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This podcast offers business solutions to help listeners develop and implement action plans for lean process improvement and implement continuous improvement projects, cost reductions, product quality enhancements, and process effectiveness improvement. Listeners come from many industries in both manufacturing and office applications.
Patrick Adams 0:26
Absolutely, I'm excited to talk about the topic today, and probably the most exciting part of the Lean Solution Summit, probably the most talked about part of the Lean Solution Summit, as people go home and and start to kind of reflect on what they learned at the summit itself, so I'm really looking forward today to today's conversation about this topic. Okay, yeah, we are live, good deal. So, we'll have a number of people logging on, and as you log on, if you could just drop your name, or you're not your name, but you're the location, just type the location in the comments, just so we know where in the world that you are watching from, and that's whether, whether you're watching the live today or you're watching the replay, throw in the place in the world that you're, that you're dialing in from. We always love to see kind of the, you know, where, where our reach is getting to, and so that's that's always fun, and then also any questions that you might have about the summit itself or the topic for today, that the competition, it's a pretty amazing part of the Lean Solutions Summit, the Lean Excellence World Championship, and we have the co-founder and the creator of the Lean Excellence World Championship with us today, John Dyer, and John will be just giving us a quick breakdown of what that looks like. So, John, let's just dive in here. So, the Lean Excellence World Championship, where, like, how did you come up with this? What, what was your, what was the basis behind the idea of pull it, bringing teams together to compete on the big stage against each other, for you know, the world title. What was your motivation behind the whole thing?
John Dyer 2:11
Yeah, you know, Patrick, you and I have both been to many, many conferences over the years. We bump into each other pretty frequently at these conferences, and they are great. You know, I mean, everybody does a good job putting together a conference, but they were fairly cookie cutter, right? I mean, you had plant tours that people could go on, you had keynote speakers, there were, you know, workshops, and some, you know, presentations, and they all play a role in the, you know, experience of trying to understand what lean is all about, but they have their drawbacks too, right? I mean, like, when you go on a plant tour, it can be very inspirational to see a plant that has actually implemented lean, but you don't really get to see the struggles they went through, and the steps they went through, and the process they went through. Same for keynote speakers, you know, they get up and do a great job of pumping up the audience and sharing really important information about what they've gone through themselves personally, or their company has gone through, but it doesn't have the, you know, the steps that they went through, and all the all the different roadblocks they ran into, and some of the teaming issues they ran into, those kinds of things. Same for workshops, you know, I've done many, many workshops over the years, various classes, and try to make them as hands on as possible, but they like said they have their drawbacks. It's a limited amount of time. It's in a kind of sterile environment, you know, a classroom environment. You don't really get to see the struggles or the issues that might pop up. So when I approached you about this idea of a lean competition. What I had in mind was, you know, hey, we get some teams together and give them a task to work on something that is, you know, in the heart of lean implementation, and that way we get several things out of it, right. We get to see teams that struggle through the various steps, both what they did well and what they struggle with. We see actual lean tools being implemented by four different groups, so they might have different approaches, different steps they go through. So, as an audience member, as you're walking around observing these teams, you get a chance to say, you know, hey, which style works best? Which methodology works best? What were some of the struggles they encountered, and how did they overcome those struggles, and. So it's more like a three dimensional learning experience, if you will, versus a one dimensional or two dimensional that most conferences have, so I think it's a unique opportunity for people to really learn deeply what the various tools methodologies methodologies, cultural issues of lean might be. Now that's for the observers, for the people who are attending, for the people who are actually on the teams. Oh my goodness, you know, in a short period of time they get to test their skills against other, you know, strongly adapted team lean teams and measure their abilities against three very good other teams' abilities, right. And so the things that they learn, I've talked to many of the teams afterwards, and even the ones that lose, they're just blown away by how much they learned in a very short period of time that they can then take back and apply almost immediately to their home businesses and organizations.
