USING STANDARDS TO START IMPROVING

These materials are from Jeffrey K. Liker and the book, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels. Online courses on these materials are provided by the Lean Leadership Institute.

The following are teaching objectives for this section:

1.     Identify the characteristics of long-term continuous improvement.

2.     Share a common mistake made by managers.

3.     Explain in detail what standards do for us.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

A standard may be a particular target, for example, handling a certain number of calls-per-day or reaching a certain percentage of customer satisfaction. In either case, a standard provides your baseline, and then we're going to establish a new baseline that's more difficult.

So let’s say we have 80% customer satisfaction now, but we want 95% customer satisfaction; that's our new standard. To reach a new standard we have to make improvements, and we normally suggest not jumping from 80 to 95%.

Let's take a smaller target like we're going to go from 80 to 81% first, and then we will take a step and then we check (part of the plan-do-check-act cycle). Now we're at 81%. Then the question of, What we are going to do now to get to 82%?

Through these steps toward a next target, which then becomes the new baseline, we will move toward the ultimate target of 95%, and this is what we mean by continuous improvement.

You could say that the definition of continuous improvement is; everybody, everyplace, and all of the time, is looking at where they are; they are looking at what the standard is calling for, and then that gap between the two provides the aspiration to move forward by trying things.

The process involves trying things, checking to see if they work and then standardizing what works and fixing what doesn't work. 

A COMMON MISTAKE

A problem we sometimes see in companies is that those in upper management who set a standard will tell the managers we want to get to 95%; currently we're at 80%. That goal is announced. Then the managers will tell the supervisors ‘Here's our target; this is what you need to get to’ and then they go away and the work groups struggle.

Even if they improve to 90%, they're going to be disappointed; they're going to be discouraged because they're not at 95%. 

Lean leadership is in fact active leadership; we're not talking about abstaining from leadership. The Lean leader is with the people and their message is ‘We need by the end of the year to get to 95%. We don't have to get there all at once’. In fact, we don't have to think about 95% right away, but we need to think about a first step.

What's the first thing we can do? Let's look at the data; let's understand the causes of dissatisfaction; let’s pick the biggest of those causes, and let's understand why that problem occurs and let’s come up with ideas for improvement. Pick some ideas. Try them.

They are leading a problem-solving process step by step.

If they're good leaders, if they're doing a good job, if they engage the team, the team will always have good ideas, and you will see progress.

Then you need to celebrate that progress as you are making it. There could be a big jump in a given week, and maybe you have a party to celebrate and maybe you get small gifts for everybody. 

The ultimate target of 95% should be out there for the workers to realize how far they have to go. Hey, we've got a long way to go and you might even show how we're doing relative to 95%; we're half way there and it is half way through the year.

But you’re trying to get to continuous improvement; you’re trying to get to steady improvement which means taking small steps; but don’t expect that everybody is an expert on improvement; that’s the role of the leaders.

The question becomes; in leading and asking question and challenging the workers, do you know the root cause?

Have you understood the sources of customer dissatisfaction?

By asking the right questions and pushing the team, they’ll take a step at a time and begin to make steady progress.

When they try something that doesn’t’ work, the answer is as useful as trying something that does work.

For each thing that doesn’t work you learn one thing that you shouldn’t do, that should be recognized and encouraged. 

WHAT STANDARDS DO FOR US?

So we’re saying Standards give us some point of comparison. We can compare what should be happening to what is actually happening, so the difference or the gap is what we call an anomaly.

The way a person should be doing their work is often unclear, and that’s why people use different approaches, and we don’t see improvement except at the individual level, and individuals don’t teach what they learn. 

So standardized work is our theory about work, our theory about the best way we know today to do this particular work. 

Let’s say there’s a divergence from the standard; we don’t actually know that the standard is perfect; we know it’s not perfect, and that there’s always a better way.

So when we diverge from the standardized work, then the problem could be that someone is not well trained, or that the equipment doesn’t work right, or that the person who’s providing input did not give you accurate information. So there are a lot of possible causes and we can work on fixing them.

Or it may be that the standardized work itself is not well designed and there’s a better way. In either case, we have an opportunity for Kaizen, an opportunity for improvement. 

Standardized work is the basis for surfacing problems or an anomaly, which then is the basis for Kaizen.

