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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.”

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.

Through a unique Value Stream Mapping Process, Lean Advisors help clients identify the Root Causes of delays, errors and bottlenecks – helping them to dramatically Reduce the Cost of their administrative processes, while Boosting Employee Engagement and Improving Customer Experience.  Join Us!

During this webinar, Mike Boucher will lead you through the keys to successful value-stream improvements in administrative/service environments such as:

1. The Structure of a VSM (CS/FS).
2. The Key Tasks / Roles for Senior Leaders in successful VSM Projects.
3. Why VSM is especially critical in an administrative/service value stream improvement process.
4. How the VSM helps to introduce and implement change.
5. How to ensure that VSM Projects generate results that are strategically important to the organization.

Register 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.

Lean is a journey of continuous improvement and throughout their journey, Lean Advisors has introduced Lean thinking and applications at the day to day operational level through Enterprise Value Stream Mapping as well as at the strategic, business planning level through Hoshin Planning. That enterprise level of commitment is delivering results in terms of improved efficiency, productivity, staff engagement and most importantly with increased client satisfaction.

Here is their story:

In 2008, The Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) adopted the Lean business process improvement strategy.  SAMA is responsible for the governance of the overall assessment system in Saskatchewan, and the provision of assessment services to our 756 client municipalities.  The Agency provides a financial foundation for municipalities and the education sector that they can use to establish and sustain local programs and services.

Lean is aimed at engaging the talents of the Agency’s people to eliminate waste, and create value for our customers.  With an ever-increasing workload and limited resources, Lean helps to ensure that SAMA’s clients’ and stakeholders’ needs are successfully met.

Thanks to the commitment of staff and Senior Management, SAMA is involving people throughout the Agency to tackle some of the challenges affecting the property assessment system in Saskatchewan.

“One of Lean’s strengths is its focus: the people most familiar with the actual work determine the necessary process improvements and plan the necessary changes,” said SAMA CEO Irwin Blank.  “The Agency has achieved significant progress to date, and Lean process improvement initiatives will continue to be a focus for SAMA in 2013 and beyond.”

Because the Agency looks for input from staff and management in all eight of our regional offices across the province, as well as our central office in Regina, the Agency has opted to train all staff and managers in Lean processes.  Staff all receive Introduction to Lean training, and many staff have received further training in Lean processes and change management.  The Agency currently has 14 certified Green Belts, and 5 certified Black Belts.  There are an additional four certified Green Belts who are currently Black Belt candidates, as well as another 14 Green Belt candidates.  Six of SAMA’s Executives have also completed Green Belt training.

To help guide and steer the Agency’s Lean journey, SAMA uses value stream mapping to improve the Lean process.  One of these improvements was to develop a Lean Manual.  The manual outlines details on creating and managing value streams, organizing and executing Rapid Improvement Events and the roles and responsibilities of staff, value stream leaders, facilitators and others.  All staff can access the manual on SAMA’s intranet system.

SAMA currently has several value stream maps in progress representing the different areas of focus within the Agency. For the operations area (Assessment Services) SAMA has value streams for Data Verification, Revaluation, Support of Value and Industrial Assessments.  For the Agency’s support divisions SAMA has value streams for Revaluation Governance, Finance, Quality Assurance, Human Resources and Agency Planning.

SAMA’s original Lean goals were:

• A 25% increase in efficiency and productivity between 2009 and 2013;

• Highly engaged staff, that take ownership of the business processes; and

• An Agency in a much better position to meet the increasing demands from clients.

Under the Lean initiative the Agency has:

• Advanced the Agency’s annual property maintenance program by 3-4 months and in 2012 completed the work for 62% of our client municipalities by December 31^st.  In comparison, only 14% of client municipalities received their annual property maintenance by December 31^st in 2009.  Property maintenance occurs when municipalities request SAMA to do on-site inspections of specific individual properties, usually where significant developments or changes have been made that have altered the physical data on  a property.

