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Lean Advisors Inc., Intersol Group Ltd. and Excellence Canada develop alliance to help Canadian governments and corporations become world-class leaders

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 15:59:52 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Adam Stoehr
VP Education and Research
Excellence Canada
416–251-7600 or 800-263-9648 | adam@excellence.ca

Lean Advisors Inc., Intersol Group Ltd. and Excellence Canada develop alliance to help Canadian governments and corporations become world-class leaders.

OTTAWA – March 23, 2015 – Today Lean Advisors, Intersol Group and Excellence Canada announced a joint partnership to support public and private sector organizations to achieve excellence through a sustainable, integrated approach to running their operations.
Canada survived the economic downturn of 2008 and is now poised to compete with the world. But, in order to compete, Canadian industry and government must become ‘world-class’ organizations. And ‘world-class’ is not about being the biggest or having control of the major markets. It’s about being able to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on them by their clients, stakeholders and competitors. The goal is to be able to provide services and products better, faster and at less cost while improving staff engagement and involvement in the required changes. If they are successful they will become ‘world-class’ and will become global leaders and models for the future to the benefit of all.

The road to success will require a multi-faceted strategy. No one tool or area of focus will be enough. They will need three (3) things:

1) a Well-defined Standard which can be conveyed to all staff,
2) a Solid, Proven Process Transformation Methodology and,
3) a Change Management Approach that is effective across all leadership and staff.

To achieve this goal, Excellence Canada, Intersol Group Ltd. and Lean Advisors Inc. have formed an alliance that will be able to support any public or private sector organization in pursuing these key strategic elements. “Our clients now have the ability to tap into expertise for any of their needs as they progress on their journeys to Excellence, said Adam Stoehr, Vice President of Education and Research, Excellence Canada. Canada has been in need of this type of integration of expertise and credibility for a long time. Now it’s here!”

“Now organizations will be able to set a strategic vision and communicate that direction to support all staff and provide the knowledge and tools required to successfully create the change needed to become best-in-class”, said Larry Coté, President & CEO, Intersol Group and
Lean Advisors Inc.

Intersol Group with its 25 years of experience and professional staff assisting groups, large and small, on how to engage staff, align strategy and drive common, supported direction.

Lean Advisors Inc. with over 30 years of experience coaching, teaching and adapting Lean (process transformation) in all sectors.
Excellence Canada (formerly the National Quality Institute) with over 30 years of experience improving performance through coaching, teaching and recognizing Excellence with the prestigious Canada Awards for Excellence.

The future vision is attainable by those exceptional organizations that want to lead. This partnership is now capable of supporting, coaching, training and officially recognizing all phases of success through an entire journey to becoming ‘World-Class’.

About Lean Advisors, Inc.
Lean Advisors, Inc. is one of the most respected Lean consulting groups in North America. Lean Advisors, Inc., founded over 14 years ago and based in North America, has built a team of senior consultants with hands-on experience in a variety of sectors. In addition to their work with industry, the company has led the way to successful Lean practice in fields such as Healthcare, Education, Government and Manufacturing.
Our senior consultants’ mastery of Lean and Kaizen methods, combined with hands-on industry experience, has prepared them for tough ‘real world’ issues such as resistance, outside perceptions, conflicting agendas, and the need for senior management support. They help individuals become Lean leaders within their organizations as they overcome resistance to change and instill a Lean culture of continuous improvement. To learn more, please visitwww.leanadvisors.com

About Intersol Group Ltd.
Intersol Group Ltd. is a bilingual team of experienced consulting, facilitation and learning professionals whose expertise lies in harnessing and building lasting organizational capacity for its clients. Since 1989, the Intersol team has successfully delivered over 6,000 projects to hundreds of public sector, private sector and non-profit organizations across Canada.
Whether the focus is on shaping vision and strategy, on managing change, on stakeholder consultation, or on high performance teamwork, Intersol helps organizations leverage the knowledge, experience and expertise inherent in their own people.
Using processes, methods and tools that engage people to collaborate effectively and efficiently, we work with clients in the areas Stakeholder Engagement and Public Involvement; Direction Setting and Organizational Effectiveness; and Individual Effectiveness and Workplace Learning. To learn more, please visit www.intersol.ca

About Excellence Canada (formerly the National Quality Institute)
Excellence Canada is an independent, not-for-profit organization that is committed to advancing organizational excellence across Canada. Excellence Canada has helped thousands of organizations become cultures of continuous quality improvement and world-class role models, through its four-level Progressive Excellence Program.

