Absenteeism

So I've been away for a bit... the new job has had me pretty busy as well as all the wedding planning. I have most of the "Undercover Bosses" DVR'd until I have time to sit down and watch them and will (eventually) blog about them as well.

Between now and then, I'm prepping for a kaizen event at work, focusing on part shortage problems that we're having in the Final Assembly area. If I have any interesting tidbits to share between now and then, I will... otherwise I'll use this space to debrief a bit after the event as well.

Until next time...

Undercover Boss: Episode #2

Given that this is the "Gemba Walk" blog, it seems appropriate to give a few thoughts regarding "Undercover Boss" and the go-to-gemba nature of the show. My hope is to post some thoughts about each episode and how the show strikes me in a continuous improvement context.

Humility

http://blogs.hbr.org/fox/2010/02/toyotas-version-of-the-sports.html

Justin Fox on his new blog at HBR has an interesting perspective to the crisis that Toyota is currently going through. The link to his post should be listed above (fingers crossed).

Fox relates the press and publicity that Toyota has gotten over the past 20+ years to the curse of athletes that appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. His argument is that the success and recognition Toyota experienced helped to drive an overall narrative that the company was about as close to perfect as one could get. Over hyped, may be the way to put it. Then, when Toyota had its most recent misstep(s), the hype machine began to run in reverse and the company could do no right. Fox argues that both situations could have been a little more grounded in reality, because in truth, even in the "do no wrong" years, there were still problems. There are no perfect organizations, otherwise we would have no need for the continuous improvement processes that Toyota championed for so many years.

Fox's post also got me to thinking about a couple things. The first is that while we were busy praising Toyota for their accomplishments, we didn't practice the final few steps of the PDCA process they championed. We were incomplete with our Checking, ignoring some of the more negative effects of Toyota's rapid growth rates. And when we ignore this step, any Adjusting will be incomplete at best. We should have realized, at some point in this process, that continuous improvement is about facing those hard realities head on, finding the root cause, then implementing the best solutions to become a more effective organization.

I also found myself thinking about what it must have been like to be a Toyota employee during the years of being the pinnacle of benchmarks. This is going to sound a little obvious, but I got to thinking how organizations like Toyota are fundamentally human. I mean this in the sense that because people run these organizations, they are responsive, sometimes emotionally so, to both praise and criticism. If I, as a Toyota employee, am constantly surrounded by reminders of how good the organization is (benchmarking tours, magazine articles, stock price, etc) would I start to become blind to any data that doesn't reinforce the positive stereotypes that I'm bombarded with?. I know the answer for me is yes, and so I think that it is quite possible that the overly positive stimuli Toyota received for its success actually contributed to the current predicament. If employees start to ignore problems, subconsciously or not, disasters are not that far behind.

So I titled this post "Humility" because a) I think that's what Toyota's getting a bit of a dose of now, and b) because we can all take a lesson in humility away from this situation. If we, as individuals and organizations, are able to accept praise graciously, and not become consumed by it, that humility will help us remember that great progress is most often borne out of solutions to failures. I do believe that Toyota will realize this again and eventually regain its credibility.

...........................

Sidebar: I'm under no illusions of grandeur that this is some widely read blog. Though I have noticed recently that many of the blog postings have been viewed upwards of 30 times. I know I don't look at each post that often myself, so there must be a few other people out there browsing. Whether you've come here via a link in one of my social networking profiles or just stumbled here randomly, do know that I am interested in any feedback or thoughts you might have and would welcome the conversation.

Also, I updated the look of the blog today as well. About as creative as I can get without more knowledge of HTML or CSS. Let me know your thoughts...

Until next time...

Undercover Boss: Episode #1

Given that this is the "Gemba Walk" blog, it seems appropriate to give a few thoughts regarding "Undercover Boss" and the go-to-gemba nature of the show. My hope is to post some thoughts about each episode and how the show strikes me in a continuous improvement context.

Company: Waste Management, Inc.
Manager Name and Title: Larry O'Donnell, President and COO

Best Line/Phrase of the Night: "It's a battlefield of poop!" -Fred, the toilet cleaner

Maybe it's because I'm still young in my career, but it is constantly astonishing to me how many managers and, as in this case, corporate officers do not realize that the decisions they make do have a real impact on the employees that work for them. Early in this episode we heard Larry talk a lot about wanting to see first hand how the productivity and efficiency practices he's put in place are working in the field. I believe that in the business they call this "foreshadowing." He was clearly not expecting to experience some of the negative consequences these productivity and efficiency initiatives had created. Labor cutbacks at a weigh station required one person to do the job of six employees, completely devoid of hyperbole. Truck drivers didn't feel they could stop to use the bathroom while on their routes because they were required to cover a certain area in a specified period of time. While I can agree that performance should be measured and reach goals should be set, I think we can also agree that a priority realignment is needed when an old coffee can becomes a toilet.

I would say that it's fairly clear that the people Larry worked with at each step were hand picked to help construct an uplifting and inspiring narrative for the show. But I do believe that each person was genuinely who they are in real life, and that itself will bring me back for more each week. I see shades of current and former coworkers in each of the people profiled along the way. The infectiously optimistic employee that brings a smile to the face of everyone he works with. The person that has incredibly high expectations and takes great pride in his and others' ability to meet them, regardless of the obstacles they face. The tireless worker who is always willing to take on additional work and help where necessary to advance the goals of the company.

