Most of us could get to work in half the time if we could just eliminate the stops and starts caused by traffic lights. Have you ever noticed how some drivers (or yourself) accelerate quickly then come to a quick stop at the next light or stop sign and then repeat the same process over again? If you are driving in the car beside that person you may feel good when you pass them or if you have the lights timed correctly. The waste of starting and stopping reminds me of the opportunities for waste elimination that can be accomplished through production smoothing—a foundation of the Toyota Production System. When a car accelerates to quickly brake again, think of the waste that is produced: excess fuel, wear and tear on the brakes and of course frustration that often results in a few superlatives from having to continually start, stop and restart.

What would happen if could create a steady pace between lights or in heavy traffic? The flow would be much smoother and there would be less waste. If the entire traffic pattern followed that example it would be much more efficient; production smoothing attempts to do just that by smoothing out the peaks and valleys of the production orders. Production smoothing helps to reduce overtime and the need for moving people in and out of a process.

Organizations often experience quality issues when responding to unexpected peaks in demand. Oftentimes, we must quickly ramp up production and introduce new associates who may be unfamiliar with the manufacturing process. When production smoothing is done correctly, you periodically and methodically adjust your output just like you do when driving through a different speed zone. True, a steady pace may not be as exciting as quick accelerations and stops but a smooth flow makes for a better process with less waste.

At work, people often spend most of their day jumping from one fire to the next or expediting orders or activities to make up for hiccups in the system. Just like a steady driving pace, the elimination of constant fire-fights in the workplace might be less exciting, but it is definitely more productive. What do you think? Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise at work to have a steady flow of work with fewer interruptions and emergencies? While you may not get the same sense of accomplishment as putting out a fire, you would have more time to focus on other, more value added activities. Do you think you could get used to that?

The medical device industry is facing a tough environment – US regulatory process, the device excise tax, sluggish sales, pricing pressures and caps on reimbursement rates. Many executives in this industry summarize the environment as “challenging” and “uncertain”. Another area of concern is the impact of globalization and outsourcing. Because of the tougher environment in the US many medical device companies have resorted to growing sales by focusing on international markets and global sourcing. The increase in the excise tax, 2.3 percent by 2013, is having a negative impact on technology innovation.

So what is a medical device company to do in such an environment??

One such company has decided to combat these pressures by focusing on their continuous improvement (CI) transformation. They used value stream mapping (VSM) to quickly identify improvement opportunities. The main focus has been on driving quality improvements and cost reductions, but they have also started creating a Visual Factory. By making sure they have the proper safety, quality, delivery and cost metrics in place, supervisor training implemented with Managing for Daily Improvement (MDI) techniques, and shoring up the CI team they have achieved 30 to 40 percent improvements in productivity, reduced lead time by 50 percent or better, and reduced defects by 60 to 70 percent. Strong senior management sponsorship within the company has also been a key success factor in their improvement journey.

Read a case study on another medical device company that has had similar results.

For more than three decades, Lean Production Systems have been successfully utilized and deployed globally to transform the operations of all types of companies, small, large, private and public.  Originally developed and popularized by Toyota, lean has been the operational excellence tool of choice for companies wanting to reduce cost, free up working capital and grow organically.  For those companies that have reaped the benefits of lean for the past several years, what is the next frontier?

Lean transformation is a never ending journey and we expand our line of sight beyond manufacturing operations, logistics and distribution.  Many companies are beginning to deploy lean techniques in transactional processes using business process kaizen to reduce lead time and eliminate waste.  However, many of these efforts in transactional areas are sub-optimized and are happening in functional silos when they can and should be applied to all areas of selling, general and administrative expense (SG&A) including: finance, human resources, sales, marketing and customer service.

The most effective way to deploy lean enterprise-wide is through end-to-end value stream management. An end-to-end value stream contains many value streams including product development and commercialization, marketing and sales, fulfillment, and after-market service to name a few.  Each end-to-end value stream is aligned to specific values that a different set of customers want.  For instance, a company can have one end-to-end value stream serving specialty customers and another end-to-end value stream serving retail customers.   Basically, stratified value stream management approaches allow you to align specific offerings and service strategies specifically to varying customer needs.

If you have a chance, check out a recent webinar we developed on stratified fulfillment value streams.   There will be more information coming on how to define, implement, and manage end-to-end value streams to identify waste opportunities and maximize customer satisfaction.

Why? How is it that such a short and simple question can make you crazy when asked over and over again by a small child? Probably because we quickly realize that we don’t really know WHY something happens when we start peeling back the onion. However, that childlike persistent curiosity can pay some serious dividends if we want to understand the true reason something happens.

There are many effective tools to help get to the root cause of a problem and find a solution that is quick and efficient; one of my favorite is 5 Whys (5Y). The 5 Whys method simply states to ask why until you get to the root cause of a problem and then address that issue.

A classic example is when the National Parks Service was faced with the issue that the Lincoln Memorial was showing varying degrees of deterioration. The task force that was established to understand how to slow the deterioration found that weekly washing with high powered washers was causing most of the wear. If they stopped here, the solution would have been to find a different cleaning method—likely one that would have been slower and more costly. Instead, the National Parks Service used the 5 Why method.

1. Why is the Lincoln Memorial deteriorating?

A: Due to the use of weekly high pressure water cleaning methods.

2. Why do we clean the Lincoln Memorial so often using high pressure water?

A: Because of bird droppings.

3. Why do the birds congregate at the Lincoln Memorial?

A: Because the birds have a large food supply of spiders that live above the monument.

4. Why are the spiders so plentiful above the Lincoln Memorial?

A: Because there is a large food supply of insects.

5. Why is there a large supply of insects in the area of the Lincoln Memorial?

A: The insects hatch around sunset and are attracted to the lights on the Lincoln Memorial.

Solution: Since insects are attracted to the lights, then why not delay the monument lights until 30 minutes after sunset and allow the bugs to relocate themselves by finding other lights in the area?

Result: The bugs and spiders were greatly reduced, which caused the birds to no longer congregate in this area and leave their droppings.

The moral of this story: Ask why with reckless abandon. Pretend you’re a kid and don’t feel limited by the first answer you get. You might fix the real problem once and for all.