Daily Kaizen

RIM events, if required, are scoped to be a 3 day workshop with “no tails”; meaning all decisions are made, documentation is created, the first pilot site is live, and operations is ready to fully own implementation by the third day of the event.  Regarding scale of improvement, RIM falls between a standard 5 day Kaizen workshop (RPIW) and the scope of a Front Line Improvement (FLI).

To goal is a focused operational improvement, designed to “hit singles” toward larger strategy goals within the organization, defined by the following principles:

• Every 4 weeks $1 million in bottom line operational savings or revenue begins its spread through operations. These improvements can come in many forms – inventory reduction, productivity increases (and subsequent internalization of services), and revenue capture are examples.
• Elevate our understanding of A3 analysis by:
  •  understanding root cause in terms of missing:
    • A standard?
    • Standard work?
    • Adherence to standard work?
• Understanding countermeasures to address root cause by sequentially evaluating what type of countermeasure(s) are sufficient, and stopping when that sufficiency is met:
• Demand only?
• Flow too?
• Leveling as well?
• Depending on the gap(s), and countermeasure, an appropriate improvement action is applied. For example, if it’s a gap in all three, we have two small events within a 4 week time frame:
• Event #1 consists of at most 6 – 8 leaders from impacted areas to define the standards that become the backbone of the improvement – sets direction and the “what”.
• Event #2 is the 3 day event, with 6 – 8 participants, 1 operational leader and 1 lean consultant – to define the “how” regarding standard work and adherence to standard work to consistently meet the standards set.
• If the gap is simply a missing standard and / or adherence to standard work, then the countermeasure is for leaders to set clear standards and an implementation plan to incorporate the standard and the checking on that standard into the management system. No event – simply make a decision (set a standard), communicate, and begin checking.

You may be asking yourself – why do they need lean consultation involvement to do improvements of this magnitude? Widespread capability doesn’t currently exist within operations to independently execute focused improvement that frames a problem and it’s countermeasure in terms of standards, standard work, and adherence to standard work. This must change for our organization to improve at the pace our customers and the market require. Developing the capability in our operational leaders and their analytical partners is a key deliverable of the RIM work.

RIM is uniquely positioned to deliver immediate improvement and bottom line savings now, as well as develop this capability in our operations. Most importantly, it’s also helping to clarify that improvement doesn’t always equal an event – a costly and time intensive path. Further, improvement doesn’t always require application of demand, flow, and leveling countermeasures. Sometimes, improvement can occur from just demand related changes, or demand and flow. The proliferation of these improvement realities and the ability for operations throughout our company to execute to them will be the true measure of RIM’s success, as it will be critical to the elusive leap in our rate of improvement.

In the weeks to come, we will share the content of our first two cycles of this process.

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