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Vol 30 - No 04 June 2004 Branch news: West and East Midlands Making Lean Happen: An enthusiastic band of members and guests attended the Making Lean Happen workshop which was held at the Institute’s offices in Coventry on 20 April. This event was continuing the lean theme of previous events at the Midlands branches. The event was co-hosted by Wendy Garner of Coventry University and Ralph Woodhead from Open Logistics. Wendy introduced the workshop, and how it links to the Value Stream Mapping presentation held a few months earlier. The evening was very participatory as the attendees were divided into four teams, who each set up table top factories in the Institute’s main training room. Before commencing this industrial activity, all attendees introduced themselves and were invited to declare their expertise in lean. Various people then had to swap places in order to make sure that the teams were balanced. The full simulation, as normally operated through the KanDo Lean process, requires 5 cycles, but this length was not appropriate for an evening, without introducing too much night time working! The 2 cycles selected were initial chaos and pull theory. The teams had a workbook to read, with diagrams showing the 12 designs of products (trolleys) that the customer might require. Although all of similar design, there were many minor variations in each product. Each team was equipped with a supply of parts, some of which were not required (but were there to add confusion). For the first round, the customer called out numbers at single minute intervals and each factory had to deliver an order for that product within 60 seconds. It was soon obvious why this round was called the chaos round! Earlier deliveries to the customer also had to be recycled to generate a further supply of component parts, and maybe add to the confusion. The next round was preceded by a brief review and a study of learning points. Some Kanbans and Lean techniques were applied to this round, where the teams were required to deliver a similar set of products, but this time at an increased frequency of one per 45 seconds. The results from the second round were much improved over the first round, with more successful, correct on time deliveries to the customer. We then had a tour of each of the factories (4 factory visits in one evening!) in order to explore the learning points. Key issues from the second round were that it was always more productive, with the customer being much more delighted, but interestingly it was also much calmer. The teamwork from the groups, many of whom had never met each other before the event, also contributed to this success. The attendance, and the interest shown throughout the workshop and in the discussions afterwards, demonstrated the enthusiasm for meetings of this nature. I would encourage all to support such events. Thanks again to Wendy and Ralph for the evening. Steve Jewsbury, MIOM Related Topics:
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