WHAT WE CAN HELP WITH
Pain
All organizations are suffering from some type of pain. We can ignore the pain, or apply bandaids, or confront and overcome it. Unfortunately, many organizations are not self-aware and do not measure for this pain. It will only be noticed once there is a fire and immediate help is required. This promotes a whack-a-mole or firefighting approach which is for more costly and far less effective than a proactive approach.
Still, as we rush to solutions to this pain, the result is often not effective or less than what was promised. Our approach is to systematically eliminate these pain points which results in an organizations with reduced costs, increased productivity and happier customers and employees.
Targets
Organizations that are improving are constantly setting and measuring themselves against new targets.
All organizations have problems that stop them from reaching those targets. How an organization confronts these problems, or pain points, can determine if that organization will ultimately succeed or fail.
Measuring
Accepting that an organization has problems and being willing to confront and eliminate these problems are necessary steps for Continuous Improvement. This can only be done by being self aware, by constantly measuring for success and failure.
Typical Situations
The table below shows some typical situations. In the majority of the cases it was not clear what was causing the pain, and even sometimes the pain was not being felt except by very localised areas of the organization. A systematic approach to attacking and measuring the problem led to countermeasures which eliminated or significantly reduced the original problem.
[table caption=”Successful Outcomes” max-width=”1300″ colwidth=”200|300|300|500|” colalign=”left|left|left|left”]
Organizational Need,Starting Situation,Outcomes,How was it accomplished
Process Improvement and Simplification,On Time Delivery (OTD) of spare parts down to 80% from a target of 95%. Cost is millions of dollars; upset customers;employees; increased inventories,OTD increased to 98%; Reduced inventories; reduced service costs; increased customer uptime;,Improving forecasting;streamlining communications between Service Logistics and Service Support; Setting up new service parts list;
,Average time to add a new spare part and have it in stock = 6 months. Impact on project launches is high ,Decreased setup time from 6 months to under 3 week,visual management of all new parts;building team consensus
Profitability improvement,Sales Miss of 35% over first 6 months of fiscal year;Finger pointing; blame; bad feeling between functional groups,improved product acceptance and increased sales by 65%; Met fiscal year target; Optimism and excellent relations between departments,Identified a Sales Funnel issue and implemented Sales and Service countermeasures to build customer product knowledge and dependability
,$2 M annually in dead on arrival (DOA) spare parts cost. Upset customers and Service,Decreased DOA parts by >80%; Increased Customer satisfaction and uptime; Increased Service revenue,Eliminated packing of multiple items in single packaging; Standardizing packing procedures for fragile components.
Manufacturing Improvements,Low product yield; countermeasures identified but not implemented after 6 months,Countermeasures implemented and product shipped,A3 tracking with periodic review
,Product test time at 300 hrs; 100% over target. Pacemaker process cycle time is also 100% off target,Key repetitive step in testing is reduced from 8 hrs to 1 hr and cycle times are inline with targets,Redesign and Implementation of key hardware component after root cause analysis
,Size of product is leading to high install costs; difficulties for customers,Product size is reduced; physical installation becomes simpler; increased customer satisfaction ,Visited Gemba; PDCA of evolving product; eliminate approx 40% of size
Clarifying Tracking Metrics for Current State Assessment,Constant confusion on health of Service Contract Business,Clear picture of current health which led to targeted improvements,Root cause analysis demonstrates that tracking metrics are the source of confusion. New metrics were developed.
,Poor install success rate; Internal blame causing friction; Resources wasted chasing incorrect root causes,Focus changed to incomplete shipments;Countermeasures initiated;Consensus building leads to improved optimism,Collecting data at Gemba;Pareto analysis led to identifying correct root cause
,New product has consistently high service costs 25% above target,Decreased annual Service Costs by $100k,Root cause and Pareto analysis showed that Service group was often going onsite to replace parts that were customer’s responsibility. Identified customer maintenance procedures and trained customers accordingly
,manufacturing of expensive component is constantly behind; costly solutions proposed,Focus changed from manufacturing shortage to root cause of part consumption,Gemba investigation; Root cause analysis; to determine source of high parts consumption
Customer Uptime,Install time is taking too long; Pacemaker process is erratic and 300% over target; very high service costs; customers very upset,On target install times and service costs; Customers up and running faster for increased satisfaction,Facilitated workshop with Gemba representatives; Focused look at root causes and countermeasures; Action plan and PDCA on countermeasures
Team Building,Problems and issues costing company and outcomes are below expectations; Poor team morale; Finger pointing and blame between teams; slow progress on initiatives; Poor understanding of who does what,Increased employee satisfaction and morale; Improved cross functional interactions; Progress improved; costs decreased; Increased team cohesion via team interactions throughout the facilitation process,Bringing teams together to solve cross functional problems; Ensure team is focused and working; Key groups represented
Training Teams for Continuous Improvement,Poorly defined problems; Correct and impactful root causes are not being identified; Countermeasures are not being implemented or no improvements are seen; The original problem keeps coming back; Low morale,High energy and optimistic employees; Collaborative environment; Problems being investigated and solved; Solid improvements happening,Trained approx 250 employees in problem solving course “best course ever”
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