By Mike Lee The green industry has seen its

share of business fads and trends over the years. Most nursery and greenhouse managers today have a “show me” atti-tude towards the latest and greatest idea to come down the pike.

“Lean” is not a new concept, but it’s new to the nursery industry. With exotic terms such as “kaizen,” “sensei,” and “takt time,” it’s understandable that nurs-eries are taking their time to embrace the management system.

Bailey Nurseries has adopted Lean, and this is an account of a kaizen event (translated “continuous improvement” event) held at Bailey Nurseries Yamhill, along with the results.

In the spring of 2008, Bailey man-agement elected to bring in a kaizen facilitator/coach to conduct training at our Minnesota and Oregon operations. The event was a week long “train the trainer” session, with the goal of empow-ering each attendee to conduct future events within the company.

It is worth noting that the trainer’s goal for our events was a 40 percent reduction in labor. That statement caused more than one set of eyes in the room to roll, but later we found that the goal

was achieved or surpassed in every case. One of our first kaizen events was

held in our propagation department, and the task was sticking softwood cuttings.

Establishing a paceA key component of Lean manage-

ment is determining the takt time for a particular job or operation. “Takt” is a German word referring to the beat or rhythm of music. In manufacturing, takt time provides a watermark for match-ing the pace of work with the average pace of customer demand. The formula for calculating takt time is time available divided by sold units.

At Bailey, 90 percent of our soft-wood production is vertically integrated; demand for production elements is determined by the next stage of produc-tion within the nursery. So in this case, the “customer” is the next operation. Thus, figuring takt time requires integrat-ing the window of time that the plants dictate is available for optimum rooting.

At Yamhill, the production schedule for softwoods is approximately five mil-lion units. Sticking of cuttings takes place May 15 to Aug. 1, a total of 58 working

24

▲

Bailey Nurseries

trims production

time by 40 percent

through the use of

Lean techniques

Kaizen and the art of softwood propagation

Mik

e Lee

Employees at Bailey Nurseries used a Lean continuous improvement process to discover inefficiencies. By devising this propagation cart they eliminated a great deal of re-work.

MARCH 2010 ▲ DIGGER 23

days. During each eight-hour day, we have two 10 minute breaks (required by law) and two five minute stretching sessions at the morning start and after lunch break, giving an actual work time of 450 minutes per day. The takt time for our cutting schedule is calcu-lated as follows:

Working minutes per day: 450Times number of working days

for softwood production: x 58Total number working minutes: = 26,100

Units (cuttings) to produce: 5,000,000Divided by total working minutes: ÷ 26,100Takt time (rounded up): = 192 cuttings

stuck per minute

Time observationsIn order to identify waste in a pro-

cess, a team must perform time observa-tions. This is where the team goes to the actual place the work is being performed and records every action the workers are making. Before this could be done, how-ever, the kaizen team had to unanimous-ly agree on the types of work conducted during the time observation phase of the event. We agreed on three:

Value Added (VA): Activities that change raw materials into product a cus-tomer is willing to pay for.

Non-Value Added but Necessary (NVABN): Functions that are a necessary part of doing business, such as payroll or OSHA and EPA compliance tasks.

Non-Value Added (NVA): Unnecessary motion, transportation, excess inventory, waiting on cycle time. This is also known as “waste.”

Four team members set out one summer afternoon in 2008 and did time observation of a sticking crew. We found that one of the more challenging aspects of performing a kaizen is having work-ers perform at a “normal” pace, knowing they are being observed. Meeting with the crew and asking them just to pre-tend the kaizen team isn’t there to watch every movement had little effect.

It was important, though, to state the purpose of the event and commu-nicate its ultimate goal of making the

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workers’ jobs easier and less stressful.Since the cycle time of sticking one

cutting is short, the study was done in 5 minute intervals. The total number of cuttings stuck was recorded, along with the value added (sticking) and non-value added work that was performed. Cycle time data was recorded for the better part of an hour. The cutting crew was going to switch plant varieties during that time, and we agreed that the more data collected would result in establish-ing a better baseline.

