Vergence Analytics - Catalysts For Excellence - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Vergence Analytics

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BlackBerry or Bust?

Image via Wikipedia

Leadership

Leadership can make or break any organization whether it is business, government, or even a sports franchise. I felt compelled to cite this quote from a column titled “Iconic teams tumble from penthouse to outhouse” as published in the Toronto Star (20-Jan-2012):

And while all have found different routes to the bottom, they do have one thing in common: ineptitude at the top. Find a meddling owner or inept general manager and you’ll find a franchise in trouble.

“Pro sports franchises are first and foremost businesses,” says Richard Powers, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “The same problems that get businesses in trouble are what get sports teams in trouble.”

Clearly, to be successful, organizations require effective leadership. For this same reason, a successful lean initiative must be driven from the top leadership of the organization. I discussed this on our Lean Road Map page suggesting that without executive leadership, the program is certain to fail.  This sentiment is also confirmed in “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership” by Jeffrey Liker and Gary Convis:

That’s because these problems were in fact leadership problems, not lean process problems. They were a stern reminder that all the investment in lean process in the world will not yield the expected outcomes if it is not accompanied by lean leadership throughout the enterprise, including corporate support departments.”

We also discussed the necessity for lean leadership in our previous post “Lean Leadership – The Missing Link?” As we learn of Kodak filing for bankruptcy and disturbing results for RIM, we are anxious to continue our review of ”The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership” over the coming weeks. Kodak invented the digital camera and failed to pursue their own innovation. Again, another indication that leadership with a clear vision for the future is pertinent to the success of your organization.

RIM and the BlackBerry

Rumors of a buyout or take over of RIM have been circulating in the media. As an owner of the BlackBerry Bold smart phone and Playbook, I’m hopeful that RIM (or some version of them) will be with us for quite some time.  More so, their survival is just as important to our local Ontario (Canadian) economy. Although there are many players in the smart phone and tablet market, Apple appears to be the prevailing competitor to RIM with its iPhone and iPad offerings. All, however, pose a major threat to RIM’s declining presence in the market.

Market Share, Price Points, and Customer Satisfaction

RIM effectively lowered prices for their Playbook product line and that’s great news for any new customers looking to get a great tablet. While this may help to increase market share and make the PlayBook a real bargain, this does little to appease the many people who purchased the product at full price (myself included).  The 64GB PlayBook is now selling at Walmart for $298 versus the original release price of $698. Whether this price point is closer to reality, a means to increase market share, or to simply reduce on hand inventory remains to be seen.

The Product Experience

My overall experience with the BlackBerry has been relatively positive:  it works as advertised although I did keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol close by to keep the roller ball working. The number of applications available seems to be somewhat limited compared to the iPhone however, what I have is more than sufficient for my purpose.

Upgrading

I recently upgraded my BlackBerry phone to the new Bold 9900 and I’m very pleased with the changes. I finally get to enjoy the benefits of Touch Screen technology while the full keyboard remains in tact and an optical sensor replaces the ever failing “roller ball”. Unfortunately, this upgrade also required parting with cash that I wasn’t planning to spend:

• The new style connector required new chargers for car and home.
• New USB cable to connect my lap top, again because the connector style changed
• New Case for the phone.

I also purchased a Voyager Pro Blue Tooth in keeping with our “driver distraction / hands free” driving laws here in Ontario.

• Voyageur Pro – Blue Tooth

Connecting

I also have a 64GB PlayBook and connecting with my BlackBerry Bold smart phone was relatively simple and seamless. I actually like the ability to tether my PlayBook through my smart phone and the BlackBerry Bridge software works like a charm.

Smart phone software upgrades and backups are performed using the BlackBerry Desktop manager through your lap top or desk top. I found some of the applications like Twitter and WordPress did not work correctly when I first upgraded to the latest operating system, however, they seem to have resolved themselves.

Accessories

I find that accessories for the BlackBerry products are over priced and even Walmart stores carrying these products don’t provide much relief.  Here are some of the basic essentials:

• Protective Case and / or Carrying Case
  • Sleeves, Slip Case, and Easel Cases.
• Screen Protection (Anti-Scratch / Finger Print)
  • Static Applique

Not essential but highly recommended:

• Blue Tooth Keyboard
  • The Playbook presents an onscreen keyboard, however, as a person with above average typing skills, I prefer using a full keyboard.
  • I’m using a product from Microsoft, however, many are available.

Connecting Blue Tooth devices is a relatively simple task and one you’ll quickly grow comfortable with after you’ve done it a few times.

So what’s with the blog post?