As a national authority on Quality and Healthy Workplace®, Excellence Canada provides excellence frameworks, standards, and independent verification and certification to organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. It is also the custodian and adjudicator of the prestigious Canada Awards for Excellence program, of which the Patron is His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General of Canada. To learn more, please visit www.excellence.ca

HMC Transformations

admin — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 00:59:28 +0000

As featured in Cutting Tool Engineering Magazine- February 2014 Issue

Read full issue

CNC machine shops have it rough. Customers order smaller lot sizes and demand faster turnaround than ever before. More parts are made from nasty materials like Inconel and titanium, with tolerances and geometries so challenging they make even seasoned machinists quake in their steel-toed boots. To stay profitable, many embrace lean and Six-Sigma methodologies, but keeping foreign competitors or even the shop next door at bay takes a lot more than cutting some fat from business processes. Shops must become agile if they want to compete in this brave new world of low-volume, high-complexity machining.

Agile means having the equipment, tooling, software and know-how to respond quickly to changing customer needs while still making a buck. By their very nature, horizontal machining centers are one of an agile shop’s best friends. With built-in pallet changers standard on most machines, efficient chip flow and the ability to hit all sides of a part in a single setup, horizontals increase part throughput while reducing cost compared to their vertical cousins. Add a linear pallet system or pallet pool and a large-capacity tool magazine and shops can simply leave tools and fixtures in the machine indefinitely.

This makes setup for many parts a set-it-and-forget-it affair. And, with options such as broken tool detection and automated parts handling, the transition to lights-out manufacturing becomes a reality for many shops, allowing for unattended production at night and process prove-out during the day.

A Mighty Big Spread

Of course, it takes more than equipment to become an agile shop. It takes a focused, well-managed plan and having robust processes in place to get there (see sidebar on page 43). Let’s pretend, however, that you’re already have the agility of an Olympic triathlete, having addressed the sales and quoting, purchasing, quality control and engineering processes—all key parts of being agile. It’s time to shop for a new HMC, one that will help you along the road to agile. Dave Ward, product manager for Makino Inc., Mason, Ohio, said HMCs give shops the ability to quickly respond to customer demands, while also making short runs profitable.

“There are a number of reasons for this,” Ward said. “For starters, consider the work envelope. The typical 20 “×40 ” vertical is one of the most popular machining centers in the country. Those machines have roughly 800 sq. in. of space for setting up jobs. Horizontals, on the other hand, utilize a cylindrical work envelope—unwind that cylinder and you’re looking at twice the usable workspace as a typical VMC. Then consider there are two pallets on a horizontal and you have easily four times the available real estate as a comparably sized vertical.”

In addition to that large work envelope, the automatic pallet changer seen on virtually all HMCs means shops can load parts or change jobs on one pallet while the machine works on the other. This improves production efficiency and, properly leveraged, increases agility as well.

“By taking advantage of the machining capability in a 4-axis horizontal, together with tombstone-style fixturing, shops can easily have eight jobs set up at any given time, one on each side of the tombstone,” Ward explained. “With a little planning, you can either leave those jobs in place between runs or load a new faceplate and quickly get a different job into operation. This aspect of HMCs delivers flexibility unavailable from a traditional vertical.”

Granted, VMCs can be outfitted with rotary tables and pallet changers, accomplishing much the same thing. Yet this “bolt-on” approach can’t compete against a horizontal in terms of rigidity and accuracy, two attributes necessary for agile manufacturing.

Despite the obvious advantages, Ward said shops must be careful when choosing a horizontal. “You can have the best CAM system, the best machinists, all of your tools and raw material ready to rock and roll, but if you don’t have the right machine tool, you’re very limited.”

There’s a lot to consider. Ward said many machine tools stay in place for 15 years or so on average. But unless they own a crystal ball, most shops can’t predict what they’ll be doing next year or even the next day, let alone a decade from now. “Let’s say you’re running aluminum die castings today, so you select a machine with the latest 20,000-rpm spindle,” Ward said. “What happens 3 months from now when that job runs out and the next one is for cast iron parts?” For this reason, Ward said, shops should look for the best spindle technology available, preferably one with direct-drive motors, high torque and wide-ranging rpm capability. “If you’re looking to be agile and ready to handle whatever comes in the door, you really need to think ahead—prepare for the future with a horizontal machining center that is designed and built for versatility.”

