Author Archives: Vivek Naik

Simplicity in our Problem Solving Efforts

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“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - Confucius

Problem solving is simple irrespective of what the problem is or what methodology you are using. But we insist on making it complicated. Sometimes tools are given some fancy names and later on recycled and marketed with another fancy name. There are good reason for that and there are bad. But we have to remember that the problem solving is simple when you look at the basics. You determine what the problem is , and agree upon the direction we want to move. Then we take small steps or experiments which move us incrementally towards that direction.

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Ways to Make Lean Work for you

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Lessons from the Lean Transformation of a Small Manufacturing Company

Lean is often considered as a strategy for large corporations, but in reality Lean is better suited for small businesses and even non-manufacturing operations. Here are 3 ways to make Lean work for you regardless of your size or industry.

I recently presented this ideas at  ”International Lean and Six Sigma Conference” Orlando Florida. Following is the copy of the presentation on slideshare. I will be interested in hearing what you think and answer any questions.

Ways to make lean work for you

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Become a Good Manager: Starting with an Empty Glass

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Only an empty Glass can be filled with something new. If your glass already full there is no place to learn new things. Thus you need to be able to free yourself from the pre-conceptions and ideas that clutter your mind. Only then you will be able to learn something new. If you want to be a good manager or learn any new problem solving or process improvement methodologies you need to be able to completely submit yourself to that philosophy. With preconceived notions it is impossible to fully understand a new idea.

The Noise

You are exposed to too much of information through TV, Internet and other means. We have a constant pressure to retain so much information in our daily life. Email passwords, grocery lists, remembering to pay your bills are just few things that keep our find full. As our lives get busier, we are under constant fear of forgetting something. With all this going on our mind, there is no time to think, reflect, analyze. We only react to things as they happen. A life like this is unsatisfying. If you want to be a better manager first you need to learn how to manage your own life.

How do we clear our mind?

There are many ways to do it. I generally classify them as methods involving Mind, Body actions and a combination of both. Let us explore some the methods.

Writing: I am not talking about writing as creative expression. You want to write to free up our mental space so that our deeper thoughts come to the surface. This helps us understand ourselves. To use writing for clearing your mind, all you need is a pen and paper. We start writing whatever that comes to our mind, to do list, things that bother us, things that make us happy, places to visit, etc. You write till you are run out of ideas to write. Don’t worry about grammar, form, style of writing. You should be writing freely what comes to your mind. Make it a daily practice to write 2 to 3 pages. Which is approximately 600-900 words, don’t worry about counting them. Some days you will write more and other days you will write less. Only rule is to use only pen and paper. This ensures that you are not reformatting, deleting or adding things in between. We don’t want these distractions in our process.

Meditation: Though some may think it is a difficult process it is a much easier process than what you can imagine. If you have never practiced meditation before you may want to try some guided meditation from here and here. There are many other resources online which help you on this topic. The purpose of this process is to slow down the mind and remove all the noise that clutters your thoughts. The result is a focused mind.

Walk/Run: Running or just walking also helps to clear your mind. Gets your thoughts aligned. It may be the fresh air or physical activity that freshens up the mind. It is one the feel good activity that I like to do whenever I get the time.

Slow down: This is one thing that we the people in modern world think is a luxury of the past. We don’t want to miss this or that, without realizing that we miss most of it. We try to do lot more than what we need, always running out of time at work and at home. Slowing down and focusing on what you are doing at present helps you focus and makes you more effective. This way you don’t miss out on details or jump to conclusions. This is very important skill for problem solving.

Take a break:  Everyone deserves a break. Every once a while you need to break away from the routine. It may be vacation or just a coffee break. When your mind reaches its saturation point there is no point straining yourself beyond that point. It is best to take a break and let the subconscious mind do the work and may be you will have a Eureka Moment.

Do Something Fun: Do anything that allows you relax your mind, maybe something creative like drawing, painting or playing music or physical activity like dancing or going to gym. Anything that you enjoy will work to help you refresh your mind.

 

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Practicing Behavior Patterns are More Important than Tools

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Many companies fail to reach the success similar to that of Toyota as they randomly apply tools and techniques of lean. The right way as proposed in “Toyota Kata” is practicing the behavior patterns in our daily routine. This thought is in alignment with the previous post about how the business should manage itself. Practicing behavior patterns forces us to focus on the means people use to run the business.

Why learning and practicing behavior  pattern is more important than learning the tools?

It is all about cultivating right habits. When you expect to change culture by teaching and applying tools and techniques it is only superficial.It does not guarantee the change in the thinking model of the people involved. Thus a cultural shift is unlikely.

On the other hand when you learn and practice behavior patterns it cultivates habits. Thus changing people at a different level than just learning new tools. There is a shift in thinking and perception. This is a likely condition under which an organisation may undergo a cultural shift.

Now the big question is : What are these right behavior patterns that patterns that we need to learn and practice on daily basis to continuously improve, adapt and prosper?

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Managing by Means and Not by Results

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Toyota has been successful at what they do for several years. Many have tried to imitate them only to be limited by their understanding of the “know why”. One of the main philosophical difference between Toyota and many others trying to follow their methods is that Toyota truly manages by mean and not by results. I just started to read “Toyota Kata” by Mike Rother. It was the interesting conclusion of the foreword written by H. Thomas Johnson which inspired me to write this post.

Lean Philosophy is less discussed topic for the practitioners who merely want to get on the “me too” boat. The blame partly goes to our existing management system which is too focused on end results than on the means to get there.

What are the means and why are they important?

