Implementation Process

Event 1: On-site Assessment
We spend time on site to understand your business priorities and processes, and to select a pilot area for a lean implementation. We will work with you to select the pilot team and develop preliminary payback objectives.

Event 2: Prepare Implementation Materials
After identifying the pilot area for implementation, we will prepare materials for the implementation and training that specifically address your operational processes and the unique production characteristics of your organization.

Event 3: Educate the Implementation Team
This involves a two-or three-day workshop depending on your team's needs and the complexity of the lean implementation. Your team will gain the knowledge required to immediately design and implement the lean initiative in the selected area(s).

Event 4: Design the Implementation
We continue working with the team to design the implementation details and then actually implement the lean design. The design and implementation may require four to six days of work with the team members over a 90-day period.

Event 5: Begin On-site Operational Changes
At week five of the process, organizations generally are ready to begin making changes in day-to-day processes. This can include inventory reduction, significant staffing changes, and much more. This may take 3 weeks or longer. We will be on site each week to guide, review, and/or direct the effort as needed, to keep it on track.

Event 6: Implement Lean Initiative Controls (Kanbans)
For goods-producing environments, a lean kanban design is implemented in week eight. Here the visual execution signals are in place for material and production processes related to the pilot area. In service entities, throughput times are carefully established. For all organizations, the team will begin to monitor and display performance measurements with a daily floor meeting.

Event 7: Implementation of the “Structured Problem Solving” “PDCA” Process
A workshop teaches team members the skills to immediately begin implementing the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) process, focusing on the issues surfaced by the lean practices already put in place. It may require four weeks to fully implement the PDCA process in the selected areas.

Event 8: Evaluate Implementation Results
We document results and identify opportunities for further improvement. Often the results from this initial implementation produce enough savings to fully fund implementing lean initiatives and PDCA throughout the entire company.