Ancient Egyptians, Funeral Boats and Project Management

While visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last month, I was struck by the small painted wooden models of Egyptian boats that were found in the Tomb of Meketre, in Thebes, in the year 1920. The artifacts date back 4000 years to 1981-1975 B.C. and are a remarkable example of model building, funerary traditions, boat building, and naval architecture. But as I looked at how one of the vessels is being paddled against the prevailing wind, it occurred to me that they also represent the challenges of Project Management in today's shipbuilding and manufacturing world.

Here's why...

I read that the model boats were representative of the voyage the Theban Official, Meketre, took to the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians placed a great deal of importance on the afterlife, and actually looked forward to the transition from present life on earth to the afterlife. I think we should place the same importance in our projects. As exciting and rewarding as current projects are, we should look forward to the afterlife: the next project.

Meketre, like most high-ranking Egyptians, took a variety of items with him in death so that he had them at his disposal in the afterlife. We should follow his example. As I consider our current projects, I ask myself what things I can take with me into the afterlife, or the next project. With special attention on how I want to continuously improve each new project, I created a small list:

• A list of project inputs – what we were given to start with and what we were provided with throughout the life of the project
• An analysis of the inputs – special attention to quality, problems, issues, timeliness
• Lessons learned - internal
• Best practices – internal developments and how they helped the project
• Metrics and historical data – how we performed, analyzed internally
• Detailed information about the stakeholders – in order to link the identity of stakeholders with success or risk
• Customer feedback – in order to get the most important opinion and analysis of all, which is an external evaluation of our performance.

Finally, how do we actually transition from the current project on to the next? Just like the ancient Egyptians, we celebrate!

Imagine…did Meketre ever conceive that he would have impact on the life of a small business 4000 years later? Makes you realize that you never know the extent of your actions on this earth…or the afterlife!

For more information about Ancient Egyptians, and this particular exhibit of model boats found in Meketre’s tomb, visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art website:

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/100000431

Writing an Outstanding Proposal

An excellent half-day session on writing winning proposals for government.The session was facilitated by Michael Asner and was sponsored by NATI (Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries). Walked away with some key points that can be applied to my responses to RFPs for both government and commercial ventures. In no particular order:
- Always include an executive summary. Consider the executive summary as the elevator pitch and the place where you set the theme. This is where one describes how they will respond to the RFP and why the client should chose your company over any other respondent. Be specific. The rest of the proposal should refer to and address each of the points covered in the executive summary.
- Always address risk and risk mitigation. Include a risk management plan. It might be the differentiator.
- Avoid technical language wherever possible.
- Top areas of interest for an RFP reviewer: risk, value and lastly money. If one can demonstrate how you will eliminate risk and increase value, then the reviewer will be more likely to champion the need to increase budget if necessary to pay for it.
- If you can't hide it...feature it. I will leave it to you to figure that one out. Call me if you want to discuss.
- Don't dis the competition. Use generic weaknesses or threats, then use the critical success factors you bring to the table to demonstrate how you will eliminate these threats.
- Proof of concept... offer it up!
- Don't regurgitate the RFP. It will get you thrown out of the review pile every time.
- And for the last point, which happens to be my point... go on-line to www.gitomer.com for some excellent additional advice and support. His sales philosophy is in line with all of the above.

I'm going try out the tips I learned right now... and to you, good luck on your next proposal!

National Lean Conference 2012 - Learning Points

It has been a couple of months since attending "Embracing Lean - CME National Lean Conference 2012" in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I have been reviewing my notes to see what new concepts I learned, and which concepts I have actually implemented, and what is left on my list. I  found that we have implemented one major item that deserves a blog entry all on its own - we found a use for Trello.

In this entry, I would like to talk about the CAP-DO cycle. I picked up on this very simple process from the first workshop of the conference entitled "Learning from the Masters" presented by Louis Schultz. The concept of CAP-DO is simply a 180 degree rotated PDCA...which makes perfect sense when you have an existing process or product, and wish to improve it. Isn't that what we all have?

We continually perform CAP-DO here at Genoa. With every engineering process we have developed for every value stream that we have mapped, we always start with CHECK. On a regular basis, we review each individual process or standard operating procedure to make sure it: #1 - still makes sense, #2 - it does not have any issues, #3 - it outlines the most efficient method of completing the work, #4 - it does not contain waste, #5 - any number of individuals can complete the work, and #6 - there are no other weaknesses present. Then we ACT. We develop the way to revise the process. Mind you...even our revision process is mapped (and therefore reviewed). Then we PLAN. We revise the work instruction, inform everyone of the change and train everybody on the change. Then we DO. We put the revised process in work and people start using the new process on live projects. While this is happening, we continue to track the process in the same way we have been tracking every process for years.