Sharpest Tools in the Shed

Machine shops that operate versatile HMCs are usually in cycle 90 percent of the time, 7 days a week, which boosts their return on investment, according to David Lucius, vice president of sales for Methods Machine Tools Inc., Sudbury, Mass. There are plenty of shops adept at agile machining, but it’s a high bar to reach. “There are a couple of things working against you with high-mix, low-volume production,” Lucius said. “For one, your operators need to be very skilled.”

With lot sizes of five to 30 pieces and perhaps several dozen jobs available to run at any given time, an operator is responsible for managing multiple and, possibly, completely different parts throughout any given day. This means programming, inspection, tool offsets … the list goes on, all of it controlled by a few shop-floor Jedi knights. “The biggest challenge you have in this environment is the organization of your shop and your people,” Lucius said. “The actual machining is the easy part.”

He suggested material flow and workholding as excellent places to begin this organization. “It’s critical for shops to develop a standardized strategy on how to fixture their parts. The ones that are best at this put a lot of thought up front into workholding flexibility and how they feed raw material.”

Another key component is pallet layout. Most shops begin their horizontal journey with a single machine, adding on a pallet pool or linear pallet system as the business grows. Lucius said: “Not every shop can write a $2 million check for a multimachine flexible machining system. But they can, perhaps, get into a nice twin-pallet horizontal with 120 tools to start. Within a year or two, they can secure an eight-pallet system or add another machine. This lets you start with a much smaller investment.”

One company that started with a multipallet solution right away is Kenlee Precision Corp., Baltimore. Kenlee selected a 6-pallet, 120 tool KIWA KH-45 HMC from Methods, giving them the ability to accommodate high-mix, low-volume manufacturing demand. Alternately, another common strategy employed by Bass Machine, also located in Baltimore, was to purchase a pair of KIWA KH-45 HMCs—one with 60 tools and the other expandable to 120 tools.

The caveat is to make certain that adding capability doesn’t throw production into the tank. “Integrating multiple machines after the fact can easily cost several weeks of downtime,” Lucius said. “Buying modular equipment, with in-the-field expandable tool and pallet technology, helps alleviate this disruption.”

In Bass Machine’s case, this means they can have more tools or pallets on their KIWAs within 1 week, minimizing any negative impact on production.

One and Done

Another company that’s done just that is Choice Precision Inc., Whitehall, Pa. With a shop full of modern CNC equipment, including Mazak Palletech Manufacturing Systems equipped with pallet stackers and large-capacity tool magazines, Choice is one of the shops helping to define agile manufacturing. President Beth Rothwell agreed that winning at this game takes far more than high-tech equipment. “You can’t just buy a few horizontals and expect to be successful. Achieving this level of flexibility requires a cultural change: shop organization, employee education, tooling and fixturing—all of the elements have to be considered.”

Rothwell pointed out that Choice is presented with thousands of different parts each year, each with unique requirements. “Our team works together to determine the right work center for the part to be machined on, the correct sequence of operations, how the part’s going to be held and what tools will cut it.”

She added there’s no general recipe for managing the process because it is part specific. But by developing the right work environment and the best employees and providing them with flexible equipment and tools, the shop is able to respond quickly to customer needs.

“The Palletech systems are a central part of the equation,” Rothwell said. Choice has two Palletechs on HMCs and one on a 5-axis VMC. “I will say, however, that our 5-axis machining centers and multitasking CNC turning centers are equally important. As our customers continue to design more complexity into their products, we can provide better quality and quicker turnaround if we’re not transferring parts from machine to machine. We try to grip it once and get everything done in as few operations as possible. High-tech machines such as these lend themselves very well to that approach.”

Go Big or Go Home

Tom Roehm, CEO of Big River Engineering & Manufacturing LLC, Memphis, Tenn., said HMCs make good sense. Starting with a single Makino machine 3 years ago, the shop has since added a six-pallet linear Makino Machining Complex (MMC) pallet system. “We machine a lot of medical instruments and components, in 20- to 50-piece quantities. Most of our parts are clamped with quick-change snap jaws, and we use touch probes for positioning. That’s one of the ways we reduce setup time. It also lets us run completely lights-out.”

Big River has also written proprietary macro programs. Between in-process probing, redundant tools and high- density workholding, some pallets run 14 hours or more unattended. “When we first started thinking about lights- out, it was always talked about with respect to Swiss machines,” Roehm said. “But we’ve made lights-out on our horizontal a reality. By writing special programs, we can do a whole lot of probing at night. We check every part, after every operation. If a tool wears, we’ll go get a replacement or just grab a different pallet if there was a pileup. You might spend a little more time probing this way, but at the end of the day you’re winning the race.”

