One Point Lesson - OPL

At recent moment, I found a term for OPL for TPM which I am not so familiar. Therefore, I dig out some information and summarized as below to keep a reference, share with my readers.

What is OPL?

OPL is the short term of One Point Lesson. A TPM one point lesson is just one of the many tools that can be used to improve knowledge and understanding of the condition and performance of an asset on a day-to-day basis. The approach engages the front-line operations and technicians and encourages them to get involved in the continuous improvement of the asset. By simply passing on good ideas, maintenance interventions can be optimised to ensure there maximum impact on either the performance or condition of the assets. The benefits for implement OPL for workshop are summarized as below,

* Communicates knowledge and skill about the asset amongst members of the team.
* Raises the knowledge and skills of the team in a very short period of time.
* Is used for eliminating problems and for making improvements to the way of working.
* Makes sure that everyone knows about a better way of doing something.
* Makes sure that next time a problem is encountered everyone knows the way to solve it.

Here is the flow of running OPL,

1. One member of the team prepares a sheet, which describes the problem and solution in simple language. It is often illustrated with pictures if possible.
2. The team discuss the 1-point lesson, formally or informally, and incorporate any ideas.
3. The 1-point lesson is approved by the line management to ensure it is appropriate and safe.
4. The 1-point lesson is then published and read by all members of all shift teams.
Individuals are then asked to sign to acknowledge that they have read the 1-point lesson.

OPL should contain the elements,

1. Workshop location (plant, floor, line #)
2. A simply description of the purpose of this OPL
3. Use photographs or diagrams to show before and after sections
4. Who prepared the document? Who approved the document?

Below are the critical points for successfully implement OPL,

* Treat only one piece of knowledge at a time. The TPM approach is about small incremental steps to continuous improvement.
* Use simple clear language. The objects can be clear learned in 5 -10mins.
* Illustrate the idea with pictures or drawings closing to the place which it is applying.
* Make the 1-point lesson available to everyone who need to work on that process.
* Recognise and reward those who share their knowledge.

Gresham's law for organization

I want to write this post for a long time ago, finally, I started it tonight.

Gresham's law is named after Sir Thomas Gresham who was an English financier in Tudor times. It is commonly stated as "Bad money drives out good.", says that any circulating currency consisting of both "good" and "bad" money (both forms required to be accepted at equal value under legal tender law) quickly becomes dominated by the "bad" money. This is because people spending money will hand over the "bad" coins rather than the "good" ones, keeping the "good" ones for themselves.

The principles of Gresham's Law can sometimes be applied to different fields of study. Gresham's Law generally speaks to any circumstance in which the "true" value of something is markedly different from the value people must accept, due to factors such as lack of information or governmental decree.

The most famous instant to explain the law by the market for second hand cars, lemon automobiles (analogous to bad currency) will drive out the good cars. The problem is one of asymmetry of information. Sellers have a strong financial incentive to pass all cars off as "good" cars, especially lemons. This makes it chancy to buy a good car at a fair price, as the buyer risks overpaying for a lemon. The result is that buyers will only pay the fair price of a lemon, so at least they won't be ripped off. High quality cars tend to be pushed out of the market, because there is no good way to establish that they really are worth more. The Market for Lemons is a work that examines this problem in more detail.

I need to highlight that the critical element for Gresham's law is "asymmetry of information". Let us change the scenario to our organization, think about if the senior management team only look at the financial data and report for the operation. They do not know how the team working on the process in order to achieve the goal, but they only listen to somebody they think can be trusted. The element of "asymmetry of information" would be effective and we can find the "bad GUY drives out good!" Some bad guys from the organization did nothing for contribution but play the political game all the day. The senior management did not know who get the job done. Afterward, many people joined the bad guys team and force all the good guys out of the organization. In other words, the good guys are always not willing to work with the bad. They will quit the team by their owned willing.

In our kaizen activities, we also needed to study and avoid the same issue. As a lean leader, they are needed to join the kaizen activities to understand who is the member really gave their effort to improve the situation. They are also needed to identify who are the guys only sitting in the team but gave no idea and suggestion. The management team need to identify it perfectly and give the right award to right people, otherwise, the kaizen would be stopped by wrong motivation because of asymmetry of information. This is part of the lean culture and Gresham's law is effective here too.

Lean VS Six Sigma 2

This post is used to further explain about the relationship between lean manufacturing and six sigma, refer to the article Lean VS Six Sigma 1.

In my last post about lean and six sigma, Lean manufacturing is more suitable to use for solving perspicuously problem. If the process is defined as labor intensive, we can identify the problem, or wastes according to the 7 wastes concept. disassemble the actions for the work station, we can easily to identify which is value-added actions and which is non-value-added. Sometime, we need to use a stop watch to measure the process time. We can also easily to adjust and balance the process by a bar chart and no need to use the statistic tools or quantitative analysis for improvement activities. In simply say, if we can identify the problem by observation or simple measurement, lean manufacturing concept can help us to solve the problem and speed up the improvement progress.

For Six sigma, it would be more suitable to use for solving recessive problem. You can not identify the problem directly and you have to dig out the issue and reduce the variances of process by a serious of statistical analysis. For instant, a process, which is highly automatic, is needed to use six sigma for improvement. We can not identify the problem by observation because there is no operator working in the station. The machine or process is all covered by a metal shell. All the hidden problem can not be found by our bare eyes. At this moment, we need to measure all the detail, such as temperature, current, pressure, speed, and the parameters of the machine or production line, so that we can use the quantitative analysis method in six sigma to identify the issues and make the suggestion to adjust the parameter accordingly.

Is that any conflict between lean and six sigma? Absolutely not, in opposite way, they can support each other. Let us review the process for our working place, the process is always combined with automatic process and manual process. Do you agree? The most important thing is which tools is suitable for our target process. Sometime, we need lean to speed up the kaizen process, but sometime we need the six sigma to dig out the hidden problem. Therefore, we always call the continuous improvement activities as Lean sigma activities. Those tools can be combine together organically, the critical point is the kaizen leader has enough experience for both tools or not.

If you have different ideas, please give a comment for this post, thanks!

Traditional manufacturing VS Lean manufacturing

The traditional manufacturing flow is driven by push, you can think about the flow in the Henry Ford's time in producing Model T. The lean manufacturing is driven by pull concept. The table shows the differences of many elements between traditional manufacturing and lean manufacturing.

Lean VS Six Sigma 1

Sometime, I was asked by somebody that which continuous improvement concept is suitable for their company? Lean manufacturing? or six sigma? I was wondered they have no idea for the differences between lean and six sigma. Here is a comparison table between lean and six sigma for your reference and hope it can help you to identify the strength and weakness of the tools.

By the way, I give you one more condition to explain which is suitable for you as below,

Lean: suitable to use for solving perspicuously problem, that's meant you no need to make a complicated calculation and mathematical analysis to identify the problem. You can point out every problem and mistake just according to the concept.

Six sigma: suitable to use for solving recessive problem. You can not identify the problem directly and you have to dig out the issue by a serious of statistical analysis.

Let me know if you have more additional details, thanks!

