Turbocharge the tortoise

Does it make sense to try and turbocharge gradual, continuous change? Annie Gregory looks at the apparent oxymoron of 'kaizen blitz' Remember the race between the tortoise and the hare? The arrogant hare gallops off so fast he runs out of steam mid way and has to nap. So the plodding, determined tortie is the one who makes it first to the finishing post. Sustained effort beats speed hands down. It's an example lean coaches often use to reassure their teams that even though continuous improvement – or kaizen – is hard going, they will reach their goals in the end. So it seems somewhat contradictory when those self-same coaches also call for a kaizen blitz – a one-off team event to inject rapid improvement into a specific aspect of the continuous improvement (CI) process. Typically, a kaizen blitz runs for five days or less and is focused on changing practices or processes to solve a specific problem like a layout, a line balance, or a quality issue. If CI achieves and sustains steady, incremental change, why interrupt the rhythm with something so alien, intense and – in some cases – disruptive? Let's look at two companies who regard kaizen blitz as one of the key ingredients in their lean toolbox. Uniq Prepared Food's 300-strong factory at Evercreech in Somerset makes premium desserts for Marks and Spencer plus cottage cheese. Formerly an old dairy, it is in the midst of a major investment and improvement programme. For the last two years, Uniq has worked with the consultancy Suiko, interspersing conventional CI activity with regular kaizen blitzes. Mark Salisbury, Uniq's business improvement director, says the blitzes – which Evercreech calls action teams – have saved the business lots of money: "We have proved that, although the norm is five, you can get up to ten times the return on your investment in this process." He voices a few firm caveats: "You have to get the building blocks in place – good teams, stability in your business, agreed action plans and established daily reviews. You also have to make sure people are comfortable with open dialogues, speaking easily about the problems they are experiencing." Evercreech had had a relatively short exposure to lean beforehand and previous efforts had failed. So this time, Uniq put a lot of senior, experienced people into the business over a four-month period to help existing managers gain control well before the first blitz. Salisbury is adamant you shouldn't even start unless everyone involved is free to concentrate solely on the event. "It relies totally on people in the teams being out of the day-to-day. They shouldn't be firefighting and they shouldn't be worrying about what's happening in the business without them." In previous 'part-time' blitzes, the results had always been disappointing. If people met for two hours and then returned to the day job, they didn't spend the time beyond the allocated time getting to the nub of the problems. "If you put aside five whole days, people's mental model is divorced from the day to day running at the outset and their minds are more open." There is a common pattern to the blitzes: "We spend the first 2-3 hours thinking what we want to achieve over the rest of the week. We scope it out together in a brain dump. Then we get out into the factory with pen, paper and video and really look at what's going on." The action teams typically contain an operations manager, a technical expert, someone from process control, and an engineer. Unusual additions come from finance, "so we can establish what it's worth if we do this", and a commercial representative "to make sure we are adding customer value". Salisbury maintains it is important to have every function within the group so "you don't need to go outside to ask permission to act". Uniq's action teams don't include anyone below the level of senior operative. It's a very different approach to Power Panels' (see below) and not one that would find favour from every lean exponent. But Salisbury is adamant this is the right approach for this plant: "It's not just about saving money. Half of it is about working out if the people understand the process they are going through. By starting with the leaders in the organisation, we are transferring knowledge about effective problem solving. They will then pass on the gems to people working for them." In one fundamental, however, Salisbury is in total accord with virtually everyone involved with CI or indeed any aspect of lean: the need for senior sponsorship. His own deep involvement means he can clear out roadblocks that have impeded progress for years. But, at the same time, he and Suiko have devised a method of stopping anything subsequently getting in the way. At the end of each blitz, the team presents a milestone plan and a projection of savings to the executive team. Knowing the plan is real, tracked effectively and aligned to business goals, they sign it off. "Normally, they also say great – what can we do to help you achieve this?" says Salisbury. "I have found that by doing it this way, we come across relatively few problems further down the road." Power Panels (PP), winner of the overall Best Factory Award, has continuous improvement embedded in its DNA. It uses kaizen blitz as a routine, regular tool to address new issues or to gain incremental advantages. Manufacturing manager Alison Dowd explains that PP first discovered its value when the company was in a period of phenomenal growth: "We used to put down some targets and objectives – like increasing capacity fast. Then we would give the teams carte blanche to go onto the shopfloor, using all the lean tools to make an improvement quickly." Now PP is finding it equally useful in addressing tougher