Issue 9 • Mar 2012
Lean Training – New Product and Process Introduction
Every organization should ensure that the products and services they provide meet the needs of the customer. Depending on the industry, your focus may vary slightly. For example, if you are in the technology business, at least 1/3 of your total sales volume should come from products developed in the previous 12 months. This means that you better have a robust new product development cycle to keep the flow of new items making it to the marketplace. If you are in the service industry, new services should be introduced when the pull arises from your customer. When do you need to add a new service in your print shop, or in your hospital? While this flow might not be continuous, this flow is not zero either.
Most organizations have some type of project management structure to deliver new products and services. A "lean" organization uses a full suite of waste-free approaches to understand the voice of the customer, translate that voice into specifications and attributes, and operationalize those specifications. A lean organization can do these activities in 50-75% less time than a traditional organization, and with 1/4 to 1/3 less resources. While benchmark numbers do not exist, it has been my experience that these capabilities can be delivered with a higher quality yield and in a smaller footprint as well.
Some of the tools that a lean organization might use in their new product/process development include:
- Kano Model
- Vertical Gantt Chart
- Voice of the Customer / Quality Function Deployment
- Value Added Engineering
- Production Preparation Process (3P)
- Design for Service/Manufacturability ( DFS/DFM)
There are over 50 tools in the lean new product/process development process. Like any other lean approach, it takes years to learn and lifetime to master. From a governance perspective, you must be to be able to answer the following questions:
- Do you have a measureable target for new products and services?
- Do you have a system for introducing new products and services?
- Does your system perform at the level of best in the world?
- Would start-up stress and rework be significantly less if your systems were designed to be error-free?
- Are your cycle times for new products and services getting shorter or longer?
If you can't answer these questions, understanding your baseline might be a good place to start. If you don't like the answers to the questions, I encourage you to see what the best in the world are doing.
Managing for Daily Improvement at St. John Hospital and Medical Center - "Time is Muscle"
St. John Hospital & Medical Center is a Catholic not-for-profit healthcare delivery system located within the City of Detroit. The medical center is an 804 bed major teaching hospital that is a verified Level II trauma center with annual Emergency Room visits exceeding 120,000 per year.
Led by the front line staff and leaders within the ER along with the hospitals core laboratory, the team set out to improve the care of Chest Pain patients by reducing the TAT for Cardiac Enzyme (Troponin) tests. The Upper Specification Limit was Door-to-results in 60 minutes. Why 60 minutes? Diagnosing a heart attack (STeMI) is rather straightforward. However for, NSTeMI (non ST elevated) patients the process isn’t as clear-cut. 25% of heart attack patients are not diagnosed on the first EKG, thus making the improvement in Door-to-Troponin imperative.
Set out to improve the current state average of 131 minutes, the leadership team turned to their problem solvers – the frontline staff. These were team members who have participated in Rapid Improvements in the past and knew how to improve a process. After observing and measuring the current state, the team identified wastes in the process including where & when the labs were drawn, along with how and by whom. “We can do better” - the team then developed a future state plan that included moving the lab draw to Triage where a parallel process of EKG and draw occur almost simultaneously. Additionally, the standard work for drawing labs was changed from IV start to venipuncture – this helped to insure First Time Quality improving the hemolysis rate from 19% down to 6%. Even though drawing the lab off of the IV line is easier and one less needle poke for the patient, it can be very problematic for TAT and specimen integrity...ultimately leading to re-work and prolonged times that could delay life saving care.
The results are in – the new process is yielding an average TAT of 58 minutes with a yield of 69%, a 56% improvement from the baseline. The segment of Door-to-Received (specimen arrival in Lab) is 15 minutes and Received-to-resulted is yielding 65% within 30 minutes. The First Time Quality also improved by 68%! In fact the Door-to-EKG times are consistently under 10 minutes which also improved with the new process. Kyle Karajankovich, who was one of the ER Nurses leading the team, told his peers, “Troponin draws in Triage isn’t a pilot, it’s here to stay.” He went on to inform the department that they have mastered the new standard work. When the Manager of the department, Arlene Boelstler, was asked what the biggest keys were to their success: she simply indicated that “empowering the frontline staff to solve the problems and being a lover of standard work are the keys!”
