Building Bridges vs Building Fires

Howdy folks, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and was able to spend time with friends and family.  Yoda and I decided to take a couple days off our schedule and travel a few places, couple that with getting caught in the beginnings of a snow storm in the mountains it was outstanding.  Just stepping back for a few days from our respective busy schedules allows us to reflect and enjoy life.
   
This topic I'm writing about tonight is one of great importance to anyone on the front line or board room implementing Lean.  Building bridges vs building fires.  Oh how the uber type A personalities such as myself see fire as the answer to all our problems.  Burn the problems out, fire the problem children, fire the design engineers, fire the VP of manufacturing because he wouldn't know flow if he was placed in the middle of the Rio Grande during a flood, fire everyone.  Let's just start over and do it RIGHT.  Yes sometimes we as uber Alpha type A's see fire as the solution.

Then we have the opposite bridge builders, always trying to form some sort of connection, wanting to  A3 every small problem from dust bunnies to the color of paint, wanting to hold meetings, always asking questions about everything, always desiring to get everyone from the "senior team" involved, all the way down to the contractor who installed the drop ceiling.  These bridge builders appear to be caught in a "do loop" of communication.  Yes it sounds great and their ideas and facilitation skills are beyond anything the type A's have.  They just don't seem to get anything done.  All hat and no cattle, as we would call them.

So how does all this relate to Lean?  Well pull up a seat and grab a cup of coffee while I explain.  I had a situation Monday dealing with the design engineers who want nothing more than to turn your manufacturing floor into a lab, a VP of design engineering working angles to get his projects done, and couple all that with THE CUSTOMER, the external customer wanting their product.  Then we have me, the manufacturing supervisor over everything, looking for a solution.  So what did I do?
As much as I wanted to dismiss the design guys, we have to remember that they are our INTERNAL CUSTOMER, and the VP of design engineering is their voice.  I decided to play facilitator here.  Start asking questions, look at due dates, how can I incorporate this as a standard work opportunity, who do I know that can help me with this, is everything programmed, how can I get better lead times so I can work this in as standard work.   Those are the questions I asked internally, so I may lead Lean from the inside out.

Yes you heard that correctly I was leading Lean from the inside out. Running the entire scenario and looking at all the options, before I decided to act.  Contacting my team members who knew the best way to perform the technical aspects of what needed to be done.  Contacting the programmer to double check that all programs were at the appropriate equipment. Contacting the actual design engineers to give approximate times when things were going to be done for them.  Ahhh... yes I'm sure some of you wise and educated Industrial Engineers and OPEX types are knowing exactly what my team and I were doing before we set one foot in motion.  You guessed it,  "THE PLAN"!!!!!  The planning phase of the operation before we went to DO.  CHECKED our results, by the way my team rocked it as you guys are the best.  Then comes the ADJUST, or the after action "Well what can we do differently next time to increase tempo of the flow without affecting quality".  Yeah more questions, don't you just love it?  We are manufacturing types, we want to see a finished product.  We don't want all these questions and planning.

This is where I have Yoda to thank.  She being the wise and learned jedi with a couple fancy engineering degrees and facilitation skills that are truly world class.  I hear her voice in my head saying "Now Cowboy....".  Yeah I must slow down and involve people that are doing the work, inform my customer what is going on, create a vision on how we do this, then arc the sequences flawlessly into a steady stream.

Yes we must slow down to speed up, isn't that the truth.  My team and I are learning that it is great to have drive and tenacity to get things done.  Though where we are really progressing is our capability of vision.  I am starting to learn how to construct a vision congruent with my organizations core values, explain this vision to all involved, execute the vision, and then.... and then.... WE go back and look to see what we will do  better next time.

Each day my team and I are making those base hits and scoring runs in the process.  A Lean transformation isn't an overnight thing. It is a long cattle drive.  Involving many individuals at all levels with each playing a key role; all bound by respect for each other and clear communication.

There you have it folks, another story from the front line of Lean implementation. Given from an implementer and his team's perspective who are on the front line.  Yes we are guys and gals in the middle of Gemba, not sideline casual observers.  Thanks for stopping by and remember, Lean is a lifestyle of continuous improvement, it isn't a destination it is the beginning of a lifelong journey.

Cowboy