What the data told us is the stick-ing (VA) time was 50-55 percent of the crew’s activity during the study. Our challenge was addressing the NVA waste time in the procedure.

At Bailey Yamhill, our propagation model is simple but fairly unique in the trade. Softwood cuttings are rooted in pumice-filled beds that are 6 feet wide, four across per structure. Mist, irrigation, chemigation and fertigation are provided by programmable traveling booms.

The crews begin sticking at the ori-gin end of the house and work back, away from the boom. In doing so, they work over the prepped pumice into which they need to stick cuttings.

The NVA time was mainly dedicated to fluffing and re-screeding the pumice they worked over. If sticking could be performed without disturbing the media, we believed it could be possible to near-ly double output.

Making cartsThe idea to develop some type of

moveable platform to keep the workers off the media was an answer. However, there were several parameters we had to work within when addressing this pro-duction issue.

The four two-person crews had to move simultaneously through the house. Varieties change frequently and the beds across the entire house had to be even to meet mist/watering needs. The walkways are concrete block and narrow – about 16 inches – and each

Lean is a process requiring the involvement of all team members working together to eliminate waste. Employees benefit because the process can reduce stress and let them do their jobs more effectively.

Joe k

roetsc

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26

▲What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a Japanese word referring to a philosophy or practices focusing on continuous improvement in manufacturing, business activities, and even life in gen-eral. The term typically refers to activities that improve a specific process within a business, whether in operations or the business office.

Kaizen involves a broad range of stakeholders in an organization – from the CEO to assembly line workers. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to relentlessly focus on customer value and eliminating waste. Value is that portion of a product or service a customer is willing to pay for. Waste is that which the company pays for.

A typical kaizen team consists of:• Outside facilitator/coach• Cross section of staff• Crew leader or foreman directly

involved with the operation• A customer, vendor, other nurs-

ery grower

Some advantages of kaizen:• Low cost, low tech. The major

investment is time.• Employees and vendors have

an enlightened view of your business.

• It will be specific to youroperation.

• Measurable results can happenin a short period of time.

• Less stress and fatigue equals abetter working environment.

Some challenges to consider:• Emotional ownership of a pro-

cess can become a barrier to improvement.

• Workers may fear losing theirjobs and resist the process.

• It is difficult to work “normally”during a process observation.

• The new, improved processshould become standard work.

• Leadership must have complete“buy–in” for Lean to be effective.

• Kaizen is ongoing: managementtakes on responsibility for follow-up events.

MARCH 2010 ▲ DIGGER 25

bed had to be easily moved in and out of a house by two workers.

After modifications to several pro-totypes, a basket cat or buggy with four fixed BMX bicycle wheels was put into use. It was an interesting pro-cess, in that our fabrication shop first made a fancy model, then the sticking crew proceeded to strip it down to essential components.

Four of these carts were built. Each carried two workers and had a rack in the middle that held two flats of prepared cuttings, enough for about one hour’s worth of sticking. Material and labor costs for the buggies came out to about $400 per unit.

Now, capital expenditures are the last action a kaizen team is to take. However, in this instance the team’s conclusion was that no other options were available.

Two full-time sticking crews work on softwoods during the summer at Bailey Nursery. We took the conserva-tive approach and outfitted one crew with the carts and the other crew was our control for the season following the standard procedure.

After the first week the carts were put into use, the results were pleasing. The cart crew stuck 1½ times as many units as the control group. By season’s end, the gap had widened to nearly a 2½ times ratio!

Four additional carts have been built for the 2010 season based upon the season-long performance of our trial crew. Although this was a con-servative approach, the net result is a more even workload for our full time skilled and trained work force and decreased need to hire seasonal work-ers to cover peak demand.

Perhaps the greatest payback of all was noted by propagator Steve Aime, who said, “My crews are going home happy at the end of the day.”

Mike Lee is the production manager at Bailey Nurseries in Yamhill, Ore. He can be reached at mike.lee@baileynursery.com or 800-829-8894.

