To start continuous improvement choose KPI's or workplace organization | First steps in Lean journey

[@Sriganesha_2023]

Great my friend

[@TomMentink]

Thanks for sharing that - I'm happy to hear that you're getting value from my content

[@dstultiens85]

Hi Tom, Great video again. And thank you for fulfilling the request :-) . Great work!

[@TomMentink]

My pleasure

[@zhechenghu3104]

Tom, great video. I really appreciate you shared your expierence, not only the knowledge, about how to start the CI in an organization. I just took some CI trainings and have many concepts and ideas mixed in my mind. However, when I sit down in front of my desk I didn't know how to start. Your video helps alot. I really want to see following videos like after these two, the second step could be ... the third step might be ..., you know, just like to see a whole story. BTW, I kind of understand CI, LEAN, Kaizen, they are all talking about improvements. What would be a good way to explain the difference and relationship between these concepts?

[@TomMentink]

Thank you so much for sharing those kind words, I'm happy to hear that my videos add value for you. The second and third step of your continuous improvement journey is really not the same for every organisation, so I can't give you a simple answer to that. You'll need to look at your organisation's goals and priorities and analyse what's keeping you back - then you start working on those areas that will help you move forward. The difference and relationship between CI, Lean and Kaizen is a bit much to explain in a post - I guess it should become a future video 😎 - I can say that CI and Kaizen are basically the same, just some people take a very narrow definition of Kaizen (using the term to cover only a specific way of leading improvement efforts).

[@semihimben]

Hi Tom, thanks for nice summary. I have a question about the results and benefit. What could we expect after succesful implementation of AM? Could we say for example: 25% OEE improvement is possible? How was the result in your case?

[@TomMentink]

That would really depend on the original situation - 25% OEE gain is very big, so in practice such numbers will only come from AM if the original OEE is under 50% and much of the lost time comes from unplanned stops and low speeds. I've seen some lines really blossom after even a small (but intensive) start of AM dealt with a bunch of problems the machine incurred from lack of proper maintenance and attention to the operating standards. In general, I would put expectations at around 25-50% of the current time lost to unplanned stops. That gives a pretty good first estimate of the OEE benefit. Also don't forget that proper 5S and AM have many more benefits than pure OEE numbers - the reliability of the line goes up, but also the reliability for quality, employee happiness and efficiency, detection and prevention of problems.

[@aramotselaw3794]

thank you, this was very helpful!

[@TomMentink]

Glad to see you liked the video and got value from it. Thanks for sharing that. If it raised any questions, or you just have a future video request, don’t hesitate to share that too 😉

[@aramotselaw3794]

@@TomMentink yes sir, thank you! I appreciate you!

[@alexeykotov6650]

Hi Tom, great video again! I have a question to you. First of all you speak about establishing KPIs and track them for some time to understand what the normal is. But, unfortunately, when you launch CI / enter new company you see there is already some KPI system in place. And most of the times - calculation of KPI is not correct. So during the first weeks you understand e.g. OEE is really about 70% but the company for several years reported 95%. If you say in one time that the calculation is wrong you are going to be eaten by your management as "it can't be true, we work for X years and always had 95%!!!". So what the way will you propose to handle such issue (maybe it's topic for another video)?

[@TomMentink]

Thanks Alexey, great question! First of all, make sure that everything is measured, but if it is a politically sensitive topic, probably don’t change used categories and NPC - this way the reported OEE will likely stay relatively high. Hopefully you’ll see one of two things (these are the simpler ones to later change, so try to push the errors you see into these categories): 1. Lot’s of non-production downtime (like maintenance and/or cleaning) is not registered at all - start registering it, but push it into a category that you won’t take into OEE for now. It’s not uncommon for companies to not count ‘overcapacity’ or ‘factory closed’ into the divider for ‘OEE’ (i.e. their ‘OEE’ is effective time / used time, in stead of / 24h) - when you’ve got some more management trust, that’s when you can raise the topic of “those hours on top of OEE.” 2. Negative speed loss (speed gains): this happens when you faithfully register all breakdowns and start to measure and register short stops - the number of products produced in the remaining time are higher than the NPC (Name Plate Capacity), which you’ll ‘fix’ in the calculations by putting the difference into a speed losses category (normally this registers that the line speed has been put lower than the maximum, for instance to have ‘better flow’, but in your case you’ll see that the actual line speed is higher than the assumed maximum). At first, just let this happen, then when you have enough management trust, raise this topic about 2 months before the budgeting cycle and propose that in next year’s budgets and targets, a proper NPC/max speed is used. PS, if you’ve got strong (higher) management backing and reported OEE’s won’t have much impact on people’s bonuses, resetting the system and doing it right from the start of your CI relaunch might be he preferred option. Just know that above advice works well in practice, as long as higher management or central CI support is aware of what you’re doing. It is a wonderful topic for a next video, you’ll probably see it coming by shortly 😉

[@VinDe1216]

@@TomMentink nice reply. Please post the new video link here itself, (related to this REPLY). Thanks for your knowledge enriching video contents.