Adopting the continuous improvement of process is the means for financial success and long term growth of the company. But if you focus on the financial results only and not worry about the means your people use it will harm the long term growth and success of the company. The means come before the profits. This wisdom is captured in the verse of “Bagvath Gita”:

Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,

Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani

It simply means “Do your duty, without the being obsessed about the results.” Our duty here is continuous improvement the process that delivers value to the customer.

Here are some of examples where ends become important than the means for short term gain, but ultimately causing long term harm:

  • When you ask to ship all orders o same day. It could lead to bad practices like having excess inventory or working overtime
  •  When you want better utilization of labor without considering the demand, it will lead to practice of over production

We see similar examples in our day to day life yet we fail to understand the subtle difference it makes when you put the right means ahead of the profit. What are your thoughts? Are you truly focused on the means or just the end?

 

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The Need for Training in Small Companies

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There is no doubt for an organization to learn and grow you need to develop your people. But the challenge especially for small companies is they neither have the time or money to deliver it. I think it is probably because we consider training as a luxury only for big companies with vast resources. This thinking needs to change. Training should be integral part of the routine and should not be treated as an activity we pursue only if time permits.

I am not talking about training about specific tools, but the most basic training required for the people in the industry.  In my opinion it is learning the skill of problem solving. There may be specific tools to solve the problems based on type and industry but those are secondary compared to the basic scientific way of problem solving.

Why training is a challenge and why small companies need to address it?

Small companies cannot always hire experienced people due to high cost. So for many the best options are to hire a less experienced individual or someone freshly out of the college.  These people may not necessarily be equipped with all the skills to be effective at their job from the first day.  This is where it gets tricky. The companies know that these individuals need to be trained and developed, but instead it is thought of as an unnecessary cost and they are let on their own to find the answers. Over time if they are not properly guided, they become more experienced in just fighting fires than solving problems. Problems are not solved permanently, they recur and cause waste. The cost of this waste may be far greater than what would have been for the training. But since they are to relate to each other, it is never considered.

What could be the solution in this scenario where people can be equipped with right skills and also there is not strain on the budget or time?

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Future of Lean Thinking: The Making of Lean Manager

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“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”  – Confucius

The Lean Manager is the lynchpin.  Without the right person and the right philosophy, the process from transformation to continuous improvement culture is purely a waste of time and efforts. From the leader of the organization to the leader on the gemba, these are the people who determine the course of the people and the company towards the lean thinking culture.

Over the years the lean practitioners around the world have gathered knowledge on use of various tools. Wisdom has led us to believe that a systems approach rather than just focusing on tools is essential for a long term results. We cannot succeed by imitating others; a cultural change is a must! So what is next? The next shift in thinking would be to understand the change at personal level. That is to understand the mind of lean manager and how one transforms into a person of scientific thinking.

Why should we be interested in the making of a lean manager? The answer lies outside the normal realm of management and business. Business goals and management tools are just merely tools and will not be effective if the people using them not fully understand the art and science of problem solving. Yes it is partly art because, how a manager selects the right tool to solve the problem depends mostly on his experience and intuition. The chaos in the everyday operation of any business will easily make an average manager stray away from the real purpose. Daily firefighting, running after vanity metrics, useless reporting are enough distractions to convert a manager into a mindless zombie. Then a feeling of unfulfillment, depression sets in. One does not think before we act, “There is no time to do it right, but always time to do it all over again”. A manager whose fundamental thinking is not conditioned and mental character is not strong will easily succumb to these pressures. How do we train ourselves to be strong mentally and with the values and conduct that act as our anchor to survive the storm of our daily work life? Personal development using the methods and philosophies such as zen may have a lot to teach us.

There is a need for an unconventional guide for a manager who wants to be a “Lean manager”. This may not be a guide for everyone; and may only be suitable for people who think of Lean as a religion and who are not afraid of changing themselves in the quest for understanding how to change others for good. We should also consider dealing with things outside the office world on how to create a right lifestyle to be a perfect lean thinker.

The failure of many companies to apply lean has shown us that just imitating the methods is not a good path to take. Learning from experience is an accepted by many but it is hard to create environment where failures are accepted as part learning process. Most of the time this important process is side stepped as everything needs to be done yesterday; there is no time for failure. Thus a foresight about the potential problems is necessary. This means learning by reflection and practicing failures ahead of time. We need to learn about how to prepare our mind to reflect and how to practice lean in our daily life. This will help us build a strong foundation of principles and values that any lean manager should embrace.

There are certain traits, intrinsic characteristics, or cultural background that will either help or prevent the transformation of a manager to a Lean Manager. So now the question is:

Are Lean Managers born? Or Are they made?

 

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Understanding Kaizen Through Daily Life Example

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“Kai” change “Zen” for good .Even if you have never heard of it; there is a possibility of you already practicing it. Let’s take an example of cooking. If you are cooking for the first time, it is very likely you run into many obstacles. You may not easily find where all the ingredients are stored, and then locate the utensils. Once you are settled and starts cooking you realize, it would have been better to prepare the food before you start. You will try to solve each one the challenges as you start cooking regularly. This will involve small gradual changes. Even the recipes will be modified, tried, tested till they are perfected.

The gradual change to improve our process is called Kaizen .We take little steps everyday towards the better condition. This in a company where everyone is empowered to change their own process for good one small step at a time will be able to maintain the momentum for the change knowing how to create a culture is a challenge. Some cultures are more adapted to this philosophy then the other. Masaaki Imai in his book “Kaizen” says that it Kaizen that has helped Japan to masters of “Flexible Manufacturing”. Is it possible to create culture that accepts this philosophy of continuous improvement?

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