Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important (Their Thinking – A goal that makes all the difference. Failure to achieve this goal renders any of our other achievements inconsequential.)

Discipline 2: Create a Compelling Scorecard (Their thinking – You are not really serious about the goal until we start keeping score.)

Discipline 3: Translate Lofty Goals into Specific Actions (Their Thinking – Goals will never be achieved until everyone on the team knows exactly what they’re supposed to do about them.)

Discipline 4: Hold Each other Accountable – All the time. (Maintaining commitment to the goal requires frequent team engagement and accountability.)

This is one of the best descriptions of how an execution system should be developed that I have come across. However, the one quality that I have found in successful organizations that can implement a new process is a company that is already committed to continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement companies understand that not everything is right to begin with, it is just the beginning. They realize market conditions, new information that is uncovered, external and internal conditions will all affect the process of implementation. They are not looking for perfection. They know that is will come in time. These types of companies are very adaptable and seek to improve the process in small loops or in mini-PDCA cycles.

As you develop, your Kaizen plan, make sure that you look at two deliverables. One of course is the project or the problem that you defined. The other is the process. If you look and separate the process from the product, it will be much easier to make decisions. It also will allow you to continuously improve the process you use for future Kaizen events.

Related Posts:

How Cumbersome is your Project Management Tool
A Kaizen Event is one of the most popular ways to rapidly improve a process and make the gains stick. Or is it?
A Preview to Kaizen Week
Your Value Stream Map is not your Project Plan

So, how do we correct this and train our workforce. Troubled times sometimes will help us to see the light. Maybe, we have been going about most of our training wrong. Michael Balle, author of the Lean Manager and The Goldmine brought up how Toyota creates training opportunity. He Said; “Now, let me take an example, for instance, an andon system, what an andon system is when operators have a problem, they pull a rope, have lights, lights with a station and their team leader has about a minute to two to react and if not the line stops. What happens is that every time an operator has a doubt, they pull the cord, the team leader comes and what the team leader does is to check whether there’s a problem or not.

I’m wandering around looking at pictures of guys and going, “mm, very good for management reactivity, yes?” I said, “no, operator training,” so of course I went back to him, “you mean management reactivity?” I said, “no, it has nothing to do with management reactivity, it’s operator training,” so we’re having this back and forth and he says, “OK, what do you mean by operator training?” So, he says “this is an opportunity to have a conversation about work centers and about standardized work with operators, conjointly. Now when the line actually stops, then yes, it becomes a management reactivity issue, but we don’t want to stop the line.”

Viewing training from this perspective results in a new context for organizations. They will be working more closely, more hands on with the individuals actually doing the work. It will also identify more opportunities for improvement. It may identify skills that are lacking and prioritize the actual improvements for them, but don’t call it training.

Focusing on improvement, and not training, requires a totally different thought process. This is a great STEP IN STARTING A LEAN CULTURE? WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Technorati : Continuous improvement, Lean, TPS System, Training