Terms of lean manufacturing

andon - a system of flashing lights used to indicate production status in one or more work centers; the number of lights and their possible colors can vary, even by work center within a plant; however, the traditional colors and their meanings are:
green - no problems

yellow - situation requires attention

red - production stopped; attention urgently needed

baka-yoke – In the past, Japanese called the mistake-proofing as baka-yoke, it meant fool-proofing. Baka is meaning foolish, however, somebody felt the term is not respect to people and changed it to poka-yoke.

heijunka - A production scheduling/leveling tool, essentially to distribute kanban cards in an efficient manner.

jidoka - a Japanese word which translates as autonomation; a form of automation in which machinery automatically inspects each item after producing it, ceasing production and notifying humans if a defect is detected; Toyota expands the meaning of jidoka to include the responsibility of all workers to function similarly, i.e. to check every item produced and to make no more if a defect is detected, until the cause of the defect has been identified and corrected.
jishu kanri - self-management, or voluntary participation.

jutsu - to talk, or ‘the art of’ (i.e., 'leanjutsu: the art of lean production').

kaikaku - A rapid and radical change process, sometimes used as a precursor to kaizen activities.

kaizen - the philosophy of continual improvement, that every process can and should be continually evaluated and improved in terms of time required, resources used, resultant quality, and other aspects relevant to the process.

kanban - a card or sheet used to authorize production or movement of an item.

karoshi - death from overwork.

mizusumashi - the classic 'water spider', who performs a wide range of tasks which allow workers to perform 'value-added' tasks.

mokeru - the Japanese term for the industrial engineering, more properly translated as ‘profit-making I.E.’.

muda (waste) - activities and results to be eliminated; within manufacturing, categories of waste, according to Shigeo Shingo.

mura - inconsistency

muri - unreasonable

nagara - smooth production flow, ideally one piece at a time, characterized by synchronization [balancing] of production processes and maximum utilization of available time, including overlapping of operations where practical.

ninjutsu - the art of invisibility (applies to management)

poka-yoke - a means of providing a visual or other signal as to the location or condition of a part characteristic. Often referred to as 'error-proofing', poke-yoke is actually the first step in truly error-proofing a system (see baka-yoke).

5S - refers to the five words seiri, seiton, seison, seiketsu, shitsuke. These words are shorthand expressions for principles of maintaining an effective, efficient workplace
seiri - eliminating everything not required for the work being performed
seiton - efficient placement and arrangement of equipment and material
seison - tidiness and cleanliness
seiketsu - ongoing, standardized, continually improving seiri, seiton, seison
shitsuke - discipline with leadership

seiban - Seiban is the name of a Japanese management practice taken from the Japanese words "sei", which means manufacturing, and "ban", which means number. A Seiban number is assigned to all parts, materials, and purchase orders associated with a particular customer job, or with a project, or anything else. This enables a manufacturer to track everything related with a particular product, project, or customer. It also facilitates setting aside inventory for specific projects or priorities. That makes it great for project and build-to-order manufacturing.

sensei - one who provides information; a teacher, instructor, or rabbi.

shojinka - continually optimizing the number of workers in a work center to meet the type and volume of demand imposed on the work center; shojinka requires workers trained in multiple disciplines; work center layout, such as U-shaped or circular, that supports a variable number of workers performing the tasks in the layout; the capability to vary the manufacturing process as appropriate to fit the demand profile.

teian - a proposal, proposition, or suggestion. A teian system can be likened to a system which allows and encourages workers to actively propose process and product improvements.

Case study 1

I am not always studing the kaizen cases for india, however, I got some information from internet to share with you. You can also check the link of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited.

Most of the hurdles on the lean path can be overcome through effective forecasting and planning, as it is done by “Mahindra & Mahindra”.(one of the largest player in the Indian automotive industry).

The Mahindra group follows a policy of non-retrenchment. Once upon a time, at Mahindra & Mahindra, Kandivali, 1134 employed produced 75 engines per day. After they went lean, they progressed to a production of 128 engines a day with 770 people. The rest of the employees were transferred to their Nasik plant. Today the plant at Kandivali has around 7800 workers in the automotive sector. Although the issue of the human resource may be delicate. The problem can be easily overcome, if handled with care and sensitivity.

Despite the difficulties associated with the implementation of ‘lean’, several companies have implemented it successfully and moved ahead. Mahindra & Mahindra selected the route of operational excellence to fight their competition. Regarding their success with the lean mode of operation, Mr. Rajan Narayan, (M & M’s Vice -President) says that they have achieved an improvement in the work culture, productivity and revenue at Mahindra & Mahindra solely due to the lean way.

Mahindra & Mahindra are not the only ones who have opted for the ‘lean’ method. Bajaj Auto Ltd., Pune, Lucas – TVS Ltd., Chennai and LML Ltd., Kanpur and are few of the companies that seem to the trading to the ‘lean’ route successfully.

Autonomation 2

時間：2003.11
地點：美國
標錯價事件：379美元個人數位助理(PDA)價格錯標為79美元，戴爾事後取消上百張訂單。
-----
時間：2005.8
地點：澳洲
標錯價事件：澳幣592元的硬碟錯標為澳幣8.8元，戴爾通知消費者付原價或取消訂單，不過當地消保機關認為戴爾應出貨給已用信用卡付款的消費者。
-----
時間：2006.3
地點：香港
標錯價事件：港幣4,199元20吋液晶螢幕，錯標為港幣2,187元，折扣達48％。最後戴爾提供12％折扣。
-----
時間：2008.2
地點：中國
標錯價事件：人民幣8,999元的27吋液晶螢幕，錯標為人民幣2,515元，最後在輿論壓力下以錯價出貨。
-----
時間：2008.6
地點：智利
標錯價事件：智利披索29萬8,997元的筆記型電腦，錯標為智利披索7萬7,739元，非正式統計約有1萬5,000台，戴爾事後提供未來購物15%折扣，未得消費者認同，引起訴訟。
-----
時間：2009.6
地點：台灣
標錯價事件：全網站商品折扣7,000元，19吋液晶螢幕出現一台500元。戴爾事後提供1,000元、3,000元折價券。
-----
時間：2009.7
地點：台灣
標錯價事件：6萬元筆記型電腦錯標為1萬8,000元，有近1萬5,000台訂單。戴爾事後提供2萬元的折價券。

I always explain to my colleagues and underlings that it is no way to prevent human mistake by human checking. We only can prevent the human error by a checking system. The the process is critical, the management needed to setup more checking point in order to prevent the serious loss of business. In the same words, we can explain the idea by lean concept, and the lean tools is autonomation, or you can say poka yoke.

The above the information was talking about the wrong pricing and order received by online sales of DELL. I have no idea for how much for financial loss actually happen for the business sales by those wrong pricing issues, it is very hard for us to evaluate and it is meaningless to calculate how much count how much money in the others pocket. But all of us know it would cause a lot of customer loss for those cases, and it was a serious loss in business opportunity. Yes, off cause it would make some new customer and they are waiting DELL to mark wrong pricing again... sorry, DELL can not get any profit for those special customer...

