FAT-WHYME

Process improvement – a guide for action

This article is also available on our website: proaction – Generating Best Practices. This is an excerpt of a document originally written by George Miller, founder of the pro-action. It has been amended and updated by Paul Deis, proaction CEO.

INTRODUCTION

Objective:

• To help enable process improvement for better performance, better, cheaper, faster.

Would you like a simple and effective approach for process improvement? This is a method generic for almost any type of process and intended as a guide of things to do, rather than a tutorial in depth. Because it is generic, does not contain a discipline specific expertise. While outlining a methodical approach also encourage creativity in concert with him, because the greatest improvements occur when the method and creativity to find a way to coexist.

This first article defines key terms and then describes how to improve inputs to the process the process itself, and ends with some "lessons learned" advice. Although terms of production and manufacture are used, almost everything here works for utilities and office operations. It is currently fashionable to say that the value is only added at the factory floor, but little was going to happen on its own without the intelligence added value of this "non-value added" activities such as marketing, sales, planning, design, procurement, purchasing, transportation, etc. The "Value added" concept of the need for expansion beyond the narrow scope of production is now so focused on short-sighted.

DEFINITIONS

Process

• A process is a set of activities that adds value to a product or service a customer would pay. Meet specific process. Processes consume products that consume the activities that consume resources such as money, labor, materials, and machine. They may also require the information in the form of specifications, instructions and schedules. "- George Miller, proaction

• A set of activities that takes one or more types of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer "-. Hammer and Champy, Reengineering Corporation

Typical process of potential improvement areas are:

• Speed
• Cost / performance Investment / Assets
• Quality
• Flexibility
• Product Innovation / Improvement
• Compliance / Security

And it will help to improve:

• Profitability / return on assets / shareholder value
• Customer Service
• Fee market
• Reputation

Select from above specific areas of improvement to help your company and project strategies. The areas important to have "indicators" to monitor performance and possibly targets.

Excellent processes have or use:

• Mission
• Objectives, Indicators
• Accountability-who is in charge of the process to see what's good
• Resources, such as: – Materials – Manpower – Energy – machinery equipment, tools, technology – specification information, address, instructions, procedures, programs, schedules
• Activities
• Cycle time
• Tickets
• Out-products, byproducts, waste
• Defects (Including processes usually have excellent)
• Policies and Procedures
• Tools / Technology

Not yours have these? Ensure availability and quality are addressed in the review process.

Value-added activity (VAA)

Activity / Cost actually increases the value of a product or service in the eyes of a client. Manufacture and assembly are examples of this category. The ideal process is composed of only added value activities

NO VALUE ADDED ACTIVITY (NVAA)

Activity, cost does not increase the value of a product or service in the eyes of the customer. Example: storage. Decide if the activity is needed at all, is to duplicate anywhere, can do better or differently? Can calendar method, material, equipment, speed, training, technical, configuration, change specifications to improve performance? An activity may be everything of value added, all non-value added, or a mixture. Certain activities that add no value, may still be needed, such as the storage requirement due to the ability of imbalance or waiting for a required inspection. Customers can see the value of some of these activities, if only to "Band-Aid" a weak process.

ADDED VALUE OF ASSETS

Unproductive asset. Assets held for work are more productive, but only if the result is really needed and soon. The classic asset misuse is to "keep the machines or very busy people, but the results are not necessary. This waste inventory investment inflating, tying the material, space, capital, labor, equipment and resources. It is often aggravated by the misapplication of metrics. For example, a production manager is measured per unit of oil production "efficiency" measures may have committed this "sin." If assets can not be productive under this article, then, transfer, renewal or outsourcing should be considered, as possible. new metrics may also be necessary.

CYCLE TIME

The total elapsed time to produce one unit. This includes all including delays after launch, the tail, moving, inspection, rework and real time processing. Typical processes are 60 to 95% time of inactivity, while the product is actually not working. Therefore the greater cycle time reduction opportunities, usually but not always, in time delay. The time lost can be recovered a balance between operations, reduction, storage time, handling, pending approvals, tails, transfer, inspection, etc. shorter cycle times generally improve competitiveness by reducing costs and response time.

WORK TIME

Past or currently working on the product.

