Calgary Green Belt Kaizen Blitz!

Calgary's Green Belt program went well this week, which included 5S kaizen blitz. Here are some pictures from this event.

Executive Benchmarking Tour, Vancouver

This past week, we kicked off our Vancouver Executive Benchmarking Tour hosted by 6 companies in different industries to see their operations.  It was an eye opening program which prompted one participant to comment, "I can't believe how much we've learned in such a short time - I'm truly inspired by their passion to improve."  LSI plans to organize another tour later this year so please stay tuned!

Day 1:
Our first stop was Nuheat Floor Heating Systems located in Richmond. Nuheat provides "soothing warmth" to various types of flooring surfaces including tile, stone, granite, laminate, and engineered wood.

Here is the Nuheat office tour as we learn about the lean initiatives implemented.

After learning from Nuheat, we visited Alpha Technologies Inc. which is in the telecommunications industry. Alpha Technologies Inc. provides the most reliable, technologically advanced and cost-effective powering solutions available and is built to support expansion and provide unlimited opportunity.

While visiting Alpha Technologies Inc., Blackbelt Certified Derek Nakamoto from First West Credit Union spoke to the group. Below are a few short clips from him describing the journey of lean and lean future plans.

Below is a video about First West Credit Union's lean journey...

Plans for creating a lean video and a First West Lean School to share with the organization...

Our last visit of the day was at Moulding & Millwork which is one of the world's largest manufacturers of doors and moulding products.

The group gets insight from Moulding & Millwork from their lean experience.

Questions & answer time.

Day 2:

We started the day off by visiting Regency Fireplace Products International Ltd. (FPI) Regency strives to be a world leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of hearth products. Every day they employ EXCITE (Exercising Continuous Improvement Towards Excellence) in all of their processes which assures customer needs are met. FPI has continuously improved their training, including such programs as 6S training (vs just 5S because it includes safety). We also had the opportunity to film inside the plant and capture some of the 'lean initiatives' in action!

 Tracking inventory helps to eliminate waste.



Visual signage ensures fewer mistakes.

Traffic light inventory (supplier-managed) tracking/repleneshing system

Our second tour was at the North American Tea & Coffee Inc. They manufacture and distribute teas, dry mix, and grocery products in North America and internationally. The company also provides dry blended food products. Below is a video about North American Tea & Coffee's lean experience.

The group about to go for a tea factory tour.

 

Our last tour of the day was at Ideon packaging LLP. They provide solutions to packaging needs. Their packaging products include: corrugated containers, stock boxes, protective packaging, single-face lamination, POP, and folding cartons. Lean strategy has helped increase their efficiency and the factory is extremely organized. Ideon also strives to eliminate their waste and created their own charity for kids in their community.

Mike explains FITT (Finding Innovation Through Teamwork) training at Ideon. True to his Lean Blackbelt Training, he has absorbed the 'lean philosophy' and transformed it in order to suit Ideon's unique lean needs.

Ideon has created visual cues to increase efficiency and quality.

Ideon ensures lean consistency with a health check and scoring system.

Wisdom of the Week: Go and See

"Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day."
~ Thorton Wilder

Continuing with the Lean Tour

Now we are at Ideon Packaging where lean has truly made a difference...

Lean Benchmark Vancouver

LSI is taking 20 people through some of the best companies in Vancouver that are going through lean. Today we are visiting FPI, NATC, and Ideon. More info to come.

Greenbelt for Operation Calgary Fall 2011

We are excited to share that the first Fall Geenbelt for Operation in Calgary happened yesterday! A total of 17 participants are being coached this week by Bob Low. Module 1 will take place from September 12th-16th with an introduction to Lean & the 5S Kaizen Blitz. We hope they have a great experience and learn a lot!

Quote of the day

You have a choice everyday to "move forward", "stay where you are", or "go backwards". Which step are you going to take today?

David Chao

LSI Europe Lean Tour to include a visit to Florence

Our next Europe Lean Tour for June 2012 will include a stop in Florence Italy. This will serve as the primary "hub" from where we will coordinate visits to the Lamborghini factory and hopefully, Ferrari factory (which is still to be confirmed). Excitement is brewing.