Larry recognized these qualities in the people he met and was right on when he said that Waste Management would be an even better place to work if they had more people that exhibited them. His challenge, and ours, now is to learn how to foster these traits across an organization. Larry did wonders for the 4 or 5 people he worked with on his gemba walk, rewarding them for their hard work and passion. And I imagine that they will become some of Waste Management's most fiercely loyal employees.

Here's hoping that out of this story of the few we are able to take some lessons about valuing all people and each of their contributions to the organization. There can only be upside if we do.

Until next time...

Poka Yolk

So I went grocery shopping yesterday and needed eggs to replace the ones I had accidentally left out on the counter all day. I went to Shop Rite, not my usual store, because my company gave us gift cards from there for the holidays.

When the cashier was bagging my groceries, she saved the eggs until last and put them in a special smaller yellow bag. My first thought was "Sweet! Bathroom trash bag!" My next thought was about error proofing.

I think this is a great use of poka yoke in customer grocery handling. I know on more than one occasion I've thoughtlessly pulled my grocery bags out of the car, banging them on doors and such, not paying attention to which bag the eggs are in. I've been lucky that none have broken from this over the years, but that is probably more a credit to packaging engineers than anything else. In any event, the visual signal of a yellow bag is a great reminder that I need to be extra careful when handling it because it helps my brain remember that it has delicate contents.

Lean training?

So I had an odd conversation with one of our company's contracted lean trainers today. A little background first... we were able to apply for a state grant to cover training through the state's MEP program and so far have made good use of the added training dollars. However, because the money comes from the state, through us, then to the MEP program for payment, there's a lot of regulations and paperwork to wade through. On the whole though, it's worth it for the help in offsetting some of the costs in training our employees.

As a part of the grant, the state expects you to fill each training with a minimum number of employees (varies by topic) and can restrict you from getting grant money in future years if the company does not use all the allocated funds during the grant timeframe. Logically, this makes sense as the states wants to try and ensure somewhat efficient disbursement of funds to industry. The end goal obviously being to help companies grow to the benefit of the state.

However, the restriction on future grant applications being accepted when the current year money is not fully used seems to create very wasteful behaviors.

Case in point, in the conversation I had with our lean trainer, he mentioned that towards the end of our time under the grant, if we haven't used up all our days, it might be a good idea to still use them, even if those days will be less productive.

If I were Tim Allen, you know the noise I would make.

To be fair, he qualified his statement to say that it's not his preference, but that it would be to the benefit to the company in the long run should we want to apply for other grants. It'd be to the trainers benefit as well I suppose.

So while the time to make this kind of decision is still several months away, it does make me wonder which direction we will go. Holding less productive training sessions just for the sake of having them is muda. Big, fat muda. But you can also make the case that it is a form of waste if money is available from the state with these grants, and we are not able to take advantage of it. Kind of a classic opportunity cost problem. By having lower productivity now, do we gain enough in future productivity (from future training and process implementation)?

I am concerned about the perception of having less-productive Lean sessions, and the effect it would have on our overall implementation effectiveness. However, if we're not able to fund Lean training on our own in the future, and can't participate in state grant programs, is it really in the best interest of the company to stand on the principles of lean when the outcome is suboptimal for the company?

Until next time...

Overheard at Starbucks...

While at Starbucks yesterday, I was waiting for my Java Chip Light Frappuccino when I happened to overhear a couple of the baristas discussing a frustration. Apparently, when working at the coffee bar they both find it annoying to have customers bring over empty milk carafes from the self service area looking for a refill. The reason, as they stated it, was because the refills were all the way in the back and making the trip to get one requires leaving the bar and thus delaying other customers' drink delivery.

Now, setting aside concerns as to whether or not they should have been airing such frustrations so loudly, the first thing that popped into my head was the need for a kaizen event focused on milk replenishment. As always, I was first going through solutions for the baristas' frustration in my head, reacting to my tendency to be tactical and come up with fixes on the spot. I eventually was able to step back though and realize that these types of situations, two co-workers discussing a problem on the job, is the very reason it's so important to spend time at gemba. It is a rare instance when observations like these are brought up at staff improvement meetings. It's been my experience that those are mostly used to air grievances. How much more productive could we be if instead of trying to brainstorm in a meeting, we spent more time on the floor observing and understanding, using the meeting time to organize initial thoughts and plans? More pointedly, for myself, how many times have I heard conversations like these at my own workplace and failed to act because of corporate momentum or personal biases?

Moments like these are gifts for leaders. It's an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to teach, and, perhaps most importantly, an opportunity to improve. Little things like milk replenishment can make all the difference on a customers experience and whether they choose to repeat their business.

So while the trip was worthwhile for me from a lean learning standpoint, I can't say the same about the Frappuccino. Next time I'll be sticking with my regular coffee and leaving the Franken-drinks to more adventurous souls.

Until next time... I'll be working on recognizing the mini-kaizens that are presented daily and doing my best to help improve.

The need to see gemba...

Really. . . ?

Respect the People