Archive for 5′s
When those old guys say stuff, you should listen!
Posted by: | CommentsI am working and creating some examples for the Lean Marketing House, and I wanted to create several A3 reports on several pieces of the foundations. As I was struggling to get started, I remembered what my first Lean teacher told me: Start with 5S so that you don’t spend your time on anything wasteful and then do Standard Work. Most people know what 5S is but Standard work may confuse a few. Standard work is a simple written description of the safest, highest quality, and the most efficient way known to perform a particular process or task.
There is no secret to standard work. Watch several people do the same task and see the difference. Is there much variance built into it? Why would I care about this in marketing? Just using the procedure for creating an ad or a direct mail piece. If there is a lot of variance in the production do you think the schedule will be met? More importantly, will the best use of creative time be used or are you the type that works better under pressure!!! The key to standard work is keeping it clear and simple, so staff can quickly and accurately complete their work.
When I started doing the standard work for a procedure there really was not one in place. I know it sound kind of corny, but really go to try to create an A3 report without a standard, it was next to impossible. I thought an A3 was supposed to make it easier. But the old guy was right, you have to know what you are doing before you improve on it. The photo of a Standard Work Template is provided by Systems2win.
As Taiichi Ohno said – “Where there is no standard, there can be no kaizen.”
Related Post;
Lean Marketing House Foundation
5S – I did a set of stupid Videos on 5S in marketing a while back.
How much planning is enough – Use Lean and Standardize
How much Planning is enough – Use Lean and Standardize
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you listen to consultants and so called experts, all they talk about is planning. The reason they exist is for the planning stages. Where are these guys at when it is time to get the work done anyway? Many companies will just take the attitude of let’s just get it done – there is not time for all this planning. If something happens, we will just have to deal with it anyway, plan or no plan. So let’s get started, right?
Slow down Cowboy! How much time does it really take to plan? From my experience you should use a baseline of around 5% of your projects time in planning. So if you have a project that will consume 400 hours that would be 20 hours. Do you think that is unreasonable? Do you believe that a plan would produce fewer negative consequences or less than 20 hours of non-productive fire fighting?
Now, what happens if planning takes longer? You need to treat your planning process like any other process. Using a standard methodology such as lean and the toolset that it employs will allow you the opportunity to get the most out of your planning cycle. It will allow improving your planning process removing the waste that you have accumulated in it. I have found most companies actually enjoy planning, the collaboration and decision-making that take place during it. What everyone doesn’t like is the waste in planning, so get rid of it!
The first thing you can do is plan the planning process. Take 5% of your planning time to improve your planning. Set objectives, milestones, create key performance indicators and most of all create a standard work plan. You could even have a Kaizen to 5S your planning process. After doing this a few times, planning will become very easy, intuitive and more productive. Consider that if you significantly improve your planning process, you will create considerable down-flow opportunities of greater savings. Try it!
Related Post:
LEAN TRANSFORMATION IDEAS FROM A HITCHHIKER
HOSHIN KANRI AKA POLICY DEPLOYMENT
Lean Marketing – 5S Sustain
Posted by: | Comments
I did a Lean Marketing Webinar on 5S and broke it down into an overview and 5 segments. Each segment will be posted during the next 5 days. The segments are, you guessed it: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain.
If you want to review the entire series go to MarketingwithLean.com
Lean Marketing – 5S Standardize
Posted by: | Comments
I did a Lean Marketing Webinar on 5S and broke it down into an overview and 5 segments. Each segment will be posted during the next 5 days. The segments are, you guessed it: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain.
If you want to review the entire series go to MarketingwithLean.com
