12/31/2014

How to Prioritize the Steps in Your Lean Journey

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How to Prioritize the Steps in Your Lean Journey

Jason Piatt
Tue, 2014-10-28 12:25

It has become increasingly important to show rapid results along the lean journey. While this is critical to
maintain support of senior management, it also is important to establish a process by which sustained
results can be achieved and that follow-on projects can also be successfully developed.
A gentle balance between analysis and action must be obtained. Allowing an entirely bottom-up power of
the people approach to the lean journey can become unguided and appear to senior management as if it
were a ship without a sail, wandering in the harbor. On the other hand, top-down lean journeys often fail to
enjoy the support of the rank-and-file members of the production staff.
To overcome the organizational paralysis that comes from overanalyzing lean projects while also achieving
faster results utilizing all team members, manufacturers can benefit from faster implementation of
solutions that are good rather than perfect with a commitment to leverage iterative development more
frequently in their processes.

If a time cycle is less than 18 months, two cycles of

PDCA will likely yield better financial results than one
implementation of the perfect solution."
In no way should the fact-based approach be compromised with shooting-from-the-hip improvement
tactics. Instead, teams must shift their focus faster onto accessing feasible solutions and realistic time spans
for implementing them.
This should be done after identifying the severity of the problem and considering the financial and nonfinancial consequences of imperfect improvement. For problems in which severity of defect, as well as the
financial impact, is small, firms can realize more value by implementing a good solution quickly and then
iteratively improving it than they can by delaying until the perfect solution is found.
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Much of this consideration hinges on the time to complete a cycle of PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) on the lean
implementation. If a time cycle is less than 18 months, two cycles of PDCA will likely yield better financial
results than one implementation of the perfect solution (which is often found not to be perfect after full
implementation).

Employ a Lean Prioritization Matrix

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12/31/2014

How to Prioritize the Steps in Your Lean Journey

In only the most sophisticated manufacturing environments are simulation capabilities robust enough to
predict outcomes. Instead, full implementation is often required to find all secondary effects and true
performance improvement measurements.
To prioritize lean projects, a lean prioritization matrix should be employed. On the horizontal axis, we
depict time-to-results while the vertical axis depicts organizational impact of the project. If we split each axis
into two sections, so time is classified as long and short and impact as high and low -- we will have
four possible categories for the lean projects under consideration. We can categorize them as follows:
Quick Win: Short Duration/High Impact
Building Block: Short Duration/Low Impact
Giant Steps: Long Duration/High Impact
Ongoing Improvement: Long Duration/Low Impact
If the starting focus is on quick wins (short duration, high impact), then organizational support can be
gained quickly.
It is important to consider if the quick wins will in any way impact long-term progress. In other words, will
the quick-win project give short-term gains but hinder a future project that will have higher impact on the
organizational outcome?
After the low-hanging fruit of quick wins has been captured, the organization should move onto building
blocks. These short-term, low-impact projects will continue to advance the lean journey but will only
generate moderate outcome improvements. These are most important to stop backsliding against the
cultural change that is sure to come when the lean journey is begun.
As these building blocks are accomplished, the organization should also begin working on giant steps (high
impact, long duration). Since giant steps will take much organizational discipline and belief in the lean
journey, they are important steps as momentum builds from the building blocks.
After the major leaps are accomplished with the giant steps, ongoing improvement (long duration, low
impact) should be pursued. These will allow the organization to solidify the cultural change necessary for
the lean journey and avoid any backslide. Additionally, these projects can continue to advance the journey.
What to do if a backslide occurs? Start again in the quick wins category of projects and advance accordingly.
By prioritizing lean projects, the journey can be productive, profitable, and sustained.
Jason Piatt is cofounder and president of Praestar Technology Corp. Prior to founding Praestar
Technology, Jason held various tactical and executive positions in engineering, sales and marketing, and
program management with a leading power transmission component manufacturer. He has served as a
member of the faculty at Penn State University and has taught at Pennsylvania College of Technology in
electrical and mechanical engineering technology, mathematics, and physics. Jason and the Praestar
Consulting team have assisted numerous manufacturers in the areas of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma,
sales and marketing management, and strategy formation.
Source URL: http://www.industryweek.com/operations/how-prioritize-steps-your-lean-journey
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