Patrick Adams 6:13
Yeah, I think that's the best part of this is they're they're learning on the fly, like they're they're they come into this with some, some tools and some techniques that they already kind of have on their tool belt, but there's a lot of things that they're learning through these different challenges that are kind of thrown at them live, and that's what you know, again, both for the observers who are watching to see how they respond to that, as well as those that are actually participants in the in the competition itself, I mean, everyone is just learning so much in the process. All of the work that's done by each of the teams that are competing has their all of their thinking has to be displayed on the walls visually for everyone to see. So every time a new challenge is thrown at them that they didn't know was coming, they have to adapt as quickly as they can, because again that the time is part of the competition, so there's a, there's a clock that's running, and as those different challenges are thrown at them, they have to respond appropriately with, with, you know, and show that, that thinking visually. John, what is, what, what are they judged on? There are there judges that, that are kind of walking around and talking and observing what's happening. What are the things that they're judged on, as far as the, you know, the winning team itself?
John Dyer 7:28
Yeah, you know, there are multiple ways that the team score points. The actual, you know, we actually have a production run, so they have about three to four hours of planning time where they use the tools and methodologies of Lean, and then we actually do a production run of some type. Last year we made end tables, IKEA furniture, and as people who ever, whoever has put together IKEA furnitures knows, there's a lot of steps and a lot of parts. So the teams actually built these end tables that we then donated to a charity afterwards, which was very cool, but yeah, so the things they have to, you know, pull together is unique each year, you know, we try to make it a different kind of challenge each year, the first year the teams got to see a broken process, and then they were challenged to improve that broken process. Last year they were given one of these end tables to build, and they were given the instructions and all the parts, and they had to put together a process map. They had to, like you said, they had to put all the stuff up on the walls of what they were, you know, thinking, brainstorming, and ideas. And the main emphasis last year was visual management techniques, because we took the instructions away from them before production began, so they had to set up a production system that was so robust and so well documented and had so many visual cues that they didn't need the instruction booklet that came along with it, so, so, yeah, so each year, this is our third year, we try to come up with some unique challenges and I don't want to give anything away from for this year, but it'll be different than the first two years, for sure, and it will definitely challenge the teams.
Patrick Adams 9:32
Yes, absolutely. Well, we have this year for the Lean Excellence World Championship, which will be held here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, september 15, 16th, and 17th. The competition actually is on the 16th, and then the awards are given out on the 17th. It's at Meyer Frederick Gardens here in Grand Rapids, and it's going to be an amazing event with lots of lots of speakers, breakouts. We are going to do some tours, we have some team building activities, we're actually doing. Throw in a big concert in the one of the evenings, it's going to be a blast, but the competition itself, four teams of six will be competing against each other. Last year we had Gen Techs, who actually won the competition, they're a tier one automotive supplier. Lean Alaska was here with some of their team members, they competed, Zingerman's mail order out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They competed JCR Off Road or Fat American Manufacturing. They also competed this past year, and this year Gentex has already signed up to come back and defend their title, so they will be one of the returning teams, along with the University of Arkansas is sending six of their students from the supply chain program, so I'm excited about that. Team will be competing, those are all supply chain and engineers that'll be coming up from the University of Arkansas, and then we'll have two more teams, I believe Lean Alaska is actually bringing a all military team this year, so we'll see that that hasn't been confirmed yet, but if your team is interested to compete, let us know, because we still have a couple open spots. John, what are you most excited about for this year's Lean Excellence World Championship?
