Lean For Everyone

Conducting a Lean Assessment with Debra Levantrosser Setman and the Michigan Lean Consortium

The MLC is a great resource for learning with a fun mix of attendees and information sharing.

We had old members and first timers from a variety of industries.

It was about 30% consultants this time (which is understandable considering the topic) and the rest were a mix of Banking, Manufacturing, Healthcare, IT, Financial planning and even an ex NUMMI person.

I personally was delighted to see Bonnie R. Fahoome from The More Program who came out to see how the MLC can help Michigan's entrepreneurs.

 

Debra gave an nice overview of how to conduct an assessment and shared documents on how to perform them.

The documents were very helpful to anyone who has never done a lean assessment.  It broke down the grading system to 4 levels.  I've listed them below however the documents are comprehensive and proprietary so I can't post them :(

• 0  -I think you can guess what Zero means-
• 1  Stability
• 2  Flow
• 3  Pull
• 4  Integration

Probably one of the best reasons to join the MLC is to get access to this type info.

Most interesting to me is that during a lean assessment the use of tools rarely even comes up.  This makes perfect sense since lean culture or the desire for change is the real indicator for long term success.

Several of the consultants also shared documents and examples that they have used in the past.  Murray Sittsamer from The Luminous Group brought some nice examples from his workshops and assessments that allowed us to compare and contrast to Debra's.

We had some lively discussion (no yelling just lively) but the best part was that there were people from so many different backgrounds everyone had something to bring to the table.  We didn't all agree on some items...but you still had some great takeaways.

 

Jon Wetzel (That's me) presented how to use lean outside of the work to improve the rest of your life as well.

• Using lean all day devotes more time to learning its concepts.
• An hour gained in your home life….is yours to keep!
• Lean can be implemented faster at home because you have 100% leadership “buy in”.
• As people feel these successes at home they will become lean champions for the work place.

What better way to learn lean than by teaching people how to use its tools and methods to save time doing the laundry, simplify cutting the lawn or even losing excess weight.

This gets people excited about lean and gives them the opportunity to practice it all day long.  That's 8 hours at work and 8 hours at home ( and hopefully 8 hours sleep).

 

At the end of every MLC training event we do a "What worked?  What didn't?  and What do you want?

Everyone participates, there's immediate feedback and notes taken for changes to make.  The MLC  learns how to have a better event for next time...they practice what they preach!

 

Hoshin Kanri Training with Les Sutherland and the Michigan Lean Consortium

I had a great time at this MLC event and now understand the power of Hoshin Planning

Les really knows his stuff.

Les is a  Lean Six Sigma Coach for the Operations Department in the US Federal Government’s Housing and Urban Development.  He also helped design and implement Fords global lean system.

Most importantly he's enjoyable to listen to and a great presenter.  He had several real life examples to draw from which made for a great seminar.

 

The attendees were mostly from healthcare but we had a good mix.

There were about 25 of us in total and I think about 60% were from a variety of hospitals in the area:  Cardinal Health, University of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System and St. Mary's just to name a few.

We did have several consultants, and others from ATT, Atlas Oil and even Lazy Boy.  this made for a good mix which always makes for good discussions.

 

Items that I took away:

• Hoshin helps to bridge the gap between upper and lower parts of the organization.
• For Hoshin to work you need systems thinking on all levels of the organization.
• Hoshin is about implementing and managing change.
• Policy deployment does not instantly change the current work.
• You need leading and laging indicators to guide your growth.
• You need to have "double loop learning" if you want to fix your problems.
• Understanding the 5 phases of Hoshin planning.
• Performing a SWOT analysis (Strength's Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
• Creating Break Through Objectives (BTO's)
• How to perform a Force Field Analysis.
• Nemawashi - getting buy in from everyone before implementation
• Catchball - the give and take negotiations that are used to align policy from the top down

 

We even had time to break up into 3 teams for a workshop on how to use some of the Hoshin documents.

We broke up into 3 teams and  and started by filling out an  X-matrix and creating: BTO's, Annual Objectives, Improvement Projects and Metrics.