Then we start over again....

So I guess this conference learning point was a means of properly identifying our existing internal process. Learning from the Masters helped me to realize we already had a process, but it also helped me realize that the CAP-DO cycle is a tried and proven method of continual improvement. Ultimately I learned that we must never skip a step, otherwise we introduce risk....and I don't like risk.

The power of a visit.

Dropped in to visit a few customers last week, and realized that the power of an on-site visit extends beyond any contact in a trade show, email, phone call, fax, or any form of advertising. It also provides valuable information with respect to lean.

By dropping in to visit your customers, and being ready to talk about them, not your own company, you learn about what their needs are, what situations they are facing and what current activities are at the top of their minds, and you learn about their culture. This helps you identify how your service or product may fit a customer's needs. If you have regular visits, you can also start to identify trends and ongoing needs versus situation specific needs.

With respect to Lean, you can take the things you learned above, and start to identify what the true value to the customer may be. And after all, that is what Lean is all about: identify the value according to the customer, then strip everything that is not of value to them. All that other stuff...the stuff they are not willing to pay for... that is waste.

Lean Conference Highlights and Take-aways

Well....I attended the AME Lean Conference in Calgary last week. Combined AME/CME conference entitled "Get Back to the Future". June 2011....just in case you are wondering which year I am actually posting in...

I was invited to speak in "Value Stream 1: Lean Beyond Manufacturing". My topic was "Embedding Lean in the Engineering World". About 25 people attended and I think they were intrigued...had about 8-10 people waiting afterwards to talk and ask questions. Go the the website to download my presentation...and lots of others! http://ame.omnibooksonline.com/measure2011/index.html

The conference was excellent with some great take-aways. As I sat in the sun afterward and thought about the conference, and tried to make some notes on the past few days, I decided to categorize my thoughts into two major components. Concepts and Tools.

I personally walked away with some key concepts that I want to think about and develop over the next six months. Here they are:

1. When trying and launching a new idea - let's get 80% done right and launch the sucker. We'll go back and fine-tune the remaining 20% later...but let's get it out there!
2. More visual management needed...even in an engineering environment. Let's try to make the non-visual more visual!
3. How about launching a consortium-run conference! A conference put off by private business for other private businesses. No catches, no conditions.
4. Think left of the RFP. Sounds like a future blog topic....
5. Competitive advantage - cost and differentiation. Another future blog topic....
6. In 90% of Fortune 500 companies, 80% of revenues come from new products developed over the last 4 years.
7. Moving Beyond Improvement Tools - leader's responsibility!
8. Read "Escape the Improvement Trap" by Michael Bremer.
9. Organize my time and daily tasks according to a big picture. Another future blog post....
10. Leonard needs process charts....
11. Make the customer #1 reason for everything.

I think I'll save the tools for another easy post next week...

What is the value of value-added....

I would like to start a discussion within the shipbuilding industry, or any industry, on the value from a customer's perspective, of value-added services or products.

Our specific concern is this. As a service-firm, who offers design services to the shipbuilding industry specializing in production design, I would like to get the customers' thoughts on what is worth paying for, and what is not.

Genoa Design prides itself on adding much value through our services to our customers...value beyond the scope of work. The value is hidden within small and specialized technical processes that allow our customers to save money and time through little things we include in our deliverables. Examples are: complete check dimensions, advanced build strategy with integrated piping and structure and outfit, profile plots showing bending offsets and inverse bending information if applicable, extra details in assembly drawings, a guaranteed process-driven design sequence that automates many design steps thus improving quality, and most importantly, up-front design checks that solve problems and issues and fill in missing information up front, so that the fabricator does not have to deal with issues on the floor.

Our impression is that many competitors follow a strict protocol, that outlined bluntly, means "whatever is presented on the drawings is lofted and delivered to the shipyard". This can lead to serious problems and difficulties on the shop floor.

By investing time up-front, we usually forcast most issues, get them solved earlier in the production design process, and deliver information to the yard that is mostly issue free.

The problem for us is that we embedd this process into our quotations, but as a result, we do not win every bid competition. We have to place some value on this extra time and effort, which we know beyond certainty, is worth every penny. Although our Lean processes offset this effort, the total contract value often leads to a slightly higher price. Still competitive, but just enough higher to notice.

So... when the fabricator is faced with two quotations to complete the job, they will usually choose the lesser of two prices. Esepcially in these economic times. The lower price often does not include the "value-added" service we provide.

I have several questions....