By merging lean concepts with flexible, high-performance machining centers, shops can respond quickly and profitably to customer demands, while reducing production quantities and profit margins to levels once considered ridiculous. Single-piece flow, the holy grail of agile, is within the reach of many shops. All it takes is the right investment in people, tools and machines, a long, hard look at your business processes and a lot of hard work. CTE

Shops be nimble, shops be quick …

While having the right equipment is essential for machine shops to implement agile manufacturing, so is having the right administrative and management systems. “Being agile is the ability to quickly meet the changing demands of your clients, and do so with competitive pricing and high quality,” said Larry Coté, founder of Lean Advisors Inc., Ottawa, Ontario. “Before making a huge investment in capital equipment, however, people definitely need to understand that the machine is only one point in the flow of servicing your client.”

To illustrate his point, Coté described a scenario where a company just bought the biggest, fastest piece of equipment available. “What do you think the sales guy is going to do once he has the purchase order in hand? He’s going to sell the same machine to the competition. To be a leader in today’s market requires much more than technology; it requires an analysis of the entire end-to-end manufacturing process.”

Say Joe’s Machine Emporium just bought a shiny new HMC. It’s a beautiful piece of equipment and cranks out parts much faster than the machines at Joe’s nearest competitor, Hank’s Precision Machining. Yet Joe takes a couple of weeks to quote a job, while Hank returns quotes in a day or two. Hank’s shop is ISO-certified and has a Web site where customers can view job status and track design changes, whereas Joe doesn’t even have a Web site and couldn’t spell ISO if his life depended on it.

Hank’s has offline toolsetting, quick-change tooling and a crib stocked with high-quality cutters and holders. His employees are motivated by decent wages, profit sharing and continuous improvement bonuses, not to mention the pride of working for a company that “does it right.” On the tail end, Hank has electronic billing and shipment notifications to speed up the payables and receivables process. Joe, on the other hand, has none of these, relying instead on better machines to compete. Granted, Hank takes longer to machine parts. He’s not the cheapest either. Yet Hank’s customer service, internal processes and employee morale blow Joe out of the water. Who do you think will win more business?

By streamlining their business activities before purchasing new equipment, Coté said shops can realize significantly better return on investment. The alternative is potential financial disaster. “One way or another, the bank has to be paid,” he said. “Without working on the downstream and upstream processes that surround any machine tool, there is no competitive advantage to be gained by investing in one. Ultimately, those companies that try to keep up through equipment alone end up in bankruptcy.”

This begins with the client’s initial contact and concludes with delivery and invoicing. “This combination of systematic thinking and technical advantage can’t be bought or easily duplicated by the competition,” Coté said. “Shops must pay attention to the entire process, assessing every activity and optimizing wherever possible to ensure that everything they do provides value to their customers.”

—K. Hanson

Creating a Culture for Lean Innovation – Benchmarking and Quantifying Cultural Change

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 05:10:29 +0000

Melanie Beaumont, Senior Advisor, Lean Advisors Inc, will be presenting at the International Performance Management Symposium on Thursday November 6, 2014 in Montreal, Canada.

Creating a culture for Lean Innovation – benchmarking and quantifying cultural change

A successful Lean Culture for Innovation requires developing a mutually accountable, interdependent, and collaborative work environment across functional and departmental boundaries. Much of this work focuses on eliminating wasteful ‘silo’ behaviours, conflicting priorities, and interdepartmental friction. It is necessary to properly benchmark the organization’s cultural current state and set measurable goals for where it should be. This is often problematic when dealing with individual and group behaviours which are frequently seen as ‘soft skills’ that can’t be adequately quantified for tracking and reporting to ensure success.

This session outlines useful tools and techniques for benchmarking the organization’s cultural current state as well as setting tangible goals and measuring progress towards creating an innovative environment for sustainable continuous improvement.

With a discussion-based, interactive approach, the speaker will also outline key steps to mistake-proof your progress including:

Commonly made assumptions that can lead to poor quality measures
Critical thinking necessary in properly using the ubiquitous ‘engagement score’ benchmarks
Dealing with the complexities of measuring ‘intangibles’ without oversimplifying to a point of no return

Participants are encouraged to bring their questions and concerns about this challenging yet rewarding process.

About Melanie: Melanie Beaumont is a consultant, trainer and management coach for leadership, change management and continuous improvement programs. She works at both the senior management and team level in public and private sector organizations. Previously she has been a successful executive in telecommunications and education.

