Today we are
mailing LIA’s draft Memorandum and Articles to the eight designated ‘subscriber
members’! This is a big step towards
submitting the documentation for the formal registration of the company. The subscribers (we cannot release their
names as yet, as they need to read the legal materials to finally agree to play
that role) represent a wonderful cross-section of public and private
enterprise, big and small organisations, male and female, etc., etc.
My visit last
month to the United States for
the Lean Transformation Summit was very valuable for a number of reasons. Not least of these was a chance for in-depth
discussions with Jim Womack and the staff of the Lean Global Network to ensure
compatibility of LIA with their requirements.
The discussions resulted in some significant changes to our legal
framework, making governance simpler. It
was really good to have their enthusiastic endorsement for what we are
doing. Once we have registered here we
will submit our papers to them – they have indicated that they expect to be
able to place our application for membership of the Lean Global Network before
their board meeting early in September.
The Lean
Transformation Summit in Orlando
was a sell-out success. I did two of the
‘pre-‘ workshops on offer: on A3’s and on coaching using A3’s. John Shook has a book expected shortly,
called ‘Managing to learn’ which sets out the role of A3’s in coaching people
into the Plan-Do-Check-Act thinking at the heart of lean. Ruzivo and I are preparing material to enable
us to train locally in this powerful approach to inculcating lean through
‘thinking people.’
Another piece
of news from the Orlando Summit is the growing application of ‘standardized
work’ to managers! A senior manager in a
large healthcare company reported that following standardization of his work he
had these results (and I quote):
Ø
30% reduction in email volumes
Ø
40% of time spent in the workplace
versus almost none
Ø
40% of time now on routine work
versus 80% (fighting fires)
Ø
40% of time now on improvement work
Ø
20% of time now on coaching,
teaching and challenging all staff to think and act differently (up from 0%)
What is
happening in LIA?:
·
We have
almost finalized arrangements for the hosting of the Best Practice Workshop
with Mr. Takeyuki Furuhashi of Japan. Please note the dates: congregate at the site
on the evening of Sunday 27th July and depart on the afternoon of
Friday 1st August. The
workshop is intensely practical, with the 30 delegates divided into 4 groups
each of which is assigned a project for the week – we envisage a variety of
factory and service projects this time.
The groups are closely coached by Mr Furuhashi in his inimitable style
(‘Why for this not moving?’). Please note: the host company gets 15
of the 30 places so there are only 15 ‘public’ places up for grabs – when the
official notification comes round you will need to decide swiftly to secure a
place.
·
I
remind you of the dates for the 2008 Lean Summit: 15th and 16th
October in Cape Town. On the 15th we will have a range
of practical workshops, and on the 16th a splendid speaker
programme. We are in the process of
securing speakers from the Orlando Lean Summit and will do a call for local participation
once those are in place. There are some
good things happening locally and we need to learn from each other.
I have two stories to
share:
1. A lean (consultant)
friend recently told me his experience of renewing his driver’s license. He went to the traffic office
closest to his home but was appalled at the length of the queue. Carefully noting the person behind whom he
would have queued, he drove off to another town. From the time he got out of his car to enter
the other traffic office to the time he got back into his car having contracted
the required business, took 20 minutes.
He then drove back to the original office and looked for his marker – he
was just entering the eye test station!
He observed that the slow process could have been greatly eased by some
basic lean approaches and that some of these were evident in the better
office. Just standardising with the
better traffic office would of course give great benefits. Can you imagine the effect on the national
psyche of lean in public services?
2. Speaking of which: the CEO of one of the public hospitals where I have
been privileged to explore lean applications recently told me how a lean
initiative affected one individual staff member. The person is amongst the most poorly
educated on the staff and as such had limited scope for improving his
position. He was also a troublesome
member of staff. However, working with
one of my students in the latter part of last year, this person was given the
lead on the project, which yielded excellent improvements in a basic and
essential hospital service. ‘He has gone from being a problem employee to being
one of the best,’ reports the CEO.
Chairman Cho of Toyota
is quoted as saying that senior managers must (1) Go see, (2) Ask why, and (3)
Respect their people – and that the latter means enabling them to do their jobs
properly. It is heart-warming to see
that at work here.
