CI Learning Network Newsletter

CI Learning Network Newsletter
For the Individual and Organization
Dedicated to and Focused on Continuous Improvement
May 14, 2013
Welcome to the Continuous Improvement Learning Network. Our purpose is to bring you the
resources you need to continue your Lean Journey as an individual and as an organization.
*** Upcoming Learning Events ***
Using VSM to Identify & Prioritize Improvements in the Office – May 21, 2013 – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – Optima Associates, De Pere, WI
Optima’s Lean Leadership Development Program – Designed for those currently in a leadership role or leader candidates, the program provides a
format to assess the participants relative to best practices for leadership at a particular level.
Available Assessment Dates: June 11, July 16, or August 13, 2013 (Maximum of 12 Participants per Assessment Day)
Toyota Culture featuring Mike Hoseus – June 11, 2013 – Kentucky
Executive CI Leaders Roundtable Informational Meeting – Join other Continuous Improvement Leaders to share success stories, opportunities to
improve, and best practices – Pre-registration is required to attend – June 13, 2013 – Milwaukee, WI
Lean Problem Solving Overview Workshop – June 20, 2013 – 8:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. – Miron Construction, Neenah, WI
Lean Practitioner Workshop (5-day) – Monday thru Friday, July 8-12, 2013 – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – Optima Associates, De Pere, WI
Re-Shoring Initiative featuring Harry Moser – August 21, 2013 – 8:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. – Kentucky
Lean Facilitator Program (Train the Trainer)
3-week Course: August 26-30, September 23-27, October 28-November 1, 2013 – Oconomowoc, WI
EVENTS TO BE SCHEDULED:
Training Within Industry (TWI) – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Mastering Lean Product Development– 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Reducing Office Waste through Lean Office Principles – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – Optima Associates, De Pere, WI
Lean Accounting – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Lean Culture – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Visit our website at www.optimanow.com for more detailed information about these events or contact us to register.
Upcoming Learning Events
Presented by
TWI 101 Overview – June 13th – Webinar Presented by AME
Visit www.ame.org for more detailed information about these events or to register.
CONTACT
INFORMATION:
Optima Associates, Inc.
1861 Nimitz Drive
De Pere, WI 54115
www.optimanow.com
Mary Townsend: p 920.425.1005
mary.townsend@optimanow.com
Doug Maki: p 920.809.5115
doug.maki@optimanow.com
Learn More. Do More.
Member Spotlight
On February 13th, Seura hosted the Northeast Wisconsin Consortium Event at their manufacturing facility in Green Bay. Seura manufactures innovative luxury television mirrors; waterproof and outdoor TV’s and lighted mirrors for both commercial and residential applications.
Seura, with only 17 employees, began their lean journey in 2008. Tim Gilbertson, Seura’s co-founder, and Steve Luedeman, Seura’s
production manager, were excited to showcase their accomplishments. One of their first lean projects was to create continuous flow
from mirror cutting to assembly and final packaging. They worked as a team to video record the entire process, then analyzed the various steps to remove waste, and synchronized the flow between each operation. The results were phenomenal and they were able to
increase overall throughput by over 100%.
Tim and Steve provided lunch for the Consortium group and gave an overview of Seura’s history and their lean journey. The group then
toured their office and manufacturing facility, where they showcased their new “Storm” outdoor television flow line. Following the tour,
the group asked questions, networked with one another and brainstormed ideas for further improvements.
A big thanks to Seura for hosting this exciting Consortium Event!
Lean Problem Solving Overview Workshop featuring Albert Lettman
About the Workshop:
“Stop struggling to solve major quality problems, significant unplanned downtime, and lost productivity by getting to the root cause of these problems by using Lean Problem Solving Methodology.” Don’t live with chronic Safety, Quality, Delivery
and Cost problems! Come to our Lean Problem Solving Overview Workshop.
The Lean Problem Solving Methodology will provide a roadmap on how to go about solving your most challenging problems. In this workshop, we will demonstrate via case study the use of the Lean problem-solving tools. This workshop will introduce you to how these tools
are used but will also discuss the framework required to develop and sustain problem solvers, and touches on Poke Yoke, standardized
work, visual management and Go and See. "Go and See" will be a component discussed within ALL the steps of the lean problemsolving process.
The understanding needed to begin finding and fixing problems each and every day – this is the foundation of the long-sought
“learning organization.”
This workshop is based on the Problem Solving Methodology developed in high profile failure modes of the Automotive and Aerospace
Industries. Albert Lettman developed these skills while working for Dana Corp., a Tier 1 supplier to a major automotive customer. During
his time at Dana, he was trained in the Toyota Production System, Ford Q1, GM and Chrysler systems, who used tools such as Global
8D, Kepner Tregoe, Shainin/Red X and many other lean, quality and six sigma tools. Albert has synthesized these tools into his own
unique blend. These tools, when combined, always allow him to solve mysteries quickly. His methodology has never failed him on a wide
variety of problems.
Who Should Attend: This workshop is ideal for Product-line managers, CI team leaders, six-sigma black belts /green belts, improvement champions, operations and engineering managers, process owners, design engineers, and all others with responsibilities for improving the customer experience.
Learn More. Do More.
Leading World Class
To be successful in transforming your organization into a high-performance enterprise, the one quality your organization will need more
than any other, is leadership. It is the key to implementing lean, environmentally sound and safe business practices that help you
achieve world-class competitiveness.