The leadership of the company must embrace and deliver the vision of the company to the consumer in the form of product and service expectations. As much as I appreciate my BlackBerry products, I have also admired Apple from afar.  Steve Jobs had a great vision for the Apple product line that sees individual products now connecting in ways that were never thought possible.  While Apple retained its roots in computers (iMac) it also extended that vision to include the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. Quite simply, the Apple product line presents a complete and seamless “digital” solution through improved connectivity, portability, and technologies in general.

Steve Jobs vision enabled Apple to drive beyond the limits of our imagination. Few companies have excelled as Apple has to define products that we never knew we needed until they invented them. They simply didn’t refine existing products, they expanded their niche products into a wholly unique offering as only Apple could do. Coupled with connectivity options that exceeded anyone’s expectations, Apple products will continue to define and dominate the market for years to come.

As for RIM, the leadership has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons: shareholder leadership / infrastructure concerns, product valuation, and the procurement of an NHL hockey franchise.  As I finished writing this post, a link to this article appeared in my twitter timeline > Bowing to Critics and Market Forces, RIM’s Co-Chiefs Step Aside.

A decision such as this can’t be easy and demonstrates how outside influences can affect the leadership of any organization – good or bad.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Follow @Versalytics

Vergence Analytics

Lean Leadership: The Missing Link?

I coined the phrase “What you see is how we think” to suggest that the principles of lean thinking are not only embraced by everyone but are also evident throughout the organization.  In this context, becoming a lean organization requires effective leadership to create and foster an environment that allows lean thinking to flourish.  Just as a teacher establishes an environment for learning in the classroom, leaders carry the responsibility for cultivating a lean culture in their organizations.

So how could it be that Lean Leadership is the missing link? I suspect and have observed that too many leaders have displaced the responsibility for lean into the middle management ranks rather than taking ownership of the initiative themselves.  These same leaders often operate on the premise that lean is simply a matter of implementing a collection of prescriptive tools to improve efficiency and cut costs. It is clear they have failed to understand the most fundamental principles and basic tenets of lean. If this sounds familiar, I recommend reading “The Toyota Way:  14 Management Principles from The World’s Greatest Manufacturer” by Jeffrey K. Liker.

So where do we turn?

Toyota is one company that exemplifies what it means to be lean and the lessons learned through their trials, tribulations, and continued successes are well documented. I admire Toyota both through first hand experience as a supplier of products to all of their operations in North America and secondly through their willingness to openly share their experiences with the rest of the world.  This is evidenced by the many books and articles that have featured them.

I recognize that Toyota has been the subject of many news stories in recent years, the most notable being the recession of 2008, the extremely high-profile recall crisis for Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA) in 2009, and most recently, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. In turn however, we must also acknowledge and recognize that Toyota’s leadership was instrumental to guiding the company through these crisis and for directly addressing the diverse range of challenges they faced.

A sobering look at the crisis that challenged Toyota’s integrity and leadership as well as the many lessons learned are well documented in “Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity” by Jeffrey K. Liker and is highly recommended reading. I am further encouraged that Toyota acknowledged that problems did exist and didn’t look to deflect blame elsewhere.  Rather, Toyota returned to the fundamental principles of “The Toyota Way” to critique, understand, and improve the company.

In the context of this post and lean leadership, I am pleased to learn of another new book “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership:  Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development” by Jeffrey K. Liker and Gary L. Convis.  As Toyota continues to evolve while remaining true to the principles of The Toyota Way, we realize again that lean is not a short-term prescription to success but a journey. My simplified definition of Lean Thinking follows:

“Lean is the pursuit of perfection and pure value through the relentless elimination of waste.”

As every lean practitioner will (or should) tell you, the process begins by defining value.  Many companies operate under the false pretense that they are already providing the value that customers want or need.  As such, they attempt to improve existing products or services by either adding features or making them faster and cheaper. From the perspective of Lean Thinking, the “secret” to making real change begins by finding:

“… a mechanism for rethinking the value of their core products to their customers.”

Lean Thinking challenges us to consider the value our customers are demanding.  Accordingly, we must ensure that our infrastructure, business practices, and methodologies deliver that value in the most efficient and effective manner possible.  Only when we focus on value from a customer perspective can we offer a solution that truly meets the customers’ needs.

Apple is one such company that continues to redefine and improve its product offerings to the point of anticipating and creating needs that never before existed.  Apple’s iPad is just one example of their unique approach to creating niche products and solutions to address speed, connectivity, portability, and features that we as customers never thought possible.

The Leadership Challenge

Leadership is challenged to define and deliver “value” to the customer in the most effective and efficient manner. This is not as simple as it sounds and having leaders within the company that understand Lean Thinking is a requisite mandate for any company wanting to compete in today’s global market.  The challenge exists for leaders to adopt lean thinking to deliver real value at prices we can all afford.

