learn from these mishaps and use continuous improvement to find new ways to make it easier for her.  We also sing our goal statement...."No more diapers for US"  Singing works too!

How does a Lean company stack up to "How The Mighty Fall" by Jim Collins?

This is not another review on Jim Collins's book.  This is about how his book relates to Lean companies.

 

If you plan to read the book I highly recommend listening to BusinessWeek's John A. Byrne interviewing Jim Collins on the book (audio mp3).  back in May of 09. 

To be honest, if you listen to the interview you will understand the 5 Stages of decline without even needing to read the book.  He covers the major points in under 30 minutes, however the book really does get your brain thinking so I still recommend it!

How does a company know when it's in trouble?  Profits may be soaring and customers are happy but at some point a company starts the journey towards failure.  The problem is that they might not realize it until it's too late.

The book looks at why companies fail and the 5 stages of decline that they all seem to go through during their demise.

• Stage 1 - Hubris Born of Success
• Stage 2 - Undisciplined Pursuit of More
• Stage 3 - Denial of Risk and Peril
• Stage 4 - Grasping for Salvation
• Stage 5 - Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

What I realized while reading the book is that Lean businesses don't fit the profile of a company that will go through these stages....unless they stop being Lean.

At any of the first 4 stages a company can reverse course and be saved.

"The critical question is, How does its leadership respond?  By lurching for a quick salvation or by getting back to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place?  Those who grasp for salvation have fallen into Stage 4."

     How the Mighty Fall - Jim Collins

Toyota teetered on the edge of Stage 4 however when they shifted their focus back to Lean and back to their customers they began to move out of their decline.

Here is the best part.  If your company uses Lean I don't think that these 5 stages will ever apply to you.  For everyone else, I suggest you listen to the interview so you can find out if you're in trouble right now and what you need to do to "reverse course"