by Lee Fried, on 06 Jul 2006 08:02 am
The Journey
Does Activity = Progress?
I have been monitoring the web with interest lately to follow the story of healthcare organizations across the country that have discovered Kaizen and are running RPIWs at a feverous pace. I would recommend for organizations that are just getting started: “be careful not to mistake activity for progress” and be sure that the event itself does not become mistaken for the outcome you are trying to achieve. Kaizen is a powerful tool, especially in a professional service organization where time is so valuable. I have often witnessed consultants as well as myself get caught up in this excitement of the event leading to loss of the vision we are trying to achieve. The number of RPIWs an organization is running should not be primary metric that an organization is focused on achieving. In fact, I believe that to many RPIWs can have a negative effect leading to collective burnout and potentially loss of traction in a LEAN journey. RPIWs consume a tremendous amount of time and resources thus LEAN consultants need to be good stewards of their use. If a proper support infrastructure and planning process is not in place to bring purpose and organization around these events the results will fall well short of expectations.
So my advice is to continue to teach and demonstrate LEAN principles in everything you do, but use the tools wisely. Have others had similar experiences?
on 06 Jul 2006 at 8:21 am 1.Mark Graban said …
You’re absolutely correct that activity does not equal progress. I’ve seen (back in the factory world) many kaizen events that were selected because they were easy or could be completed in a week rather than being problems that really impacted the customer, the employees, or the finances of the organization. I’ve seen kaizen activities get very bureaucratic, focusing on the administration of kaizens, rather than focusing on lean. Some problems are truely complex (such as a laboratory layout) and can’t be solved in just one week. A kaizen event often times sets up an artificial time limit and you end up cutting corners to “get done” rather than getting it done right.
You also have to make sure that kaizen events are done with good solid lean principles in mind. If the kaizen “solutions” include more batching, for example, that’s headed in the completely wrong direction. You have to engage people, but if their ideas run counter to lean, as the consultant you have to teach them the lean principles and steer them in that direction.
Some in the auto industry thought you could “kaizen your way to lean.” Not so. Kaizen is just one tool in the lean world. Once you kaizen bliz an area, how do you keep continuously improving (true kaizen)? How do you manage things and manage people in a true lean/TPS manner? Kaizen events won’t teach managers how to manage lean and to develop their people on a daily basis.