John Dyer 11:20
Yeah, like I said, you know, it's going to be different than the previous two years. We are going to build a product, like we did last year. It's going to be completely different product that will get donated again. So, I think that's again very cool. How we're,
Patrick Adams 11:35
and actually, we've, we've, we're working with two nonprofits, one of them is Toys for Tots, which is think most everybody knows Toys for Tots. The Marine Corps is a big part of that, and then also Love Inc is another organization that's kind of put in their name in the hat as the nonprofit or the charity of choice, so one of those two will receive, or maybe both will receive the output of this competition this year,
John Dyer 12:02
yeah, yeah, and I think that's very cool, but like I said, we're going to throw several new challenges at the teams, things that we didn't do the first two years, so it, yeah, again, and that that's done on purpose, right, like you said, some of the teams are coming back again, and we want to make sure that they're challenged and don't have a leg up on learning from last year. I would just like to take a minute to share some of the key learnings from the previous two years. So, if you were an observer, these are the kind of things that you would have witnessed that probably will play out again this year. One team, as an example, they didn't talk to the customer very much, and so when they started building the product, they weren't aware of all the customer requirements, and the customers kept sending the units back, saying that they were not acceptable, and they really struggled with that, and that was again a great lesson learned by that team, that hey, you know, if we don't really understand the customer requirements, if we don't partner with our customers, how do we know how we're doing? How do we know if we're meeting those needs. Another one that was pretty cool last year, we had two suppliers last year, one was a good supplier, but expensive, and the other one was low price, but not a great supplier. And of the four teams, two went with the good supplier, and two went with the lousy supplier, and the after the first round they had a chance to change that if they wanted to for the second round, and one of them that really struggled with the supplier said, oh, we're going to go with the higher price supplier, good supplier, immediately, just, you know, not even thinking about it, but the other supplier, or the other team that went with the bad supplier, they actually talked to the bad supplier and said, hey, let's work together to try to improve both of our processes, and figure out how we can help you not be so bad, and, and yet keep the low price, and so they worked with that supplier, and they were able to make a few improvements, not everything, but they did an analysis, and again the observers got to watch this play out real time. They did an analysis, and once that bad supplier actually improved a small amount, they were no longer the bottleneck for their production system, and so that allowed them to put their resources towards another piece of the product. Process where the bottleneck was now clearly visible, so they kept the low price supplier. They made some improvements, but they not all, so they still struggled to some degree, but it was less of a capacity issue than some of the other parts of the process, so when they redirected those resources, they were able to improve dramatically the output of their system. They were deep, deep in a hole after the first round, and they actually improved so dramatically they ended up coming in second, a very close second,
Patrick Adams 15:40
and
John Dyer 15:40
it was, it was a nail biter at the end, it
Patrick Adams 15:45
sure was,
John Dyer 15:46
but again, these are those kind of lessons learned that the observers, the people who attend the conference, well, if they choose, you know, there'll be other workshops they can go to, and so forth, but if they want to just observe these four teams throughout the whole morning and early afternoon, they'll get to see these kind of things play out real time, and and see how it all shapes up at the end.
Patrick Adams 16:16
Well, John, last question that I have for you, as we, as we wrap up this live, the you mentioned some of the reflection here, and it kind of sounded like maybe this was only for maybe manufacturers who work with suppliers. Is that the case, or are there learnings that can come for someone that's maybe coming from the healthcare industry, or you know, maybe works at a law firm, or you know, is in the administrative space. Are there learnings that can come out of that for them as well?
John Dyer 16:48
Yeah, you know, and this is something I talk quite a bit about, is that lean is for everybody. You know, I've worked with organizations both in manufacturing and outside of manufacturing, I've worked with government groups and nonprofit groups, and even churches, and every everything we do is a process. So basically, you would be taking the same lessons learned for any process and applying it to the competition. Now you know you might have a little bit of a leg up if you were in manufacturing, but again, we're building things that people can buy, you know, at off of Amazon or, you know, IKEA, so anybody who's put together a piece of furniture, or you know, a shelving unit, or anything like that, knows what to expect when, when putting these production systems together. Now, again, this year we're putting some twists in place. There's some transactional parts of the process that teams will have to figure out, there's some communication challenges that the teams will have to dig into and try to try to figure out common problems that occur in any process, whether it's in a hospital or in a law firm,
Patrick Adams 18:23
