Source 4 Spring 2010 Sec

The home of Lean Thinking4th Edition Spring 2010

Case study:What effect did treating the root cause have on Allergy Therapeutic’s bottom line?

Managing risk proactively:How to implement a zero defects culture

Ready for the upturn?Now’s the time to think Lean

Is it the key enabler to sustainable continuous improvement?

Lean Learning

Welcomefrom Robin Jaques

Lean LearningThe key enabler to sustainable continuous improvement?

Ready for the Upturn?Now is the time to think Lean

Online Lean LearningA new alliance is formed

Case StudyHow have Lean problem solving techniques helped Allergy Therapeutics?

Zero Defects A proactive approach to managing risk

Information and Events Find useful events, websites and essential reading here

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In this edition…

The home of Lean Thinking


Welcome

Robin JaquesManaging Partner


The home of Lean Thinking 1

to the home of Lean thinking.

Welcome to Source, in which we strive to bring you the latest Lean Thinking and examples of successful Lean implementation to help you with your own business improvement journey.

Experience has taught us that the development of Lean skills and knowledge inside an organisation is key to sustaining a culture of improvement and translating Lean results from a short lived programme to ‘a way of life’.

In this edition, Gary Griffiths shares what he has learned from planning, preparing, delivering and measuring internal Lean education programmes.

We are also delighted to announce a partnership with Leading Edge Group, to promote and develop online learning solutions.

In the case study, Allergy Therapeutics tell us how they tackled the root causes of variability in their production process, with dramatic results. The adjacent article describes the theory behind their approach and looks at the tools available to help us to make ‘zero defects’ a reality whatever the environment.

Robin Jaques

Lean Learning– the Key Enabler for Sustainable Continuous Improvement By Gary Griffiths

Lean Learning

2 The home of Lean Thinking

During the past 15 years I have had the privilege of working with a number of leading organisations to

develop a business that has both the process capability and behavioural culture needed to achieve that common “holy grail” of sustainable continuous improvement. Having worked in such diverse sectors as health, automotive, defence, service, food processing and retail across the five continents of the world I have experienced a range of approaches to Lean implementation, some inevitably more successful than others.

On this journey, one major piece of learning for me has been how corporate education, done well, not only helps a business to move forward, but can be the critical factor in creating and sustaining a business wide culture of continuous improvement.

The lessons I have learned have not come from one single organisation in a single sector and geographical region but have been compiled from working on a variety of Lean learning programmes, and these lessons are summarised in figure 1. The Lean Education Model

Organisations are in business to make a profit and grow by offering better services to their clients, customers and stakeholders. Any Lean learning programme therefore needs to give its employees and partners the capability to support the business vision and goals. Unfortunately, learning programmes often fall short of this purpose.

Hopefully this article will give you some “food for thought” on how to develop a more meaningful and sustainable approach to Lean learning.

For any corporate learning programme to succeed, I believe you must:

• Align and integrate your Lean learning programme with the business strategy (note: REALLY align it for the skills of today and changing capabilities of tomorrow)

• Develop a programme of Lean learning that concurrently meets the needs of the organisational levels (senior management, middle management, team leaders and workers)

• Create a “Learning System” of continuous development for individuals and the business (it’s not just about course content it’s about workplace application)

• Ensure that any Lean training courses are the start of the learning not the end (you will need to apply the Plan-Do-Check-Act rigorously to your Lean learning system)

• Recognise that you can’t do it all by yourself (the business competence of most organisations is NOT always learning and development so use partners to help).

These critical factors are not exhaustive and are dependent on your situational needs and level of capability – more emphasis may be needed in one or more areas. Having said that, for the Lean learning programme to begin to make a difference, all of these factors need to be carefully considered and applied.

To help us think this through I will briefly discuss the essential elements of each factor. Remember what we want is a Lean learning programme that ensures engagement and provides ongoing evidence of continuously improving business results whilst providing space for individual and team development.

Figure 1 – Lessons learned from implementing Lean learning programmes

Lean Learning


Lean Learning


Align Lean Learning to Business Strategy

• Deploy Lean learning as part of your business strategy. In many organisations training is treated as an optional activity driven by the “nice-to-have” skills of today but not by the “must-have” changing competencies of tomorrow. During the strategy formation and deployment cycles we can use tools to envision what tomorrow’s business will look like and which new skills and competencies will be needed to achieve it.

