How Do Service Organizations Translate Lean Principles into Sustainable Practices?

In January, Karyn Ross published  a new and very important book entitled How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence: A Lean Coaching Workbook -- It is a self-contained workbook, in which the reader completes twenty-one days of practical exercises and activities focused on creativity, Lean, and coaching (one set per day). These exercises enable readers to develop their capability and confidence to be creative, adapt Lean principles, practices and tools to their unique service organization, and coach others to do the same.

I had a chance to meet and discuss the book with Karyn during the recent KataCon5 conference in Savannah, Georgia. One of the questions I asked her was: “Why do service organizations struggle to translate Lean principles into sustainable practices?” Here is her complete and enlightening answer:

Michael, that’s a great question. And, as a Lean coach, consultant and practitioner who has only worked in services, I could give you any of the traditional answers you might expect:

•             Lean is for manufacturing.

•             Senior leadership doesn’t really support it.

•             Lean is just another "flavor of the month."

But while all these may be contributing factors, over the years, I’ve come to understand that the real reason people in service organizations struggle to turn Lean principles into sustainable practices is the same reason people in manufacturing organizations struggle: They aren’t able to overcome what I call the long list of "I can’ts" -- those underlying assumptions that each of us has about what is and what isn’t possible. Possible for our organization, our team, and for each of us as individuals:

• “We can’t possibly customize our service for every customer. There are too many of them!”
• “I can’t ask my team for 100% accuracy. It’s demotivating and they can’t do it.
• “I can’t work more efficiently. I know the way I do this is the best way.”

As a Lean community, we’ve spent a lot of time focused on tools and some time on principles. But, we haven’t spent any time at all helping people learn how to use their innate creativity. That’s why this book, written as a workbook, focuses so heavily on two factors: 

1. Coaching people to use my simple, disciplined, practical approach to PDCA so that anyone, at any level of the organization, can generate creative ideas to overcome those “I can’ts."
2. How to then turn those creative ideas into more effective and efficient ways to work by adapting Lean principles such as flow, leveling, and standard work in services.   

These factors ensure that customers are satisfied – now and for the long-term -- and the organization will be able to fulfill its purpose. And, whether you’re in services – or manufacturing – that’s exactly what sustainable Lean practices are all about!

Do any readers work for service or transactional organizations that are applying Lean principles to achieve excellence? What do you think of Karyn's perspective?

The Second Edition of “The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Office and Services” -- Why Is It Needed?

It has been 10 years since the publication of the award-winning, best-selling book called The Complete Lean Enterprise: Value Stream Mapping for Office and Services. This book brought value stream mapping and Lean thinking out of the factory and into office and service environments in all industries. The authors, Beau Keyte and Drew Locher, have just published a second edition of this book, and I recently asked them: “Why is a second edition of this book needed?” Here is Drew Locher's complete response:

During this time, my co-author, Beau Keyte, and I have continued to deeply learn about the application of this powerful methodology in our work with a wide variety of organizations and industries, including financial institutions, healthcare, hospitality, the “back office” in manufacturers, and engineering firms. Beyond the “mechanics” of the use of the tool, we have come to better appreciate the “social” benefits of the approach to any organization. The second edition represents our collective experiences over during those 10 years and captures many key lessons.

The collaboration that the methodology ignites between departments and functions (that have traditionally not worked effectively together) is nothing short of stunning in most cases. Through the process, they learn from each other, develop a common vision going forward, and form a true team that is critical to the successful implementation of the "future state" that provides breakthrough results for their organization. In addition, we learned many other success factors. For example, it is not solely the objective to implement the tools and techniques envisioned in the future state that fundamentally change the way work is processed and flows -- a new way to manage the value stream is needed. Only then will sustainable change occur and continuous improvement be practiced beyond the first future state – the true objective of Lean Thinking.

The new content includes an entire chapter dedicated to the “management process,” and “learning your way to the future state.” In addition, during the past 10 years, we have observed many individuals and organizations practice their own use of the methodology, often with mixed results. Most commonly, we have seen current state maps without proper future state designs. Value stream mapping should result in radical improvement resulting in significant improvement in key metrics; greater than 50% reduction in lead time, up to 90% improvement in information or service quality, and the like. Very often, however, the projected results are modest and represent incremental improvement. Other times the future state is nothing more than the current state with up to 100 ideas for improvement noted. Long “to-do” lists are created and responsibilities and dates assigned. This represents a “waste war" or a ”drive-by kaizen” approach rather than the thoughtful redesign of the value stream based on the key principles of Lean that will achieve the aforementioned breakthrough results.