Succession planning and training leaders for the future is an ongoing effort to assure continued sustainable success. Leadership is responsible for hiring the right people and to ensure they receive the training to do their jobs correctly.  ”The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership:  Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development” is sure to be a welcome addition to the library of true Lean Leaders and lean practitioners.

Your Feedback Matters

We appreciate your comments and suggestions.  Remember to follow us on twitter!

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Follow @Versalytics

Vergence Analytics

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all of our faithful subscribers and visitors! 2011 has been an incredible year for us and I thank everyone who has supported us during these turbulent times.

I wish everyone a happy new year and trust 2012 will be prosperous for all.

Happy holidays!

Redge – Owner Lean Execution – Versalytics.com

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Are You Suffering from Fragmentation?

Task Life Cycle - Image via Wikipedia.

When Toyota arrived on the North American manufacturing scene, automakers were introduced to many of Toyota’s best practices including the Toyota Production System (TPS) and the well-known “Toyota Way”.  Since that time, Toyota’s best practices have been introduced to numerous other industries and service providers with varying degrees of success.

In simple terms, Toyota’s elusive goal of single piece flow implicitly demands that parts be processed one piece at a time and only as required by the customer.  The practice of batch processing was successfully challenged and proven to be inefficient as the practice inherently implies a certain degree of fragmentation of processes, higher inventories, longer lead times, and higher costs.

To the contrary, over specialization can lead to excessive process fragmentation and is evidenced by decreased efficiency, higher labour costs, and increased lead times.  In other words, we must concern ourselves with assuring that we have optimized process tasks to the extent that maximum flow is achieved in the shortest amount of time.

An example of excessive specialization can be found in the healthcare system here in Ontario, Canada.  Patients visit their family doctor only to be sent to a specialist who in turn prescribes a series of tests to be completed by yet another layer of “specialists”.  To complicate matters even more, each of  these specialized services are inconveniently separated geographically as well.

Excessive fragmentation can be found by conducting a thorough review of the entire process.  The review must consider the time required to perform “real value added” tasks versus non-value added tasks as well as the time-lapse that may be incurred between tasks.  Although individual “steps” may be performed efficiently and within seconds, minutes, or hours, having to wait several days, weeks, or even months between tasks clearly undermines the efficiency of the process as a whole.

In the case of healthcare, the time lapse between visits or “tasks” is borne by the patient and since the facilities are managed independently, wait times are inherently extended.  Manufacturers suffer a similar fate where outside services are concerned.  Localization of services is certainly worthy of consideration when attempting to reduce lead times and ultimately cost.

Computers use de-fragmentation software to “relocate” data in a manner that facilitates improved file storage and retrieval.  If only we could “defrag” our processes in a similar way to improve our manufacturing and service industries.  ”Made In China” labels continue to appear on far too many items that could be manufactured here at home!

Until Next Time – Stay LEAN!

Vergence Analytics

Follow @Versalytics

Sustainability or Meltdown?

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For as many years as I have been blogging on Lean Execution, I have been increasingly concerned with the sustainability of our economy, business, and government at all levels – locally, nationally, and globally. To this day, these same interests are all struggling to define and establish models that will allow them to recover, sustain, and flourish in the foreseeable future.

The word “meltdown” entered my mind as the summer heat continued to beat down on us over this past week. As we have witnessed over the past few months and years, many governments and businesses alike have collapsed and there are many questions that have yet to be answered.  How did it happen? Was prevention even possible? As I listen to the radio and read the newspapers, I find it interesting that “cuts” are the resounding theme to reduce costs.

I would argue that the real opportunity to reduce costs is to review and identify what is truly essential and then examine whether these products and services are being delivered in the most efficient and effective manner.  I have always contended that there is always a better way and more than one solution with the premise that anything’s possible.

Sustainability requires us to continually and rapidly adapt to an ever-changing environment.  In this context I again find myself turning to the wisdom of Toyota.  ”The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement – Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence To Achieve Superior Performance“ by Jeffrey K. Liker and James K. Franz is one such resource that is the most recent addition to my library of recommended lean reading and learning.

The economy is extremely dynamic and infinitely variable.  Our ability to sustain and succeed depends on our ability to stay ahead of the curve and set market trends rather than follow them. Apple is one such company that continually raises the bar by defining new market niches and creating the products required to fulfill them.

We also have a social responsibility to ensure that people are gainfully employed to afford the very products and services we provide.  As we consider current employment levels here in Ontario, Canada, and other countries around the world, it is becoming increasingly clear that cutting “jobs” is not a solution that will propel our economy forward.  We must be accountable to create affordable products and services that can be provided and sustained by our own “home based” resources.

