Lean Management System: How It Can Help You Execute in Operations or Administration

In this episode, speaker Kevin Young discussed the basic understanding of lean and the importance of understanding throughput time in any business process or part. These concepts force you to look at your business differently and help you to find waste. How do you sustain the results once you find the waste and implement a process to control it? Achieving process discipline and consistent results can be difficult in any new process or business. This session explains the major elements of a Lean Management System that any leader can implement in their business to achieve sustained results.

Download Kevin Young's PowerPoint here: https://amped.egnyte.com/dl/eGE5KsAW0K

For detailed show notes, read below and use the timestamps to navigate the episode:

(0:00) Beginning of Episode.

(4:50) Kevin outlines LEAN and its two critical principles: throughput and waste. Throughput is the time it takes for a process or operation to complete. From administrative to payroll, to inventory, and production - all sources of build-up. Identifying waste throughout an operation is what LEAN aims to do to reduce waste. Kevin gives an example of throughput at a factory with visuals. There are three Japanese terms for waste; Muda is the first term and encompasses overproduction, waiting, transporting, overprocessing, motion, inventory, and defects. The second term is Mura and encompasses unevenness, meaning ups and downs of scheduling for orders and what is produced. The third term is Muri, which encompasses overburden and is difficult to see as waste because it is visible in equipment or machine downtime and overburdening workers.

[12:10] Kevin discusses how waste build-up can lead to chaos, instability, time mismanagement, and the failure to address problems as soon as possible. Overall, no value to add.

[13:44] Kevin describes the tiers in detail and gives an example of how he utilized the four tiers: standard work, visual management, accountability meetings, and discipline.

[22:17] Accountability meeting: an opportunity to set a timeline, track metrics, and an opportunity to give or ask for help and resources. How often they occur depends on the actions and their frequency. Kevin stresses the importance of ensuring action will take place after goals are set during a meeting.

[25:23] Discipline—what are our roles as managers/leaders? If we set up our process correctly, we should run it correctly, and the metrics will come in. A second-level layered process audit helps manage a process by nipping an issue in the bud, whether it's an employee hesitant to do something due to lack of training or being overburdened.

[27:30] What does a tiered management structure look like? Kevin goes into detail about each tier and its designated role in problem-solving. Overall, the tier system ensures a standardized way of managing escalations and helps bring them down.