• Increased property reinspection productivity 57% over four years from 761 properties per appraiser Full Time Equivalent (FTE) in 2008 to 1,198 properties per appraiser FTE in 2012.  Periodically, municipalities must have all their properties reinspected on-site to verify that physical data and valuations are accurate.

• Made changes to sales verification, market analysis and support of value processes and reduced total appraiser time to complete the 2009-2012 revaluation cycle by 28.1 FTEs or 22% – an average of 7.0 FTEs for each year of the program.  Sales verification and market analysis are two key components of the Agency’s revaluation work that happens on a four year cycle. SAMA is also required to participate in property appeals and provide full disclosure of how property values are determined. This responsibility for openness and full disclosure is part of what SAMA calls “support of value.”

SAMA’s 2014 to 2017 Lean goals are:

• Increase the number of properties that an appraiser can review by 80% from 1,029 to 1,850 properties annually using Lean business process and technology improvements.
• Double the number of properties that an appraiser can reinspect from 1,050 to 2,100 properties annually using Lean business process and technology improvements.
• Utilize Lean value-stream mapping events and other tools to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of work processes.
• Improve the efficiency and productivity of annual maintenance processes resulting in the reallocation of 14 FTEs to the property reinspection program by 2018.
• Based on continued significant growth expected in Saskatchewan’s energy and minerals sectors, the agency will progressively double the capacity of our industrial program by 2017.  Lean process improvements, software upgrades, cost model simplification and remote data collection tablets will improve the efficiency of the industrial property assessment program by 25%.

• Efficiencies will be attained in delivery of the revaluation and annual maintenance programs that will allow the reassignment of critical appraiser resources to the reinspection program – increasing the agency’s average capacity for reinspections from 8 FTEs in 2013 to 27 FTEs annually by 2018.

The agency will continue to build on the Lean improvements attained over the past five years. The plan takes a long term and careful approach to innovative new business processes, and it invests in technology to ensure the sustainability of the property assessment base and municipal and education property tax revenues.

The focus for 2014-17 will be on sustaining current levels of service for our governance responsibilities, continuing to improve the delivery of assessment valuation services to our clients, and building the capacity to enable the Agency to reinspect all properties at least once every 12 years.

SAMA’s Lean journey has been one of trial and error and learning from our missteps.  The Agency’s Lean transformation has required this learning process, which will ultimately help us move towards becoming a truly Lean organization. With a strong commitment and growing knowledge of Lean, SAMA is constantly looking for ways that Lean can influence and improve our everyday business, and in turn, help us provide our customers with the best service possible.

Thank you to all who attended the January 24  Webinar “Management Capacity: Creating Standard Leadership Roles for the Lean Supervisor” – if you missed it, click here to view the recording.

There were a number of great questions asked by attendees during the Webinar. Mike Boucher, VP of Client Services at Lean Advisors shared his insights and knowledge. Below are Mike’s responses to questions posed at the webinar:

Q.  What is the right time to apply the management capacity program?

A. We have found that management capacity can be applied throughout the 3 phases of our Lean Transformation program. In our Foundations phase, we set the strategic direction with the stakeholders and begin selecting value streams. Often, at this stage, we identify areas where managers or teams are overly stressed to try to support other activities.  The goal is to move change forward where it is critically needed but if our management team isn’t capable of providing the support and resources to make that change happen, then we would introduce the management capacity program to free up time in order to enable the necessary change in the identified areas.

In the second phase, (VSM phase), we assess our current state, develop our future state and create an implementation plan. Once we’ve reviewed the implementation plan and understand the resources required to support the kaizen events, we begin to identify that it might be too aggressive given the available resources. At this point, we would stop, reassess and create the opportunity for the managers to be able to support the implementation plan. Again, we would introduce the management capacity program as a stepping stone to leading our process change.

The third element involves the execution of the kaizens and implementation plan. Quite often, a great implementation plan begins to fade away on us as delays begin to creep in and we lose momentum. At this point, senior leadership needs to take a step back and acknowledge the resourcing issue and lack of management support for the value streams. In order to support those mangers, we would introduce the management capacity program to free up their time and place structure into scheduling the change elements that we’ve introduced in the implementation plan.

