Rob Herman CPIM, CSSBB
Continuous Improvement Change Agent
Effective & Efficient Solutions LLC
CI Practice Areas
Continuous Improvement is a journey and cultural driver that asks everyday,
"did we do it better today, then we did yesterday?". It is establishing a passion for
never accepting the status quo and always challenging ourselves to find a new way.
Metric Development
Every successful Continuous Improvement transformation I have been part of included changing metrics. In many cases the new metrics reflected the new dynamics of the business. As business conditions change the organization needed to adapt its non-financial KPI's to the new business reality.
Clearly the metrics of Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost will never fade away but how we measure them is key to driving enhanced performance.
Strategic Focus
Trying to do everything in Lean will ultimately lead to doing nothing. Focusing the CI efforts to where the need is the greatest for the business and ONLY using Lean-Six Sigma tools that drive that change will speed up results and enable sustainability of those results.
Leadership should only support initiatives that are critical to the business. By aligning Lean to strategic business initiatives leadership support and follow up are nearly guaranteed.
Gap Analysis
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Establishing the opportunities for improvement is essential to determine a focused CI direction. Value Stream Mapping highlights the areas of opportunities that can drive waste out of the process in the time line of production. VSM should be used when key processes are stable. Identifying the gaps helps crystalize the directions for all employees.
Breakthrough thinking challenges the status quo and forces an understanding that the process has room for growth. Driving double digit improvement is really possible when artificial constraints are removed.
Performance Dialogs
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Every organization has meetings. Are those meetings productive? Are the right people at the meetings? Are they driving change and results or just bantering? Is the cadence correct? Visual Management is designed to eliminate meetings and drive actions to those that are held. It forces the elimination of opinion and brings data.
​Structured meetings systemically communicated key information in a common format up the chain of command while allowing for strategic direction to flow down.
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Capability Building
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​Employees want to be engaged in the business. They want to provide input into decisions that effect them. However, delegating this accountablity can only happen if they are prepared.
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Training employees in problem solving techniques enables them to particpate in finding root causes and experimenting with success. Structure problem solving tools including Kazien events and DMAIC are key areas of training that drive a CI culture.
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Leadership Coaching
Many organizations PLAN, DO, totally forgetting CHECK and ADJUST. The secret to PDCA is Leader Standard Work. Leader standard work is not about Check Lists. Its about following up on that which is failing to achieve organizational goals and blaming the process, not the people.
Leadership is accountable for developing and communicating the change story of the organization while driving a flatter organization with higher employee engagement to the new metrics and improved processes.
