How LEAN can help you save time and money (part 2)

Photo by Christina on Unsplash

In last week’s article, we gave you an overview of LEAN. In particular, we focussed on how the LEAN process identifies waste.

In today’s article, we’ll go over the steps used to identify waste, so you can see how it works in action. Then we’ll give you some tips on how your business can start benefitting from LEAN.

Example of a LEAN process

Step 1 – Choose a process

Identify a process you want to put through LEAN. (This is typically a process that you think isn’t as efficient as it could be). Example: distribution of daily mail.

Step 2 – Assemble your panel

LEAN is an involved process. That means it needs input from stakeholders. So you want to pick a variety of people who are involved with the process you have chosen above to be on the LEAN “panel”. For our example, choices might be: mail clerk, some receptionists, a few other individuals (a selection of people who “touch” the mail in any way during the day).

Step 3 – Map the process

Hold one (or more) meetings with your panel to map out the process. The map should show every step of the process and indicate who is responsible for them. It should also show how long it takes to do each step, and as well how long a delay there is in between steps.

Example:

(Note: Actual LEAN processes tend to use flow charts to map out the process, but for ease of reading we are going to use a list approach in this article.)

Step 4 - Analyze

The next step is to study the workflow to look for any bottlenecks, long delays, or repeated actions. In our mail delivery example, there is an obvious case of repeated action: just about every person is making a daily trip to the mailroom!

Let’s do the math…

• 4 minutes per person to go to the mailroom and back

• 30 employees

• Daily time spent by employees walking to mailroom and back: 2 hours

• Weekly time spent: 10 hours

• Average salary per hours: $25

• Total money spent weekly paying employees to walk back and forth to the mail room each week: $250. 

Just think what your employees could accomplish instead, in those 10 hours, if they didn’t have to walk to the mail room every day!

Solutions

Now that you’ve identified a waste, it’s time to do something about it. Get your panel together and brainstorm as many possible solutions as you can.

Example:

Option 1

Have the mail clerk do the rounds and either:

• Deliver mail for each department to the reception desk for that department

• Deliver mail to each individual person throughout the business

Option 2

• Have one employee from each department go to the mail room and get all the mail for their department then have them either:

• Place it in a mail area in the department where employees can go through to see if there is any mail for them.

• Sort it into that department’s mail slots (create mail slots inside each department)

• Sort it and deliver it to individuals at their desks.

Evaluate

Now that you have a list of possible options, you need to evaluate how effective each would be. Take the time (with your LEAN panel) to carefully list the pros and cons of each approach.

For example, let’s look at solution 1a—having the mail clerk deliver mail to each department’s reception desk.

Pros 

• Only one person doing walking; all other employees have gained some time in their work week;

• Mail clerk is paid less than most other employees, so most cost-effective person to do the delivery;

• All mail will arrive in each department at approximately the same time every day.

• Total weekly walking time saved by employees: 10 hours;

• Total new walking time spent by mail clerk: 4 hours;

• Net total time saved:  6 hours;

• Net total money saved: 6 x $25 = $150 per week;

Cons

• Mail clerk has more work to do; other mail room work may be delayed;

• Mail clerk has to learn what department each employee works in; introduces possible element of error, especially at first;

• Employees don’t have the “break” of going and getting their own mail.

Now do the same for each of the other possible solutions. The idea is that you want to examine each solution thoroughly and then compare their pros and cons so that you ultimately choose the best new approach to take.

Implement

The next step is to implement the solution you’ve chosen. Make sure you communicate clearly to all staff what changes are coming, when they will start, any training you will be offering to prepare them for the new process, and who to contact with any questions or feedback.

Follow up

The final step is to follow up. No matter how well you plan for change, things almost always don’t work out quite the way you envisioned. So schedule a few follow up sessions after the new process begins. You could have an informal one within a few days, with a more in-depth one a few weeks out.

Which way you follow up may also depend on the complexity of the particular process you have changed.

Your quick LEAN implementation guide

Typically, LEAN processes are led by trained LEAN facilitators. That can be an especially important aspect if you have large, complicated processes you want to improve. But you can start using some of the LEAN process steps right now. Here’s how.

1. Choose someone to act as facilitator. We recommend someone who is logical and good at interviewing people to get information. Help that person learn about the LEAN process. (The facilitator does not need to be closely involved in the process you are going to take through LEAN, but it can be helpful if they know at least something about it).

2. Pick one relatively small process (mail delivery? office cleaning? ordering supplies?). The idea is to pick something that is not too complicated, so that the first time you try LEAN you can get used to the process without being bogged down with too many problematic details about how the process you have chosen works.

3. Assemble your panel, consisting of key players in the process you have chosen. Explain that this is your company’s first time trying LEAN, and that this is partly a process to learn how to apply it.

4. Give the panel an overview of the LEAN process, making sure to answer any questions that arise.

5. Take the panel through LEAN:

   • Map the process

   • Analyze the process

   • Identify waste

   • Identify possible solutions

   • Evaluate those solutions

   • Choose which solution to use

   • Implement new process

   • Follow up to ensure new process is working

Summary

In last week’s article, we gave you an overview of LEAN. Today we’ve talked about how you can begin implementing it in your own business. Bear in mind, this hasn’t been a complete explanation of the technique. There are other aspects to LEAN such as design, inventory management, etc. that we didn’t really go into. Instead, we’ve chosen to focus specifically on that part of LEAN that identifies waste, because that seems to be the aspect that is most relevant to many of the clients we work with.

And one last reminder: it’s very important to include people involved in the process you are trying to improve. If you do this exercise yourself, you will miss valuable “on the floor” information that may make a difference in what ultimately appears as the best solution.

Cheers,
Tim

[ This article is intended as general information only, and is not meant as professional advice. ]