My question is why the company can not setup some poka yoke for the online sales system? I don't think it would be more difficult than the poka yoke in manufacturing process. In manufacturing process, may be we need some high-tech design for poka yoke function, sometime, it would be came out in some special mechanism, or laser sensor, or color sensor...but what can we do for the online sales pricing? Is that hard to do so?

At my point of view, we need to understand the market and your target customer. I think those customer should be personal usage for purchasing PC online. If so, they should only need one or two sets of product. If the online system received 100 sets of order, it should alert some customer service or coordinators to manual check. To solve the problem from the beginning, we also can set some constraints to the pricing input. For instant, the price of monitor should be around 1000 to 3000. If somebody input a price lower or higher than the range, the system must give a alert to higher level and request for approval. I don't think it is very difficult to make that happen, and I don't think that was more complicated than the poka yoke in producing some products. But for these six years of time, it seems to us that nobody think about that can help.

Ironically, DELL is a successful company for implement lean manufacturing concept (may be it is only well done in inventory control...). I can not understand why there were totally absent of lean implement in sales and marketing system. It made me so surprise when I saw the news.

Do you have any other ideas to help them?

Lean design 2

In continuous for last post for explaining lean design, here is more information for 3P which is the last stage of lean design process. The last stage is launch design and we always apply the lean tools of production preparation process (3P) to support the product launch to mass production.

The above drawing is the flow of the 3P and it included three steps, which are information phrase, creative phrase and redefine phrase. And the main objectives of the 3P are as below,

1. Design process with evaluate the alternative process choices,

2. Incorporate for mistake-proofing and just in time in process,

3. Build in the quality system in process,

4. Guarantee process capability, capacity and tact time,

5. Standardize the process.

Production preparation process event (3P event) is the improvement activity focus on the product development process. Mainly point to the preparation before pilot process. The focal points are material cost reduction, capacity evaluation, quality specification setting, and process flow and stations design and improvement. These are the topics included in the 3P event for your reference.

Day1:

- Team introduction,

- Lean principles training,

- Production preparation concept training.

Day 2:

- Goal and Scope definition,

- Product introduction,

- Review product development schedule,

- Tact time calculation,

- Components diagram and analysis,

- Review BOM and material cost,

- Review quality record of every process stations for both internal and external,

- FMEA setup and review with possible solution,

- Control plan setup and review

- Component reduction analysis and design fine tune.

Day 3:

- 7 proposals for main process station,

- Setup the assess specification and assess the 7 proposals,

- Simulate the best 3 proposals, observe the process and look for opportunities of improvement for process handling, fixture, mistake-proof, quick change over,...etc.

- 7 proposals for process flow and layout,

- Assess the 7 proposals for process flow,

- Select the best proposal,

- Fine tune the equipments.

Day 4:

- Finalize quality control plan,

- Fine tune the equipments,

- Pilot run evaluation, observe the material storage and process time.

- Documentation for tooling, fixture and process station design,

- Review FMEA, and possible solution,

- Final process at a glance,

- Fixture and equipment investment plan,

- Implement planning.

Day 5:

Team presentation for program result.

Hope you enjoy the information above, thanks!

Lean design 1

What is lean design?

First of all, customer demand or need driven all activities in the company. In lean concept, we are only producing the product needed by customer. In the same words, we design the product according to customer wants.

There are three steps of the lean design, listed as 1. concept design, 2. detail design, 3. launch design. The details of those steps will explain below,

1. Concept design;

Refer the Kano analysis, in the stage of concept design, the designer or engineer should well study the customer demand according to Kano analysis. They should design which are the valued-added features for their target customer. For instant, a mobile phone manufacturer is going to design a easy phone for old people. They have to well study what are the features for old people needed. Is that old people need commerial features such as the words and excel built in their phone? Is that they need many mini game built in as well? No, I don't think so. On the other hand, I think they need a screen can shown bigger word and number. I also think they need a bigger keypad so that they can easier to press on the right number. May be they also needed a radio function built in so that they can listen the radio when they go out for a walk. So on and so on..., all the features they need are value-added. The manufacturer is only can produce a suitable product for their target customer in a good cost, otherwise, the product will cost too high and nobody would like to buy your stuffs. The value-added analysis is the most important tools in this stage.

2. Details design;

In this stage, we need to apply platform design and modular design in our product development process. In the words by lean concept, we must apply the standardization in our product design. Let us think about the design in automotive, all the car can be said combined by different engine platform, suspension platform, and structure platform in order to form a high flexible product line. What is the problem if they produce the car with different engine and suspension in every model? It is no way to produce the car in a low cost because they have to setup a special product line for every model, they have spend much resource to handle the material and subassembly. The other benefit is the automotive manufacturer can shorten the product development time. The engineer can choose the suitable engine, suspension and interior to fit with a attractive shape. That's the way how the successful manufacturer works for their product development, and it is also a lean concept applied. On the other hand, modular design is another important element in detail design. There is commonly appling on PC, and we always called it as, plug and play. It is good in expand the features of the product and reduce much development time. no matter is the platform design or modular design, they can be concluded as the standardization of lean concept.

3. Launch design;

For this stage, I will expand in next post. Thank you very much!

Visual Management - color indication

I have so many readers out of Hong Kong, but I believed that many of them travel to Hong Kong before. Do you know how many color used on the taxi in Hong Kong? The answer is "3".

Red color taxi are running in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

Green color taxi are running in New Territory.

Blue color taxi are running in Lantau Island.

Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is the urban district in Hong Kong, so the license and management fee of taxi is the highest. Offcause, the daily income and the rental charge of the red taxi driver is also highest. The green color taxi are running in New Territory and the density of client is lower than the red color taxi in urban district, at the same way, the license fee is also lower than red color taxi. Blue color taxi are only running in Lantau Island. The density of client is the lowest.

Many decade before, somebody in the colonial government felt there was trouble to seperate into three colors. They needed three sets of management rules and team to control. They suggested to combine all the color into red. Some councilors rejected the suggestion and gave their comment. Three colors of taxi is using to solve the problem of traffic jam. The highest population is in urban district, all the taxi from new territory will all move to Kowloon or Hong Kong Island to earn money. The citizen in New Terrritory may not take the taxi because it will be no taxi there, and the citizen in Urban District may not take the taxi too because all the traffic will jam. At that moment, there was no brigde connecting Lantau Island to urban district yet, but the truth is compatable too. The color indication is using to control the traffic flow.

In order to make the rule success, there is another important factor needed. Discipline, in Hong Kong, no matter the driver or citizen would call police to complain if they saw a green taxi running in urban district. Most of people has the sense of discipline, this is the most important element for the success. In the progress of kaizen, we are needed to focus on build up the lean culture as well. The culture would form the discipline and make the people to follow the change.

When we apply the tools of lean to our working environment, there are so many sample existed around of us for using. Sometime, use the actual sample in the real world to intruct the concept is more easier than list the samples from the text book, because those story is too far away from the people and they are hard to understand the matter they never saw. Therefore, keep watching the world and learn from it.

Sorry! I am back.

