This document outlines the goals and principles of a continuous improvement event. It encourages participants to listen with an open mind, respect each other's ideas, and provide constructive feedback to help the team improve. The document explains that change is necessary to meet customers' evolving needs and remain successful. It defines value-added and non-value added processes, highlighting seven types of waste. The goal of continuous improvement is to continuously improve processes by understanding customer requirements and removing waste.

1. Welcome to a
Continuous
Improvement
Event!
The team looks forward to
your input on helping us get
better as we couldn’t do it
without you!

2. Ground Rules
 Don’t just hear, Listen to understand
 Regard each other as adults with significant life experiences
 Be non-judgmental; ask questions and hold each other
accountable
 Respect each other’s ideas, feelings, and experiences
 Take risks and allow for new thinking and behavior
 Provide constructive feedback/”feed forward”
 Speak with data and share freely within the group
 Keep comments focused on the topic
 Don’t make assumptions; check for disagreement
 Stay on task
 Have fun!

3. Change doesn’t come easy
 “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always
gotten.” - Tony Robbins
 “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose
sight of the shore.” - Andre Gide
 “The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can
do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
 “Fear, uncertainty and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.”
 “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept
not trying.” – Michael Jordan
 “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot
be changed without changing our thinking.”
― Albert Einstein

4. Why is change important?
 We live in a time where anyone can order
anything from anyone. So why choose
Red Wing Shoes?
 Quality (more consistent results?)
 Variety (more equals more variability)
 Value (more efficient = better cost)
 Reduction in Lead time (faster to the
customer)
We must continue to change to meet our
customer’s changing expectations to be
successful.

5. Will CI just go away already!
More companies are utilizing continuous
improvement than ever before, so climb on board
or get left behind!

6. Goal of Continuous Improvement
Continuously improve the process
Customer
Understand changing customer requirements
 Find exactly what each customer values…
...and will pay for
 Create a process to deliver it…
...and continuously improve the process

7. Value added vs. Non-value added
 Value added:
Any process that adds value to the product
that the customer is willing to pay for.
Example: Putting eyelets in a shoe.
 Non-value added (Waste):
Any process that doesn’t add value to the
product and that the customer will not pay
for.
Example: Moving the shoe across the plant
to put a sole on it.

8. Mission:
To remove the seven forms of
“non-value added waste”
Over
Production
Over Processing Inventory
Doing
Nothing!
Rework/Defects Waiting
Conveyance Motion

9. Overproduction
 Making more parts or information than is
required.
 Lean tool: Pacing material flow through
production to match customer demand
can help to minimize overproduction, and
is more cost-efficient in the long run.

10. Inventory
 Raw material, work in process (WIP), and
finished goods waiting to be processed.
 Lean tool: Excess or just-in-case inventory
can result in lost money and resources
caused by storage. Aiming for just-in-time
inventory reduces downtime associated
with inventory problems.

11. Waiting
 Time
spent waiting on something, or
someone, to complete a task.
 Leantool: Design processes so that flow is
continuous, and there are minimal (or no)
buffers between steps in production.

12. Motion
 Any unnecessary movement of
people/material that does not add value to
the product or service.
 Lean tool: Ensure that work areas are logically
organized, e.g., rather than having a worker
walk 20 feet to pick up spare parts every half-
hour, minimize the distance to 5 feet to
significantly reduce excess motion.

13. Conveyance
 Unnecessarymovement to get goods
from one process to the next.
 Lean tool: The transportation of goods or
material can be risky. Damages or delays
incurred while goods are in transit uses up
resources. Effective planning can ensure
that excess wastes in terms of moving do
not occur.

14. Rework/Defects
 Time spent repairing or reworking material or
information.
 Lean tool: The cost of fixing defects or
mistakes is often cheaper the sooner they are
found. For example, mistakes found at raw-
materials inspection may cost only $10 to
isolate and fix, whereas fixing a product at the
work-in-progress stage may cost hundreds of
dollars.

15. Over Processing
 Using more energy or activity than is needed
to produce a product and that the customer
won’t pay for.
 Lean tool: Look for potential simplifications to
the manufacturing process, e.g., instead of
completing 100-percent inspections on parts
that never fail, reduce the number of parts
inspected to greatly reduce processing time.

16. The worst waste of all…
Doing Nothing!
By doing nothing we are allowing wasteful activities to
continue to not allow us to reach our full potential as a
workforce/company.

17. CI requires a culture change
 Where people are free to make and
admit mistakes
 Where people work together cross-
functionally
 Where people focus on processes to
make improvements
 Where improvement is the way work is
done, not just an event

18. Immediate Opportunities
• Find out what your internal customers
require and provide it
• Identify and eliminate waste in current
work process
• Organize the workplace
• Review core work for consistent
standardization
• Start with yourself and influence others
Remember, Continuous Improvement is
a journey that truly is never finished so
keep pushing to get better everyday!