Takt time

Time interval for each unit to be completed, the production rate. A product can have a cycle time of 2 hours, but I have three operations of 20 minutes and a 30-minute operation. A unit leaves of the midline in 30 minutes. Resources and content of the work must be assigned to adjust Takt Time at the desired rate of production.

DEFECT

Anything about the product that is not legally acceptable to the client or the national authorities (usually but not always, documented in the specification.) defects result in additional costs, lost time or loss of use of product to the customer as well as delays in response time, inventory and wasted capacity.

PROCESS CAPACITY

Process capability to meet the desired quality and speed at an acceptable cost.

METRIC

important performance indicator is measured. Examples: inventory turns, cycle time. Metrics should be meaningful to the level of people responsible. For example, "middle of the plant cycle time" makes no sense a team responsible for assembling a certain model of computer disk drive. They need their own metrics.

CELL

Production unit designed to make a product or service line or process. Ideally, all necessary resources to complete a product or process is found in the cell. The cells can be arranged as feeders component / assembly to the final cell test assembly. functionally oriented cells have resulted in improvements, but the cells of the product or process in general, have shown superior results.

WASTE

Any part of an activity, the resources allocated or used, it is not absolutely necessary to accomplish the mission and goals of a legitimate process.

LEAN MANUFACTURING

Manufacturing process waste as possible eliminated. A statement of Lean and body of knowledge has been created and is available through the Agility Forum. This has a profound influence on current thinking.

TICKETS FOR THE PROCESS

External process

Do not jump right into the guts of the process detailed. Start at the top, with the product or service to be provided. Sure which is defined to meet customer specifications and technical expectations, service requirements, quality and prices. First make sure you are working in the process right, with good goals! The bigger, the easier improvements often occur here, before even going into the actual process involved.

"Structure of the process," Look at things outside the first process. Before doing anything, make sure you know what the process needs do so. There should be clear and simple statement, strong overall mission. Examples: "glasses in an hour" (Lenscrafters) or … "When [the package] absolute and positively has to be there overnight. "(FedEx). Do not waste time improving the process wrong with the mission or the wrong approach. As you divide the process in lower levels of detail, each piece may not meet the mission statement in general, but it should be clear what role it plays. Achieve this by developing simple objectives for each part.

The mission statement potentially has enormous power to improve the process. For example, a while ago, we went to the store brainstorming "process" with a client. The "owner" of the process stated that his "mission" was to receive the material, remove inspection, store, issue production work order kits upon request, replace shortages and rejections, they move finished products inspection and the shops and "produce documents" (how's that for a mission?). After much discussion, the new mission was agreed to ensure that the material is guaranteed as long to produce, as needed, and then into account. This triggered an avalanche of change, challenging the existence of stores, inspection, work orders, games, etc. The company ended up starting to certify major suppliers, with inventories managed provider, eliminating most of the work orders, using kanban systems, extraction, storage and use very small stores, inspection and overhead.

• Decide on the scope of change, the limits of the process. If you re-engineer the entire company, process, several products, a department? Looking for a complete redesign and major improvements in the current approach or simply incremental improvements?

• Develop goals and measurable metrics and measurable preference. the most important is assigned measurable indicators, such as minutes cycle time, defects or significant attributes. Do not put them and measure them unless they are important because they have valuable resources and time just to do that. Most indicators are divided into the categories of speed, cost and time. Others may be related to flexibility, innovation and compliance or safety. Others may satisfy the quality of life and even aesthetic goals. Metric is non-value added activities, which is used only when necessary.

• Analyze input and review process exits and entries to see if they are appropriate and what improvements could be made. Also decide whether cycle time is acceptable for competitive, regardless of how easy or difficult it would be to improve it.

• Estimate Better-for key indicators. Do this at the beginning and again after the internal process has been analyzed. For each of the performance improvements, write how you to do so. When work actually begins in the planning of the improvement, other ways will probably meet.

You are now ready to study the internal stages. . .

Internal process

Analyze the overall process flow, preferably by means of tables painting techniques and problem identification. Several times throughout the physical process with employees, customers, suppliers, consultants, objective observers and learn everything you can about what is right and wrong. This seems to work best when you follow the steps outside first. Look for continuity, search gaps or redundancy, delays and the generation of defects. Help make a map of the area, the overlap of activities, roles and moving material.