While the ER physicians and staff are very pleased with their improvements, they aren’t settling for new current state. The team continues to monitor performance through their Daily Production Control Board and is seeking ways to further reduce the non value added time and process variation.
Simulation can help you "learn by doing"
A organization’s lean training program is an important part of a lean transformation. Leaders and staff give their precious time in good faith that the training will be beneficial to the organization. While lean on the surface is easy, it requires significant changes in the way a person thinks, such as from seeing work to seeing waste and from working to push to pull. Simulations offer a way for people to see and practice these new concepts, and thus deliver that beneficial training people are expecting.
Make their first step successful and safe. Jumping into a kaizen event can be scary. People are now observing others, identifying waste, finding root causes, and applying lean while simultaneously utilizing standard work. That’s a lot! A simulation gives you a chance to provide them an opportunity to show, teach and, guide them through their first experience. In the safety of a classroom, staff can do all the things they’ll soon apply in a process. You control the environment, set up common challenges, disconnect work stations and guide participants through the steps of improving. Mistakes serve as invaluable teaching points. Simulations provide students their first experience at kaizen, provide that first success and in turn means that any improvement efforts in the work area is now the participants second event, and thus easier and more effective.
We see simulations used in many industries. How would you like to get in a taxi with a driver that’s learned how to drive through teaching with slides? The military sets up simulations on large to small scales. One is unable to predict combat, but solid, realistic training increase the chances of victory; Navy SEALS practice simulated situations daily. Instructors begin teaching basics and then advance the teaching through more challenges slides. Now, they lean through more challenging situations and simulations.
Setting up simulations is fairly easy. Many are available on-line and come with instructions on how to set up and run each simulation. Make your selection based on the length of time you have to teach. Some simulations take a day, some a couple of hours. Material needed for the simulation is often easy and relatively cheap to obtain. Practice can be done internally so instructors become well versed with the operation and how to run the simulation. Each class will increase the instructors understanding of how to run it more effectively.
Start today! Find a simulation from one of many resources available to you. Select based on your goals and what sounds fun and fairly simply yet effective to run. Create a mock simulation you’re considering to see if it’s one you like. Use volunteers to run the first one and get feedback. The journey to creating and using simulations make training more interesting for you and beneficial for participants and your lean transformation.
Conference Calendar
Anyone who has studied Toyota understands that Toyota is not a fan of benchmarking. Toyota benchmarks against perfection. It is the only true measuring stick that spurs the pursuit of perfection and rejects complacency. There are several Lean conferences that cover a variety of industries held each year. See how your organization's performance stacks up to the best in the world. The breakthrough in your industry will likely come outside of it. Here is a brief summary of most well known lean and quality improvement conferences for 2012.
SME 2012 Annual Conference, June 3-5, Cleveland, OH
http://www.sme.org/Tertiary.aspx?id=48962
AME Chicago Excellence Inside 2012 , October 15-19, Chicago, IL
http://www.ameconference.org/
The Shingo Prize International Conference, April 30 - May 4, 2012, Jacksonville, FL
http://www.shingoprize.org/2012conference/index.html
ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement, May 21-23, 2012, Anaheim CA
http://wcqi.asq.org/
These conferences are held on an annual basis , so if you haven't made plans for this year, you will get another opportunity each year.
The breakout sessions from these conferences will expose you to what the best in the world are doing. This insight provides a renewal of sorts often inspiring other organizations to continue their pursuit of excellence.
Look for the key themes; standard work, visual management, staff engagement, leadership, and alignment. The recipe for success doesn't change, but the application of the recipe does and much can be learned from others.