Q.  Should we introduce the program across the entire organization or should we introduce it one department at a time?

A. This is not always a straight forward answer. I often ask the organization to look at what their success rate has been in the past in terms of resourcing, programs and making change happen. Often, the answer is “we don’t have a very good success rate.” So, my recommendation typically is to focus on the area where they are trying to drive change first. They should focus on the critical areas, the crisis issues and where crisis is happening and then we figure out how we’re going to resource again and put in the necessary time as senior leaders to support the change.

Q.  Would these assessments be conducted with different levels of management separately or together?

A. In terms of the assessments, I would look at it from a value stream perspective. Who is the management team within the value stream? And within that value stream, I would want all managers, regardless of level, to participate in the program. One manager or supervisor may be creating the problems for someone else, so if they are working on it collaboratively and collectively and doing their reviews as a group, they begin to address issues from a team perspective – rather than individually.

Q.  Can you give an example of a value stream for an office manager?

A. In terms of an office or admin environment, I often see manager’s time tied up not really addressing what they are directly responsible for but actually focusing a lot of their attention in other areas. In particular, I’ve seen a lot of managers putting a large amount of time into a hiring process, perhaps an area that they don’t really excel at but end up being dragged down and spending a lot of their time supporting the hiring process and it’s taking them away from their actual day to day responsibilities and the things they are directly responsible for.  That is not to say the hiring process isn’t important but we need to understand what is the goal of these managers in the hiring process and what can they realistically do and what work should be moved to where it belongs. In many cases, this is because it can be done more effectively. In other cases, we are just duplicating effort.

With the objectives being to reduce stress on staff while meeting higher demands, being more responsive and lowering the cost of care and determining the technological advancements/innovation needed to support the new improved processes well into the future.

The end-to-end process in several areas will be assessed and redesigned in order to improve the flow of information, communication and the patient throughout the ‘system’.

In 2008, the Montfort Hospital emergency room was one of the province’s worst. Its sickest patients waited up to 20 hours to be admitted. Patients complained and nurses quit. Morale was low and turnover was high. The nurses who remained were overworked and burnt out.

Occasionally, staff frustration boiled over; patients either left without being treated, or went public with stories about rude behaviour and substandard care. The hospital became a focus of negative headlines. “It was a crisis,” admits François Lemaire, Montfort’s clinical director of the ER.

These days, Montfort is no longer a laggard among Ontario’s busiest ERs. Its wait time for the sickest patients is 10 hours — half of what it was in 2008 — even though the volume of patients continues to rise. From 35,000 patients in 2008, the ER now treats 52,000 annually. Many of them are sicker and harder to treat than patients in the past. Yet despite these challenges, Montfort’s wait time continues to fall.

A recent survey of Ontario hospitals indicated that nine out of 10 patients would recommend Montfort’s emergency department to their family and friends. And the turnover in ER nurses is so low that there are currently no full-time openings — a dramatic change from 2008 when there were 15 vacant positions.

The turnaround, aided by $3.7 million in provincial funding since 2008, is one example of how Montfort says it has improved patient care by using practices made famous by Toyota. With the hospital-wide introduction of checklists, streamlining, standardization and non-stop brainstorming with front-line staff, Montfort has joined a growing number of acute-care centres in bringing the efficiency of a factory floor to health care.

The approach, known as lean, has long helped the auto and aerospace industries reduce waste and boost value for customers through continuous small improvements. With a cash-strapped government trying to rein in health spending, Ontario hospitals are catching up, spurred by provincial directives to do more with less.

Nowhere is the need for improved efficiency more critical than in emergency rooms, where speedy care is a key component of good care.

Montfort’s transformation began in January 2009, to teach its staff the lean principles. The hospital paid for the lean consultants with some of the $687,000 it received that year for ER improvement.