• Link Lean learning to individual Performance Development Programmes - what gets measured gets done, especially in large organisations. Therefore, the learning and development of employees needs to align with the organisation’s strategic goals and cascade to the individual performance development plans of each employee.

• Continually question how Lean learning enables performance. It is important to conduct periodic reviews to ensure employee learning is adaptable and relevant to the organisation’s goals as well as the employees’ requirements. In addition, programme content needs to be kept up-to-date and relevant to the evolving strategic goals of the organisation.

Concurrent Multi-level Lean Learning

• Provide appropriate Lean learning for all levels. Learning is not a luxury or a reward for high achieving employees. Learning is crucial to the development and success of an organisation and should be approached as a whole-of-organisation experience involving all employees in some form of structured learning and development. While the type of content and the level at which a programme is delivered may vary, learning and development should be continuous and involve all levels in an organisation, providing a common thread via the Lean learning content.

• Link Lean learning to roles and responsibilities. Learning needs to be tailored to the current and emerging skills necessary for employees to be effective in their roles. The learning should combine common skills and competencies required for specific functions and responsibilities in the organisation as well as other competencies, such as situational leadership, coaching, facilitation and team-work skills.

• Create mixed level networks. A progressive learning environment should remove all forms of rank and superiority so that employees interact, share experiences, ideas and learn from each other, regardless of position or status. Use the “Action-Learning set” methodology which encourages groups to examine real and personal issues they are faced with so that the group can work out some options for improvement but more importantly agree on a collaborative set of improvement actions.

Develop a Lean Learning System

• Look at learning as a process. The most successful organisations approach Lean learning as an integrated system, not as a secondary or functional activity. Be clear on what you want the programme to achieve and design a full end-to-end or life cycle learning framework with appropriate systems to monitor and manage successful fulfilment of the defined value criteria.

• Share good practice across the business. Different areas of organisations usually have certain training systems that are tailored to suit their specific learning and development requirements. Sharing what is working well can also help reinforce the organisation’s core values.

• Translate Lean learning to added value competence. Corporate education needs to involve more than just passive attendance at a course. The programme should encourage participants to break-out into groups to discuss issues, interact with their co-learners, and have the opportunity to apply or experiment with concepts and tools. Employees with a proven track record for the successful and continued application of learned skills and competence need to be recognised and rewarded accordingly.

Lean Learning


Apply a Plan-Do-Check-Act Methodology

• Plan every programme thoroughly. The success of a good Lean education programme starts with good planning. The planning phase needs to consider the realistic learning goals, the current skills of the participants and their learning styles. The planning process also needs to define the content and structure and any support materials and teaching aids that will be required. It is vital during the planning phase to clarify the desired (and measurable) outcomes and how participants will demonstrate their level of understanding and competence gained.

• Create a listening process. While an organisation will have learning goals, it is also important to listen to the views of stakeholders. Consult with stakeholders to explore topics and issues they would like to be addressed. All too often course evaluation forms are left in the back of the HR information cabinet and are not used to take the programme onto the next level, so please make sure you continuously and rigorously apply to the principle of P-D-C-A.

• Check learning is making a difference. The most effective means to check the value of a Lean education programme is the difference it makes on-the-job. Some training has an immediate impact, but often the real difference in an employee’s skills and competence becomes apparent over time. Therefore learning and development should be monitored over time, perhaps three to six months after the event, to observe and measure the level of difference in the skills and performance of each employee and to ensure the application of the new skills is sustained.

Partner with Lean Learning Expertise

• Consider partnering with external education and training providers, e.g. universities. These providers can bring objectivity to programme design and development and can often introduce the latest thinking, concepts and methods, which might not be accessible to internal resources. Online Lean learning packages are also worth considering as part of a structured skills development programme. They are available for all levels, externally accredited in many cases and, while individuals participate online at their own pace, the organisation retains overall visibility of the progress that’s being made.

• Join external Lean learning networks. Interacting with like-minded people stimulates and challenges traditional thinking. By joining an external learning network, organisations can expand the perspective their employees have to a greater extent than they would when their reference circle is internal only.