Melanie has developed and delivered numerous training and coaching programs including: ‘Leading Change Management’, ‘Coaching for Innovation’, ’Success Strategies for Continuous Improvement Leaders and Their Teams’, and ‘Building Sustainable Accountability’. She also teaches ‘Change Management’, ‘Problem Solving in Groups’, and ‘Conflict Resolution” at Mohawk College. She is a current guest speaker and conference co-chair for the Federated Press conferences on Lean Innovation in the Public Sector.

Melanie’s client list covers Canada and USA and includes key government agencies, regional health care organizations plus manufacturers in the plastics, technology, food processing, and building materials fabrication sectors.

A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Melanie has completed numerous post-degree studies including Leadership, Facilitation, Change Management, Conflict Resolution, and Behavioural Analysis Systems. She has a Lean Business Processes Certificate, University of Michigan.

Detailed program and speaker bios

CPA member registration

Non CPA member registration

Intersol Group Ltd. and Lean Advisors Join Forces

admin — Tue, 20 May 2014 20:17:01 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Marc Valois
President and CEO
Intersol Group Ltd.
613-230-6424 ext. 241 | mvalois@intersol.ca

Larry Coté
President and CEO
Lean Advisors, Inc.
1-613-382-1583 | lcote@intersol.ca

Intersol Group Ltd. and Lean Advisors join forces to form a full service, integrated, top-tier management consultancy firm.

OTTAWA – May 20, 2014 – Intersol Group Ltd. and Lean Advisors Inc. today announced a joining of forces to combine Intersol’s strategic and cultural management expertise with Lean Advisors’ process transformation methodology.

With tremendous ongoing pressure in all sectors to do more with the resources they have, while streamlining business process and shaving costs, the focus has to be not only on process transformation, but also on strategic and leadership transformation. The gap has been in how to integrate these elements with a view to creating ongoing sustainability.

Over the last couple of months serious discussion between these premiere consulting, training and coaching organizations has culminated in the two corporations jointly agreeing to provide a much needed solution.

“What we have just accomplished, by combining Intersol Group’s and Lean Advisors’ knowledge and expertise, gives organizations the complete knowledge, both of vision and action, that they require to effectively change their group or organization to meet the needs of their clients in the future,” said Larry Coté, President and CEO of Lean Advisers, Inc., “Our amalgamation is a union of expert talent that will give clients the complete solution to overcome and conquer the challenges facing them today and for decades to come.”

“We are delighted to welcome Lean Advisors into the Intersol Group of Companies,” said Marc Valois, CEO of Intersol Group Ltd. “Their Lean process expertise and methodologies, combined with Intersol Group’s expertise in Change Management, Employee Engagement, Leadership and cultural transformation provides a compelling way for organizations of all types and sizes to adapt to continual change while creating more value for the clients, members and stakeholders they serve. The sustainability of the solutions we create with our clients will be a key differentiator for their organizations of the future.”

About Lean Advisors, Inc.
Lean Advisors is one of the most respected Lean consulting groups in North America. Founded over 14 years ago and based in North America, it has built a team of senior consultants with hands-on experience in a variety of sectors. In addition to their work with industry, the company has led the way to successful Lean practice in fields such as Healthcare, Education, Government and Manufacturing.

Their senior consultants are passionate about Lean transformation. Their mastery of Lean and Kaizen methods combined with hands-on industry experience has prepared them for tough ‘real world’ issues such as resistance, outside perceptions, conflicting agendas, and the need for senior management support. They help individuals become Lean leaders within their organizations as they overcome resistance to change and instill a Lean culture of continuous improvement. To learn more, please visit www.leanadvisors.com

Whether the focus is on shaping vision and strategy, on managing change, on stakeholder consultation, or on high performance teamwork, Intersol helps organizations leverage the knowledge, experience and expertise inherent in their own people.

Using processes, methods and tools that engage people to collaborate effectively and efficiently, we work with clients in the areas Stakeholder Engagement and Public Involvement; Direction Setting and Organizational Effectiveness; and Individual Effectiveness and Workplace Learning. To learn more, please visit www.intersol.ca

Is There a Need for LEAN in the Public Sector?

admin — Sun, 18 May 2014 01:02:07 +0000

It’s no secret that LEAN has demonstrated great success in the private sector for many years. Within the last decade, LEAN has also proven to be effective in healthcare, education, finance, and now government. Given the March, 2014Eighth Report to the Prime Minister: Contributing to a Competitive Canada by the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service, and its focus on efficiency and rethinking how work is done, we expect to see increasing interest in adopting LEAN practices in the federal government. LEAN offers a viable means to streamline business processes and empower employees, thereby supporting our government’s continued, concerted efforts to provide better client service while adhering to tight budgets and refraining from increasing staff.