Finally, it is also useful to prepare a summary table of activities, including: person responsible, the consumer cycle time, delays, inspection, movement, loss of time, the generation of defects, the process Takt time, the component of value added services without added value, reduction step is likely and if necessary under existing conditions, waiting time, the defects produced, consumed resources, applicable policies, procedures and instructions. The number and complexity spreadsheet used is a function of the complexity of the process and the mentality of charge. Space limitations do not allow us to show sufficient evidence.

parties to see if the process more broad and general, or this process is interfering with the portion that is working. For example, in a project Recently, the company discovered that their effectiveness in collecting was being hampered by inadequate equipment and conservation practices that eroded inventory records registration accuracy. This led the company to properly redirect their energies on improving the critical current activity against the first. Redo Figure 6, when finished, including additional "how to" write-ups.

Focus on eliminating defects, problems and limitations.

Rather than planning the details, followed by a "big bang" implementation of change, suitable for testing and implementing new changes incrementally. In the case of radical change process, this is not always possible, although prototypes and parallel operation can help reduce the risk and pain of large changes.

• The performance of a process often can improve without a change in the process itself, but only through a clearer, training, measurement or focus on it.

• Tips for organizing a process:
Determine what will achieve and why first, before determining how, when, who and how, more or less in that order. The best way to correct the process of putting in perspective with overall business, business unit and workflow.

• Process Improvement Internal Checklist
Here is a list of ideas for improvement to help. Note that some of them are radical and may require planning and coordination. For example, the inspections do not eliminate nuclear vessels without any pressure on the overall quality strategy in place, along with approvals from customers and regulators!

• Identify process or assign "ownership" and responsibility for ongoing improvement implementation and performance results.
• Compress the time, make things faster and cheaper, by the overlap of operations, eliminating the holding points and inspections, the programming, the ability to remove bottlenecks and the defect.
• Eliminate non-core activities.
• Eliminate non-value assets, such as excess inventory, space or unneeded equipment. Some say this is impractical, because assets are already there and the money is spent, but could be sold, scrapped, transferred, leased or converted, with some thought. For example, a company with four factories, with a lot of unnecessary space. Employees were encouraged to consolidate schemes assets out unnecessary, unused spaces string and place "for rent" signs on them. Results of this and other actions: The plants were consolidated a closed plant and the employees transferred, some to better jobs, being saved from closing plants.
• Are the activities in an optimized sequence parallel or otherwise achieve high resource utilization while reducing cycle time.
• Reduce the tail, moving, installation, inspection, storage, hold / time management.
• The time to phase improvements to enhance the return on investment while reducing risk.
• Eliminate bottlenecks, which may be the lack of capacity, excessive prep time, check-in/check-out bureaucratic or approval procedures etc.
• Reduce defects through awareness programs, recruitment, training process, training, commissioning, tune-ups/maintenance equipment, refurbishment or replacement, poke-yoke approaches, revised technical specifications for materials, better detection, reworked tools, redesigned processes.
• Reduce capacity constraints / bottlenecks.
• Reduce the number of approvals, sign-offs.
• Reduce the steps, complexity, in general.
• Reduce the number of hand-offs. Reduce the number of organizations, people, facilities and organization involved "Change means to adapt the desired process if possible.
• Increase flexibility to avoid the "wiring" of the system, design for change.
• Use methods standardized package of solutions, where possible.
• Simplify the design of products, processes, tools, equipment. Use the simple product process, equipment, design tools that will get the job done effectively. Only automate / make significant investments in productivity significantly high, the speed or quality will result. Beware of expensive investments that can not be retrieved, or result in loss of money or flexibility when changes volume, mix and design. Keep flexible!
• Try to modularize the design of new processes. design process / business "objects" are independent in what they do, they can easily be linked to other activities or processes and a new design without having to "rewire" other activities or processes. Ideally, reusable and interchangeable in other parts of the organization, system, even in other organizations.
• Throw away graphics and designs functional organization of the functional space. Make the organization and design as the process and not vice versa. This may take considerable time, planning and internal salesmanship.
• The amount of time and trouble to carry out the necessary changes is almost inversely proportional to the support, strength and competence of those responsible approve and make changes. Get the best and most adaptable you can afford. You can not afford weak people.
• Use of cheaper materials, or even better, more expensive materials that reduce defects, improve quality, reduce overall costs.
• Reduce costs (most of the previous lower costs).
• The use of OPM (Other People's Money) – "take advantage" of its inventory, capital goods, technology, organization, knowledge.
-Establish partnerships with suppliers and contracts.
• Outsource where practical, the source where they are clearly better.
• Use consultants where makes sense.
• Use professional contacts and associations of trade, services, and the body of knowledge, learn best practices, identify and train best people, locate people and aid agencies.
• Use schools, colleges and universities, when it can provide useful knowledge.
• Brainstorm, see the opinions out of almost any person can, employees, managers, mad scientists, poets, writers, monsters, even customers!