[@TomMentink]

Hi @@VinDe1216, this is that video I referred to: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sILVfJysoLCcrtk

[@imremolnar3606]

Hi Tom. What would you do if there is a person who is in charge for 5S but does not go down to the shopfloor regularly to check it and make 5S audits or any improvement? He always argues that 5S is for us and we are not for 5S. We got some NC due to the improper 5S during the last 3 customer audit. I am responsible for the QE and We have the same leader with the 5S & Lean Engineer. The corrective actions has to be done, but with the other guy mindset I am afraid it will be my responsibility also and I do not wan to. So that is why I am asking this if you can give suggestion(s) to me. Many thanks, Imre

[@TomMentink]

Hi Imre, it seems like you’re in a pickle, because it’s virtually impossible to force someone to improve (let alone continuously improve) against their will. Now, generally I recommend taking a good look at the 4 puzzle pieces of change: systems/resources, skills, understanding and example/leadership (kzbin.info/www/bejne/qF7PlYSlr6unhpI). And this is still a good framework to use for checking what to give attention to in order to successfully implement 5S on the shop floor, and for this manager too. With this manager, however, there is a second problem - as managers, you would expect them to support change (be that example) and arrange resources (also for themselves when needed). Very often, the problem lies with not wanting a change, not wanting to spend the trouble of supporting 5S. The one thing you shouldn’t do is take up the responsibility for 5S from a Lean or Quality department - that does two things: it releases that manager from their responsibility (in their mind at least) and when you design the system, it’s not theirs, which reduces chances of acceptance and may very well lead to impractical solutions for the people using it. A good practice, that helped me several times, is to make sure these line managers feel the problems of not having 5S - make sure their managers are demanding it from them, other departments do have it and make them look bad, share those audit NC’s for lack of order, enforce quality assurance rules that force them to either remove all metal tools from the direct workplace or count them daily as long as there’s no clear visual management system to check that no tools are missing (if appropriate in your industry), in short: make hat line manager feel ‘the pain’ of not having a way to organize their workplaces. Then when they have a problem, you have a solution to propose - totally different situation, usually with totally different behavior from the line manager. Not an easy solution - it takes time and discipline from your side and may lead to some short term crises on the topics currently closest to your heart (audits, hygiene levels,…). By the way, if your shop floor colleagues are implementing 5S enthusiastically and with pride (the problem is only their manager), the situation might not be so bad in practice. In this case, supporting (not leading) those autonomous teams is probably a good idea. Just make sure to clearly report difference in support and auditing across departments and hope that one manager sticks out by underperforming. In any case, don’t solve their problem before they perceive it as their problem 😉

[@venanciaibrahim5966]

Hi Tom, on top of your advise provided here,..don't you see that a CI specialist will find themselves over occupied by responsibilities which will turn them to fail somewhere, especially when they meet unsupportive team and managers ?

[@Kristoff348]

I notice major issues, I have encountered is the MACHINES! They are just not dependable any longer even with routine maintenance. They are 50 years old so we resort to a new target, what can we expect from these MACHINES. Results in accepting the fact we cant meet our expectations without new machines and parts. Thats a terrible mindset but in some cases its just how its is? I mean we cant expect a Cadillac with 250k miles to run like a Lexus with 20k.

[@TomMentink]

Well of course, if a machine is just way past its economic life, replace it. Continuous Improvement is not the superdrug that will keep every single bit of steel operating into eternity. Be careful with this assessment though, I've also been in plenty of factories where the machines are old and totally unreliable, but they were that way due to lack of proper maintenance for many years - I've seen many of those machines get back into great shape after some serious love and tender attention from the maintenance team. It'll cost a couple of replacement parts, a lot of cleaning and some re-tuning, but many machines can get back in shape. Some machines will not make this cut and it's a waste of time to try and get them back into shape. It's just my experience that maintenance engineers and project managers are often a bit too quick to make this call (financial managers often too slow 🤭), and it's helpful to at least challenge this quick but expensive solution of just buying a new line. Repair will not improve much on their original technology, some machines have much more efficient newer technological versions doing the same job much quicker and/or cheaper - capital expenditure is absolutely needed too.

[@Kristoff348]

@@TomMentink Ahmen Tom, Thanks for the breakdown! I try to find every angle I can to squeeze as much juice out of the lemon I can 😂. New is not always better though in some cases. 😎. Thanks alot Tom for your thoughts on this matter, it can be frustrating though.