• Look for help to develop learning frameworks. There is significant value in having an external person as an adviser or to oversee the development of the programme. A person at arm’s length to an organisation can assist with developing a learning framework that, ideally, incorporates formal programme content as well as opportunities for employees to experiment and develop their level of understanding further.

As I mentioned at the start of this brief insight into Lean learning, I have been privileged to work with many great companies over the years. Each one has set out to develop its people and processes to help continuous performance improvement and each one has developed an approach of their own. Having experienced these different approaches, I truly believe that the critical factors above are what make the difference in the most successful cases. Any organisation that incorporates these critical factors in its learning programme will find that they move closer towards the “holy grail” of sustainable continuous improvement in order to provide better services and profitable growth.

Ready for the Upturn


Ready for the Upturn?Now’s the time to think LeanBy Simon Castleman and Robin Jaques



Recent statistics appear to indicate that Britain has taken the first step on the long road out of recession, although there remains the risk that we may drop into “the second dip in a W-shaped recession”. In this period of uncertainty many companies face a dilemma – whether to keep cutting back on costs and prepare for the worst, or to increase spending on materials or manpower to take advantage of the increase in economic activity.Whichever scenario finally emerges the one thing that most people agree on is that managing cash flow is of critical importance, particularly since the banking system still appears to be reluctant to lend sufficient sums of money to sound companies.

The general consensus appears to be that the level of “de-stocking” has reached its minimum and indeed there is some evidence that companies are rebuilding their stock levels. On the other hand it seems likely that the levels of redundancies and layoffs will continue for some time to come.

The standard approach to this kind of economic situation is to cut costs across the board and although this might be a short term expedient it rarely considers how waste can be removed from the firm.

Indeed in some situations the cuts have been so deep that there is a risk of lasting damage to the body corporate such that

when the upturn eventually happens the company will not be able to respond to the new opportunities that present themselves.

What typically happens in this situation is that the non-value added activity, instead of being removed from the business, is passed on to the remaining employees of the firm, burdening the retained workers and undermining their productivity.

The other aspect of the business that has been impacted by the recession is stocks of raw materials, work in progress and finished goods.

In a Lean world excess stock allows process inefficiency and so hides waste in a business. So whilst reducing stock is a laudable activity this is only the case so long as it does not prevent the business taking advantage of opportunities that an increase in economic activity brings. If we assume there is a sudden upturn in demand for our goods or services the natural reaction is take on more staff or purchase more stock to meet this demand. Unfortunately recruiting staff with the right skills and increasing stock levels to meet the new demand levels both require additional cash and therein lies the problem, particularly if the company is not cash rich and relies upon the bank.

By applying Lean Thinking, waste can be rapidly identified and steps taken to ensure that those activities which are of no value to the customer are reduced and ideally eliminated and, although it impacts outside

the boundaries of your business, making your supply chain responsive to demand pull from your customer also reduces the demand for cash.

However let me add a word of caution at this point; one of the problems with many Lean implementations is that they find someone with knowledge of the Lean toolbox and then set about applying those tools even if they are using the wrong tool in the wrong area.

In addition, without taking full account of the complete value chain it is possible to make one area more efficient to the detriment of the value chain as a whole – creating islands of excellence in a sea of waste!

Any improvement of a value chain should be grounded in understanding what the customer really values (and that does not mean sending out a series of questionnaires to key customers), you can then start to map the value stream starting with the customer.

Now’s the time to think Lean



This will enable you to identify the key areas to apply the appropriate tools from the Lean toolbox to maximise customer value and benefit to the business.

For example, Cogent Power (featured in the Shingo-Prize winning book Staying Lean: Thriving not just Surviving) carried out 130 face-to-face interviews with 17 key customers of its Canadian plant. The process set out to understand what the customer valued at different touch points within the business and specifically what good looked or felt like against each of the identified values.

The feedback was revealing in terms of how Cogent operated in the current market and also insightful in terms of what they could do differently to be successful in tomorrow’s market.

The feedback indicated that there was a real market opportunity for the business to grow into new but aligned market areas where they had expert knowledge.

Traditionally the business had supplied quality component parts to other manufacturers but Cogent Powers end users indicated that there was now a real opportunity for the business to add value to their existing product offering by moving up the “value ladder” and developing a higher quality engineered product and service at a competitive price.

