If you've been following this blog or go back through past posts you'll recall discussions about having a five year plan to embed lean in the culture here at Genoa Design. Last Friday we used one of our Fluent Consortium days and invited David Haire, Vice President Best Practices and Lean Management, Atlantic Canada for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association to assist us in finalizing the plan. We also invited Project Managers at Genoa for input. Darren, our VP Operations took a break from enjoying his new RV at Gushues Pond Park to join us also.
We strayed from the agenda often (we need to establish some rules around conducting meetings) but finally managed to clear up some items and confirm through the team that we were on the right track. During a meeting with Leonard on Monday we finalized key items including our goal, the project charter, deliverables, principles, and how all of the "to do's" would fit in our five year plan which you may recall are named from the five s's.
Here's the goal, deliverables, and principles:
Lean Project Goal
Genoa’s mission statement has as its primary objective, to “apply lean principles to projects”. A strategic plan to embed lean in Genoa’s culture is necessary to achieve this company commitment to employees and customers. The goal then, is to embed the lean culture in the company to meet and sustain the mission statement.
Project Deliverables
-Strategic plan for lean progression and sustainability
-Employee training and lean skills development plan
-Improved communications throughout Genoa Design
-Employee teams that are empowered to drive improvement
-Visual display of lean strategy and measurable project performance
Project Principles (our version of the lean principles you'll find in any of the lean literature)
-A business approach that defines value from the perspective of the customer
-Manage the business by defining value streams and continuously improve their performance
-Develop a production process that creates flow
-Determine a rate of production that will allow management of projects based on takt time
-Pursue perfection
On another note, we also finalized our date to host the next Fluent Consortium meeting which will take place in a couple of weeks. Leonard and I have held many discussions on how to get maximum value out of the consortium. Both from the 10 consulting days that comes with membership and value from the members themselves and the relationships built through the group. In my previous life, I represented Canada Post as a consortium member and was always an advocate of specific lean projects and reporting on and learning from lean project progress. That is, tools used, methods, solutions, mistakes, etc.
Following much discussion on this subject, Leonard and I agreed that at the meeting we host we will share these things with our guests so that it's more about them learning than us receiving feedback. That way every member benefits equally rather than the host gaining the most benefit. Our feedback will be from members who will help us build on what we've done and what we're doing and how we can help them build.
That all said, this weekend marks Canada Day. For those of you outside our country, July 1st, 1867 is when British Colonies north of the USA united under the British North America Act to become the Dominion of Canada. It was called Dominion Day until 1982. Not all of the current provinces joined in 1867, there were a few stragglers, the last being our province of Newfoundland joining in 1949.
So, on Sunday, hoist a glass of your favorite tipple and join Canadians in celebrating our 140th year.
Ken Hogan
Lean Guy at Genoa
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