My friends and readers, I am sorry that the article was stop issued for a month because I need sometime to think and review for my future. From now on, I will resume the aritcle writing and keep share the thinking of lean with you.

At recent moment, I am setting a workshop for lean manufacturing concept in Hong Kong. Please email me if you want more information for that wongwowai@gmail.com

Thanks your your long term supporting and kindly care.

Think out of the box

This week, stop for writing post for lean concept. We are going to look at a architectural-model. As we saw before, most of the architectural model are built on a base and you can study the outlook of the building easily. However, you can not study the internal details from the model.

There was an exhibition on view at the Guggenheim Museum, the models of Wright’s designs are attracting as much attention as the exhibition itself. Perhaps the most notable model is that of Wright’s Herbert Jacobs House #1 of 1936-37, the first of the architect’s pioneering open-plan, energy-efficient Usonian houses. This and the exhibition’s five other models were designed and made by Situ Studio.

The model were made different, and all the details of the house were hanging in the air. They are all attracting your eyeballs out of the other projects. Think out of the box, you can make everything differently and amazing. A common matter can be shined from your brain if you think it and make it different. The most important thing is you needed to know what is your customer want to know and see.

Lean consumption

I read an article about re-layout of a famous supermarket. She made an inscrutable decision to put the diaper and beer together in the same area, the configuration was not appeared in other supermarket before. This is not a joke and it happened in US Wal-Mart. People thinks that it is non-sense to put them together, however, the sales of both beer and diaper was growing much with the combination existed in the supermarket.

The fact is wifes are always "order" their husbands to buy diaper after they left office. The husbands are rushing to the supermarket on the way they are going back home. They are tired by all day works in office and they just want to spend their shortest time in the supermarket. The husbands have no time to walk through the whole huge area to seek the goods they needed in detail. When they arrive the area stored for diaper, they always bring some beer they like. Therefore, the husband is willing to shopping in Wal-Mart again, because they can bring some gifts for themselves during shopping.

The article was ended here with the words "it is a amazing combination! Diaper and Beer.", however, I think it can be explained in lean concept! Here is some lean consumption concept from the book "Lean solution - James Womack" for your reference.

Principles of lean consumption; the customer only thinks the items are value-added as below,

1. Can solve my problem entirely;

2. Do not waste my time (cost of consumption included the price of goods added the time I spent and the trouble I got during consumption);

3. Prepared the goods or service what I wanted;

4. Prepared the goods or service where I wanted;

5. Prepared the goods or service when I wanted;

6. Reduce the options for me to choose.

Yes, your wife is only needed diaper and you needed beer, the storage combination is preparing exactly what / where / when your family wants. It solved your problem and absolutly not waste your time. That's why the combination was success in US Wal-Mart, however, you have to remember that it was always shopping by your wife in family of Hong Kong. That may not work in Asia too. However, the most simple element is, create the value in the flow. The flow is the path from the entry to exit in the shortest distance of the supermarket. The stuffs you will pick is the value-added action for both supermarket and you. That's only a simple concept in lean but it can explain the story better than the words "amazing combination.....!"

Joke of leadership

I read a funny story about the leadership, hope to share with my reader and think about what is going to tell us in this story.

There was a skipper sailing his merchantman on the sea for long distance trading. Suddenly, a corsair approached his merchantman and the pirates shouted the skipper to stop. I don't where is the location and it has not mentioned in the story. May be it was near Somali in many hundreds years before.

At that dangerous moment, the skipper asked his sailers to take a red shirt for him, he put on the red shirt and fighted with pirates bravely. Finally, the skipper led his sailers to repel the attack from pirate, saminlar story of American captain...but I don't know is that Philips wore a red shirt or not!

A moment later, the skipper sailed at the same sea area again. The pirates appeared again, this time, there were two corsairs approached and double numbers of pirates came to pillage the merchantman. The skipper did the same thing as last time, asked his sailers to take his red shirt. The skipper put on the red shirt and led to fighted with the pirate bravely. The miracle happened again, the pirates were repelled with full of anger.

One year later, the skipper sailed at the same sea area. However, the pirates were waiting there for the skipper for a long time with well preparation. This time, ten corsairs came to the merchantman and prepared for killing. The skipper asked his sailers to take something for him. It was a yellow trousers, not a red shirt! The sailers wondered that why take a yellow trousers instead of red shirt. They took the yellow trousers to the skipper and asked, "Captain...why not a red shirt this time?", the skipper said, "Red shirt was used to cover my blood, you guys can fight without fear for my wounds."

The story was end here, I believed that you knew why the skipper asked for a yellow trousers.

Let's think about it, if we are leading something, it is not good to let the team member knew you got a trouble. The trouble would come from hostility from other departments, the delay of schedule or you just complained from your boss. However, let your members know your "wounds" is totally not a good idea. The same stories are not less mentioned in Chinese history. Yes, the communication with your team is always important, but the most important of the leader is let the members to know only what they needed to know. The members are not needed the information which is affected their morale, and a good leader is needed to lead the team in avoiding the team attacked by fears. Moreover, you can not bring your fears to your team.

Think about you did good or not good when you faced the trouble!

A3 Management

A3 Management

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At recent moment, I always found the term of A3 management in lean. I have no idea what is that once I heard that term, so I was searching the related information for further study. Finally, I found something but it is not so special for me but only its "name".

The term “A3” refers to an international-size piece of paper, one that is approximately 11-by-17 inches. Toyota’s insight many years ago was that every issue an organization faces can and should be captured on a single sheet of paper. This enables everyone touching the issue to see through the same lens. While the basic thinking for an A3 follows a common logic, the precise format and wording are flexible, and most organizations tweak the design to fit their unique requirements. The A3 is like a resume that can be adapted in layout, style and emphasis according to the person seeking the job and the type of job being sought. Practitioners can adapt the format to fit the requirements of each situation.

Let us see what are the items should be included in A3 form,

1. Title: Names problem, theme or issue;

2. Owner/Date: Identifies who “owns” the problem or issue and the date of the latest revision;

3. Background: Establishes the business context and importance of the issue;

4. Current Conditions: Describes what is currently known about the problem or issue;

5. Goals/Targets: The desired outcome;

6. Analysis: Analyzes the situation and the underlying causes that have created the gap between the current situation and the desired outcome;

7. Proposed Countermeasures: Proposes some corrective actions or countermeasures to address the problem, close the gap or reach a goal;

8. Plan: Prescribes an action plan of who will do what and when they will do it, in order to reach the goal; and

9. Follow-up: Creates a review/learning process and anticipates remaining issues.

For myself, I found nothing special for that compared with our kaizen presentation or report. However, I still promoted the tools because it has the benefit for,

1. Easy to share, you can post the A3 form anywhere because it is not so big in size but included everything you need on it. For the normal kaizen report, people liked to make it as heavy as they can to show their effort spent on it. It is not lean!

2. Easy to keep record, one file holder can store hundred of the report and good for the people to review and update of it.
3. Clear stream of thinking in problem solving, it stated everything we need to consider in problem solving by sequences. We would not missed anything when we are going to improve the target.