Following are some typical questions we often receive about LEAN:

What is LEAN? LEAN is not a tool. LEAN is a unique way of thinking about how to assess and improve processes with a primary purpose of increasing value to clients. When implemented properly, LEAN thinking will work for any process or organization that is looking to ‘do more with what they have’, in addition to adding value by improving quality, service and speed of delivery.
How is LEAN a solution? LEAN is an all-encompassing, strategic and tactical solution that engages staff to create an environment of client-focused energy to continuously provide value. It breaks down the barriers between departments and develops a cohesive organization that moves in a common direction, constantly providing more value without increasing client costs. LEAN enables public sector agencies to work more effectively and efficiently as a team by eliminating waste in their processes.
What impact will LEAN have if done properly? Numerous public sector organisations are using LEAN methods to dramatically improve the quality, service, and speed of their processes. The results have been impressive.

Here are some typical results that have been attained by various government groups:

25 – 100% increase in capacity without adding resources or working harder;
25 – 50% improvement in quality and customer satisfaction;
25 – 100% improvement in financial performance;
Increased employee engagement and reduced firefighting and stress – staff are focused on devoting more time and resources to their core business and competencies.

The LEAN culture works to change the sorts of attitudes that create wasteful, ‘silo’ behaviours and interdepartmental friction. As a result, workloads become more balanced, fluctuations in pressures are reduced, and employees become more engaged as they participate in the improvements. Our government is continually being asked to do more with less. Intersol combines its knowledge and expertise in Change Management with LEAN to provide a powerful solution to the challenge.

PPX Learning Event: What is Lean and Does it Work to Improve Services for Canadians?

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 22:08:59 +0000

Government is increasingly looking for efficiencies to do more with what they have, while serving Canadians better. One of the concepts being considered throughout Government today is “Lean” or variations of this concept. Many organizations similar to government are already using it with varying degrees of success. The focus of this session is to explain Lean, break through the misconceptions about Lean and uncover the true impact it can have on government, the public, and employees.

The workshop will begin with an introduction to Lean and the common elements of Lean transformation programs. This will include a frank and objective discussion/presentation on what to look for when trying to decide whether to adopt Lean or even consider getting that knowledge. Lean practitioners from Industry Canada’s Intellectual Property Office will then present and discuss their journey using Lean. They will demonstrate their successes and challenges of the past and the plans and roadmap ahead for the future.

Register HERE

Date: April 16, 2014

Location: RCAF Officer’s Mess
158 Gloucester Avenue
Ottawa, ON

Time: 8:00am – 8:30am: Registration and Breakfast
8:30am – 10:30am: Presentation
10:30am – 11:00am: Knowledge Sharing

Price: $100.00 + HST

Speakers: Jean-Rene Drapeau, Director, Business Improvement Services – Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Industry Canada (CIPO)

Bob Nolan, Manager, Lean Management Centre – Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Industry Canada

Larry Cote, President, Lean Advisors Inc.

Management Capacity Webinar Recording – View Here

admin — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 19:56:25 +0000

If you missed our July presentation of “Management Capacity: Standard Leadership Roles for the Lean Supervisor,” you can view the recording here.

Mike Boucher, VP of Client Services, discussed the benefits of the management capacity program and how to free up management time by understanding executive priorities, analyzing management activities, and creating Standard Leadership Roles.

We hope you enjoy our recorded webinar and have the opportunity to benefit from the valuable content that was shared.

Click Here to View Recorded Webinar

To learn more about our management capacity program click here.

If you would like to be notified of future webinars, please join our E Newsletter: Talking Lean.

Making the Lean Leap

admin — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:30:17 +0000

What is Lean?

Our organization, Lean Advisors Inc., work with clients from a wide business spectrum including manufacturing, service, healthcare, education and government. In every case, we often hear, “Lean sounds good, but we are different.” Although every organization may be different in terms of what product or service they provide, our message is consistent. Lean is a customer centric philosophy designed to support organizations to better understand and meet the needs of their customers. Ultimate goal is to deliver the best product, with the highest quality and at least cost. This is non-negotiable.

The term Lean is probably one of the most misused terms, being used to describe every business process ‘improvement’ activity in the last 15-20 years. Lean is simply about creating more value for customers by eliminating activities that are considered waste. Any activity or process that consumes resources, adds cost or time without creating value becomes the target for elimination. Thus, Lean will work for any process or business that is looking to add value.

