Recently, I added a new step to my kaizen event standard work. Just to keep the event team leaders honest, I not only require them to develop leader standard work related to the new "systems" that they have implemented during the kaizen (my old standard work), I actually now make them walk me through the leader standard work, printed and in hand,...at the gemba. This is typically done on a Thursday afternoon if it's a five day kaizen event.
Yes, I am a pain in the neck! But, what happens if the leader standard work is not completed or completed and not sufficient? Well, I'll tell you, it's called backsliding. The PDCA wheel rolls backward!
All of the team's blood, sweat and tears come to naught. Not a great way to sustain the gains. Not a good way to create a lean culture. So, we need to chock the PDCA wheel with leader standard work (and of course, the related visual controls that make the leader standard work "drive-by" easy). Leader standard work is part of standardize-do-check-act or SDCA. Leader standard work is part of a lean management system, along with visual controls and a daily accountability process.
What does the leader standard work walk through look like? Picture the lean coach or sensei following the event team leader as they refer to the documented leader standard work.
For example, the kaizen event team leader reads off the first audit area within the leader standard work - an easy one, a FIFO lane. We stop here on an hourly basis at the "XYZ FIFO lane" and, "Determine that the FIFO lane is maintained."
"Maintained?" What the heck does that mean? So, the supervisor/team lead comes by here each hour, looks and says, "Yup, looks good! Looks maintained!"?? No, I think we need to be much more specific, otherwise things will get lost in translation, the leaders won't understand and they won't ensure process adherence and then the system will break down. The leaders will routinely mark the audit step complete and never, ever identify an abnormal condition...even when there is one.
We need to define this leader standard work step a bit more. It might read something like, "Review FIFO lane to ensure that it is being maintained: 1) carts are being fed in a first in, first out manner, 2) the maximum quantity of carts (as reflected in the visual) is not exceeded, 3) if the maximum quantity is met, then the upstream operation is no longer producing..." Now, about that visual control...
Now this may seem like overkill, but I don't think so. This kind of rigor is especially important when a company is relatively new in their lean journey and the lean leaders are immature. Their leader standard work needs to be very specific.
So, how do you chock your PDCA wheel?
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