Offcause, you can use A4 if you can write so small and the others can see clear what you wrote. On the other hand, you also can make it in A0 so that the others can read it like a map and feel sick in front of it. Altough, it is nothing special but it is a good way we should follow, because it is one kind of lean concept apply in documentation.

The difference between expert and technician

I read a story and motivated me to think about the structure of kaizen project, share with you as below,

There are two hotels located in a famous beauty sport and they made a same curved slope in front of the gate to let the car moving near for their guests. In winter, most of the time, snow falled on the slope and melted to be a thin ice coating on the slope. It was dangerous the guests to walk on the slope and their guest are always slipped on there.

One of the hotel organized a kaizen team with many authority in building, service and proprieties. After a few days of brain-storming, the team made a solution by a infra-red detection system for temperature. When the temperature falls to a stated range, the salt water will spray on the slope to melt the ice in avoiding the guest slipping. It was a high-tech solution and it worked, but the hotel spent many ten thousand of RMB for that facility.

There was another hotel in 5 km far from that, and she has the same problem. The boss of that hotel shouted to the lobby manager, "If I see the guests slipped on the slope, you will be fired in no time!" The manager found a technician to fix that problem, the technician started to use a chisel to cut many light delves on the slope. The outlook of th slope has bot been damaged but the delves prevented the people slipping on it. The problem was also fixed and the manager gave 30 RMB to the technician. The technician went home happily.

Think about your kaizen team, ask youself what kind of members your want? Experts or technicians? Therefore, I formed the kaizen team with a mixed function. In my experiance, the worker or operators always gave us a in-expensive but feasible solution.

A "addition" is always gaving you a waste, A "subtraction" solution is always gaving you a real solution. That's is the lean concept.

Learning organization

Information from Wikipedia - learning organization

Motivation of learning organization came from the pressure. The companies are facing two ways of pressure, from internal and external. External pressure came from the business environment change and the innovation of technology. Internal pressure came from the issues of internal operation system and management methodology. To create a competitive advantage, companies need to be able to learn faster than their competitors and also develop a customer responsive culture. On the other hand, they need to correct their internal issues and elminate the wastes in their process. For this post, I would like to discuss more about the learning organization to face internal pressure, and this kind of culture is also part of the lean manuafcturing culture.

In order to form a learning organization, for all employee should promote their self-reflection. This is the basic element of learning organization. Similar to the lean spirit, everything needs continuous improvement, and the attitude of self-relfection is the part of the mindset of continuous improvement. We can do better! Ask youself, "where is the room for further improvement?" If we think everything is alright, is the best, there is no motivation for improvement anyway.

In the organization, we need to execute the policy deployment to align the goal of everybody. The learning organization can only exists when most of the people have the same vision and same objective for working. With this sense, they can share their knowledge and experiance supported by some knowledge management system in IT. Otherwise, all the effort we spent on improvement is only a short term solution. The only way to solve the internal problem is well implement the standardization, and the standardization is also a part of learning organization because the others can learn and study how to solve the old problem from the document of standardization.

With the self-relfection attitude and common vision of grow, the company needs some tools to dig out and solve the issue. It is a very important tools in lean concept for problem solving, do you remember? Yes, the 5 whys analysis. At this moment, we got the preliminary solution from 5 whys analysis, we also need the Deming cycle to make sure the follow up the actions and fine tune the answer according to the situation until the problem is solved in long term. They are always using the A3 report to summarize all the information, the report will be used as the material for standardization and training material for the organization.

In lean concept, the learning organization is more focusing on learning from the mistakes. The knowledge and experiance is generated from the problem we solved before. The most important elements of learning organization is self-reflection, 5 whys analysis, Deming cycle and policy deployment. If we miss anyone of these, the learning organization can not be well implement.

Let me know if you find I missed something, and welcome for any comments. Thanks!

Pay by piece counting

Last week, I was pleasure to talk with a lean consultant in garment industry and learned so much from his experiance. One topic we discussed related the salary of operator counted by piece they made and I want to share some ideas from this post.

In 70's of Hong Kong, most of the manufacturing industries paid the workers by piece count. Especially, it was common in garment and light industry such as toys and plastic parts assmebly process. In that golden years of manufacturing industry of Hong Kong, this kind of salary scheme was an important factor of success.

In aimed at fully utilize of abandon labor and improve flexibility of capacity, at that period, there were many housewifes stayed in their home to take care of their children. The economics environment is not well growth of Hong Kong citizen, the housewifes needed to earn some money to support their family but they also needed to stay in home to take care of their children. Therefore, so many factories sent the material to the housewifes and let them to make the sub-assembly in their home, they were paid by piece counting because they are not doing the job in factory and hard to count the pay by hour. They only needed to use a common sartorius or some simple tools, they can start the production in their home in spare time but not affect their duty in family.

Excluding the transportation cost of material delivery to the housewifes, piece counting meant the pay of labor fixed. That also meant the total labor cost of the product was fixed, the factory only needed to quality control the sub-assembly and the management of delivery. In that many years, the labor cost of manufacturing was under a well control and the competance was improved.

But in the meanwhile, we always asked a question, "Is the piece counting pay conflict with lean maufacturing?"

As we known, lean manufacturing concept is using to reduce the wastes in process flow in order to reduce the cost. If we pay the operators in piece counting, we can not improve the labor cost by reduce the wastes because the labor cost is fixed. In lean concept, all the effort we spent on setup the continuous flow is aimed to dig out and elminated the wastes. From the activities of wastes elmination, the non-value-added labor cost will be reduced. But, if we pay in piece counting, the value-added and non-value-added cost is combined together and pay in a fixed amount. No matter how we improve the process, we can not improve the labor cost and only can improve the overall capacity.

On the other hand, we encourge the multi-skill operator in lean concept. Piece counting pay is also conflict with that destination. In human being, nobody is willing to change to other work-station which is not familiar because the salary we are paid refer to the quantity they made.

Offcause, what kind of payment schemen we used, we can improve amount the on-line material and semi-product by lean concept. we can also improve the overall respond time of the process, I meant the material staying on-line can be shorten by lean. There are so many items can be improved beside the labor cost, but can we have a best way to combine the idea of piece counting pay with lean concept?

In that discussion with the friends from garment industry, they are going to pay the operator by productivity. That's meant they pay the operators in group by the quantity of finsihed goods they made. It is no longer to pay by the piece they made in semi-product, the team has to find a way to complete the final product as fast as they can. I found that they have setup a continuous flow to replace the traditional mass production method, and I believed that it is most important factor in success of payment scheme changing. I am sure that the pay by productivity is only feasible if they have a well set process flow.

I have not much information how they handle for this in future but I realized everything is possible to improve only if the continuous flow was well set. Whatever you want to change, no matter it is a manufacturing process, material flow, or operation flow of company, the most important thing is setup a continuous flow. (I like to call it continuous flow rather than single piece flow.)

At last, I am sure that the implementation of above payment scheme under lean manufacturing environment would be a great step in garment industry, because it can solve a big historical problem in that industry. Good Luck!

In memory of my mother school

Taiwan National Chung Kung University. I had my wonderful time there.