This meant that they could not only grow their business profitably going forward, but also shorten the supply chain to their customers whilst reducing the threat from competition in what is traditionally a mature, highly competitive, price sensitive market place.

At the beginning of this recession the key imperative was to reduce costs and to “out survive” your competitors, the situation is now changing to taking advantage of the opportunities out there by generating customer value whilst at the same time minimising the demand for cash.

One approach to doing this is to apply Lean Thinking to your business not by just applying the tools but by looking at what your customers really value and maximising the efficiency in that value stream so you can deliver what the customer demands as well as what they value on time, on quality, in full every time.

Engaging your workforce in this pursuit by using Lean Thinking as a foundation for their development will not only help you create value for your customers and margin for your business but will also leave you with a flexible customer centric workforce.

In any event a flexible workforce and a clear understanding of customer value, combined with a positive cash position, are amongst the key attributes which will define those companies who do not just survive the recession but are in a position to thrive in the new order that emerges, whatever that turns out to be.

Common themes were:

• they were doing a lot of things right, just needed to do more of them – and release time from activities that were not adding value from their customers’ perspective

• despite having supplied customers for several years, they were mistaken in thinking that they knew the real influencers

• many of their customers wanted to have a more proactive and advanced partnership with them

• there were many ‘quick win’ improvements that they could act upon quickly.

S A Partners has announced a partnership with Leading Edge Group, a Cork-based company specialising in online Lean learning solutions. The alliance gives S A Partners the opportunity to extend its offering and to grow its Lean consultancy business in Ireland, while Leading Edge will be able to reach new customers in the UK and work with S A Partners to develop new learning material.

Leading Edge produces flexible online and instructor-led training modules that help organisations to manage the development of Lean skills within their workforce at every level from basic awareness through to practical application (see figure 1). Programmes are accredited externally by institutions such as University College Cork and the Irish and American Institutes of Industrial Engineers. Leading Edge Group has offices in Cork and Toronto and has worked with clients including Pfizer, Dell and PepsiCo.

S A Partners challenges and coaches businesses across all sectors to improve their performance by applying Lean Principles. It places significant emphasis on transferring knowledge and skills into client companies, to help them to sustain improvements in the long term. In 2009 a case study of the company’s work with Cogent Power, entitled ‘Staying Lean: Thriving not just Surviving’ was awarded a Shingo Prize for Research.

S A Partners chairman Professor Peter Hines commented: “When done successfully, Lean learning programmes transfer into an organisation the knowledge and skill that was initially provided by external consultants. They therefore play a vital role in the long term sustainability of continuous improvement, enabling businesses to retain and develop that learning inhouse.”

Leading Edge chief executive Joe Aherne added: “Our strength is in providing learning for the entire workforce, whatever degree of involvement they will have in implementing Lean Thinking. We know that it is the combination of Lean tools and their systematic implementation that yields the best results, and this can only be achieved through commitment across all levels of the organisation. The online option also gives individuals the flexibility to study at their own pace, with access to an experienced mentor.”

Partnership offers online Lean learning programmes

WHITE BELT A 1 day classroom programme to introduce the workforce to the Lean philosophy,

drivers for change, potential benefits and the role they play in ensuring success

YELLOW BELT 2 day classroom overview for those likely to be involved in Lean projects - including a demonstration of Lean tools.

A foundation for further Lean skills development.

GREEN BELT 13 week online or instructor led programme to

achieve proficiency in understanding and applying Lean tools. Includes mentoring support.

BLACK BELT 6 month online programme for

career-minded Lean practitioners,

including leadership and project management skills.

Online Lean Learning


(l/r) Chris Butterworth, Managing Director,

S A Partners Ireland; Professor Peter Hines,

Chairman, S A Partners; Steve Hardgrave,

Strategy Consultant, Leading Edge Group and

Joe Aherne, CEO, Leading Edge Group.

Figure 1

For more information visit www.sapartners.com

Treating the root cause


Treating the root cause Lean problem solving techniques have a positive impact on the bottom line at Allergy Therapeutics



Allergy Therapeutics develops, manufactures and sells a range of pharmaceutical products for the treatment and prevention of allergy. Their flagship product is Pollinex® Quattro which is transforming immunotherapy by vaccinating against allergy with only four injections.

