Daily Kaizen

I have recently been challenged to work with a large group of mid managers to redesign their processes to go from being reactive to proactive. Since we are working within our model line department we have the luxury of providing this group with an extensive amount of education and support. Rather then helping them fish we are teaching them to fish. In this administrative area for many years process improvement has not been the norm and as a result the processes have become more and more complex. This has meant that it has become harder and harder to get accurate data and to be able to find the route cause of problems. As a result, most of the processes are more focused on catching problems then they are on solving them.
In order to simplify these processes and to develop these managers we have used many different tools and techniques. Two of the tools we have been using extensively and effectively lately is a simple fishbone diagram and a Pareto chart. These help managers prioritize opportunities and also help describe the cause and effect relationships, typically related to finding the route cause of problems. Quite simply, they allow managers to pick and own the best tactics for improvement and to be able to see first hand how their interventions are making a difference. It has also helped demystify many of the previous beliefs that have existed to explain why problems were occurring in the first place. Sometimes simple tools can make a big difference.

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