Funds Available for Lean Doc Training (but you have to act fast)!

Posted on 21. Sep, 2009 by in Prima Communications Blog

Revenues are down. Budgets are tighter than ever. Cost cutting measures are more important than ever before. How do we know? We’re there too. Investing in your business is important not only in times of fortune but also in these tight economic times. Focusing on efficiency, continuous improvement, and lean methodology can bring not only cost savings, but increased productivity, streamlined processes, and many other business and quality benefits.

Prima’s trained professionals offer lean documentation consulting to manufacturing companies in a range of industries, and we’ve designed a training program to share our vast expanse of knowledge gained through this experience with your team. Our lean documentation training program is designed to impart our holistic and practical approach to lean documentation methodology, and will educate your professionals in a manner that readies them to apply it back in your business. For more information on Prima’s training offerings, contact us.

Now we know cost is a concern – that’s why we encourage you to take advantage of the Incumbent Worker Training Program offered by Michigan WORKS to make lean documentation training within your budget. The Incumbent Worker Training Program covers training costs for your employees up to $20,000. Note: The deadline is fast approaching! Applications are due September 25 by 4pm. For eligibility information, contact Michigan Works! Business Services Team member, Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh at (269) 349-1533.

Improve Efficiency Through Documentation

Posted on 11. Mar, 2009 by in Business Efficiency, Prima Communications Blog

It is easy to grasp the concept of improving your business efficiency through the purchase of a piece of equipment—a new filler on a packaging line that handles a wider variety of bottles at faster speeds seems like a no-brainer—but what if the operators don’t have a consistent changeover process?

Example 1
Years ago, Prima was involved in a very successful project to improve changeover quality and time at a major pharmaceutical company. This entire project was on a limited budget and primarily driven by documentation.

For years, the changeovers had been considered more of an art than a science, with some of the operations mechanics more “artistic,” skilled, or clever than the others. Setup techniques varied, and operations mechanics had their pet methods for tweaking. This situation promoted job security for some, but the overall efficiency of the operation was compromised.

A systematic approach was proposed that was designed to pull the best practices together and document them for everyone to share. The documentation of these setup practices also drove the project to include the control and inspection of the change parts between changeovers and delivery of those parts to the line.

The result was reduced changeover times for all the lines involved in the project, as well as a reduction in the time to reach optimal running speeds (less tweaking required).

Time is money and that was key to the above example, but what if you aren’t in a production environment? Can similar improvements be made in, say, the customer service field? Yes, without a doubt.

Example 2
Very few things are more frustrating than the ambiguous processes and redundant data collection that we all have experienced in the health care field. Efficiency can come in the form of enacting a lean approach—recently three southwest Michigan hospitals made lean changes that greatly reduced waiting time.

Embracing a lean approach has not only improved operating efficiency at these health care facilities, but has also improved customer/patient care. Care is being administered more quickly, wait times have been reduced, and discharges are happening more efficiently—resulting in quicker availability of beds for patients.

These are two very different examples of improving efficiency through better communication methods. How effective is the communication on your plant floor? Are you processing your customers’ needs in the best and most efficient manner? Perhaps the answer to improving your business efficiency lies in your documentation rather than in large capital expenditures.

First Things First: Observe and Analyze Before You Write

Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by in Documentation & Training, Prima Communications Blog

Sales is really not my thing. (How about you? Like making sales calls? I suppose some people do.) But I did go on a sales call the other day to talk about lean documents, which I have worked with for several years.

The lean doc process is, well, a process. Rather than jumping in and writing documents, it’s important to begin with observation and analysis.

Observation involves meeting the subject matter experts (SMEs). These are the people who know how to do the job. SMEs are very important people. They need to be knowledgeable, willing to explore options, and available. They greatly impact the process. They have various titles, but the reality is they are the people everyone else goes to with questions or problems. Sometimes there’s one SME for each shift or one for each line. The fun part is they may not do things exactly the same, so each shift or line must be observed.

Typically a process map is created based on the observations. This map is usually a very, very large document and exceedingly ugly because there are more questions than answers.

The analysis of the process map usually requires a significant amount of time and the involvement of several people. This is where the differences between shifts or lines are hammered out. Frequently this is where there are “a-ha” moments, as in, “If we did this first, then we could eliminate these three steps,” or “If we moved the product here at this point, then we wouldn’t have to move it two more times.” So while identifying potential process improvements is not necessarily the point of the map, realization of the need for these improvements sometimes happens as a result of the analysis.

These upfront steps, observation and analysis, are extremely important, as they are the foundation for the documents. No shortcuts!

Increase Efficiency—Hire a Contractor

Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by in Business Efficiency, Documentation & Training, Prima Communications Blog

Who’s not for improving efficiency—especially in these challenging times? What you may not realize is that one of the best ways to do this is to hire contractors.

If your company is like most, it’s currently running staff at maximum utility. In the course of reviewing your operations, you may notice that there are issues that need to be addressed, such as:

  • Pursuing a lean approach to documentation.
  • Installing a new production line.
  • Validating a new software or process system.
  • Revamping your documentation system.

So, should you increase headcount to get the work done—and pay new employees a salary as well as all the associated benefits? Well, how long term is the process—several years? Maybe that would warrant hiring, but in general, the above projects are the perfect reasons to outsource the work. Some advantages of hiring contractors include:

  • Expertise—Hire the experts you don’t have on your staff.
  • Short-term focus—“Short-term” may be difficult to define, but generally the idea is that when the project is finished, so is the need for the resources to implement it. At that point a hand-off to your permanent staff should occur.
  • An independent view—Yes, an outsider may not know how it’s always been done—and that can be a good thing!

Let’s face it, documentation and communication are the very tasks your trained professionals hate to perform. Having worked with and around engineers for much of my professional life, I have a pretty good feeling for what makes them tick—they like to do and create, not write and document. I know of one brilliant engineer who was always behind in his project reports—he explained to his boss that he was too busy creating the future to write about the past! He didn’t exactly endear himself to his boss, but I would wager he speaks for most engineers—they want to solve the next riddle.

It is the same with your operations folks as well as other staff members. Their focus is on what they do best—getting the product out the door, running the office, tracking costs, etc. Ask any of them to put together a procedure or report, and it immediately goes to the bottom of their to-do list and is worked on only when they have exhausted all their other duties and in fact are exhausted themselves. Not ideal conditions for creating effective communications tools. Plus, as good as they may be at their professional tasks, they may be very bad at documenting those same tasks.

One final consideration: is it better to use a communications company or a freelancer? There are some excellent freelance writers, but if you are looking to build a system for the long term, a company will be able not only to provide you with folks dedicated to your project, but additional resources that can be drawn on as needed.

“Lean” documentation—is this just another productivity flash in the pan?

Posted on 09. Jan, 2009 by in FAQs, Prima Communications Blog

We’re huge advocates of lean documentation—where it makes sense. And it makes sense for most applications, though it may take various forms. Sometimes lean means highly pictorial documentation; sometimes it means reducing the number of documents that support a process from 20 to maybe 6; sometimes it means posters on the wall or job aids attached to the machine.

Lean documentation—in whatever form works for you—is one of our specialties.