The money was part of a four-year, $400-million provincial program called Pay For Results. When it was launched in 2008, Montfort was among 23 of Ontario’s poorest-performing ERs to receive the funding, which gets clawed out of their annual budgets if they don’t show improvement.

Hospital staff deconstructed every aspect of how patients moved through the ER, from the time they arrived by ambulance or car until they were discharged. They examined the “flow” of patients — how they were assessed at triage, how they got their lab tests and diagnostic scans, how they were discharged or admitted and how information moved with them at each stage. They attacked the problem in the same way that factory managers studied the parts of an assembly line.

“We were a whole bunch of people with Post-it notes on the floor that showed all the different steps,” recalls Sophie Audet, an ER nurse. “After it was done, everybody looked at each other and started saying, ‘Oh my God. No wonder we’re so tired.’ There were so many steps. When you see it, you actually realize that.”

Audet and her colleagues worked to simplify the journey for patients and reduce unnecessary tasks for staff. To their surprise, the best ideas were not necessarily flashy, or expensive to implement.

Among other things, a daily activity report was introduced that gave every hospital worker — from the chief executive to department heads, physicians, nurses and housekeeping staff — a snapshot of the traffic in and out of Montfort. It listed the number of patients waiting to be admitted and discharged.

For the first time, staff got a bird’s-eye view of where the hospital’s bottlenecks were. They could also see which departments needed extra help to move patients along. “You see the big picture, not just your own little department,” says Audet.

In the ER, a low-tech whiteboard was introduced. It tracked the location and status of every patient and listed what services they were waiting for. For the first time, method and transparency were imposed, allowing the nursing team to manage patients more quickly and effectively. The approach also reduced the chances of patients being lost in the shuffle.

“Before, we used to write down everything by hand,” says Johanne Gougeon, the ER’s lead nurse. “Now, we write on magnets. If we have a patient go somewhere, we just move the magnet around. It’s on the board, it’s written out, it’s all standardized and everybody can see what’s happening.”

In addition, the triage process was simplified for patients with minor complaints. And the workflow of the diagnostic imaging department as well as the work schedules of housekeeping staff were adjusted to conform with the ER’s busiest times of the day.

Other changes related to inconveniences in the physical layout that added up to hours of lost productivity every day.

For example, the storage and labelling of medical supplies were standardized so that nurses did not waste precious time searching for surgical dressings or catheters. A method was introduced to manage wheelchairs, which were never available when staff needed them, leading to longer-than-necessary delays for patients waiting to be moved or discharged.

“We (drew) a line on the floor and we put up a sign: ‘Three wheelchairs here,’ ” says Lise Vaillancourt, director of clinical services. “All of a sudden, when somebody was done with a wheelchair, they knew what to do with it.”

Even a simple procedure like urine analysis often kept patients waiting because the fridge where the samples were stored was far from the nursing station. “We calculated that the nurse had to walk something like 150 steps and another 150 steps back an average of 75 times per day,” says Vaillancourt. “So we just took the fridge and put it under the counter. Now, it’s zero steps.”

Based on these seemingly minor improvements, ER wait times at Montfort fell by 10 per cent within three months.

Meanwhile, other changes happening hospital-wide also helped to ease some of the ER congestion. Physicians and nurses started to emphasize discharge planning almost as soon as patients were admitted. In the past, discharge planning only took place toward the end of a patient’s stay, which often led to extra days spent unnecessarily in the hospital. The resulting bed shortages triggered a backlog of patients waiting in the ER to be admitted.

Another change involved introducing a system of early-warning signs that flagged hospital staff about imminent overcrowding, giving them more lead time to plan for a higher number of patients.

By 2010, two years after Montfort introduced lean, its ER was among three that were recognized as the most improved in the province. That year, the department was awarded a $200,000 bonus under Pay for Results. By then, the ER had left its cramped and aging space for a brand new facility that was double its previous size, part of the hospital’s $300-million expansion of its premises on Montreal Road.

