LEAN, 5S IMPLEMENTATION





MANUFACTURING



I was tasked to support in deploying Lean across the organization, help the manufacturing division to be profitable.
Some of the key Organization challenges were:
• To prove the overall business case - can’t continue to lose money
• To prove to the company, commission, ministry that this is the business they should be in





The division had ten stations that performed refurbishment operations in a repetitive cycle. The Organization wanted to implement Kaizen, 5S and Lean program in this division, align schedule for all stations, achieve workload balance at each station, fill in the positions at stations requiring additional people, have selective overtime, implement cross-training, reduce absenteeism, better time management, less firefighting, effective utilization of available resources for maximum efficiency.


Project Objectives:
• Develop a strategic framework for the implementation of Lean concepts, including a Lean training program and metrics to track program process and success
• Manage selected improvement projects/initiatives, facilitate Kaizen events
• Develop a strategy with actionable initiatives to improve strategic sourcing, and provide guidance and assistance in negotiations with key suppliers


Actions:
• Designed a training program that aligned to the proposed Lean corporate strategy
• Coordinated the organizational design of a governance and oversight plan including development of metrics to track program process and success
• Developed a strategy and plan for the execution of process improvement projects/initiatives


Value Delivered:
• Robust Lean Deployment Plan
• Knowledge transfer to project leadership team
• Baseline metrics to allow for current state versus future state comparison
• Reduced defects by 35%
• Improved throughput by 20%
• Enabled consistent throughput at each station
• Reduced overtime by 25%
• Staff trained in Lean and Kaizen
• Increased morale and confidence
• Improved workload balancing
• Improved ability to assign/move resources between or within stations
• Better control of the schedule
• Developed Standard Work Checklists
• Implemented cross training boards
• Improved communication between shifts through huddle boards



ALIGNING PROJECTS THROUGH HOSHIN KANRI





STRATEGIC PLANNING / ACCOUNTABILITY



The organization wanted to align all divisional projects and resources with strategic objectives, and implement a process that evaluates how the organization’s chosen strategies affect revenue, costs, and operational efficiency. The organization wanted to bring in a new concept of Hoshin Planning and its collection of tools to the company. They wanted greater insight into the interdependencies between strategies, results, projects, and metrics in order to understand the intended effect of the strategy on the bottom line.





The organization had the following needs and challenges:

1. Strategic alignment of projects and initiatives
2. Immediate term process improvement efforts
3. Contribute to the $6/MW hour cost reduction objective
4. Plan, implement and achieve long-term success through Lean and Hoshin Planning
5. Create a culture that is based on four pillars: Leadership, Communication, Empowerment, and Team Work


The organization was unable to clearly identify the right strategies, metrics, and projects to align them with corporate or division's goals and objectives. The organization did not have an established metrics program to track and improve business, operations, and process performance. No appropriate process improvement metrics existed for meaningful analysis to draw insights for actionable improvements.


Project Objectives:
1. Coordinate with divisions and develop Divisional Hoshin plans, develop Corporate Hoshin plan with the Executive management. Introduce the Hoshin Kanri methodology and tools (A3/X-chart), in terms of the relationship between strategy, projects, and the intended results.
2. Assist the management teams in defining KPIs, metrics, and target results.
3. Facilitate the process of aligning and prioritizing projects, and completing initial draft Hoshin maps.
4. Facilitate the process of developing project charters, and finalizing the Hoshin maps down to the station plans level.


Actions:
I introduced the concept of Hoshin Kanri to the management, conducted Hoshin workshops for four divisions that included:


a. Introduction to Hoshin planning
b. Definition of Strategic Objectives
c. Definition of Key Divisional Objectives with Weightings
d. Identification of Targets and Metrics aligned with Divisional / Strategic Objectives
e. Identification of Risks, Issues, and Opportunities
f. Selection and Alignment of Divisional Projects to Strategic Objectives
g. Designed and developed Hoshin charts (X-charts) for each division, rolled up to corporate level X-chart
h. Identification of Project Team Members, Sponsors and Accountability levels

Value Delivered:
• Hoshin planning and X-charts improved the clarity of communication, helped organization teams establish a clear, visible link between corporate strategy, goals and initiatives/projects.
• The interdependencies of the 5 different correlation combinations were determined and ranked on their X charts.
• Strategies and results – Evaluated the chosen strategies and their effect on increasing revenue, reducing costs, and improving operational efficiency. Studied the intended effect of the strategy on the bottom line.
• Metrics and results – Identified the right metrics for the long-term to establish economic relationships between metrics and results.
• Strategies and projects – Developed a set of hypotheses of how to optimize their operations. Ensured each project/tactic is strongly correlated with and supports at least one of the strategies on the strategic plan.
• Projects and metrics – Connected projects to specific measures of process improvement. Confirmed that the projects selected address all of the measures of process improvement.
• Accountability matrix – Completed the accountability matrix, created a separate charter for each project/tactic on the X Chart.


At the end of the Hoshin Planning session, each division/team had quantifiable goals and appropriate metrics that supported tracking and monitoring of project performance



PROCESS OPTIMIZATION AND FUTURE-STATE MODELING





PUBLIC SECTOR



As part of an overall Business Process Management program, this public sector organization was evaluating a number of options to support their ongoing organizational change management and process improvement initiative. An initial project related to Policy Content Management using Lean improvement approach was identified to demonstrate efficacy.





The requirement was to optimize the process and define the Future State Operational Model for Policy Content assessment and development.