Different types of Waste exist in every company from the front office, to the production floor through to customer delivery. The easy part is to identify and classify the different types of waste. Knowing how to properly remove waste is much more challenging. Waste is actually a symptom of poor workplace organization and work flow.

One of the important aspects of Lean is the focus on ‘system-level’ improvements (versus ‘point improvements’). It’s the system-level work that can remove waste and dramatically improve an organization’s bottom line results.

System thinking is about optimizing the end to end processes within a organization from the initial order or sales contact through to scheduling, production, distribution and ultimate delivery to the customer. Often organizations exceed in some of these areas but very few actually look at the entire end to end process or Value Stream. Lean analysis through Value Stream Mapping often uncovers situations where one segment of the business or one process step is optimized at the expense of another business segment or process.

Lean is actually a common sense approach based on five fundamental principles:

Define Value from the Customer Perspective
Identify and understand the end to end Value Stream
Make Value Flow within the end to end Value Stream
Create Pull from the customer
Strive for perfection

Where do we start?

One of the most common questions we are asked is – “Where do we start?” and “How do we do it the ‘right’ way?” The key to success is to have an effective plan specifically for your situation and environment. Without an effective plan, you will either fail totally or not maximize your potential. This is actually the toughest challenge for the senior leadership in any organization.

It is critical to introduce an integrated Lean Transformation. A three phase approach to adopting and applying Lean provides the best assurance to sustain your efforts over the long term and to embed Lean, creating a continuous improvement culture.

Phase 1- Strategic Planning

As organizations realize that they are at risk, they must begin to look for solutions. Current practices successfully brought companies to where they are today but unfortunately those same practices will not be enough for tomorrow. It is important for organizations to recognize the need for change and to begin a new journey to reinvent themselves. This does not mean you ignore your past but rather celebrate those successes and use them to leverage thinking to generate new solutions that can carry you into the future.
Leaders must be prepared to critically view the current situation from their clients perspective and to align their strategy/direction accordingly. Key metrics must be established to support and reinforce this new client-centric business perspective.

Phase 2- Developing the Plan

Developing the plan is actually applying the second principle of Lean. Enterprise Value Stream Mapping is a fundamental Lean tool that becomes the driver of change.
Enterprise Value Stream Mapping captures all activities along the entire Value Stream from customer order through to the production and delivery of the product or service. This tool provides us with the complete picture of the Current State and designs a more effective Future State; a vision of how we will organize work and processes with less waste. Enterprise Value Stream Mapping includes the information, communication and scheduling flows to help companies fully understand how each process step or activity connects and integrates (or not) from a system perspective.

A value stream is the set of all activities, from request to delivery, used to provide a product or service to clients. Understanding and improving processes as integrated end-to-end systems is fundamental to real and sustainable improvement. An Enterprise Value Stream Map comprises of 3 components:

Current State Map – Visual representation of how work / product presently moves through the Value Stream.
Future State Map – A 3-6 month visual representation of the vision, applying Lean Principles of Lean to design out waste.
Implementation Plan – A documented plan outlining the Kaizens or Rapid Improvement Events necessary to transform The Value Stream from Current to Future State

Enterprise Value Stream Mapping takes the complexity of the end to end processes within a company and transforms it into a simple, visual document. This document is then used to analyze and develop the ‘right’ Future State Implementation Plan. It will have an accurate understanding of the ‘whole picture’ with identified changes creating ‘system’ improvements. Enterprise Value Stream Mapping is imperative for companies who want to have a clear and effective plan for change.

Phase 3 – Executing on the Plan

Executing the plan is the most critical phase for companies. This is the stage where real change must happen. It is important for the Senior Leadership to actively support and reinforce the need for change. Support involves a clear message that the Implementation Plan is not negotiable. The day to day issues although important cannot be an excuse. Time and resources must be allocated to support change. The status quo is not acceptable. New management performance measures developed in Phase 1 drive new management behavior to measure and reward action.

This action is in the form of structured rapid improvement events, commonly referred to as Kaizens. Kaizen is a combination of two Japanese words that simply means change for the better.

Kaizen Events move companies away from traditional lengthy projects where valuable resources spend more time in meeting rooms and completing updates than in making change happen. Kaizen Events are a focused approach that brings critical resources together and empowers participants to not only root cause and determine solutions but most importantly to implement change. Time and effort is spent to support the value stream, reinforce system thinking to create sustainable improvement. Kaizen is action focused!