Accountability for a sustainable business model requires us to forego future growth projections and deal with our present reality.  Expanding markets are not to be ignored, however, we can no longer use the “lack of growth” as an excuse for failing to meet our current obligations and stakeholder expectations.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Follow @Versalytics

Vergence Analytics

Related articles

• GOP meltdown (sfgate.com)
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Effective, Efficient – Absent

I realize I haven’t posted for quite some time and thought I should at least drop a note to let everyone know that I haven’t forgotten about you or my blog! I’ve been offsite for the past 3 weeks and keeping extremely busy.

I have several articles written and will be posting again in the near future so please stay tuned!

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Have you been Tweetjacked?

Image via CrunchBase

Whether or not you are on twitter, this post may seem a little out of place for a lean blog.  Rest assured that I’m still very focused on lean; however, twitter has been the source of a growing number of visitors to our site and I feel compelled to share my experiences and help to serve the twitter community.

Not too long ago, I learned a few valuable Twitter lessons and, in the spirit of lean, I decided to share them here.

1. Twitter imposes limits on the number of accounts you can follow
• 2000 and account dependent
• 1000 maximum per day
2. Tweets can be hijacked or, in twitter terms, #tweetjacked.
• Link Jack – Your link is replaced by another potentially offending link.
• Chat Jack – Someone disrupts a chat and attempts to change the topic.

Although a tweetjack may not appear to be quite as dramatic or newsworthy as a security breach on Facebook, Sony, or even Google, it could be.  As we have learned over the past few months, the effects of one single “controversial” tweet can be quite damaging even to the extent where careers are destroyed and lives are ruined.

At a minimum, we owe it to ourselves to be aware of potential threats and how to avoid them to protect our online reputation.  I will only focus on the Link Jack since Chat Jacks occur in real time and the offending account can be dealt with immediately, including blocking if necessary.

I will qualify this discussion by noting that “tweetjacking” as discussed here is a rare exception to my overall Twitter experience.  Twitter has enabled me to connect with many amazing people from around the world and the benefits of knowing them exceeds any of my expectations.

What happened?

In a strange, ironic way, lesson #1 and lesson #2 are actually related.  Lesson #1 was the reason for updating our Twitter – Tips, Tools, and Helpful Hints page.  Lesson #2 occurred after I posted the following tweet:

Once published, anyone on twitter can add or modify the message and retweet (RT) it to their followers. To avoid giving any further credence to the original “perpetrators”, I created the following retweet (RT) using my twitter account:

The Look of Innocence

At first glance, the RT above doesn’t appear to be that much different from the original. To the naive and unassuming, everything appears to be in tact with a few exceptions:

• Added Text:
• It is common for people to add a comment or #hashtag to your message.  This may be to reflect their own opinion or endorsement as a means to entice their followers to read it and click on the link.  In this case, “Lessons Learned” seems to be appropriate.
• Truncated Message:
• Messages that are longer than twitter’s maximum of 140 characters can be shortened using one of many services available such as bit.ly.  ”deck.ly”, the default for TweetDeck was used to shorten the message in this case.
• Link Jack:  Different URL (http://….)
• Even if the message is not shortened, the link in your original message may be replaced altogether.  In our case, the link ”wp.me/Pnmcq-tK” would simply be replaced by another link.  In our case, the link to my intended page was replaced by a link that led to a completely different web page.
• Unknown Twitter Account
• If you don’t recognize the Twitter Account that sent the RT, you may want to check that out too.  It is not uncommon for a “bot” to automatically retweet or RT messages containing specific #hashtags or key words.  For example, there is a “bot” that automatically retweets messages containing the word “Toronto”.

It is common for tweets of interest to be retweeted (RT) by others in the twitterverse.  Once a tweet is published, it is in full view of the public domain, including search engines like Google!

What can we do to protect our content?

Twitter is an open platform where we rely on the integrity of everyone in the twitterverse.  To my knowledge there is no way to protect your tweet from changes by others.  Perhaps an opportunity exists to “protect” the original tweet from being tampered or modified.  Until that time arrives, here is a short list of suggestions that may help:

• Keep your tweets short
• Others can retweet (RT) without having to “shorten” your message.
• This makes it easy to compare the RT or retweeted message to the original
• Verify content
• Check the links in the messages you receive before retweeting them to your followers.
• Don’t retweet a message simply because you recognize the account name!
• Remember, with a link jack everything looks as it should – only the URL has been changed
• Protect Yourself
• Do not leave your twitter account unattended or “open”.
• It is a simple matter for someone to create a tweet
• Beware of hackers
• They may have a vested interested your twitter account
• Change your passwords frequently
• Use OAuth to allow third party twitter services to access or your account
• Beware of others
• People may have a vested interest in your account as you gain more followers
• People like to follow celebrities
• Verify Your Followers / Accounts You Follow
• Don’t follow accounts just because they follow you!
• Validate your followers
• Don’t rely on services like http://truetwit.com
• Verify Age of Account
• Number of Tweets
• Last Tweet
• Frequency of Tweets
• Tweet Content
• Number Followed / Following
• Block Unwanted accounts
• Report Violations
• There are a number of different ways your account may be violated or compromised.
• http://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-a-violation
• Link Jacking is only one of several potential account violations

In conclusion

Establishing an online presence and meeting new people can be challenging for anyone, including business. Is the content reliable? Is the source credible? Who can you trust? Who can you believe?  In the online world we simply don’t have the luxury of saying “time will tell” and more often than not, we learn that our “interests” have been compromised after the fact.