We  utilized a Balanced Scorecard for Measurement Selection and then tracked Key Performance Indicators using a monthly bowler chart.

 

I am no longer confused by Hoshin Planning

I tried to learn this on my own however I couldn't grasp the complexity of the X-Matrix diagram.  Les made it much easier to understand and where there was once a cloud of confusion there is now enlightenment and understanding.

 

About the Michigan Lean Consortium

For those of you who are not familiar with the Michigan Lean Consortium you should really check them out.  I paid for an annual membership for only $40.00 and I've been to many of their training sessions and benchmarking events.

The people are great the organization is solid and it's filled with many experts who just want to share their knowledge with others who want to learn and make Michigan a great place to work.

 

I hope to see you at the next MLC event.

 

 

Michigan Lean Consortium event at MSU's Broad College of Business

Dr. Brian Jacobs gave the keynote presentation for the Michigan Lean Consortium's event this month and I found it to be very enlightening.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jacobs   is an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at MSU's Broad College of Business.  He  gave us an overview of their supply chain curriculum and how lean philosophies are incorporated into it. 

 

The key points I took home were:

• Logistics, Operations and Procurement were all given equal weight in the curriculum. 
• The course contains a mixture of lectures, guest speakers, field trips (Ex. GM Delta Township Assembly Plant) and hands on exercises.  We've all done the lego workshop so why rehash it.
• Waste reduction, respect for people and management philosophy were all well covered.
• The curriculum used to be more manufacturing but is now moved to being more service based in the past 2 years.

 

During the Q&A section we heard from 3 students who were going to graduate in the spring.

 They were all members of the executive board of the Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA) at MSU and they provided us some good first person perspective on the SCM job market.

• GM, Ford, Chrysler, Penske and Whirlpool have all been hiring recently
• At the career fairs they've seen more retailers like Kohl's and JcPenney's, also there has been more pharma in attendance than in previous years
• Anecdotally - it looks like only 10% of the graduating students are staying in Michigan because the search for jobs is taking them elsewhere.
• The SCMA is the 2nd largest student association on campus.  #1 is snowboarding...hey...it's Michigan!

I was very impressed with these 3 seniors during the Q&A.  They gave straightforward honest answers to some difficult questions. 

 

Dr. Jacobs, The Eli Broad College of Business and MSU should be very proud to have produced such a solid group of graduates.

The Michigan Lean Consortium believes in Michigan...so should you!!

We had our end of the year event for the MLC last week and the outlook for 2011 is awesome.

 

 

Background:

The Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) is a 501(c)(6) which translates to a not-for-profit organization that wants to help business get better at what they do.

It's vision is simple: "...to make Michigan one of the best places in the country to live, learn and earn.

 

 

Dr. Brian Jacobs from the Eli Broad College of Business at MSU was our guest speaker for this event.

Dr. Jacobs gave us a good overview of the curriculum for the Department of Supply Chain Management and what courses and philosophies were taught to the students.  I won't go into too much detail because Dr. Jacobs and the student council that attended deserve their own blog post.

 

We practice what we preach so..what can we do to be better for 2011

Next was the brainstorming session to compile information from the members for the board to help them plan for 2011

5 pieces of large paper were posted in different sections.  Each was numbered 1 thru 5 and given a title and each was moderated by a board member.

• Events
• Governance
• Geography
• Community Projects
• Fundraising

The attendees counted off 1 thru 5  and then went to the corresponding numbered sheet of paper.  There were 5 members in my group of "4's" and we started at Fundraising.   We brainstormed and wrote ideas up on the paper for 10 minutes and then everyone rotated to the next sheet.

I wanted to post how this was done because everyone had a chance to voice an opinion and the board members were at the gemba to hear directly from the members. 

It also made sure that everyone interacted with a different group of people than those you were sitting with.

Networking

Directly after announcing the new board and doing a 2010 year in review we all adjourned to a networking event.  I had the chance to meet and speak to many new people from a variety of different industries.  The best part is they all have the same focus, to make Michigan better.

The following day the Board was planning an all day session for Hoshin planning for the 2011 year. 