"Reasonably training is forging, unreasonably training is grinding." was heard in my military training period in Taiwan. For 15 years, I can not forget that and it encourages me everyday when I went to deep end. I send this to all my good friends and hope it can help them to face the different troubles.

In mechanical theory,
Forging, is meaning to use heat treatment and forging to harden the metal. It makes the iron tough and hard.
Grinding, is meaning to use mechanical machining to grind the sharp edge of the metal. It makes the iron sharp.
Only volition (tough and hard) is not enough, we need braveness (sharp)!

Right or Wrong?

On last saturday night, I brought my sons to go to convenience store (7-eleven near my home) to buy soft drink. They were very thirsty after we came back from my mother's home after dinner. This is our habit between me and my sons. During the shoping at that night, that was interesting a story there.

It was a bustup between the counterjumper and customer! For a soft drink worth HK$5.0!

The story was that, as we know, there is a soft drink machine for the customer to fill the drink by themselves. After they paid in the counter, customer got a empty paper/plastic cup and they went to the machine to fill which they wanted. There was a customer there told the counterjumper she gave her a wrong paper cup (for softdrink A). She wanted a soft drink was using the plastic cup (for softdrink B). But the counterjumper mentioned that the customer called for soft drink A but the customer clearly mentioned again she wanted a soft drink B. The customer told the counterjumper may be she heard the calling wrongly. And then the counterjumper change a plastic cup to her but during the exchange of cup, the counterjumper made emphasis the customer was ordering softdrink A repeatly. I believed that the counerjumper talked to customer at least five times for this. And then the bustup was started, and they shouted loudly and there were at least five people stood in front of the door to watch what happened inside. At the same time, I got my paper cup and filled the softdrink with my sons, and left the scene! When my family was leaving there, the bustup was not stop yet, and the customer was calling to the shop owner for complain...

I felt it was very funny! HK$5 almost made the ladies to fight there.

I have some questions to myself,

No matter the customer made mistake for calling or not, she should respect the customer. Just exchange the cup for customer and said, "that's fine, I will change it for you!". Nothing will happen and the customer will satisfy the service perfectly, actually, the shop has no any lost for the incident. Why she repectly emphasis the customer made the mistake?

For the incident, although the handling way of the counterjumper was not good enough, but is that really need to complain to the owner of the shop? May be the counterjumper would lose her job for a cup of soft drink. Can she explain to the counterjumper the she has wrong way to handle the issue? What is the right way to service the customer?

Actually, what is the right way to face a mistake we made? I don't know, but if we think we never made any mistake, it was absolutly wrong. Sometimes, the absolutly correct is incorrect , do the right thing, not do the thing right!

7 wastes - motion

First of all, let me introduce the wastes in motion by some cases in assembly. It was a most common case we saw in assembly line, it is so common because it looked not a serious issue or waste in our mindset. However, if we make a calculation for the wastes we made by that way, the result will make us so surprise why we ignored the issue. Actually, everything we did in process can be calculated its performance or waste by a very simple analysis. The problem is we always think the way we did is common practices and lie to ourselves it is not a issue.

The first case, let's say the opreator needed to move one step to her left-hand-side to pick up the WIP for next process as shown in the figure above. The process takes 30 seconds to complete. The first question is how long for one step we move? In order to have a simple calculation, I says one step is around 50cm. Also, I given the operator is working 8 hours per shift, therefore, the calculation is 8 hrs X 60 mins X 60 seconds / 30 seconds X 50cm = 48000cm or 480m. The next question is that 480m is value-added for the production? If not, the third question is how many workers are working in the same way in the production? You can complete the calculation by yourself and find it would be a very long distance they moved but it was non-value-added. If your IE counted the process one by one, they would say it was only 1 to 3 second and not a big deal. However, if you have 1000 workers and they are all working in that way, what do you think now?

The second case was also common and caused by the layout design. The operator needed to turn around to pick up the WIP and all the conditions are the same. The calculation is 8 hrs X 60 mins X 60 seconds / 30 seconds X 1 turn (180+180 degree) = 960 turns. It does not needed to think is that value-added or not, I just want to ask what do you feel after you rotary your body for 960 turns?

OK, let's stop the motion wastes in manual process here and we start to think some other case. In the lean concept for office, do you find the motion wastes as well? Did you bring a document to another floor of office for signature? Did you mail a document to another site for your boss to approve? Do you find there are so many blank to need to fill but nobody care what is that actaully? But you need to spend time to check for the information for that...If we consider the information like a flow as process or material, you can find there are so many wastes as well. The information also flows between the people, and there are so many people is not needed the information actually but it wastes much time to flow through all the chain.

For the material flow, you need to check about the locations for storing material. I meant the material in all kinds of status, such as raw material, WIP and finished goods. Are they stored in the proper location? If not, the motion wastes also happened in material flow. That's why you need so many store-keeper to handle the material.

The last point I wanted to talk is the equipment or machine design. I visited one automotive manufacturer in Japan but I dont want to state her name, I have an idea came from her equipment design. It was a automatic assembly for engine with many process included such as milling, grinding, drilling, taping and heat treatment. The body of enginer was carrying along the line through those process, sometime, the body needed to turn around in 180 degree, or turn up side down. Anyway, the body was handling by the robotistic arms to put it in right position. As my observation, the time for the robotistic arm for handling the body was longer than the mechaning process. For my point of view, it was also a kind of motion wastes. If the line can be design as the mechaning station in different pattern, may be the body of engine was no need to handle as I saw but just carried along the line in one position. The speed of process would be much shorter.

Finally, we need to consider the motion wastes in different mindset. It was not only happen in manufacturing process, even in information flow and material, we always can find it appeared in different situation. Give me some ideas of example if you found the situation as well.

Memorization = 5S in your brain

Last year, I had the lesson of human resource management of MBA course. During the lecture, we had discussed some ideas for memorization, because one of my classmate was the world champion of memorization competition. We shared some info and ideas in the class, I want to share my ideas with you in post here. They might be not correlated with lean but I would like to write them in points form.

0. First of all, I am not the expert of memorization but we can have more information from Wiki link as below, Information of Memory from Wiki

1. Can people memorized everything?

I think it is possible. Physically, the memory size in our brain is infinitely. We can have a special training to strengthen memorization. Nowaday, we always equiped a PDA, even a mobile phone with additional memory. We can record everything we want to memorize by text, voice or photo. Therefore, basically, everybody can memorize anything they want, but...is that necessary to do so? Is that necessary we need to memorize the color of our dressing twenty days before? (Assumed that is not a special day we had such as the first time we were having dinner with our girl/boy friend...) Agree? Shift to next question.

2. Why we only memorize something we want?

No more talk about the handheld equipment, only focus the memory in our brain. I believed that our memorization is a selective system but we do not realize its process. We need to keep a spare space in brain for new event or thinking. If our brain is full of rubblish data (same as the rubblish email), it is a serious waste for us. In lean concept, it would be an issue of over stock / inventory, one of the 7 wastes.