At the very least, be aware that tweetjacking could happen to you.  As you become more popular in the twitterverse, some people may take advantage of your account to serve their best interests only.  Rest assured I won’t be one of them.

Have you experienced tweet jacking? Feel free to share or comment on your experience.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Follow @Versalytics

Vergence Analytics

Related articles

• I wrote “Why Twitter” some time ago and followed up with our Twitter – Tips, Tools, and Helpful Hints page to share what I’ve learned so far.
• Urban Dictionary – TweetJack (urbandictionary.com)
• Tweets Are the New TV Ratings (techland.time.com)
• How Not to Do Twitter: The Rise and Fall of My Twitterverse (pcworld.com)
• Metablocks | Beware of Twitter Spam: An Overview and Guide … (metablocks.com)
• How To Get the Most Out of Twitter: For Beginners (unputdownables.net)
• The Tweet Effect: How Twitter Affects Rankings (seomoz.org)

Sharp Minds – On the Cutting Edge or the Cutting Board?

Image via Wikipedia

I continue to be frustrated by the notion that the only way to reduce spending is by cutting services.  While the demand for change is high, few are willing to challenge tradition and conventional thinking to improve services and increase efficiencies that will enable us to do more with less, find new opportunities, and to create jobs instead of eliminating them.

On a global level, governments continue to grapple with increasing economic pressures brought on by the recession. Rather than demonstrating fiscal restraint however, governments have grown and spending has increased at rates that far exceed that of the public sector. The result is an unsustainable government and services that will either be cut or funded through newly created revenue streams.

Rather than challenging the infrastructure and systems that comprise the delivery of these services, the governments scramble to find new ways to reach further into our pockets to pay for inefficiencies, high paid union labour, and questionable entitlements.  In some instances, services have been abandoned only to be properly managed by the private sector.

For example, when we consider the delivery of health care in Canada, we find a system plagued by excessive wait times and ever rising costs.  Doctors and specialists continue to operate as a fragmented community of service providers, adding layers of bureaucracy, greater inefficiencies, and more cost.

These inefficiencies are further evidenced by patients who are sent into a frenzied schedule of appointments and tests in various locations without regard for the many inconveniences and disruptions they may incur in their personal lives.

On the other hand, emergency rooms do not present the same constraints and, though some waiting may be required, patients are examined and assessed immediately, a prognosis is determined, priorities are established, and resources are made available on demand as required.

Expedience does not jeopardize the level of care provided.  While the emergency room may not present the ideal case, it is radically different from “standard” care.

In stark contrast to the government-political processes that continue to insult our intelligence, I am always encouraged by the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of individuals who prove that there is always a better way and more than one solution:

• Brilliant Printing Technology Advancing Technology
• Hanging From A Thread Healthcare Services
• Lean Healthcare – Sunnybrook Surgeons given a hands-off way to Kinect Sunnybrook Hospital
• Critical Condition – Where there’s a Will, there’s a way – A Mississauga company has a partial cure to what ails our struggling healthcare system (http://www.thoughtspeed.biz)

Where do we start?

The quicker we realize that truly radical changes are necessary, the sooner we can abandon traditional cost cutting practices and apply Lean Thinking to improve society as we know it, not cut it to shreds.  My simplified definition of Lean Thinking follows:

Lean is the pursuit of perfection and pure value through the relentless elimination of waste.

As every lean practitioner will tell you, the process begins by defining value.  Unfortunately, many governments and companies alike start by falsely assuming that they are already providing the value that customers want or need.  As such, they attempt to improve existing products or services by either adding features or making them faster and cheaper. From the perspective of Lean Thinking, the “secret” to making real change begins by finding:

“… a mechanism for rethinking the value of their core products to their customers.”

In this same context, consider how our desire to “travel from Point A to Point B in the shortest time” has evolved and transformed our personal modes of transportation / communication into the following “value” propositions:

• Personal:  Crawl > Walk > Run > Tricycle > Bicycle
• Roadways:  Bicycle, Motorcycles, Cars, Buses
• Railways:  Passenger and Freight Trains
• Seaways:  Boats, Ships
• Airways:  Helicopters, Planes, Jets, Rockets
• Telephone:  Phones, Faxes, Internet (email, social media)

Each mode of transportation presents a unique solution to address a shared common value:  ”Short Travel Time”.  Although changing technologies is inferred, lean does not require an investment in new technologies to be successful.  To the contrary, Lean Thinking simply challenges us to consider the value our customers are demanding.  Accordingly, we must ensure that our infrastructure, business practices, and methodologies deliver that value in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Only when we focus on “value” from a customer perspective can we offer a solution that truly meets the customer’s needs.  When we consider the premise for this example, the need to travel is implied.  It does not answer the question “Why do we travel?

