Lean Printing: Cultural Imperatives for Success

Follow the Author

---

There s a reason so many printers are discovering and employing Lean practices in their day-to-day operations. Quite simply put they work. Unfortunately, many attempts to establish Lean operations fail, not because of a lack of funds, tools, or time, but because the company culture simply will not support the inevitable shift in focus. Cultural Imperatives for Success features advice on what it takes to achieve complete buy-in from the top of a company to the bottom, including: The importance of leadership Team building Understanding empowerment vs.

Read more Read less. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1.

Setup Reduction for Printers: About the Author Kevin Cooper has worked in printing and manufacturing for more than twenty years. To get the free app, enter mobile phone number. See all free Kindle reading apps. Start reading Lean Printing: Cultural Imperatives for Success on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Printing Industries Pr 1 August Language: These are define-phase issues because you will need to thoroughly study the variation in your key metric before even thinking about a cause or causes during the measure phase of your study. Perhaps the most important task in define is to establish an incredibly clear objective for your key metric. Once the key metric has been identified, it is important to study its past and current behavior.

Analysis of the key metric over time and across multiple segments can help understand the source of variation, and narrow the scope of the project. Before one starts looking for the causal variables, it helps to know whether the variation in the key metric is primarily coming from specific machines, or due to specific people, or locations, times of the day or week, and so on. Lean and Six Sigma are both process improvement methodologies. It is therefore not sufficient to simply identify a problem.

Rather, one must find the process associated with the problem. What is the sequence of steps that leads to the outcome that one wishes to change? Creating the process flowchart helps to define the scope of the project in terms of the beginning and ending points of the process. Further analysis of the process involves creating a SIPOC chart to identify the key suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers for each step within the process. This helps identify the stakeholders in the process so they can be kept informed or included in the project team.

Adding another column to the SIPOC for the measures will help to begin to identify possible root causes. Benchmarking, both internally and externally, can help identify best-in-class processes, so that one can set reasonable targets for the project and determine potential benefits.

Benchmarking is talked about a lot, but not often done. Start by benchmarking your own processes. Find the best way to do things in your organization.

Note that parts of the process may be done better in different locations. Because many LSS projects are often designed to improve administrative or other processes that are common to all organizations, you can benchmark organizations in other industries. Benchmarking is usually suggested as a tool for other steps in the DMAIC process, but it should definitely begin in define. To facilitate benchmarking, find something your organization does that you can share with others who may have the best-in-class process information you seek. Be prepared to trade information.

7 527,53 RUB

Otherwise, why should others take their valuable time to help you? All project objectives should estimate potential financial and nonfinancial benefits from doing the project. This helps to get buy-in from management, since any project involves a cost in terms of the time spent by the team members at the very least. Showing potential savings in cost or increases to revenue can go a long way in getting the project approved.

Benefit and cost estimates can change as the scope of the project evolves. Without the support of a critical mass of your organization, LSS improvements are destined for failure. If you are fortunate enough to successfully develop a new and improved process with your team, you still have the daunting task of making the new process stick. That is why it is critical to deal with the organizational politics right up front. Identifying key stakeholders who might not be supportive of your proposed changes, and developing plans to gain their support or at least get them to a neutral position , are essential for success.

The charter is a formal document that describes your SMART metric, the preliminary scope of your project, the target to be achieved, the team members, a timeline with milestones for the project, and much more. It is a document that ensures your team is on the same page.

Also, expand on your charter by creating a project plan to determine how you are going to get to your future state.

Note that reducing the scope and modifying the charter should be done during the define phase as well as any time that you discover that you can deliver the majority of the project benefits by further reducing the scope of your project. You are now ready to get more people on board and start your team process. Select a specific day, time, and place to meet. This will minimize forgetting of meetings. Be sure to emphasize the importance of attendance. So, begin working on some of these improvements as soon as the charter is approved.

A good example is that many processes can be improved with the implementation of a smart form, where customers enter their requirements themselves, as opposed to an operator.

With built-in error proofing, this will improve standardization, reduce variation, reduce errors, and reduce rework of many processes. Learning how to manage meetings is especially valuable to the successful initiation of a LSS initiative. People hate unproductive meetings, and they already have too many of them! There are some simple tools that, when used well, can significantly improve LSS meetings as well as all other meetings.

Note that it is very helpful to identify the problem, the specific metric to improve, and do some charting and other preliminary analysis on your key metric before forming the team. Also, once it is well known that you are forming a team with a specific objective, managers or workers who are responsible for the process may begin to improve it on their own, making it difficult to establish a meaningful baseline. Take the time to get your team off to a successful start during the define phase. It will make all the difference.

Cultural Imperatives in Becoming Lean

He holds a doctorate in business administration. Levine retired from The Coca-Cola Co. For more articles by Levine, click here.

• Die Leidenschaft des Cervantes: Roman (Taschenbücher) (German Edition)
• To the Mountains and Back
• Russie - Union européenne : des regards sécuritaires différents (French Edition)
• The Seven Foods You Should NEVER Eat When You Have Your Period!
• Ave Maria
• Hes Never Lied to Me Yet