Photo of the day

Lean Assessment in Silicon Valley

LSI is conducting a comprehensive lean assessment at a medical device company in the Silicon Valley area, just minutes from Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

Two Master Blackbelts (Janka and Alicia) have joined us to help us with this important lean assessment.  More updates to follow.

Wisdom of the week

The start of another academic year is upon us and many students will be making their way back to class.  Learning is a life long process and we are never too old to tackle something new and challenge ourselves.  In a few weeks, LSI's Greenbelt and Blackbelt classes will resume.  Here's a timely piece of advice from Mark Twain:

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

Photo of the day

Quote of the day

Life has its ups and downs, its twists and turns - no one know knows exactly what is coming around the corner. But having faith and trust that things will always work out makes it possible to wake up each morning with a smile and passion. Life is meant to be embraced and challenged.... as long as you are always ready.

David Chao

2012 Porsche 911 Revealed

Porsche is introducing a new 2012 Porsche 911... an exciting time indeed. LSI will be bringing a group of people to Germany again in June of 2012 as part of our executive program. It will be the first time we will be able to see the brand new 911 being built at Porsche's renowned factory in Stuttgart.

What does new 911 look like? Take a look....

Who is Lean Sensei?

A brief introduction about Lean Sensei from hollywood action star Byron Mann:

What is hansei?

We talked about morning huddle yesterday... what about hansei? How do you do that? Take a look at our example:

What is a morning huddle?

So exactly what is a morning huddle from a lean perspective? Take a look at our short video:

Photo of the day

Wisdom for the Week

“We don’t have to be superstars or win championships .  All we have to do is learn to rise to every occasion, give our best effort and make those around us better as we do it.”  

~ Coach John Wooden

Stop Ignoring the Stalwart Worker

Source: Harvard Business Review

There's an unnoticed population of employees in business today. Strangely enough, they're also the majority.

The diagram below illustrates the labels that organizations often use (knowingly or unknowingly) to classify their employees.

The y-axis focuses on how a professional is measured on meeting the organizational performance criteria that fuel the business engine. The x-axis centers on how the professional fares on meeting the expectations of the human engine. In each of the four corners, we find the Stars, Sinners, Low Performers, and Saints. I'll go into more detail on the four corners of the diagram in my next post, but for now, I want to bring to your attention to those falling in the middle of the diagram — the Stalwarts.



These solid citizens make up the majority of employees in most organizations. The odds are you may find yourself among the Stalwarts at some point in your career, no matter how high-revving your internal drive is. If so, you probably will find yourself questioning your significance.

That's because, despite the number of Stalwarts in an organization, these good, solid citizens of the organization go largely unnoticed. Few leaders think about the motivation, inclusion, and explicit career management of the solid performers. One Fortune 500 leader said, "I thought that it couldn't be true that so many workers are systematically ignored through no fault of their own (except for the fact that they may not be politically astute or they don't draw attention to themselves). But the more I reflected on my own company, the more I realized that I spend all my time worrying about the high performers and assume that everything is OK with everyone else."

So what exactly is the Stalwart temperament? Perhaps the defining characteristic of Stalwarts is their aversion to calling attention to themselves — even when they need to. They are like the proverbial wheel that never squeaks — and, consequently, gets no grease. The quickest way to identify Stalwarts is to list the people who make the fewest demands on the CEO's time. Such reserve is utterly alien to most Stars, who make sure that they squeak loudly enough to get the attention they want.

The other signature trait of Stalwarts is their deep loyalty to the organization. They are responsible and care deeply about the organization's values, and they generally steer clear of risk. Stalwarts are intrinsically motivated by the service they can render for the good of the organization, and they let their own careers take a backseat to the company's well-being. They feel that they have accomplished something if the company is running like a well-oiled machine.

If you're an executive or leader who manages Stalwarts, it may be time to reexamine the way you perceive your Stalwart colleagues. Leaders often have several misconceptions about Stalwart employees, including the following:

Myth #1: Stars are smarter than Stalwarts. Stalwarts are not necessarily less intelligent than Stars. Achievement is a complicated blend of intelligence, motivation, and personality. Research confirms that insight; dozens of psychological studies have demonstrated that Stars and Stalwarts differ at least as much in temperament as intelligence.