Allergy Therapeutics vaccines are prescribed only by medical practitioners and are administered either by injection or placement under the tongue.

In addition to branded products, ‘specifics’ are developed to address unique combinations of allergies for individual patients. Hundreds of products can therefore be supplied in thousands of combinations.

The £45m business is headquartered in Worthing, UK, with extensive sales and marketing operations in several European countries. Patient safety is the company’s priority and vaccines must comply with the strict pharmaceutical regulations that apply in each country in which its products are sold.

Drivers for change

At the start of the ‘Odyssey’ journey, due to the nature of biological pharmaceuticals, variabilities resulted in defective product having to be scrapped and remade. Incidents of variability in the production process were a resource burden that was not sustainable and warranted action.

“The focus was on the speed at which incidents were resolved, not wholly on the quality of the resolution.”In addition to the financial implications of this waste, the unpredictability of supply threatened the company’s ability to penetrate new markets. The need to remake product had a negative impact on capacity, staff morale and customer satisfaction.

Treating the cause

The solution was to engage the most appropriate resources from within the Allergy business, and deploy a combination of Lean tools and techniques, to mount a two-pronged attack on process improvement.

“At first I was sceptical that Lean tools that had been deployed in environments such as engineering could be applied to pharmaceuticals. My confidence in the methodology grew and now I know that the Lean principles work, whatever your business.”Firstly cross functional teams worked with external Lean consultants to identify and resolve the root causes of variability contributing to a more stable production process. This activity would also reduce waste, free up capacity and enhance durable sustainability.

Individuals were given the authority to stop the production line if a fault occurred and to call for help from relevant qualified personnel before production resumed.

“We used to get managers together in a meeting room to resolve problems, now it’s the people that are directly involved in the process that solve the problems – on the shop floor as they occur.”Secondly, the teams examined the potential risks facing the business, to enable them to manage risk proactively.

Teams of people attended more than 40 workshops working on a PFMEA – a Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis – that examined the potential risks in producing a core product. Each risk was given a score based on severity of impact, likely occurrence and ease of detection. Using these scores, the team could prioritise risks and consider countermeasures to reduce the chance of variability occurring and/or increase the likelihood of detection.

Allergy Therapeutics are also collaborating more closely with suppliers to help eradicate variability that may be caused by raw materials, thereby extending Lean Thinking up stream in the supply chain.


Tracking progress

Allergy appointed a full time manager to the Odyssey project and established a project room as a base. Senior managers were given roles as project sponsors to reinforce the impact of the project in supporting the company’s overall strategy.

Weekly PDCA (plan, do, check, act) meetings are held, using a tracking document to report on the progress made of numerous smaller concurrent projects.

After the first year a communication event was held, at which each of the teams could explain to their colleagues what they had been doing and what had been achieved so far.

Allergy Therapeutics has achieved significant benefits in the first year of the Odyssey programme, some which have a monetary value, and others that do not, but which are no less critical to the success of the business.

Allergy’s Kelly Goss and Dick Knapp talk colleagues through the progress made on their parts of the ’Odyssey’ project.

The benefits achieved so far: • Wasted product reduced in the first year of the programme

• Financial savings above target

• Personal skills development, e.g. 25% of the workforce trained in Lean problem solving techniques

• Involvement of staff at all levels and the building of teams working across functional boundaries

• Improved staff morale

• Increased communication with staff regarding the programme’s achievements – a ‘voice’ for all those that are contributing

• Improved customer satisfaction

• A culture of interrogating and targeting root causes

• A methodology for proactively managing risk through the PFMEA

• Greater collaboration with suppliers

• A more structured process for classifying and resolving incidents.



You are Head of Supply Operations, what does that involve?

Supply operations basically encompasses all the functions needed to bring a product to market, including: health and safety; validation of processes, facilities and equipment; Information Technology; planning; purchasing; manufacturing; warehousing; packaging, and; distribution.

What did you find when you took up the role in 2005?

There was inherent variability in processes, resulting in waste.

What was your vision for change?

I felt strongly that we should focus on our core brand and put in place effective structured problem solving techniques based on fact and scientific based evidence. I wanted us to move to a culture of transformational change to enhance sustainable business performance.

