A friend of mine from New Orleans recently posted this photo from school of his nephew showing a cell-phone-holder-board to keep track of who is present in class.   This is an excellent example of a simple LEAN TOOL.  It results in MISTAKE PROOFING ( Poka Yoke ) the process of keeping track of who is actually present in the class, and at the same time is an excellent example of VISUAL MANAGMENT.   #LeanSchools  The best lean tools are often the simplest !

A certain well known high street bank in South Shields told me yesterday that the earliest they could set up an appointment to open a new Bank Account for my wife was 13 business days away on September 16th.   They claim that their "calendar" is full until then because of the "student season".
This is non-lean customer service on many levels.

I then went to Virgin Money and they were able to give an appointment on September 1st,  only 3 business days away.   Even this 3 day waiting time is more than is acceptable to customers in the age of real-time online services.

The application process only requires the details of the applicant,  proof of ID, and proof of address.
My belief is that Lean process could easily be completed in less than 10 minutes from time of entry to the bank to time of exit.
This would allow for day 4 appointments per hour.

I suspect that the appointment process is documented as being 30 minutes and they do not take more than 1 per hour.  This is information I will find on my next visit.

Neither bank asked the question about how much money we had to deposit or what specific services we needed.

In Lean Six Sigma we call the customer expectations "Voice of the Customer" (VOC) and the specific requirements of the customer the "Critical to Quality requirements" ( CTQs ).

Anyone in the management of these banks should be familiar with these terms.

7 Questions to ask about everything step of your process

The great Jim Womack, author of 'The Machine That Changed the World' and passionate advocate of Lean Thinking gave this sound advice back in 2003.   He eloquently describes the 7 Questions he uses in his Gemba Walks to analyse every step of the process.

His 7 questions are well worth repeating in 2015.  See below.


Jim says...

' When I walk through any value stream – and I walk a lot every year as I visit many companies in many countries -- I ask the following very simple 7 questions about each step:

1. Is the step valuable?  Or would the customer be equally happy with the product if the step could be left out?  If the latter is the case, the step is at best what Toyota would call “incidental work” and what I often call Type One muda.  Get rid of it as soon as you can!

2. Is the step capable?  Can it be conducted with the exact same result every time?  This is the starting point, but never the end point, for Six Sigma.

3. Is the step available?  That is, can it be performed whenever it is needed?  Or is the step subject to breakdowns and varying cycle times so you are never sure what will happen?  This is the starting point, but again not the end point, of Total Productive Maintenance.

4. Is the step adequate?  That is, is there capacity to perform it exactly when the value stream requires it?  Or is there a bottleneck?  Bottleneck analysis is, of course, the starting point of the Theory of Constraints.  Or, and more likely in the current era, is there too much capacity?  Toyota tries to avoid this by adding production capacity in small increments rather than in big hunks, increments that can be flexed by adding or subtracting employees.

5. Is the step flexible?  Can it shift over quickly from making green ones to making red ones quickly?  And can it changeover without compromising capability, availability, and adequacy?  Flexibility is the key to rapid response to changing customer desires while avoiding the inefficient production of big batches.

If all the steps in your value streams are valuable, capable, available, adequate, and flexible, you are well on your way.  What remains is to perfect the linkage between the steps.

6. Does the product flow from one step to the next with no delay?  Henry Ford pioneered with “flow production” in 1914 by moving the Process to the product rather than the reverse.  This is how he created nearly continuous flow not just on the assembly line but also in component fabrication at Highland Park.  Unfortunately, he found flow hard to sustain in a world with changeable demand and wide product variety.  That’s where Toyota came in.

Does the product only flow at the pull of the next downstream step?  This is the central point of JIT, one of the pillars of TPS: Products should only flow at the command of the next step downstream.

7. Is the flow leveled back from the customer to the extent possible, with a standard inventory of finished goods if necessary?  Leveling permits every step in the whole value stream to operate smoothly while still satisfying the customer with exactly what is needed exactly when it is needed.

As I walk through any value stream – and I walk a lot every year as I visit many companies in many countries -- I ask the following very simple questions about each step:

Is the step valuable?  Or would the customer be equally happy with the product if the step could be left out?  If the latter is the case, the step is at best what Toyota would call “incidental work” and what I often call Type One muda.  Get rid of it as soon as you can!

Is the step capable?  Can it be conducted with the exact same result every time?  This is the starting point, but never the end point, for Six Sigma.

Is the step available?  That is, can it be performed whenever it is needed?  Or is the step subject to breakdowns and varying cycle times so you are never sure what will happen?  This is the starting point, but again not the end point, of Total Productive Maintenance.

Is the step adequate?  That is, is there capacity to perform it exactly when the value stream requires it?  Or is there a bottleneck?  Bottleneck analysis is, of course, the starting point of the Theory of Constraints.  Or, and more likely in the current era, is there too much capacity?  Toyota tries to avoid this by adding production capacity in small increments rather than in big hunks, increments that can be flexed by adding or subtracting employees.

Is the step flexible?  Can it shift over quickly from making green ones to making red ones quickly?  And can it changeover without compromising capability, availability, and adequacy?  Flexibility is the key to rapid response to changing customer desires while avoiding the inefficient production of big batches.

If all the steps in your value streams are valuable, capable, available, adequate, and flexible, you are well on your way.  What remains is to perfect the linkage between the steps.

Does the product flow from one step to the next with no delay?  Henry Ford pioneered with “flow production” in 1914 by moving the Process to the product rather than the reverse.  This is how he created nearly continuous flow not just on the assembly line but also in component fabrication at Highland Park.  Unfortunately, he found flow hard to sustain in a world with changeable demand and wide product variety.  That’s where Toyota came in.

Does the product only flow at the pull of the next downstream step?  This is the central point of JIT, one of the pillars of TPS: Products should only flow at the command of the next step downstream.

Is the flow leveled back from the customer to the extent possible, with a standard inventory of finished goods if necessary?  Leveling permits every step in the whole value stream to operate smoothly while still satisfying the customer with exactly what is needed exactly when it is needed.