Tailored approach. Our services are pulled by the business needs of the client and are tailored based on the lean maturity of the organization. For example, if a client has little/no strategy deployment practices and foundational capabilities (i.e., problem solving), then strategy deployment may not be introduced until later in the engagement.
Transformation context or discrete need. Talcott Ridge’s broader service offerings are best described within the context of a comprehensive transformation plan and/or proposed actions and plans identified in strategy deployment and value stream analysis. Certainly, however, clients often have more immediate, tactical needs that can be addressed through things like point kaizen or training. Depending upon urgency and importance, those can be addressed early and apart from a comprehensive engagement. That said, the following describes a comprehensive engagement for an organization with little or no lean maturity, see Figure 1.
Our nominal transformation engagement, after an initial client visit, assessment, and proposal, begins with leadership alignment around True North, the one-to-three-year target condition, infrastructure requirements, initial pilot selection, and so forth. This, identified in Figure 1’s point “a,” yields to a governance team or steering committee that will lead the transformation, manage change, conduct standard work to check the existence, adherence, and sufficiency of the transformation plan, coach, and remove barriers throughout the duration of the engagement and beyond.
Point “b” reflects the next in the sequence of major activities, encompassing the establishment or rationalization of an internal lean support office and the orientation of leadership and the wide, but very basic implementation of a lean management ecosystem (i.e., visual process performance boards and standard huddles). This “mile wide, inch deep” start facilitates leadership engagement and learning, in anticipation to and in parallel to a value stream-oriented inch wide, mile deep pilot, as indicated at juncture “c.”
It is here that a single value stream, chosen for organizational learning and business impact, among other things, will be used for focused, deep improvement through the application of the right systems and tools, identified within the value stream improvement plan and implemented by means of kaizen events, projects, and just-do-its. Integral to this effort will be the building out of the value stream specific management system and the development of key leadership competencies and behaviors, including the coaching of problem solving and continuous improvement orientation.
These newly developing leadership competencies will be applied at point “d,” with the beginning of an appropriately narrow scope of natural work teams, operating within an environment that includes standards, standard work, visual management, and andon systems to conduct natural work-team based problem solving and continuous improvement. This activity is usually within the context of team performance gap-pulled suggestions and kaizen circle activities.
After the organization has developed some basic problem-solving ability and understands the game-changing potential of lean, it is often the right time to introduce strategy deployment. This is indicated at point “e.”
As the engagement progresses, it encompasses increasingly greater portions of the enterprise, often value stream by value stream and facility by facility. Post-pilot deployment strategies, such as the use of successive quick follow-on “waves” can accelerate full implementation, in conjunction with the necessary organizational learning and horizontal sharing.
Array of offerings. Our service offerings are properly and most effectively pulled by business need and integrated within an engagement. However, it is recognized that, depending upon an organization’s lean maturity and/or urgent need, a company may want to access learning in discrete workshops. Virtually all of the following offerings can be provided in hands-on workshops, and many can be practiced within the context of a kaizen event to drive real business results. Please contact us at [email protected] if there is a desired service that is not reflected below, or if you have a question.
- 5S and workplace organization
- Acquisition due diligence and transition management planning and execution
- Competency development coaching
- Daily kaizen
- Governance
- Kaizen event management
- Leadership alignment
- Leader behavior coaching
- Lean management system/managing for daily improvement (MDI)
- Lean maturity assessment
- Lean support office design and coaching
- Mistake proofing
- Problem solving (including A3 problem solving)
- Process preparation (2P) and production preparation process (3P)
- Pull systems
- Sales and operations planning
- Standard work
- Setup reduction
- Strategy deployment
- Total productive maintenance (TPM)
- Training within industry (TWI – job relations, job methods, job instruction)
- Value stream analysis
- Visual management
