The Quest

Learning LEAN in Botswana

Journey with me as we travel to a Toyota

dealership in Northern Botswana, nestled between the vast

Kalahari Desert and the meandering Okavango Delta

We are here!

While we are looking at maps

we need to understand some differences, let’s

compare.

If you lived in Botswana instead of the United Kingdom

you would…

•Be 115 times more likely to have HIV/Aids. •Die 26 years sooner. •Make 56 percent less money. •Be part of a population of only 2.2 million people.

Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 has

for the sixth year running described Botswana’s poor work ethic as the

most problematic factor for doing business in the

country.

Tsabong

Kasane We service a vast rural area North West and Ghanzi districts.

At times we even supply parts and service to Tsabong in the south of the country.

We are Here!

Lots of the time we do this in 40

degree heat.

As you know all great quests start with a

crisis!!!!

In 2013 we were sold to the Halfway Group after

being owned and managed by the same

shareholders for over 25 years. It was a time of

fear and insecurity.

Sadly, Ngami Toyota was affectionately called “The Salt

Mine” by the previous owners.

I personally have always likened her more to a dragon, a real live fire

breathing dragon..

She generated much gold. But did not release it

willingly. Often owners, staff and management came out of

the fray singed and wounded.

With time she grew. The bigger she got the more

out of control she became. The only way the

managers and owners knew how to control her was with heavy chains made of the word NO.

But in August 2013 two brave knights of LEAN

came into our lives.

So the old owners of the dragon now exhausted and

scarred retired from the fight and left us behind with

new owners and new ways.

It was a scary time for all the

staff especially those who had worked for the

company for many years.

They bought with them a gift that I call

“Doragon no sasayaki” (dragon whisperer).

AKA - LEAN

This is really a story of how we learned to use LEAN to

bring a dragon of a business under harness.

This in turn made a big difference to our

productivity and cash flow.

Actual Numbers 2013 2015 Monthly Average Turnover BWP10.6M BWP16.7M Profit BWP1.8M BWP3.8M Free Cash BWP13M BWP34M

If we index this and say year 2013 is 100

Turnover 100 157 Profit 100 211 Free cash 100 261

We started our journey by

understanding that time is value to the

customer.

Time is value During our first days of training Dave Brunt started to count seconds when we were looking at “the work”. At that moment Africa time got a violent jolt, there might even have been a small earth tremor!

So I looked for ways to teach Africa about

time.

Lesson 1 Time has a beginning and an end. Each nut =10 minutes Red nut = hour Total 12 and ½ hours

½ hour time slots

Start of day

3.30 in the afternoon

Start of day

Progress of the Vehicle Control

Board

Movement of Vehicle End of day

Waiting for parts using tally chips. Lesson- don’t get lost in time!

We then learnt about Standard Work to build in quality as a value to

the customer.

Standard Work Wash Bay

We used toys to design and communicate movement.

Not that we do not also use other more conventional ways to

communicate.

We learnt about Kaizen

And began to understand that Kaizen can only be done after watching and understanding the work.

A wheel bearing being packed by hand.

A wheel bearing being packed by our own tool design with a time saving of 20 minutes.

Our Electric Bay Stand

Using plastic gutters for oil filter drainage.

Which one was here first?

We built our own engine stand to hold a Cruiser 4.2 engine as we found that the off the shelf stands were to weak and the wheels to small for the weight.

Simple drive through wet and

soap saves 5 minutes per vehicle

We built our own engine stand to hold a Cruiser 4.2 engine as we found that the off the shelf stands were to weak and the wheels to small for the weight.

Additionally, we found that it also helped to

stimulate problem

solving and creativity.

We saw that using toys to explain purpose, movement and dimensions helped people who

are not able to visualize or read a diagram.

We started to learn about Flow……

Parking Zone

Batch Production

Vehicles were coming out randomly

at 31minutes average per wash with poor quality.

Wash & Valet Clean

Vehicles were coming out at a steady flow

average of 1 every 16 minutes with good

quality.

Single Lane Flow

Automation Let us go back and be reminded how simple and inexpensive automation can improve flow taking additional time off the wash and valet.

Two Stage Service

One stage service average flat rate of 33.7 minutes being done in 26.5 minutes this is 122% efficiency. Two stage service average flat rate of 58.1minutes being done in 20.9 minutes this is 280% efficiency.

Stage 1 Express service Stage 2 Express service

Orange Bay – Pre Diagnostic Bay The Orange Bay (Pre-Diagnostic Bay) was

put in place to make unpredictable work into predictable work without disrupting

flow.

We hope to send a vehicle off to the Pre-Diagnostic Bay with a go ahead and parts

so that the technician receiving the vehicle could start and finish the job

without interruption.

2014 Before Orange Bay

2015 After Orange Bay

A local Tin Smith made us post boxes using the traditional American

design. We then made collection times. This is part of what we know as our milk round AKA Ngami Post!

Teaching the dragon to dance.

As we improved flow we struggled to get past 30

vehicles a day without a “all fall down”

The problem being that administration could not keep up with the flow of

vehicles.

“Department of Hero’s and Fire fighter’s”

Guaranteed to provide erratic service and get

things done in ½ measures.

Ngami Toyota Service

Administration

I took the step of putting the complete administration of

service and repair into a single lane flow from start to end.

I was very afraid! I started the process by

mapping skill levels we had and the ones we needed using

colour coding.

I then mapped the work using the time it took for each small task for one vehicle and who would be doing them – Just small portion of

the map.

Putting admin into a single lane flow, smiley face for customer contact and working squares so we could see how to handle out of flow items.

Then we started the big experiment!

84%86%88%90%92%94%96%98%

Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16

Four months into the experiment.

We no longer need fire fighters or super hero’s !

We are now able to process 50 vehicles a day.

None of this could have been

accomplished without 5S.

2013

2016

Engine and Gearbox Room 2013

Engine and Gearbox Room 2016

Sometimes our Ngami dragon still slips the harness and goes on

the rampage. But there are more and more days

she sings and dances with joy to Song of Pull and all is right in our

world. Have you ever heard a dragon

sing?

What I learnt was that LEAN, like Arthurs sword “Excalibur”

honour’s those with the right hearts motivation.

Not that the tools do not work for everyone, but if you want to be a

“Real Dragon Whisperer” you must search your heart daily.