The new space allowed for even more ER efficiencies to be introduced.

These days, when patients walk into the Montfort’s ER, one of the first things they see are signs telling them what the estimated waiting time is. Based on how serious their illnesses or injuries are, they are directed to different waiting areas and treatment zones. They take a number to wait so they know how many patients are ahead of them.

Instead of having nurses or porters accompany the walking wounded to get their diagnostic scans, there are colour-coded lines on the floor that guide patients to where they need to go. In the past, patient care suffered in part because staff spent so much time shuttling patients back and forth.

Hospital officials say patients, especially those with minor complaints, are now so savvy that they’ll call ahead to check Montfort’s wait times against those of The Ottawa Hospital or Queensway Carleton. “Now, people are shopping around,” says Lemaire, the ER director. “This is our reality.”

Excerpt from the Ottawa Citizen
To Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Toyota+style+management+helps+Montfort+wait+times/7427615/story.html

In case you missed it, we invite you to take a few minutes to watch the recorded webinar so that you have the opportunity to benefit from the valuable content that was shared.

Click Here to View

Managers, Supervisors, Team Leaders have challenging jobs! They are fighting fires while responding to pressures from both the organization above and staff below. Meanwhile, they are being told to cut costs, improve quality and improve service.

With so little hours in a day, where do they find the time?

“Management Capacity:  Creating Standard Leadership Roles for the Lean Supervisor.” Mike Boucher, our Vice President of Client Services, will share his insights.

We will show you how to free up management time by understanding executive priorities and analyzing management activities, creating Standard Leadership Roles.

To learn more about our Management Capacity Program, click here.

One of the challenges of operating an electrical utility is that the grid has to be constantly updated to meet customer demand. This calls for a coordinated effort from many individuals; every time a new building is added, design documents have to be created and approved, parts have to be ordered, and crews have to be allocated.

In late 2010, Hydro Ottawa enlisted Lean Advisors to help reduce project lead times and improve efficiency. After a series of training seminars, multi-functional teams used the Lean Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool to analyze the entire project delivery process, from request of a new service to final hookup.  By mapping out the current and desired future states for the entire value stream, participants were able to create a roadmap for improvement across the three functional areas involved – design, installation, and material management.

“We are definitely trying to address this value stream, because it crosses so many different departments,” says Brent Fletcher, Hydro Ottawa’s Manager of  Business Performance. “Instead of pointing fingers we think that we can deliver a process that is better for everybody. It will keep our inventory down, our carrying costs down, reduce the number of parts being returned, and ensure the parts are where they need to be when they need to be so that execution doesn’t slow down.”

One of the breakthroughs was to align teams by region. “Instead of 22 designers working in all parts of the city,” says Fletcher, “we’ve aligned our designers geographically to help build relationships with the local construction forces, develop a stronger knowledge of their area, and improve communications.”

The biggest impact of Lean, however, has been a marked improvement in the working relationship between the groups, who have improved communications, reduced lead times on designs getting out, and improved the accuracy of the designs.

Scheduling is now done through bi-weekly meetings where upcoming projects can be reviewed from end to end. “We are giving more clarity and visibility to the schedule, and where our resources are being used,” says Fletcher, “and also more advanced notice of jobs that are coming up.”

The groups are currently looking at ways to deliver materials more efficiently to jobsites. “We are looking to reduce inventory, and are finding ways to ensure that when a crew shows up in the morning they have everything they need in order to execute on the job,” says Tony Mittiga, senior advisor with Lean Advisors, who is consulting on the project.  The key will be a Just-In-Time approach where crews are supplied with smaller batches of materials on an as-needed basis, as opposed to larger shipments that tend to clog up jobsites.

Feedback from the field has been decisively positive.  “We are definitely, anecdotally and qualitatively, getting very good feedback from the workers and from the designers,” says Fletcher.

“They are making quite a bit of progress,” says Mittiga. “I think the interesting thing is the enthusiasm from the team members. They really, really want to see things happen.”