 

I've never been so confident about an organization.  As a member I feel good about participating and truly feel that my voice is heard.

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)

A brief review of the Michigan Lean Consortium benchmarking event hosted by DTE Energy

I attended a Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) benchmarking event hosted by DTE Energy yesterday and I was impressed.

The Director of Continuous Improvement (CI) , Jason Schulist, gave us an overview of their improvement efforts from 1998 to present. 

The presentation was very good and I really got a idea for what their journey had been like through the past 13 years.  It gave me an understanding of DTE's philosophy and some of their "internal vocabulary."  They used a phrase I liked very much, "True North" as opposed to "Future State", to show what direction you should be moving in.

The highlight of the event was the Q&A session:

Gerry Anderson, COO, David Meador, CFO, and Jason Schulist, gave us their time to have a Q&A panel discussion for over an hour.  During this hour I was so jealous of Jason because it was very obvious that Gerry and David understood CI and the importance of it.  They live it and breath it.  They KNOW that it is one of the most important parts of their company.  To have that type of support on the top levels of leadership is what makes CI flourish at DTE.

The greatest burst of improvements  were in late 2008 to 09 when the economy turned south and DTE needed to find ways to save more money.  They essentially let the employees “off leash” to do continuous improvements:

Much of the CI efforts prior to that were decided farther up the chain and had less and less people involvement.  In 2008 DTE realized this and wanted to get the empowerment back to the workers.  The employees were “let off leash” to find ways to save money.  The results were “shocking, in a good way” said Gerry Anderson.   They found ways to save money we hadn’t even thought of.

One of the stories he related was the cost to replace the outdated consoles used to run the large generators at the plants.  To replace a console costs about $26 mil.  When the employees really studied the problem the only outdated portion was a memory module which cost $1 mil to replace.

Jason, Gerry and David all agreed that honest communication with the employees is the ONLY way to do business.  This is in addition to the engagement of leadership and commitment to people.

 

The moderator, Debra Setman, did a superb job.

After each Q&A she completed a 45 sec synopsis of the answers.  This made it much easier to listen to the Q&A and not have to take copious notes.

I was very happy that I was able to make it to this event.  It gave me insight into DTE from an executive level and a view of what true leadership in a Lean company looks like.  If they keep going "True North" I have no doubt they will get to their destination.

How the Michigan Lean Consortium is going to help fix the state through Continuous Improvement

Imagine an entire state filled with companies all dedicated to continuous improvement (CI).  That's exactly what the Michigan Lean Consortium (MLC) sees as the "Future State Map" of Michigan.

 

There are already many Michigan companies with CI programs.  Here's just a few:

DTE Energy

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Johnson & Johnson

Trinity Health

Battle Creek Health Systems

Saint Mary's Health Care

 

There are also companies dedicated to helping businesses understand and implement Lean, Six Sigma, and other types of CI programs:

Lean for Everyone

RWD Technologies

The Lean Learning Center

The Pawley Institute

How is the MLC going to do this? 

The excerpt below is taken right from the Michigan Lean Consortium website

"The Michigan Lean Consortium is a diverse network of knowledgeable lean professionals who come together to share innovative practices. The organization aims to create a lean culture in Michigan to ensure sustainable competitive advantage, which could translate into healthier businesses that offer more job opportunities leading to economic growth in the state.

Vision

All organizations pursue excellence to make Michigan one of the best places in the country to live, learn and earn.

Mission

Offer a diverse network to share innovative practices ensuring sustainable competitive advantage in Michigan, measured by economic, environmental and social health.

Values

• A teaching and learning atmosphere
• Cross-industry participation
• Learning facilitated by hands-on and "go-and-see" experiences
• Bias toward action, innovation and experimentation
• Cultural transformation
• Customer needs
• Broad and diverse participation
• Measurable results
• Networking"
 

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I believe in this mission and am a member of the MLC.

If new and emerging companies can learn about Lean while in their infancy and older companies can embrace the change and transition to a workplace of continuous improvement,  then Michigan will quickly become "The place to work" in all the 50 States.