love it, love it. No, it's great. I, this is definitely a highlight for me of the summit itself, and you know we're looking forward to the attendees coming and being able to observe, watch, and again be able to, whether you're observer or participant, be able to walk away and apply that learning right away when you get back to your organization, and that's really our, our goal through everything in the Lean Solutions Summit. As John and I talked way back, you know, about what are the things that we want to be different about this summit, and that was one of the main things, was we really wanted real practical application and hands on learning things that you know participants can walk away and be ready to apply, not just theory, not just listening to a speaker, but really more hands on practical real application that, and I think that that's a big part of what sets the summit apart. So, it is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, September 15, 16th, and 17th, Gen Techs is one of our tour locations. Amway, Amway's corporate office here in Grand Rapids is another one of our our tour locations, and the competition happens on the 16th, awards on the 17th. John will be facilitating, he's kind of like the referee of the event, actually wears a referee uniform and everything, and then there's each team has a team lead that, outside of their own team, a representative that makes sure they're following all the rules, answers questions, there's judges, it's a pretty. Pretty cool event all around, and outside of just hearing from some really great, amazing speakers, being able to just walk through and listen to the conversations that are happening during the competition is definitely a huge part of the value that comes from that. So, John, if each of the teams is required to do a process map. Can you expand on that just a little bit? Tell us a little bit more about, like, what does that mean exactly when you say that they have to do a process map. So, current state, future state, what does it look like? Like, let's just kind of talk through that a little bit more in detail. All
John Dyer 20:37
right. Yeah, absolutely. Process mapping is by far my favorite tool for driving continuous improvement. I've had the opportunity to facilitate dozens and dozens of process maps in my career, and it's amazing how every time there are so many aha moments where people on the team are just like, oh my goodness, this makes so much more sense now that I can visually see the process, so I can see what's going on, and what we're asking the teams to do in the competition. This will be our third year to ask this, is to do a process map. In this case, it'll be a to be process map, or a future state process, because they're basically designing a process from scratch. So, what we're going to ask them to do is, is we'll supply post-it notes and markers and flip chart paper, and they'll have a wall to work with, and what we're asking them to do is, is to, you know, take the post-it notes, and as a team start laying out from beginning to end what they expect the process to look like, so you know, where does it start? What are the major steps? Where does it end? You know, what are some of the inputs, what are some of the outputs, and then where are the decision points that could occur in throughout the process, you know. Okay. Oh, we're out of parts, so what decision does that drive, and what new process subroutine does that drive in order to go get the parts? So that's the basic process map, and you know, a good process map would have maybe 30 post-it notes or so outlining, you know, what are those steps going from where it starts to where it ends, and this should be a great tool for the team as they begin laying out the process, you know, from from beginning to end, the actual physical process. Yeah. Now, there's one other big component to process mapping, and this is why it is so valuable in making improvement happen. Is once you've done the map, you're not done with process mapping. You then need to start analyzing what you've put up there, right? Where are the decision points? Where are the points in the process where things could go off the rails, and are there things that can be done to improve the process, so that those things don't happen, right? How can you mistake-proof the process, so to speak, and then you know, what are those areas where improvements can happen? Can you know, can we identify any waste in the system, even before we put the first table together, the first outline together on the floor, or whatever we're going to do to actually lay out the actual process, can we start using the map to identify those areas where waste could occur, and are there things that we can do to eliminate that waste, because it's so much easier to make those decisions on paper on the wall than it is to, you know, lay out the process and get it all set up, and then train everybody in the various steps. Actually, maybe do a couple of practice runs, and then realize, wow, this process has got a lot of waste in it, and and we need to make some changes. Well, then you have to tear up tape and move tables and retrain the workers, and that is extraordinarily time consuming. So you know the teams only have a certain amount of time for their planning, so the better job they do in identifying areas of opportunity on the process map, the smoother the actual layout of the process will be, and they'll easily fit into the planning time that we've given them.
Patrick Adams 24:53
Okay, and, and John, we talked about this, but basically all the things that the. The people that are coming in to observe and watch the competition, all these things can be applied to their work when they go back to their company. Is there a reason, specific reason why you chose process mapping as an important requirement for the team? And first question. And second question, should anyone that's listening right now, who may or may not come to the summit this year, should they think about using process mapping as kind of one of those foundational tools or techniques to kick off their lean journey, or maybe they're already on their lean journey, but they're, they haven't done any of that. Is that something they should go back and look at as a, as something that's important for their organization.