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The meaning of ‘Lean’What does the word “Lean” mean to you? You may think

about a cut of beef or the look of a person or perhaps the state of your company, as in “we operate lean and mean.” Well, Lean has emerged as a weighty term freighted with meaning for organizational managers and process engineers.

In 1988, researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology coined the term “Lean” to describe those companies that use a disciplined, systematic approach to mass production that maximizes the creation of value for the end customer and minimizes or elimi-nates, to the extent practicable, activities or steps that don’t generate value for the customer.

A famous example of the Lean philosophy is the Toyota Motor Company. Despite recent problems related to unwanted acceleration in its vehicles and a large recall to fix the problem, Toyota has over the last 50 years established an industry leading record for producing quality cars. Certainly, Toyota is better positioned than most companies to deal with its current challenges.

While Toyota is most closely identified with the concept of Lean production and management principles, the determi-nant of Lean’s value doesn’t rest solely upon the experience of a single company.

Lean has been adopted among a broad array of industries and businesses: aerospace, banking, construction and health-care, and for processes such as manufacturing, administration, supply chain, and research and development.

In fact, Elizabeth Peters, the OAN’s director of publica-tions and communications, has been working hard to show me and other OAN staff how Lean principles can apply to association management.

Most associations don’t operate assembly lines, like an auto manufacturer, but we typically rely on multi-step, com-plex processes to produce events, publications and manage membership data. By focusing on our customers – exhibitors, attendees, advertisers, readers and our members – we can look at our processes to identify how we create value for our customers and what activities and steps don’t create value and that fall into a category of waste.

Elizabeth Peters worked with her publications team to document on two large pieces of butcher paper the pro-duction process for the OAN Nursery Guide (formerly the Directory & Buyers Guide). The Nursery Guide contains 6,064 different plant and product categories, and 36,000 listings by 631 different companies. Putting all these pieces together efficiently and accurately with a minimum of waste is a challenge.

Peters embarked upon a process improvement event involving all staff engaged in the production of our Nursery Guide. The act of documenting and sequencing all the elements and steps to produce the Nursery Guide revealed a

By John AguirreOAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

▲ DIRECTOR’S DESK

treasure trove of opportunities to reduce duplicative efforts, and to eliminate wasted time and unnecessary steps in the process that contribute to higher costs and the possibility of mistakes. All in all, savings of 240 hours of staff time were identified.

I look forward to applying the concept of Lean to other aspects of the OAN.

The OAN has organized a couple of events where members can learn about Lean concepts, and it’s clear some disciples of Lean are busily transforming the way nurseries think and oper-ate. Mike Lee, production manager for Bailey Nurseries, is an example of just such a person.

In January, Lee delivered a presentation to interested industry members at the Northwest Ag Show describing Bailey’s journey into Lean thinking. As a result of applying Lean concepts, Bailey systematically identified the parts of its production process that create value and those steps or activities that fail to add value, and

where waste occurs. They found waste in areas of defects and rework, overproduction (too much product or too much at the wrong time), waiting, transportation, inventory man-agement and more. You can read more about Bailey’s Lean process in an article starting on Page 23 of this issue.

As a result of their commitment to Lean, Bailey increased its order pulling efficiency by 50 percent, productivity on its linear potting machine jumped by 42 percent (even though crew size dropped and machine speed slowed), and the rate of staking in their fields per man hour increased by 24 per-cent with better management of stake inventory, less walking and smaller crew sizes. Such gains in efficiency and reduced costs are critical in today’s environment.

A slow economy makes it difficult for most companies to grow sales, but smart moves to increase efficiency, and reduce errors and costs, can mean growth in bottom-line profits. Oregon’s nursery and greenhouse industry has long benefited from a business climate that revolves around col-laboration, knowledge sharing and competition, which pro-vides ideal conditions for the embrace of Lean thinking.

More than ever, the economic success of Oregon nurs-eries rests on an interdependent web of growers, suppli-ers, service providers and plant buyers working together to eliminate waste, operate more efficiently and effectively with a commitment toward continuous improvement. There is no better time than now to embrace Lean.

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