And that led to the start of the Odyssey project?

I conceived a three year project to address the challenges. In the business case that I presented to the board, I explained that we had to make an investment in skills development and diagnostic work and probably wouldn’t see tangible results in the first six months, but the first year’s results have exceeded our expectations.

Why did you seek external help?

The consultants challenged and externalised us and this was what we needed. They brought a comprehensive ‘Zero Defects’ approach that was closely aligned to our objectives and included skills transfer to ensure that in time we would be able to continue the improvement on our own.

What do you think has been the secret of the success here?

We’ve embedded and integrated the skills and problem solving processes into the compliance systems that govern our day to day work (so they aren’t perceived as an additional burden). We’ve also invested in skills development to ensure we can continue the improvement and sustain the benefits.

Were there any turning points for you?

There are two that stand out for me. We had an early breakthrough in the production of the Tree product. We took great satisfaction from solving a very complex problem with a new storage solution.

The second turning point was what we called our “Town Hall” event, held to communicate the progress of Odyssey to all our staff and our new shareholders. The feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive and I felt so proud of everyone’s contribution.

Do you have any regrets?

Only that I wish I’d started Odyssey two years earlier! Times have changed since the project began, but with what we’ve achieved so far, the business is in a much stronger position to achieve a paradigm shift in our performance.

Source interviewed Head of Supply Operations, Ray Keeling, for his thoughts on the Odyssey project’s achievements.


Zero Defects


A proactive approach to managing risk

Zero DefectsA retailer is losing market share because the distribution warehouse supply chain is not optimising performance. A flat screen TV manufacturer is losing capacity and output due to quality issues on its assembly line.

A pharmaceutical company is unable to meet regulatory standards due to excessive internal non-conformances. A braking systems manufacturer is concerned about its product failing in the field.

Each of these businesses has dramatically improved its business performance by implementing a Zero Defects approach. So what is it? It encompasses a number of tools and techniques which, if used together, provide a powerful mechanism for tackling deep seated business issues.

Why would an organisation want to adopt these techniques? Often it is only after a problem has occurred that action is taken to compensate – the business reacts. For a serious issue, such as a car parts recall, this is too late – it costs a great deal of money to correct the fault and the manufacturer’s reputation is severely damaged in the market place.

Alternatively problems may be captured internally through an inspection process – in this case market perception is not damaged but nevertheless there are significant costs of inspection, scrap, rework and lost capacity.

Zero Defects


Once problems have been discovered, the organisation needs to investigate the root causes and introduce effective countermeasures to ensure that it will never happen again. Anything less is an unsustainable workaround that has the potential to fail once again.

Implementing a Zero Defect philosophy as part of a continuous improvement culture, providing a mechanism for identifying issues and fixing root causes, can have a major impact on growth and profitability.The tools and techniques that sit within the Zero Defects package include a daunting list of acronyms and Japanese buzzwords - PFMEA, Jidoka, Genchi Genbutsu, 8D, 5Y, process flow and variables, multi-disciplinary team work, poke yoke, 5W1H action planning, PDCA, 5 step checks, the CI process.

It may not be necessary to deploy all of these, but it will certainly be necessary to bring a number of them into play. The skill lies in understanding fully the issues facing the business at the outset, and designing the correct response. This response must include adequate resourcing of the project in terms of finance, time, commitment, and so on. Let’s look at the tools in more detail.

PFMEA is “Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis.” There is also a Design FMEA equivalent. This approach is proactive and examines in detail all aspects of the process that expose a business to risk. Many of the risks may not have manifested themselves yet, but they could, and appropriate action should be taken to prevent the occurrence.

The PFMEA is essentially a detailed process flow chart, which an experienced team then starts to challenge. The team brainstorms all potential failure modes for each step in the process and their effect on the customer. Each of these is then rated under

the headings of Severity, Occurrence and Detection. The three ratings multiplied together deliver the “Risk Priority Number.” The PFMEA is sorted by Risk Priority Number so that the highest numbers are at the top, thereby prioritising the projects required to reduce risk. Preparation of this document requires a significant investment in time, but it becomes a live management tool with a potential lifespan of many years.