First, we only need to memorize something important to us, such as our name, because we need to use that everyday. From working memory through interactive to long term memory. Second, we always can memorize the event which had deep image to ourselves. A simple question, where is the place you first time kiss your girl/boy friend? I think you can remember that in your whole life. From affective system or sensory system to long term memory. Third, we always memorized something which is not always used but need to remember, such as the birthday of your father. Actually, we only need to use that data once a year. From short term memory to long term memory.

3. Is that important of memorization?

A long time before, out of our brain, no other storage memory. All the information and knowledge only can be stored in the memory of brain. At that moment, memorization is so important. How much memory of knowledge you had, it represented how much knowledge you learned. In modern day, the above concept is meaningless, because we have too many devices having the same function of memory storage in our brain.

Now, we said, "undertstanding is more important than memorization.", why we said that? At my point of view, understanding means you have already memorized the truth. For instant, we learn driving in the thoeries of controling steering wheel and gear, it is very hard to forget after we started to drive a car. After we successfully got the driving license, that's mean we have the understanding of driving, you can not forget how to drive because you already understood how to drive. On the other hand, it is very easy to forget something if we do not understand or no way to understand. Can you remember all the numbers in yellow page? How long you can remember those number? The number on yellow page can not be used, that is meaningless for you. You have no way to understand that, and hard to remember.

4. What is factor help for memorization?

Based on the theory of "undertstanding is more important than memorization.", the most important factors improving the memorization are intellect and recombination. Intellect can make the intangible info to be a concrete image. Recombination can help you to put all the concrete image in sequence. Only one part you can remember, you can educe the whole subject.
It was a very common game shown in TV programme. We gave you some items no related such as a ball, a man, a chicken and a car, let you make a story using all the items. I would say, "A MAN played basketBALL, and then drove his CAR back to home, after playing basketball, he felt very hungry and he ate a CHICKEN in dinner by himself.". This is one kind of sample help you to memorize.

5. Which is needed to memorize?

In simply say, happy people only remember happiness. If your brain full of mirthless stories, I don't believed that you can be a happy people. No matter what we are talking about, you only recall the joyless memory to cause a negative emotion. That's a very terrible habit, but I have some friends doing that everyday.

Therefore, I suggest you only needed to remember your knowledge, and your good time. Clear up some spare space in your mind for thinking. Wash away the unhappiness. Do some 5S job for your brain.

OK, my friend, be a happy people!!!

Innovation and creative

Here is a great short movie!

We always reject some creative ideas during kaizen program because we are not sure is that work or not, but if we do not try the new idea, how do we know if it works or not? Just like the video shown above, the child looked like has a mental problem because it was only filled black color in his drawings. Once we puzzled some of the ideas together, we found it worked great.

Please do not reject the ideas from the others in improvement activities again, please!

Vision, Mission and policy deployment 2

Continuous from the previous post "Vision, Mission and policy deployment 1", we knew that they are important elements of success in lean implementation. Actually, the alignment of lean implementation is very important in how to implement lean manufacturing of the process improvement. If the company ignore or mis-align the vision and mission of lean, they will fail in the implementation and promotion of lean concept.

Here is a story in Hong Kong, and I think all the people in Hong Kong learned this news a moment before. I was really disappointed and angry by this incident. On Dec20,2008, it was a middle-aged male driving in urban district with his son. Suddenly, the middle-aged driver was heart attacked and his son drove him to Caritas Medical Centre (明愛醫院) for first aid. However, when the young people ran into the receiption of hospital, the receiptionist in the hospital suggested him to make a emergency call! Finally, the middle-aged father was dead because of the ambulance arrived the main gate of hospital half an hours later. What a ridiculous incident for the hospital!

Afterward, I checked the web for Caritas Medical Centre, I found that her motto was stated as "Love in the Service of Hope." The word "LOVE" is always a intangible noun especially when it was used in service. What kind of vision or mission they are? Are that all the doctor, nurse and employee in that hospital understood its meaning? The most ridiculous fact is that we let people die in front of the main gate of hospital is one kind of love? Actually, the employee in the hospital achieved the vision or mission is another matter, the most important is that the vision aligned with the main goal. In simply said, is that aligned to what they should do! If nobody realized that what they should do in their profession, how they can execute the goal? Who should we blame for?

I checked the vision and mission for another hospital (博愛醫院Pok Oi Hospital) and found that it is very clear statment of her vision, "To be a charitable organization that: strives to provide diversified and quality services, maximizes on available resources, devotes to continuous improvement, and drives for innovative measures. ". She also states the idea of continuous improvement in her mission number 3. It is obviously that she has the lean concept and aligned in her vision and mission.

This a common problem in industrial world, the companies stated that they are going to be the number 1 in the world. However, they were only seeking the way to reduce the cost. Most of the time, they were sacrificing their quality and service to achieve the cost saving target. They are always implement the lean concept but it was not aligned in their vision and mission. The manager or director applied the lean concept but without the alignment of main goal, so they are busy in making a good report only shown the saving. If it is no related with vision, it is hard to counter check the result but only according to the kaizen project presentation or report. The lean concept can not be setup as the culture of the company. Therefore, it is the most common factor of failure of lean implementation.

I worked in a MNC and I asked the management team for what are the missions of their department. I asked what is the vision of the company, the answer is only the silence. Afterward, I asked what should we do in future? No answer too and I can heard a pin falled on the floor. Therefore, we need a very clear vision and mission alignment for lean implementation, even for the success of company.

Motivation needs theory in lean

David C. McClelland (麦克兰德), American David Clarence McClelland (1917-98) achieved his doctorate in psychology at Yale in 1941 and became professor at Wesleyan University. He then taught and lectured, including a spell at Harvard from 1956, where with colleagues for twenty years he studied particularly motivation and the achievement need. He began his McBer consultancy in 1963, helping industry assess and train staff, and later taught at Boston University, from 1987 until his death. McClelland is chiefly known for his work on achievement motivation, but his research interests extended to personality and consciousness.

David McClelland pioneered workplace motivational thinking, developing achievement-based motivational theory and models, and promoted improvements in employee assessment methods, advocating competency-based assessments and tests, arguing them to be better than traditional IQ and personality-based tests. His ideas have since been widely adopted in many organisations, and relate closely to the theory of Frederick Herzberg.

David McClelland is most noted for describing three types of motivational need, which he identified in his 1988 book, Human Motivation. He said that most people possess and exhibit a combination of these characteristics, bias to a particular motivational need, and this motivational or needs 'mix' consequently affects their behaviour and working/managing style.
David C McClelland's motivational needs theory,

Achievement motivation (n-ach)

Authority/power motivation (n-pow)

Affiliation motivation (n-affil)

David McClelland's needs-based motivational model These needs are found to varying degrees in all workers and managers, and this mix of motivational needs characterises a person's or manager's style and behaviour, both in terms of being motivated, and in the management and motivation others.