If the reason for traveling is simply to “communicate” with friends and family, then we can see that the telephone becomes a viable solution to eliminate the need to travel at all.  From a similar perspective, fax machines and the internet were created to expedite data transfers and to communicate with the world in real-time.

The Challenge is On

It is time for all levels of government, business, unions, and society as a whole to acknowledge that our economy is in a state of crisis and demands real action. Real people are hurting at a time when others are pursuing their own agendas for self-preservation – all at the expense of society.  We can not simply assume that everything is “just fine – only more expensive”.

Lean Thinking is a requisite mandate for any company wanting to compete in today’s global market.  In this regard, the same challenges exist for governments and businesses alike to adopt lean thinking to deliver real value to the people they serve at prices we can all afford.

The Globe And Mail featured an article titled “ What Ottawa can do to help manufacturers excel globally – Globe And Mail” href=”http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/manufacturing/what-ottawa-can-do-to-help-manufacturers-excel-globally/article2060854/” target=”_blank”>What Ottawa can do to help manufacturers excel globally” that cites feedback for improvements from manufacturers and businesses in various industries. Unemployment in the United States is hovering at 9% and, as this video “Focus On Jobs or Spending Cuts” demonstrates, the challenge to deliver new jobs is also in jeopardy.

Unless government spending is brought under control and services are delivered effectively and efficiently, the system is sure to implode.  It’s time for an extreme make over, engaging the best and sharpest minds to bring us to the cutting edge in business and technology, not to the cutting board where nothing remains but shattered hopes and dreams.

Your Feedback Matters

We appreciate your comments and suggestions.  Remember to follow us on twitter!

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Follow @Versalytics

Vergence Analytics

Related articles

• Rebuilding our Economy: Fragile – Handle with Care (leanexecution.wordpress.com)
• Gingrich signs Lean Six Sigma deficit reduction pledge (guidonps.com)
• Critical Condition – Where there’s a Will, there’s a way (thoughtspeed.biz)
• What Ottawa Can do (GlobeAndMail.com)

Lean Thinking for Change – Is this Kaizen?

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Every lean organization recognizes the need for – and significance of – practicing Kaizen or continuous improvement.  That Kaizen is integral to any lean initiative is clearly evidenced by the numerous references, discussions, and success stories in two highly recommended and revered books:  ”Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation” by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones and ”The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey Liker.

In this context, it’s not surprising when I hear managers say “We don’t do enough Kaizen here”, and is further accompanied by a sense of guilt that knowingly suggests they can’t be lean without it.  When I ask them to clarify their statement, they often refer to their latest week-long Kaizen event that actually seemed more like an extended exercise in 5S.

In other more extreme cases, the value stream changes were so radical that they were actually practicing Kaikaku or radical improvement.  Quite literally, the changes involved re-arranging machines and re-processing operations to improve flow and reduce inventories.

Over the course of my career, I have led several successful major plant transformations and turn-around efforts.  Practicing Kaikaku is almost assured when, at some point, the discussion turns to “Pretend there is nothing in your plant” or, “If you could start from scratch”, “What would it look like?”

Although Kaizen is not intended to be as radical, I constantly hear the same concern from both small and medium-sized companies, “We simply don’t have the time or the resources to devote to a week-long workshop.”  I always follow with, “Who said we need a week?

The problem with either of the scenarios above is that they have the tendency to be one time events by design.  If, by definition, Kaizen is continual improvement, then “one time” events are clearly an exceptional form of the practice. Let’s take a few minutes to understand what Kaizen is.”

What is Kaizen?

The perception of Kaizen in the leadership and management ranks is based on a common misunderstanding of what Kaizen really is and, with so much information available on the topic, perhaps for good reason.

Many books have been written on the topic of lean and each presents their definition of Kaizen in kind.  For example, “Lean for Dummies“, by Natalie J. Sayers and Bruce Williams, devotes an entire chapter to “Flowing in the Right Direction: Lean Projects and Kaizen”, and suggests:

… Kaizen is the how. Kaizen is the way you improve the value stream; it’s practiced through a continuing series of workshops and projects.

Further reading continues to expound on the definition of Kaizen, the rules for engagement, project selection, project methodology, as well as planning and conducting workshops.