Myth #2: Everybody is the same. Not every employee wants to give his all (or even his best) to the organization, leaving little time and energy for people and passions outside the workplace. Stalwarts place a high premium on work-life balance, and they highly value the time they spend with family and friends. In fact, many of the most productive Stalwarts are recovered Stars who, for a variety of personal reasons, have made a conscious decision to drop off the fast track.

Myth #3: Everybody wants the same thing out of work. Leaders often assume that all of their followers share their drive for power, status, and money. That's just not so. Many Stalwarts want to influence others in their jobs. Others value autonomy, creative opportunities, or the chance to develop unique expertise.

Myth #4: Everybody wants to be promoted. Not every employee wants to climb the ladder and rise to corporate prominence. The truth is that many Stalwarts seek recognition and stability rather than promotion. Stalwarts strive for advancement, but not at all costs.

Myth #5: Everybody wants to be a manager. Corporate career-planning practices typically operate on the assumption that people will feel rewarded and special if they are given even nominal management responsibilities. For that reason, we often ask Stalwarts to give up their technical competencies for managerial ones. In the process, we often turn terrific specialists into mediocre managers.

Stalwarts bring depth and stability to the companies they work for, slowly but surely improving both corporate performance and organizational resilience. They are always there as quiet yet powerful reminders to high performers obsessed with themselves or as examples to low performers terrified of failure. They will never garner the most revenue or the biggest clients, but they are also less likely to embarrass the company or flunk out. They know intuitively how to stay grounded even when their footing may be unsure. And while managers often take this amazing ability for granted, it brings real value to organizations day after day. In times of crisis, Stalwarts can be an organization's saving grace.

Photo of the day

70% process improvement

LSI and Master Blackbelts delivered another amazing kaizen blitz at a company in the Silicon Valley area.  Two major areas were reviewed, mapped, probed, then transformed through LSI's process improvement methodology.  We want to thank the entire kaizen group at Zoll Circulation well as LSI's Master Blackbelts Jeff Coates and Kenneth Leung of CP Rail and CME Manitoba, respectively.  We all learned a lot and are very proud of the changes implemented.

Take a look at the summary video created by the two Master Blackbelts...

Master Blackbelt Competition!

Lean Sensei only accepts a very limited number of Master Blackbelt students in a given year, in order to allow us to maximize the coaching time between the "sensei's" and the "students."  This year, we have 6 Master Blackbelts going through our comprehensive program, and we meet every so often to bounce ideas and to generate plans for the future.

This past Monday we met for an important planning session, then we went out to compete with each other at the go kart race track!

Elevate the Ordinary

The dictionary defines ordinary as something that is of no special interest or quality; something that is commonplace.

In the lean world of process improvement, does our view of the ordinary sometimes eclipse our thinking so that we overlook the small and commonplace ways that we can make improvements in our organizations? It’s true that kaizen and kaikaku events play a significant role in generating excitement and moving a process or organization to a new and better level, but let’s not overlook the ordinary things in our daily work, those quick hits on the value graph.
For example moving a particular desk closer to the photocopier to facilitate work flow or rearranging the coffee area to more easily handle the early morning coffee crowd. Over the years our clients have shared with us, the powerful effects that small changes can have. At one locally based Vancouver company, the simple daily task of a five to ten minute morning huddle did wonders for the organization.

Our way of viewing lean process improvements can elevate the ordinary and since the ordinary happens more than the extraordinary, opportunities abound. So, how might we approach elevating the ordinary? At Toyota everyone is considered to be a problem solver and a teacher. Each person, being an “expert” in their area or job function is in a strategic position to offer suggestions for improvement and he/she also bears the responsibility to teach others and share the learning (yokoten) Some of the ideas may be small but over time these little improvements drive the organization to a whole new level.

Rise to the challenge - elevate the ordinary and watch those small, seemingly ordinary ideas, translate into a leaner organization that changes mindsets and offers customers a higher level of value.

Photo of the day

August 17, 2011: LSI's founder David Chao stands with two current Master Blackbelts,
Jeff Coates and Kenneth Leung,  in front of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino

California.