Having invested in diagnosing the process, what are the next steps? The only choices are to reduce the level of occurrence or increase the possibility of detection. Severity will remain the same whether it happens frequently or rarely.

Multi-disciplinary teams are then set to work on the highest risks using root cause problem solving skills. Armed with a thorough understanding of a particular risk, they can design a counter measure, the “poke yoke,” that will eliminate or dramatically reduce the risk. The next stage is to implement the counter measure. The team will need to demonstrate skills in project management and 5W1H (why, what, who, when, where, and how the new way of doing things is going to be brought on stream). This is complemented by the discipline of PDCA (plan, do, check, act) to ensure that the new process is working, that we have not incurred unintended consequences and that there is no way of slipping back to the old way of doing things. A 5 step process is designed as a final formalised sign off that the implementation was successful. Overall there are eight stages involved, and the process is commonly referred to as 8D.

On completion, the team can be disbanded, but not before the PFMEA has been updated with the new occurrence and detection ratings for that particular risk, which should drop down the list of highest priority.

The PFMEA is entirely proactive. It forecasts failures and stimulates preventative action before these failures occur. In the real world, events may occur that are entirely unforeseen, or they are so far down the PFMEA list that they are not scheduled to be looked at for some time. The urgent need to react to these might outweigh the proactive approach from the PFMEA. Whilst immediate action will have to be taken to protect the customer as the result of this new occurrence, the PFMEA will need to be updated – certainly in terms of occurrence, as it’s actually happened! This re-sorting may bring this new issue to the top of the list, requiring a team to investigate for root cause immediately.

In parallel with the PFMEA, it is frequently beneficial to use the techniques of Jidoka (line stop) and Genchi Genbutsu (go, look, see). If an issue has occurred, it is helpful for staff to have the authority to stop the process and call in qualified people to investigate what has happened. By stopping the line, memories will be fresh regarding what happened and the evidence will still be there. If the issue is deep rooted, the learning from this can be used to feed back into the problem solving teams, which should speed up the whole process.

The Zero Defects approach is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. The approach should be tailored to suit the business according to the issues that it is facing. Experience shows, however, that the application of the correct tools and techniques, fully supported by management commitment, will virtually guarantee success. Each of the ZD mechanisms has been proven and a continuous improvement process built upon root cause problem solving should be an inherent part of all management teams’ forward thinking.

Information & Events

Lean Management Journalby SayOne Media and the Lean Enterprise

Research Centre

The Lean Management Journal (LMJ) aims to bring to the forefront the diversity of thinking around Lean concepts and to showcase Lean excellence from around the globe. It also aims to provide a platform for Lean debate and continuous improvement through shared experience, interviews and case studies.

For more information and a free pilot copy visit www.leanmj.co.uk

Staying Lean: Thriving not just Survivingby Hines, Found, Griffiths and Harrison

The book Staying Lean: Thriving not just Surviving tells the story of how a multinational organization implemented and sustained Lean to turn around its financial performance. It is designed to be used as a practical workbook to guide others along their own journey to embed Lean in the organization and to sustain performance improvement over the long term.

Publisher: Lean Enterprise Research Centre

(1 Feb 2008)

ISBN: 0953798291

Lean Relatedwww.sapartners.comwww.superfactory.comwww.improvementandinnovation.comwww.leanenterprise.org.uk

Websiteswww.linkedin.com

Linkedin discussion groups:

Lean & GreenLean Enterprise Food & DrinkLean Enterprise RetailLean Enterprise Asia PacificLean Enterprise IrelandLean Enterprise NordicLean Enterprise United KingdomLean Enterprise BeneluxLean Enterprise Central and Eastern EuropeLean Enterprise MediterraneanLean Enterprise Canada

Useful Websites Networking Events

Lean Leadership:An interactive training event that looks at the skills needed to lead a sustainable Lean deployment. 26 & 27 May 2010, Cork2 & 3 September 2010, Stockholm

Staying Lean: Thriving not just SurvivingA one day workshop that investigates what is needed to sustain Lean business improvement, featuring a Shingo Prize-winning case study.28 May 2010, Ireland3 June 2010, Toronto16 June 2010, Netherlands

Further details on: www.sapartners.com

Recommended Reading


Information & Events


Contact details

www.sapartners.com

Documents

Source 4 Spring 2010 Sec