As I reflect on my own experience, I recall a week-long process improvement initiative with one of Suzuki’s New Program Launch teams.  They referred to this initiative as ”Kaizen” and encouraged us to learn and pursue other process improvements using a similar strategy:

The objective of Kaizen is to continually improve, to pursue perfection with a focus on value added activities and the relentless elimination of waste.

The team consisted of personnel from a number of different departments and their entire time was to be devoted to this aggressive and rigorous process review and improvement  activity.  Personally, the experience was exhausting and the gains achieved certainly warranted the level of engagement demanded.

We were subsequently introduced to ”Kaizen Blitzes” that were somehow less intense than a full workshop but seemed to be a more palatable approach.

The perception and resources required for week-long workshops are among the few primary reasons why many companies find it difficult to support Kaizen.  Unfortunately, their only experience and exposure to Kaizen is often gained through these limited “workshop” or “blitz” experiences.

Indeed, entire books have been written on Kaizen alone that may be even more intimidating to the new and uninitiated lean practitioner.  I prefer the description of Kaizen as presented in “Toyota Under Fire” by Jeffrey Liker and Timothy N. Ogden.

At Toyota, Kaizen isn’t a set of projects or special events. It’s the way people in the company think at the most fundamental level, harking back to Deming’s never-ending PDCA cycle.

Although this definition is broader in scope, it identifies the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) as the core premise of all continuous improvement initiatives and is consistent with the methodology purported by Mike Rother in his highly acclaimed book, “Toyota Kata” and also discussed in our post “Discover Toyota’s Best Practice” and referred by Wikipedia.

Two Types of Kaizen

Those of you who are familiar with Kaizen recognize that there are actually two types of Kaizen:  Maintenance Kaizen and Improvement Kaizen.

Improvement Kaizen is ”raising the bar” to the next level – improving processes to achieve new standards and higher levels of performance.  The very nature of the improvement requires participation from multiple disciplines to discover and effect the changes necessary.

Maintenance Kaizen, as briefly described by Jeffrey Liker in ”Toyota Under Fire“, is the reality of dealing with our daily unexpected crises (Murphy’s Law) - something most of us are exposed to in our workplaces and personal lives.

When we hear that employees at Toyota make daily improvements, it is likely in reference to Maintenance Kaizen and the Improvement Kata.   In this context, we are all likely practicing Maintenance Kaizen on a daily basis too.

A recent experience

I can appreciate that some businesses work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Of course supporting a business like that means you are operating on the same timeline.

Machine failures and quality concerns are all too common in manufacturing. To broaden the application and our thinking with regard to Kaizen specifically and Lean in general, this experience is based on a recent “IT” concern.

03:10 am - The client calls:  “We’ve got a problem with our e-mail. It just stopped working. We need to get this information out to our client before 7:00 am this morning.”

03:30 am - I arrive to find a file in the Outbox anxiously waiting to find its way onto the internet.  Any attempts made to free up space were denied, e-mails could not be deleted, archives couldn’t be executed.  Any attempts to do anything relevant produced the following message:

03:47 am – The internet connection was fully functional, so I recommend sending the files directly from their 3rd party e-mail.  This, by the way, was the contingency plan in the “unlikely” event of an internal server crash.

03:55 am – Files are sent and we begin looking for a solution to the problem at hand.

04:11 am – I find and run the program that should handle a scan and repair C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033.

04:51 am – The scan is complete and I’m greeted with “Errors were found in this file.  To repair these errors, click Repair.”

04:53 am - I click Details… and, as suspected, there were errors that prevented access to the file:

04:53 am – I return to the Repair screen and click repair.

05:11 am – A message appears on the screen and things suddenly got worse:

Fortunately, while the scan was running, we researched alternative data recovery options as well. We were forced to develop a solution, other than the one recommended by Microsoft, to successfully resolve the problem.

07:00 am – Problem resolved and the client is satisfied that all is well. Time to get ready for work!

Lessons Learned

The client was not performing regular archives resulting in a massive file at or near the limits of the software.  Backups were few and seldom performed.  The experience has now mandated the need for managed archiving and weekly backups.

How the file became corrupt is still a mystery. Although the risk of occurrence is unknown, just knowing that Microsoft developed a repair solution suggests that the event was at least expected to occur.

We conclude that the risk of recurrence is slim.  There is little that can be done to assure the integrity of data as this is controlled by the file management capabilities of the software and the operating system itself.

Is this Kaizen?

The crisis was very real, required an immediate solution, and Murphy’s law prevailed on more than one occasion.  Negligence regarding archives and backups was discovered and countermeasures were implemented accordingly.

It is very unlikely that we will be able to prevent a file from ever becoming corrupt, although appropriate countermeasures, such as backups, will at least minimize the risk.  Our initial third-party e-mail solution negated the potential loss of any data.