The Lean journey requires real effort and a true customer centric commitment. It is not something that can be partially introduced. Through our experience, working with many clients from many different industries, it has been demonstrated that a structured plan is critical to any Lean implementation. The 3 – phase approach described above provides an excellent framework for companies to start their Lean journey.

Mike Boucher Bio

Vice President Client Services
Mike has had extensive experience with Lean in his role leading companies in their Continuous Improvement and Lean journey. Over 20 years, he held numerous operational positions with a major distribution and logistics corporation.

Mike has had the opportunity to experience production and operational issues that are common to all organizations and companies. He has dealt with the seemingly conflicting objectives to exceed customer expectations, while maintaining the highest level of quality at the lowest possible cost. The combination of hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge of Lean has made him an authority and an accomplished advisor.

Lean Advisors to present at Taming of the Queue Conference

admin — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:58:39 +0000

Lean Advisors is pleased to announce that Larry Cote, President of Lean Advisors Inc will be presenting at the Taming of the Queue Conference in Ottawa, Ontario on March 21st. The topic of his session will be: Taking a systems approach to wait times.

By identifying how health care organizations and other industries have both succeeded and failed at improving timely access across their organizations and examine how to improve timely access across your organization or the system in which it operates.

Click to learn more about the 2013 conference.

About Taming of the Queue

Since 2004, the annual Taming of the Queue (TQ) conference has brought together a community of interest from across Canada to discuss access and wait time issues. Representing a wide range of perspectives, conference participants assess progress being made on wait-time measurement and management. Sponsored by several national health stakeholders, these events have enhanced knowledge about the issue, while exchanging best practices and helping to shape the public policy agenda.

Lean: Does it Work? Red Flags to Watch For- Part 3 of 3

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:41:56 +0000

The Focus in Part 3 will be to help identify the skill set, either internally or externally, to to lead or support your Lean Transformation and to be aware of some of the ‘red flags’ to keep in mind while deciding on the expertise required.

First, let’s alleviate the misconception, apprehension or anxiety that Lean doesn’t work. It does work!

The caveat is that you must discover the ‘right’ or proper adaptation of the thinking and concept to your unique situation!

Once you have acknowledged the above, you can then begin to search for the proper solution and resources to lead your Lean Transformation.

Chances are you will try to find the expert internally first and then if you feel you don’t have the internal expert, or need additional resources or guidance, you will go outside your organization to either hire someone or find a credible consultant.

The problem with trying to select the expert talent is that you may feel a little hesitant as you may not know what to look for (or not look for) in an individual in order to make this important decision.

This decision becomes even more stressful because you know that you get one chance to make the right decision and that if you select the wrong person(s), you alone are responsible for taking your organization down the wrong path and it is extremely difficult to start again. We acknowledge that much of this confusion has been caused by consultants and trainers that have misguided their clients and/or students and given them the incorrect or incomplete knowledge which in turn the leadership unknowingly uses to select what and who they need to guide them.

So we thought it might be helpful in this post to at least highlight some of the red flags to be aware of when hiring a person(s) to lead the change in your organization and that you are willing to put your reputation on the line for.

Here is a list of some of those Red Flags to keep in mind when deciding on the expertise you are looking to engage:

1) The transformation costs tons of dollars.

2) The person doesn’t know the difference between Process and Value Stream Mapping and where both are critical.

3) They speak about tools instead of cultural change.

4) They have a solution prior to properly assessing the situation.

5) They will do it for you – your staff won’t be that involved, the staff only have to utilize the changes once the consultant is done.

6) They use the word ‘bottleneck’ or project to focus on one area.

7) They call it Lean Sigma and it is really mostly Six Sigma (a tool).

8) They use a matrix type chart to determine the priority of projects i.e. the one axis is normally large and little impact and then the other axis is little or most effort.

9) They give you a long list of projects to assign to staff or themselves with no sequencing analysis.

10) Their plan requires them to be on-site for, what seems like, an unreasonable length of time.

These are only some of the Red Flags you should keep in mind. If you ‘see’ any of these types of ‘flags’, take notice and do some additional analysis and research into the credentials and approach. Doing this analysis properly could save you years of regret, not to mention thousands of dollars, and in the end- frustration and disappointment not just for you but for your entire staff.

Lean does work when implemented properly! The challenge for you is to choose the distinctive and effective adaptation of the theory that is right for your environment/situation that will not only transform your processes but also transform your culture into a sustainable continuous improvement organization.

For more information, contact us at corp@leanadvisors.com.