Use selectively:

• Policies and Procedures
• Checkpoints
• Controls
• Audit Control
• Metrics

… since these are "non-value added" activities that should be used only when necessary.

LESSONS LEARNED

A. 80% of the task of improvement is the sale and get the support of the people.

B. Organizations resist change, regardless what they say. Certain individuals can help or lead, including, but many people will slow down, stop or even reverse improvements unless they are properly trained motivated and directed. Focusing on education and change management more technical improvements.

C. Talk with people. Soften up before the momentum. People who are friends are more likely to help you, simply because they are familiar and you'll like. Find out what you want or need and help if possible.

D. Try to hire, transfer or loan-minded people. It is often easier than trying to convert.

E. simple systems for usually work better than complex.

F. People are more accepting of change when you take the mystery out of it and show them what's in it for them.

G. People are much more receptive to changes when you can prove it works elsewhere, and preferably near a large scale.

H. The teams and consensus are large, but strong leadership still has its uses.

I. constant repetition and leadership by example is necessary. I do not think you can simply assert mission, objectives, a brief training session, then back in a couple of months and make huge profits. This war will consist of several campaigns and many battles. There will be resistance, indifference, confusion, conflicting priorities / philosophies, even outright opposition or, worse, covert opposition. Persistence and determination alone are called for!

J. The process improvement methodology can be simple. There are other approaches as well it. Some will give better results but may require much more skill and complexity. The methodology is only a framework. Technical expertise and creativity are also required. Be careful of any "industry experts", allowing the unit to the solution provided by roads and also let ignorant of the lessons learned from the industry is moving in the naive approaches.

K. Imagination and creativity are needed to obtain the best results. The people who were determined to deliver packages overnight, providing a team to "the rest of us," book sales over the Internet, to invent the Internet, of glasses in an hour, had real vision (no pun intended) and enriched life for many.

Process Improvement examples

When this session is presented live workshops, / examples are given to illustrate the points made in this document. If you're reading this, why do not you try out ideas on their own with a real case, preferably one simple to start with one that people agree needs a big improvement?

REFERENCES

Reengineering: 40 U $ Tips eful, "George J. Miller, XX APICS International Conference Proceedings, APICS, Falls Church, VA
The process of book Reengineering Jerry L. Puerto, 1994, Quality Resources, NY, NY
Reengineering your business, Morris and Brandon 1993, McGraw-Hill, NY
Reengineering the Corporation, Hammer and Champy, 1993, Harper-Collins Publishers, New York, NY
Business Process Improvement, James H. Harrington, 1991, McGraw-Hill, NY

About the Author

George J. Miller, CFPIM, is Founder of PROACTION. Prior to selling the company to Paul Deis, George had worked with dozens of companies in assignments involving productivity, quality and service improvement, business systems, change management, acquisitions, divestitures, expert witness testimony, and others. Prior to founding PROACTION in 1986, he was Vice President of Marketing for Western Data Systems; Director of Planning and Development and Assistant Director—Operations for Purolator Technologies (PTI); Consultant for Booz-Allen & Hamilton, and Manufacturing Systems Manager for Becton-Dickinson.

Paul Deis, CFPIM, is CEO, PROACTION. He brings over 25 years of consulting and senior executive experience to his work, including detailed work with nearly 60 companies. Prior to acquiring PROACTION, Paul’s experience includes running a small ERP software company, leading other consulting businesses, prior work with PROACTION, Manager at Deloitte & Touche, VP Manufacturing at Raypak, Inc., where he was very successful with an early Lean management initiative, and dozens of projects in the areas of enterprise software, operations management, crisis resolutions, in a wide variety of industries, business types, and scales. Website: PROACTION – Generating Best Practices

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