I recognize that improvement initiatives are typically premised on a known process state whereby the amount of improvement can be measured.  In the same context, a target condition that we aspire to achieve is also established.

Whether this was Kaizen is a matter of perspective. Whatever it is called, our mission is to maximize value for our customer by pursuing  perfection through the relentless elimination of waste.

Kaizen Protocol

I don’t intend to minimize the rigors of Kaizen by the simplicity of the experience shared above. However, I contend that practicing Kaizen is not restricted to the realm of workshops or special events considering that, at the most fundamental level, improvement initiatives or Kaizen follow iterative cycles of the “Plan > Do > Check > Act” methodology.

As we continue to learn from our past experiences, the necessity for full workshops at the process level are eventually displaced by “spontaneous” improvement and problem solving on a reduced scale and at the “local” level.

It is not that companies are neglecting to do Kaizen, it is the failure to recognize that Kaizen is not an event, special project, or a workshop.  Kaizen is the incremental improvements that we implement continually each and every day. Foregoing the formality of documenting every Kaizen activity does not negate the reality that it is being practiced.

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Vergence Analytics

** A full Kaizen workshop requires substantial preparation and effort. Realizing this, some companies prefer to use simulations to teach Kaizen rather than risk disruptions to current processes or operations.

** Consultants bring a wealth of experience from a diverse range of businesses and industries. Consider hiring a consultant as a “resource on demand” to facilitate and practice Kaizen in your operation.

Twitter:  @Versalytics

Rebuilding our Economy: Fragile – Handle with Care

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We are presently faced with yet another federal election here in Canada.  According to recent polls voters have expressed a strong sense of frustration, overwhelming cynicism, and mistrust.  While I can appreciate the well-intentioned platforms of each of the respective parties, I am reminded that these programs and promises must be funded by an ever-growing shortfall of our tax dollars.

Our ability to sustain and grow our economy is continually compromised by new fees, regulations, increasing taxes, new taxes, rising prices on essential goods and services (utilities, food, gas), erosion of current services, and an aging work force nearing or entering into retirement.

Economies in other parts of the world such as Ireland and Greece have collapsed, governments have fallen, and social-political unrest has ensued.  According to a recent article published in the Toronto Star titled “An ailing Ireland’s lessons for Canada“, our finance minister, Joe Flaherty, stated in 2006 that our economy “will look more like Ireland.”

At the time this statement was made, we would have considered it to be a complement. Today, however, it is a major cause for concern as Ireland, like many other countries, is virtually insolvent and on the verge of bankruptcy.

Our primary concern is whether an already fragile economy can sustain existing programs and whether our current path to recovery is in jeopardy or at risk of being compromised. More specifically in Canada and North America in general, the manufacturing sector, once considered a key contributor to the economy, continues to decline at shocking rates as evidenced by numerous plant closings, thousands of job losses, and increased globalization and sourcing of goods and services to low-cost labour countries.

Rather than reiterate my thoughts yet again, I encourage you to view this presentation, “Re-Manufacture our America“, by Perform Analysis for some excellent insights on the current state of manufacturing in America.  I received a tweet from PerformAnalysis and have been assured that the intent was to include all of North America (including Canada).

PerformAnalysis Performance Analysis

@Versalytics by the way, I meant to include all of North America, Canada too

Note that Performance Analysis can be found on Twitter @PerformAnalysis.  You may also be interested in visiting the Performance Analysis blog and their web site.  As a reminder, we can be reached on twitter @Versalytics.

The Breaking Point

All levels of government have grown at a rate that far exceeds that of the private sector and our ability to support and pay for them has all but been exhausted.  The exodus of business to lower cost countries is evidence that we can no longer afford to support the higher wages demanded by our current cost of living or the increased burden of government.

Since the government is either unable or unwilling to balance the budget, control costs, and part with self serving entitlements, voters have reached a breaking point where our current cost of living has forced many of us to consider radical lifestyle changes.  As disposable income continues to diminish, consumers are forced to prioritize choices and curb spending to offset the rising costs of the basic necessities of life.  The backlash of these choices is certain to ripple through the economy to even greater detriment.

Knowing that manufacturers in other countries use essentially the same technologies and share similar concerns for efficiency and effectiveness, it becomes clear that the companies that operate there benefit from lower or reduced infrastructure costs either through lower wages, benefits, operating expenses, taxes, and smaller government.

In conclusion:

The view of our fine city of Toronto, as seen from the harbor front / Toronto Island pictured above, is a beautiful sight at night.  I still contend that opportunities exist where efficiencies can be gained without having to cut services and the same is true for business.  However, unless things change, this beautiful picture will be all but a distant memory when the lights go out!

Until Next Time – STAY lean!

Vergence Analytics

Twitter: @Versalytics