times. Here's just one example. As part of a management reshuffle of cell ownership, Dowd was given one dedicated to Mazak. "I didn't know it very well so, to help my understanding, I said let's have a kaizen blitz. The cell was running really well but it hadn't changed for a while and it would help me to bond the team." She set a few key objectives: to look at reducing the cell size; to look at Six Sigma levels; and to consider reductions on throughput time and turnaround from raw materials to tested finished goods. "Everyone went off in their own direction for a week to gather data and we reconvened on a daily basis to look at the results. Using tools like cause and effect analysis, we pinpointed areas that were 'just do its' plus some longer-term improvements." The blitz showed they could easily reduce the size of the cell by 25% simply by moving benches around. They did it in a day. "We had just won an account and it meant we didn't have to set up a new cell; we just slotted it into the freed up space." Collecting the data gave the basis for a slightly longer action plan to reduce throughput time by 25%. "We looked at every single step from ordering the cable to getting it out of the door using lean tools like value stream (VSM) and floor mapping and ABC analysis. We got operators timing each other." As a result, by increasing a small part of its in-process stock using kanbans, PP was able to reduce its cell turnaround time from five to three days. "Our operators run their own kaizen activities – all they get from the management is support and guidance," explains Dowd. "They make it happen so when it's finished they own it and keep it going." Her part is to discuss the objectives and free up the time. "We virtually have a template for kaizen now that guides them in collecting the right data and following a structured approach. Everyone is a Six Sigma yellow belt but there is also a green belt in virtually every cell for extra help if they need it." Dowd has worked in Japanese automotive and lean manufacturing companies for years but says none of them compare to PP's commitment or lean competence. "It's different because our directors buy into the entire lean philosophy. So we can pretty much manage ourselves and get things done quickly without all the obstacles of getting things authorised. A baseline level of lean manufacturing is mandatory here. Above that, we offer them a voluntary opportunity to do CI and lean activities. Everyone tends to put their name forward." The recession is lightening for PP: "We are winning more contracts and, because of our kaizen activities, we can slot them straight in. We don't have major set up costs for a new customer. When we bring in a new product, we can turn that around quicker because our sales team at the front end are applying the same [blitz] principles and the purchasing and engineering teams work with them. It's part of our culture." Does Dowd have any reservations about kaizen blitz? "I can't see any reason not to do it ever here. But don't do it if you haven't got buy in from above. I have worked in big Japanese businesses that believe they have a kaizen culture and the shopfloor are trained for it. But when it hits obstacles, it founders because talking about it is one thing and doing it is another. Sometimes you have to dig deep and put your hands in your pocket. You have to plan to free up staff for which there is a cost. You have to schedule yourself to allow the time. And because of the frenetic way the Japanese work, it didn't happen that way. We used to try and do all these CI activities but production would become more important and they would fail." Dowd and Salisbury tackle kaizen blitzes in different ways but it works for both of their businesses. Carl Tomlinson, improvement practitioner at the Manufacturing Institute, sounds warning notes. Although they can bring good results handled with care, applied in an unstructured way, they can consume valuable resources without making any difference to bottom line. Sustaining changes can be difficult and, to "stop the grass growing back" behaviour has to change for the long term – and that often includes the manager's. It needs careful preparatory work and good facilitation. Non-lean mature companies must be guided by VSM. He cites a food company where the VSM team discovered to its complete surprise that it could run the line with one shift less. If the team had just descended on the line to run some improvement activity, they wouldn't have been informed by the bigger picture and missed a huge cost-saving opportunity. One more example from PP, however, does come down on the hare's side. The senior management team itself used kaizen blitzes to turn the pain of the recession into a huge learning tool. "We decided to brainstorm using the seven wastes to find cost savings ourselves," recalls Dowd. "We found over 110 in one session. We came out of the boardroom with actions not just for the shopfloor but across the whole company. When we reported back, we found we were wiping off thousands." They saved on simple things like putting in light sensors, keeping driers but axing paper towels in the washroom, and rearranging breaks so that whole sections of the factory lighting could be turned off in one go. They saved in more sophisticated ways by adopting paperless systems across the business. "Now when we come onto the shopfloor to follow our own ideas for savings, we are bumping into shopfloor teams doing the self-same thing." "We will never go back – we have made so many changes using kaizen to get us through. It's been tough but only the other week, our MD said 'when we come out of this we will be stronger and better than we have ever been' – and we will be."