1. Heather Hughes, CMC
Victoria BC
heatherconsults@shaw.ca

2.  How can it help my
organization?
 What do I need to do to
meet with success?
 Who should steer the
process?
 What is the process
anyway?
 Is there one way or is it
adaptable?

3.  Revolutionary
 Complicated
 Difficult
 Expensive
 Painful

4.  A way to reduce waste
AND it is also a way to
 Unleash Innovation
 Improve Employee Engagement
 Reduce Stress and Absenteeism
 Save on Training Costs
 Enhance Customer Loyalty
 Expand into New Markets or Add Products

5. Three Aspects of the Improvement Process
Breakthrough Achieving customer
requirements by Innovation
changes in
entirely new means
performance
through the
application of Improvement
Utilising current
lean principles resources with
minimum waste
Standardisation
Step by step
incremental Consistently applying
change known best practice
• PG550GL08
8
5

6. Quality Processes Yield Quality Results
Kaizen® = People using Process to get Results
Desired
People
Results
Consistent Process
Traditional = People doing whatever they can to get results
R1
R2
Inconsistent
People
R3 Results
R4
Inconsistent Process
“I don’t care how you do it, just get it done!”

7. The idea of ‘Kanban’ and the ‘Pull System’ was developed by Toyota
Machine Shop Manager, later Managing Director, Taiichi Ohno.
In the early 1950’s, Ohno’s machine shop was continually having problems
with shortages of parts. This prevented his team from keeping pace with car
production, so he began to look for an answer.

8.  Ohno visited the US
in 1953. During his
stay, he went to a
Supermarket.
 He saw products
available on the
shelves, for
customers to buy
as they needed
them.
 Could this be done
for machine parts?

9. The Story of ‘Kanban’
• Ohno made ‘Supermarket’ shelves for parts boxes in the
machine shop.
• He attached a card to each box
• Operators would the take any of the parts they needed.
• As they used a box, its card was sent to the work station to call
another.
• These cards were called ‘Kanban’ (meaning ‘signboard’) cards.
Appendix KT1 - Kanban Systems
Training

10. Request Review Check
product order Inventory
Receive Source
Place order
goods Product
Ship to
customer

11. Waiting for:
◦ people to complete a step in a project
◦ Approvals to proceed
◦ Reports to be read
◦ Budgets to be allocated
◦ Supplies to arrive
◦ Staff to come back from breaks
◦ Computers to spit out something
This waiting is unproductive time and a
HUGE cost = WASTE

12.  too many steps to complete something
 too many people connected to a task
 too many levels of approval
 too many signatures on papers
 too many places where goods are stored
 too many steps to get the things you need
 Talking of too…

13. Their insatiable curiosity is fantastic, especially
there ability it ask…
WHY? WHY? WHY?

14.  Challenges every step, each action, each
process and causes deeper, more creative
thinking

15. sales
shipping
finance

17.  Read the case
 Identify the waste
 Actions, people, waiting
 Decide what to cut without
damaging results
 What benefits are there
for the customer?
 What impact could the
changes have for the
employees?

18. Far too often people
make it overly complex
- then the LEAN project
itself could benefit from
a LEAN consultant!

20. The benefits from
the employee’s and
customer’s point of
view
They want to
know…
How will this help
me?
Why should I get
involved?

22. LEAN Thinking is Different
“old” way of thinking “new” way of thinking
We need to ask the Customer
what they want.
This is translated into
Quality
Cost
We Know what the customer wants, Delivery
We have Made it. We need to detect trends before
Someone Must buy it our competitors.

23. DO NOT exceed
the maximum
speed limit
STANDARD WORK
VISUAL STANDARD
MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT

27.  Probably – usually does
 May encounter resistance
 Challenges current practices
 It’s an opportunity to explore alternatives
 Sometimes seen as a threat
 Frees employees from low value procedures
 Saves $$$
 Questions?