If standardized work is our theory about the best way to do a job, we may not specify every contingency or situation a worker might face, but we know some basic things that everybody in that job should do. 

This is the way the accountant should handles receivables, and we have some ideas about that and that can encompass our theory; if we document that theory, then we have a way to train people to our standardized work for that job.

Ideally, we want everybody to follow that theory about standard work, so that we can then see the problems that occur, remembering that a problem is a deviation from the standard.

Following this system; by resolving a deviation from the standard allows us to improve the process and as we improve the process we as leaders are becoming better Lean Leaders; we’re getting better at spotting deviations; we’re getting better at improving on the standardized work; we’re getting better at problem-solving, and we’re developing other people.

We also have an obligation then to share what we think might be useful to others in the company. 

We don’t have a right to order people to follow what we’ve done because what we’ve done might only fit our situation, and they have to look at their situation. We have an obligation to at least share what we think is general knowledge that is possibly useful to others.

LEAN MILESTONE: TRUE NORTH

On this journey of improvement, it is usefully to think about key milestones for your particular process, which would say, We have arrived¾some call it true north. True north is the direction we’re heading; we’re heading north, and at least we’re on track toward that ideal even if we cannot reach that ideal.

As an example of one true north ideal, we might say that all customers’ complaints are investigated at the customer level and not by sitting in the office and speculating; leaders are looking at the real problem, and we’re also finding the root causes, which will then lead to solving the real problems and the right problems, the root causes of the problems and therefore the problems shouldn’t come back.

Again, that’s an ideal; we are not going to satisfy 100% of customers’ complaints in our lifetime, and if we even were to identify all customers’ complaints and go and see in every case, we might not in 100% of the cases get the root cause right. But the effort provides an aspiration, an ideal or a milestone.

Standardized work may involve getting a customer’s complaint; finding the root cause for that one kind of problem, which is a general problem, and then you can create a standard to address that problem, so the problem doesn’t come back.

If you don’t create the standard, then whoever did that investigation was solving the problem in the short term, but in the long term other people won’t know (when that person leaves) and then the problem will come back. 

One-Minute Review

·        A new standard can be as easy as saying, “We want to be at 95% Customer Satisfaction by the end of the year.”

·        Everybody, everyplace, all the time, is making marginal improvement and that is called continuous improvement.

·        A common mistake made by managers is to announce the target to the work group and then go away.

·        The work groups will end up struggling, and even if they get to 90%, they will be discouraged.

·        Lean Leaders share the target, and say, “We don’t need to get there all at once. We just need to think about our next step.”

·        Then they lead the team by asking questions.

·        Standardized work will allow you to develop a baseline for improvement.

·        Standardized work also allows you to address a problem so it does not come back.

Module 3 Section 3

Question 1

Continuous improvement includes setting a baseline and then:

1)     Establish a new baseline that's more difficult

2)     Aim for a smaller intermediate step toward new target

3)     Check, and set the next target

4)     All of the above

Question 2

In lean terminology, a gap is:

1)     The reason a problem is not solved

2)     Divergence from the standard

3)     Poorly designed standard work

4)     Missing major milestones

Question 3

A gap provides the aspiration to move forward

1)     Trying something new

2)     Checking the result

3)     Standardizing what works

4)     All of the above

Question 4

In many organizations, lean leaders:

1)     Don't set the standards

2)     Leave improvement work to others

3)     Manage work groups to figure out how to improve

4)     All of the above

Section 3 – Question 5

Lean leaders...

1)     Identify a first step

2)     Support root cause investigation

3)     Lead a problem-solving process

4)     All of the above

Question 6

A good Lean leader:

1)     Engages the team for their ideas by asking the right questions

2)     Expects root cause analysis to generate ideas that always work

3)     Believes improvement only happens when countermeasures work as intended

4)     Believes everyone needs to adhere to standardized work to prevent problems or the system fails

Question 7

Standardized work:

1)     Is basis for surfacing problems

2)     Enables everyone to compare what should be happening with what actually happens

3)     Becomes the basis for training and sharing knowledge

4)     All of the above

Question 8

To keep improvement work on track, a good lean leader reference

1)     Key milestones

2)     True North

3)     Aspirational ideals

4)     All of the above

Answers to the above quiz questions are located at http://leanleadership.guru/answers/

*****

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