The need for achievement (n-ach) The n-ach person is 'achievement motivated' and therefore seeks achievement, attainment of realistic but challenging goals, and advancement in the job. There is a strong need for feedback as to achievement and progress, and a need for a sense of accomplishment. McClelland contrasted achievement-motivated people with gamblers, and dispelled a common pre-conception that n-ach 'achievement-motivated' people are big risk takers. On the contrary - typically, achievement-motivated individuals set goals which they can influence with their effort and ability, and as such the goal is considered to be achievable. This determined results-driven approach is almost invariably present in the character make-up of all successful business people and entrepreneurs. For the lean leaders with strong 'achievement motivation', they make the best leaders, but there can be a tendency to demand too much of their staff in the belief that they are all similarly and highly achievement-focused and results driven, which of course most people are not. On the other hand, they would like to use imperatively or compulsorily to lead the projects. Sometimes, they would even jump to the solution during the kaizen without any brain-storming discussion. Meditating myself, at the beginning stage of my leading of lean transformation, I made the same mistake as well.

The need for authority and power (n-pow) The n-pow person is 'authority motivated'. This driver produces a need to be influential, effective and to make an impact. There is a strong need to lead and for their ideas to prevail. There is also motivation and need towards increasing personal status and prestige. A strong n-pow 'authority-motivation' will produce a determined work ethic and commitment to the organisation, and while n-pow people are attracted to the leadership role, they may not possess the required flexibility and people-centred skills. Power motivation divided by two concept, individualistic power motivation and social power motivation. Because of the lean leader in individualistic power motivation tends to control the members in the team, the aggressive and trust in kaizen team was always be destroyed. Empowering members by the lean leaders with social power motivation can encourage and draw out the interesting of improvment.

The need for affiliation (n-affil) The n-affil person is 'affiliation motivated', and has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards interaction with other people. The affiliation driver produces motivation and need to be liked and held in popular regard. These people are team players. Mcclelland suggested that a strong n-affil 'affiliation-motivation' undermines a manager's objectivity, because of their need to be liked, and that this affects a manager's decision-making capability. At the same way, leading the lean transformation, we are no way to escape to challenge or be challenged. High affiliation leader would frustrate by this needs which can not be satisfied. Furthermore, because of they want to be liked by members, they cower to give their reasonable requests and challenge the team. Too high of this needs will cause the halt or slow down of lean transformation.

Not only talking about the lean leaders, basically, human being is full of these needs. The most important factor of success in lean transformation is well balancing the needs of motivation. Nobody can tell you what is the correct mix of needs, and you must build up a right mix according to the situation in different period of lean journey.

Albert's Gemba walk

For many years, I stayed in China for working and ignored the political news in Hong Kong. At recent moment, I left the current job and stayed Hong Kong, so I heard many news and started to care about my home town. I knew it is not good for me as a Hong Kong people, anyway, I am going to fix my mistake from now on.

Here is two video clips about Councillor Albert Chan (陳偉業) presented in legislative council, to resolve the Public Revenue Protection Order 2009, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 27 of 2009 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 4 March 2009. In simply said, Hon Albert Chan proposed to cancel the increasing of tobacco tax. They were a excellent presentation for Albert's ideas, and he made me to think in different point of view for a matter.

My blog is always talking about the lean manufacturing concept. This time, I used the Albert's presentation to show my idea for lean as well. I am not going to agree or disagree with Albert's proposal, but it made me interesting on "vulgarity" news for the councillors. The clips were found in youtube.com and they made me understand why they did that in council. The first thing I most disappointed that the public media were all focusing on the vulgarity they said in council meeting, but why they did that? It was obviously that the media was going to mislead the story. Whatever, it is a political game and I am not going to present my point of view here.

The most interesting fact is Albert gave us many points which are based on the Hong Kong people's livelihood. He gave the analysis of the economic problem of the cigarette seller on the streets with real data supporting. I believed that Albert has visited the seller and got the real information on the street, he found that it has a deep impact of the income for the newpaper seller on the street. What is the meaning of Gemba walk? It is not only used in factory, the councillors supposed to has the gemba walk on the street to understand what is happening on there.

This is a fatal absurdity to elminate the red wine tax and double the tobacco tax. Is that the people drinking the red wine really live longer than the others? In the situation of economic down, the most important thing is to solve the problem on livelihood, it is nonsense to double the tax of tobacco and think it can solve the problem of smoking for thousands years. At recent moment, many and many problem on the medicines and its dealer, it was the problem of monitoring fron the government. A moment before, one hospital let a diver to die in front of her gate. What did the Secretary for Food and Health do? The best policy or solution never came from the nice and beautiful office, it must come from the Gemba!

I just hope the secretaries of department walk out from their office and see what is happening in Hong Kong, and learn some lean concept if possible.

Six thinking hats

In human resource management course of MBA, the professor made mention of "six thinking hat" method for using in decision making. I am so interesting for this topic so I searched the relatied info and shown roughly below,

Early in the 1980s Dr. Edward de Bono invented the Six Thinking Hats method. The method is a framework for thinking and can incorporate lateral thinking. Valuable judgmental thinking has its place in the system but is not allowed to dominate as in normal thinking. Dr. de Bono organized a network of authorized trainers to introduce the Six Thinking Hats.

The key point is that a hat is a direction to think rather than a label for thinking. The key theoretical reasons to use the Six Thinking Hats are to:

encourage Parallel Thinking

encourage full-spectrum thinking

separate ego from performance

There are six metaphorical hats and the thinker can put on or take off one of these hats to indicate the type of thinking being used. This putting on and taking off is essential. The hats must never be used to categorize individuals, even though their behavior may seem to invite this. When done in group, everybody wear the same hat at the same time.

White Hat thinking (Objective)
This covers facts, figures, information needs and gaps. "I think we need some white hat thinking at this point..." means Let's drop the arguments and proposals, and look at the data base."

Red Hat thinking (Intuition)
This covers intuition, feelings and emotions. The red hat allows the thinker to put forward an intuition without any need to justify it. "Putting on my red hat, I think this is a terrible proposal." Ususally feelings and intuition can only be introduced into a discussion if they are supported by logic. Usually the feeling is genuine but the logic is spurious.The red hat gives full permission to a thinker to put forward his or her feelings on the subject at the moment.

Black Hat thinking (Negative)
This is the hat of judgment and caution. It is a most valuable hat. It is not in any sense an inferior or negative hat. The prior or negative hat. The black hat is used to point out why a suggestion does not fit the facts, the available experience, the system in use, or the policy that is being followed. The black hat must always be logical.

Yellow Hat thinking (Positive)
This is the logical positive. Why something will work and why it will offer benefits. It can be used in looking forward to the results of some proposed action, but can also be used to find something of value in what has already happened.

Green Hat thinking (Creative)
This is the hat of creativity, alternatives, proposals, what is interesting, provocations and changes.

Blue Hat thinking (Process)
This is the overview or process control hat. It looks not at the subject itself but at the 'thinking' about the subject. "Putting on my blue hat, I feel we should do some more green hat thinking at this point." In technical terms, the blue hat is concerned with meta-cognition.

Personal comment: We are suggested to think in six sides on one matter, it is comprehensive thinking method not only included postive side and negative side. Green hat thinking recommends us to think out of the box. We can get more creative and better ideas based on the original proposal! Blue hat thinking is the evaluation of overall thinking or proposal, it aimed to a process control function. The red hat thinking shown us the side which is not covered by the physical data.

Yes! I got some ideas from the theory right now!