To lead by example, senior managers need to gain both a broad understanding of the principles and purpose of world-class business
strategies, and an in-depth knowledge of the implementation methods that will drive change effectively. These strategies include, but
are not limited to, policy deployment, lean enterprise, sustainability, and culture alignment. Using practical, performance-based methods, leaders must develop the insight to generate relevant business strategies and ideas, and the skills and ability to apply new tools
and techniques to execute them.
TURNING LEADERSHIP THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Because the transition to a lean world-class environment demands nothing less than a complete change of culture, the leader must develop exceptional people skills and have the will to learn to:
 Teach people to think differently and to think for the organization
 Encourage the development of skills and behaviors people need to create and sustain a world-class business enterprise
 Promote open communication and free flow of information to all team members to raise the commitment, morale and enthusiasm of
employees and other stakeholders
 Overcome resistance and address the issues that are the barriers to moving forward
 Motivate everyone to be involved in continuous improvement to constantly resolve problems that impact customer value add
 Establish people-centric operations to assure the safety, well-being and dignity of employees
Lean Leadership Development Program®
Optima’s Lean Leadership Development Program® is designed for those currently in a leadership role or leader candidates. It
provides a format to assess the participants relative to best practices for leadership at a particular level. The process is designed
to handle twelve participants in a one-day session. All participants should be at a similar level: first line leadership, Manager,
Superintendent, or Plant Manager. Companies can opt to send one to twelve participants per session. The session can be held
on-site or at Optima’s office in De Pere, Wisconsin.
Participants and their supervisor and/or Human Resources Department will receive a complete report of results in the following
categories: Organizing and Planning, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Dominance, Communications, Interpersonal Skills,
Flexibility, and Math Skills. They will also receive a personality profile for each participant and a list of Observer comments.
The process is designed to provide information to the participant and the company in order to help employees close gaps and
recognize some employees who are gifted but may not have been recognized.
There will be recommended curriculum to help close the gaps. It is our recommendation that participants be encouraged to pursue these classes in order to facilitate their development. We also recommend that this information be put directly into the participant’s objectives system using an A3 process.
Assess Where You Are
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


An evaluation process
Understand the strengths
Understand opportunities for improvement
Inclinations that will allow for success
Follow-up and Monitoring of Progress
 This is where we coach and mentor
 Take recommendations and put them into a Personal Development Plan
 Work with the Manager, Supervisor and Human Resources
 Touch base at least quarterly to ensure progress, and that the
participant is engaged and has the resources needed
Develop Plans
 Define how you can mentor high potential leaders
 Determine where to use high level leaders to mentor others
 Curriculum to develop and improve skills
What is at Stake?
 Missing the opportunity to develop an employee who is capable of the next level
 Losing a high potential employee
 Putting a person in a “bad fit” for their development or personality
 Throwing money at training without knowing the gaps - it’s a
waste
Learn More. Do More.
Career Opportunities
Continuous Improvement Specialist - Johnson Health Tech North America
Please apply on our website at: http://tinyurl.com/JHTNA-CIP
Or you can view all of our job postings at: http://us.corporate.johnsonfitness.com/content/careers
If you have questions, please contact Becky Deutmeyer in Human Resources at extension 2146.
Process Engineer - Presto Products Company, Weyauwega, WI
For more information go to http://www.ReynoldsCareers.com, search by Title “Engineer, Process” and location “WI-Weyauwega”
*** A Special Feature to Assist in your Personal Lean Journey ***
Health & Fitness Tip
From Evan Wiseman, Health & Wellness Coach at Fitnessology
Reframe the Brain: Don’t Work Out, Train!
Exercising, working out, getting your sweat on, pumping iron, physical activity, training; too many of these terms are all
interchangeable. But, to some, those who truly take it seriously, there is a major difference between showing up to the gym
for a good sweat and taking another confident step toward an objective. Today I’d like to expunge the fantasy that showing
up and doing whatever feels right that day is enough to push you to a new level. There is a major difference between working out and training.
Working out is a general term that can be thrown around pretty lightly, and rightly so. We all go for workouts, but workouts
can also be found in everyday activities. Clearing away a bit of forested area in your backyard to create a little extra room
can be a workout. Laying down a cobble stone pathway can be a workout. Heck, rearranging furniture can be a “workout” if
you do enough of it. I’m not saying that working out is a bad thing in the least, physical activity has wonderful benefits that
can keep us healthy and strong. But there is one key concept that is missing, something that
true training always brings to the table: a goal!
Training is when you have a structured plan that is formulated with a specific goal to progress
to. Each step is calculated so that not a single session of exercise is wasted. Your progress
is observed and recorded on a regular basis so that if you start to slow down you can reassess where you need to change your program. You work out when you train, but you don’t
always train when you work out.
Evan has a B.S. in
Kinesiology specializing in
exercise and fitness.
Here’s the best part, you don’t have to be a professional athlete, or an MMA fighter, or anything along those lines to train. You could be in your eighties and simply want to be able to
confidently stand on one leg for longer than five seconds. Just because you aren’t hardcore
doesn’t mean you can’t train. When you go to workout, have a plan and a goal seeded solidly in your mind, and push further each time!
Sadly, I didn’t get any questions emailed to me about the last article, so we can try again!
Steve Hirt has generously offered to pay for one session with me here at Fitnessology
to a random person that emails me a question within the next two weeks about this
article!
He has been a health and
wellness coach with
Fitnessology since 2009.
ewiseman@fitnessology.com Next time I’ll cover active warm up movements and why they’re important to your training!