Project Objective:
Streamline and optimize the process of Policy Content Management while developing a future state operating model to align with organization's overall Target Operating Model.


Actions:
• Developed a detailed measurement plan, which was implemented by the Policy Branch to collect, validate data and create baselines prior to the development of the future-state operating model.

Reviewed current state operating model of the organization, reviewed data gathered through interviews, surveys, systems
Defined Critical to Quality (CTQ’s) parameters required for the future-state model, developed Needs vs. Requirements matrix (QFD)
Mapped current-state processes, identified wastes, and opportunities
Brainstormed areas of improvement, potential solutions, high-level business requirements
Mapped Future State process and developed requirements for future-state operating model
Conducted Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis (DFMEA) and identified risks
Developed risk mitigation strategy, a detailed action plan that outlined actions required to develop a future-state operating model
Created Control, Communication and Change Management plans to support the implementation of the future-state operating model
Developed detailed business requirements for a new IT system recommended for future-state model


Value Delivered:

Significant reduction in Response Time (> 40%) achieved for both Simple and Complex Requests using the new operating model.
Estimated effort savings through implementation of the future-state operating model were in the range of 2,100-2,200 hours per year.
Employee participation, motivation, and morale were increased as the staff went through the optimization process.
The project outcomes served as inputs to organization's larger initiative - developing and implementing Target Operating Model.


STRATEGIC SOURCING, LEAN SIX SIGMA





SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENT



I was tasked to conduct organizational and sourcing assessments, support in deploying Lean across Supply Chain.





Project Objectives:

• Determine key improvements in the end-to-end value stream

• Determine cost reduction opportunities within Supply Chain

Support bid response in order to secure $100 million refurbishment contract from the Ministry of Transportation


Actions:
Developed a strategic framework for the implementation of Lean Supply Chain concepts, including a training program and metrics to track success
• Conducted a strategic sourcing assessment
• Developed a strategy with actionable initiatives to improve supply chain

• Managed improvement projects

• Mapped end-to-end value stream

• Defined and developed baseline metrics

Value Delivered:

• Determined baseline metrics to allow for current state versus future state comparison

• Reduced material cost by 35%
• Provided bid response support (material and sourcing costing analysis, category RFQs, and input into negotiation strategies)

The company secured a $100 million contract from the Ministry of Transportation



CAPABILITY AND RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT





TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR



The company CIO wanted to know if the telecommunications (wireless) infrastructure was capable of delivering and sustaining high service availability of say 99.99%. My team was approached to lead this project. The team proposed a method to analyze the infrastructure systems, develop reliability models and simulate capability of the entire relay infrastructure. The project team gleaned and studied the available information on various components of infrastructure, including system architecture, incident ticket data, and vendor reliability numbers.





Owing to the extensive nature of the whole system, its complexity, based on Subject Matter Experts' (SMEs’) and other stakeholder’s input, the scope was narrowed down to one key system that can serve as a proof of concept for capability analysis and simulation. The Relay system was the obvious choice as it was the core system that held different pieces of the infrastructure system together and maintained connectivity between the networks and wireless services.


The team analyzed the Relay system taking into account all the components that make this system. The team has provided some recommendations in the areas where capability results were not as expected and highlighted specific components that require further attention for investigation and further improvement.


Project Objective:
To develop a model (Proof Of Concept) that determines the capability* of the Relay infrastructure as compared to the desired service level of 99.99% (sigma level 5.22).


* Traditional definition of process capability is the degree to which process output meets customer specifications. In system reliability modeling and analysis, the focus is to determine how reliable is the system to deliver service requirements. In this context, the capability of any component / subsystem / system is the inherent reliability of that component/subsystem/system to deliver given service at the desired level.


Actions:

Owing to the extensive nature of the whole system, its complexity, based on Subject Matter Experts' (SMEs’) and other stakeholder’s input, the scope was narrowed down to one key system that can serve as a proof of concept for capability analysis and simulation. Relay was the obvious choice as it was the core system that held different pieces of the infrastructure system together and maintained connectivity between the networks and wireless services.


The team analyzed the Relay system taking into account all the components that make this system. The team has provided some recommendations in the areas where capability results were not as expected and highlighted specific components that require further attention for investigation and further improvement.


• Created Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) for each Relay component using Relex® software

• Determined failure and maintenance properties for each block in the RBD based on data
• Created reliability model for each subsystem using appropriate RBDs completed in previous steps
• Performed simulation for each subsystem reliability model to obtain reliability/capability value
• Verified and validated subsystem model results with SMEs
• Integrated subsystems to create overall Relay system model
• Determined overall Relay reliability/capability and developed action plan for improvement


Value Delivered:

Determined potential failure modes through Failure Modes Effects Analysis (FMEA).

• Developed capability Simulation Models of Relay system, its subsystems, and components.

• Determined the overall capability of Relay system as 99.98% (5.04 sigma), which is a little less than four nines (5.22 sigma).

• Identified three subsystems, which drive the overall capability of the Relay system.

1.Network subsystem with a capability of 99.70% (4.24 sigma).
2. Facilities subsystem with a capability of 99.4%, which is about 4 sigma.
3. Database subsystem, Oracle with a capability level of 99.8% or 4.38 sigma.

• Developed detailed action plan to improve the reliability of these subsystems.



Uniquely positioned to apply multifaceted technical and leadership experience, expertise in all stages of Business Transformation program, process re-engineering, and business management, product management life-cycle, strong cross-functional team management background and extensive track record of innovation and success to enhancing your company’s bottom-line