We have honed our messaging and teaching with regard to future state design in the second edition. The future state questions have been revised and applied to a new case study so the reader will find them easier to put into actual practice.

We feel that even seasoned practitioners will benefit from the second edition if they are open to honing their skills in the powerful value stream mapping methodology. And for those who are new to the subject, here is the opportunity to learn the current thinking from the original leaders on the application of value stream mapping and Lean to office and services. 

What do readers of this book think? Do you feel the second edition of this book is a welcome addition to the Lean literature currently available?

Toyota Takes Lean to the Bank... the Food Bank

I just read this great article by Mona El-Naggar in The New York Times yesterday. Many large corporations donate money to important charities, such as food banks, all around the world, but Toyota donated something to the Food Bank for New York City that might prove more valuable than a cash outlay -- expertise on how to reduce money-draining waste and improve inefficient processes.

Look at the statistics reported in the article:

• At a soup kitchen in Harlem, Toyota’s engineers cut down the wait time for dinner to 18 minutes from as long as 90. 
• At a food pantry on Staten Island, they reduced the time people spent filling their bags to 6 minutes from 11. 
• And at a warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where volunteers were packing boxes of supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy, a dose of kaizen cut the time it took to pack one box to 11 seconds from 3 minutes. 

There have been many books published on the adoption of Lean tools and techniques to the service industry, but this article presents direct and measurable benefits by the immediate application of  tools such as kaizen.

Here's a link to some photographs that illustrate the improvements accomplished.

Please share your thoughts on this article. Many readers of this blog have directed or participated in the application of Lean concepts to service industries -- Do you think the Food Bank for New York City could become a benchmark for other nonprofit anti-hunger organizations?

Applying Gemba Walks to the Service Industry

This week, I spoke with Robert Petruska, who recently published a book titled Gemba Walks for Service Excellence: The Step-by-Step Guide for Identifying Service Delighters, about the importance of "gemba walks" and their role in improving service organizations.
The Japanese term gemba roughly translates to "the place where value is created," and gemba walks in the service industry involve management visiting the point in the service process in which customers interact directly with the organization.

I asked Robert,"Why are gemba walks important for the service industry?" And, here is his complete response:

Customer expectations are always changing, and the challenge for service providers seems to be how to get ahead of the competition.  I think every company would like to delight customers, but could use some fresh ideas.   

A fabulous technique used to improve manufacturing is the gemba walk, and it is fairly new to the service industry.  The overarching goal of a gemba walk is to help companies identify new customer delighters by engaging the front lines in a creative way, thereby providing a competitive advantage. 

You may have heard about a reality TV show called “The Undercover Boss,” in which a CEO clandestinely works as a front-line employee.  It’s usually eye-opening for the CEO to experience the actual working conditions firsthand.  The important thing about this are the changes made as a result of the CEO getting out of the office.  In contrast, during a gemba walk, leadership works with a team to study an entirely different industry. 

To prepare for gemba walks, team members learn to observe an entire service experience with an eye for those subtle nuances unique to that industry.  During debriefing, the team is asked what happened during those “moments of truth” that could potentially delight customers. People are then asked to look outside of the box, innovate, and to come up with better ways of providing exceptional experiences for their own customers.  This opens the door for engaging the heads, hearts, and hands of people who represent the “face” of your company. Most importantly, leadership asks what was learned from all of this and what could potentially be incorporated into their own service portfolio. 

Most people want to do a good job, and gemba walks is a great tool that can be used to improve the service experience for your customers.

Do any readers in the service industry have experiences with gemba walks? Were they successful? Did they lead to innovation and eliminate waste?

Mike Osterling Explains the Differences Between Lean on the Shop Floor and in the Office

Over at the Velaction site, I came across this quite helpful podcast that features an interview with Mike Osterling conducted by Jeff Hajek. Mike discusses how Lean in the office differs from its implementation on the shop floor. He explains how to manage changes, the difference in ownership of jobs, how to recognize abnormal conditions, and what to do to manage the pace of work.

Mike was one of the principal founders of San Diego State University’s Lean Enterprise Certificate Program, where he continues to teach, and is the co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service, and Technical Environments.