Five Frogs March 5, 2008
Posted by Lawrence Loucka in : Consulting, Reviews, Supply Chain , add a comment
Five Frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to hop off. How many frogs are left?*
It doesn’t take much for good intentions to end up in disaster. It’s been my recent fate to be involved in two failed mergers, one a postmortem, the next a trainwreck-in-progress. Integrating distribution, logistics, information, management and financial systems; oh, and the people is a tough tough thing. The deal makers fall in love with the potential synergies and then all too often with out a plan or a process hope that magic will happen once the deal is done.
"Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO’s Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Gut Wrenching Change” by Mark Feldman and Michael Spratt is a great guide, and not just for mergers and CEO’s but for any organizational change event and those who are caught up in the maelstrom of clashing cultures. A little light on methodology, this book will let you know what to expect from the merger/acquisition, encourage focusing on execution, the importance of communicating even when in the fog, it’s a virtual project plan for you and your leadership team.
Read it! Hopefully before, not after the chaos starts.
*Five. Because there’s a difference between deciding and doing. "Execution," the authors tell us, "is always more difficult than it seems."
Refine, Simplify, and Strengthen January 10, 2008
Posted by Lawrence Loucka in : Lean , add a comment
Why is it that most lean and six sigma transformations are so complicated? All too often organizational transformations are loaded with tons of non value-added waste: status reports and senior management presentations that serve little or no purpose, training provided on tools that can’t or won’t be applied, unsustained and unsustainable changes made, flying people around the country or world, waiting for the right time or resources, long lists of assignments, window dressing. Applying seven wastes thinking to lean might make transformations a little easier.
Resource + Creativity + Freedom and a Process = Lean Sigma Success
oops! January 2, 2008
Posted by Lawrence Loucka in : Supply Chain , add a comment
Fixed Repeating Schedule December 27, 2007
Posted by Lawrence Loucka in : Definitions, Lean , add a comment
Fixed Repeating Schedule (FRS) also known as Every product Every Interval (EPE) is a production schedule which is ‘unchanging’ and repeated perhaps daily or over a period of a few weeks or months before being reset. If it can be implemented then economies of repetition start to become evident and suppliers and customers can be assured in their own activity scheduling. What impedes FRS implementation is the uncertainty of demand and supply. Therefore while the scheduling becomes simpler; the activities necessary to make the FRS possible become more complex. Thus the planning to move to FRS raises issues which if managed correctly will reduce complexity overall and improve customer service.
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Map the process and determine feasibility by evaluating demand linearity
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Select work group, line, or cell and determine available time, cycle time, change over time
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Calculate the Product Family Turnover Rate (PFTR) or otherwise known as the EPE Interval
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Use the PFTR to determine production run sizes for each product
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Determine input and output buffer sizes
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Simulate either with desktop role modeling, spreadsheet, or simulation software
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Establish Kanban controls
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Setup the Heijunka
Checklist December 21, 2007
Posted by Lawrence Loucka in : Lean, Quality, Reviews , add a comment
Check out Annals of Medicine: The Checklist by Atul Gawande in the Dec. 10. 2007 edition of The New Yorker for an insightful exploration of the medical application of one of the most basic of quality tools - the checklist. I was astounded to learn that checklists aren’t a common practice in one of the most complex industries, the emergency room. Setting up a machine, preparing for an audit, readiness reviews, planning a kaizen all have routine lists. Flying a plane, launching a rocket, preparing for battle all have checklists. Gawande describes how in 2001 Peter Pronovost, a critical-care specialist at Johns Hopkins, developed a simple five step checklist for inserting central line IV’s that dramatically reduced the odds of line infections, and the resistance he faced in implementing something so simple and yet so effective.