John Dyer 25:42
Yeah, you know, I've, I've been doing this for over 30 years, and I got to tell you, every improvement initiative needs to begin with a process map. I strongly believe that every employee in your organization should know what a process map is, and how they are put together, and how to read one, because it is such a valuable tool, and it's not just for manufacturing. This is really important. Everything that we do is a process, right? Getting up in the morning is a process, you know, brushing your teeth is a process, going to the grocery store is a process, and I've done process maps, many, many maps outside of manufacturing, you know. We, I've done them with churches, as an example. You know, think about something like Vacation Bible School. Vacation Bible School is an extremely complex process, where you're dealing with hundreds of kids and hundreds of volunteers, and you know, just one chunk of that process, say, you know, registering the kids, when you start mapping that out, and you start to realize that, oh my goodness, you know what, if we don't include something in the signup process that identifies food allergies, we could actually have a child get really sick or maybe even have to go to the hospital because of that flaw in our process. So, laying out these processes on a process map can help identify the team identify where are those areas where the process could break down and how do we fix it well before it becomes a problem, so yeah, so process mapping is is a extremely valuable tool, like I said I've done so many where there have been, you know, huge aha moments. I'll give you one quick one. We were doing a process map with between a supplier and the manufacturer, and they use these really large parts, big giant metal parts that weighed a ton, so the supplier would weld on these blocks onto the parts in order to be able to lift it with their cranes and move it throughout their plant, and then the last step on their process map, because we did this jointly, was to take these metal blocks off, and then you had to grind down the weld and smooth it out, and then when we started the process map on the manufacturing side, the first thing they did was weld metal blocks on in order for them to be able to carry these parts through their parts of the process, and this was such an aha moment, you know, the supplier was just like, well, why don't we just leave these blocks on, and then you cut them off at the end and send them back to us, that ended up saving them over a quarter of a million dollars, that one aha moment, so again, process mapping is an extremely valuable tool.
Patrick Adams 28:47
I love it. That's a, that's a great call out. One last question about process mapping, have you, do you have any examples of like challenges or problems that organizations have had in your experience with process mapping that maybe someone should be aware of, or just, you know, know, so that they can navigate that before it happens, you know, maybe just one or two examples.
John Dyer 29:12
Yeah, you know, the way I like to put it is, is, is, you know, you want to process map ugly, and what I mean by that is, you know, when I facilitate teams through process mapping, I don't want something that looks nice and pretty up on the wall. I want it to be as ugly as possible, and the reason for that is, is because I want to uncover those hidden steps, the ones that people don't like to talk about, but happen all the time. You know, oh my goodness. When this machine breaks down, we have to jump through this hoop, this hoop, and this hoop, and then all of a sudden you've started adding these hidden steps on the on the map, and it's becomes overwhelming. It's like, oh my goodness, this is awful. Well, that's good, because the first step for making improvement happen. Is to admit that you need to improve, so you've got to uncover these hidden, ugly steps. Now, that requires a certain culture, you know. I think culture is one of the most important things for making improvement happen. And if your culture is built around finger pointing and blame game, well, those hidden steps aren't going to come out in the discussions, people are going to, you know, shy away from revealing the bad things that are happening, because they're afraid they're going to get blamed, or they may even get fired for sharing those bad things. So, having a culture that embraces problems, embrace embraces the fact that the only way to get better is to, you know, admit that we have these issues, and has a culture that allows for the employees to share those bad steps in the process, that's the only way you're going to get any better, make improvement happen, and there have been many, many times where I've had, you know, leaders tell me, oh, we don't need to map this process, everybody knows what it is, and I'll say, you know, hey, let me get the team together, but you need to give them permission to share the bad, oh yeah, oh yeah, I'll tell them that up front. They can do that, and then the leader will come back after the mapping session is over, and look at the map, and just be completely blown away, and be like, I had no idea we were doing all this. No wonder we're not able to hit our quality targets and our on-time delivery targets, because we're doing all these things that we shouldn't have to do, because the process is so broken. Now I understand. Now I get it. Now I realize why we need to make these improvements happen
Patrick Adams 33:35
All right, John, so that's that. That's a wrap. I appreciate you coming on once again, as always. You always have really, really great input, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in September for the summit. If anyone is interested, John also has an amazing book out there called The Facade of Excellence. You can get it off Amazon or go to John's website and catch him there, but the book is definitely worth the read. So, if you haven't checked that out yet, be sure to do that. John, I will see you in September. Looking forward to that time together once again, thanks for being on, John.
John Dyer 34:23
Yeah, thanks for having me, Patrick. And I look forward to the lean competition as well. It'll be a lot of fun.
Patrick Adams 34:29
All right, take care, everybody