1. Should we simply eliminate this step of advanced problem solving?
2. Should we remove our value-added features? (extra details on drawings, extra plots, extra information)
3. Should we go to the trouble of quantifying these features and presenting them as options in a quotation?
4. How aggressive should we be when awarded a project, then trying to charge for extras and changes because they were not included in our scope of work?
5. Should we just drop our prices and operate without a margin, thus winning contracts, then proving the importance of  our value-added services, hoping that we gain customer loyalty?
6. How can we make our customers aware of what we can do for them?
7. How much effort should we invest in educating our customers?
8. If customer education involves their own analysis and measures and metrics, how can we encourage customers to make this investment?
9. Should we model/design/loft the information that is presented exactly on the drawings? Then worry about changes and extras later?

I would be anxious to get some serious feedback on this.

Yes, I know the answers to some things. We cannot take the easy way out. We have to invest ourselves, in order to gain customer loyalty.

One way to achieve loyalty and impress customers is to consistently exceed expectations.

Mind you....we have done this in the past....and still we can lose a project, lose a customer, or experience the disappointment when a customer will try another vendor for some unknown reason.

Does the answer lie in a Lean Value-Chain? This is a new concept to the shipbuilding industry. How do we start this?

The bottom line is that we are all human.

When purchasing a used vehicle, and presented with two identical looking vehicles on the outside, many of us will choose the least expensive, hoping that the life-cycle cost is low. We are often willing to assume the risk. Sometimes we end up spending more down the line, in addition to the hastle of continued time-consuming maintenance, instead of making an investment up-front. Sometimes we get a great deal. No maintenance, no problems. Sometimes we buy a lemon. And man...that hurts.

When we want our van painted...and one painter will produce an excellent job with top quality paint, plus paint a dragon on the side of the van, and the other painter will produce an excellent job with top quality paint minus the dragon....many of us will opt for a dragon-less van. How about UV protection? Clear-coat? Free wash and wax? Free touch-ups for the next six months?

But in the words of a good friend...."I think the world needs more dragons".

Me...I think we all need touch-ups.

If you read this...let me know your thoughts....

Progress on Mini-Kaizens

So we have our Mini-Kaizens all ready now....and with some final input from project managers we are ready to deploy next week.

Each Mini-Kaizen can be equated to an A3. We are not using the A3 presentation exactly; we have used a written text format. But, we have followed the A3 process to define the problems, define the root causes, define our countermeasures, achieve agreement, create a plan and timetable, and build in continuous improvement. Each Mini-Kaizen, or A3, is linked directly to our Hoshin Kanri. The Hoshin Kanri is fed by our overall Lean Transformation project. Year by year, diagnostic score feeds the Hoshin Kanri and helps us measure success and achieve focus.

Back to our Mini-Kaizens.

The author of each Mini-Kaizen, our VP Operations, knows each problem and each person or team who accepts the responsibility for completing the Mini-Kaizen knows the problems. They live them each day. The problems do not need further explanation through the analysis afforded by the A3 process. We have defined the root cause. We know who owns each problem. We know the countermeasures.

Each individual problem feeds the bigger problem in our office, which is lack of documented procedure. We are in fact skipping a step, which is mapping current state, and jumping directly to future state. We have analyzed and concluded that mapping current state is no value to us, since there is no current state other than individual preferrence.

I would equate our engineering environment to a manufacturing plant where the manager asks the employees to build the widgets, and each employee uses their own preferred method of building the widget. Did I just define chaos? Well....we are not quite there anymore. We were....but not presently. We have defined process equivalent to setting up individual work tables, in a specified sequence. Now....we are working on individual cell process.

I'll reiterate.. in an engineering environment, the tendency is for each designer (engineer) to use their own methodology to complete any given engineering task. This methodology is learned in school and through experience on the job, and often under the mentorship of more experienced engineers and designers.

Our goal is to combine the best practices and arrive at a procedure, and value stream map, that represents our best shot at defining a future state. By bringing teams together, we can establish a set of Genoa acceptable procedures to complete engineering and design tasks.

These Mini-Kaizens are our attempt to organize which work cells we map and improve first.

We have many work cells complete...and we are missing many more.

As each work cell (individual engineering task) is mapped and the procedure is set, the documentation and SOP is catalogued, then disseminated to staff via document distribution and training.

Continuous improvement is addressed in year 5 of our plan....and we are presently in year 3. Refer to the chart.

I'll post further once we have deployed these Mini-Kaizens and start to see deliverables and outcomes.

Using Mini-Kaizens to maintain momentum

So times are tough and we are concentrating on earning money. This means that we are trying hard to reduce tasks to billable tasks only. In a projectized environment, this means that if we work for an hour, we want to be able to charge for that hour.

Isn't this Lean anyway?

But there is an obvious missing component...and that missing component is the investment in continual improvement.

Here at Genoa, we normally have dedicated time each week for working on Lean projects. But in a projectized company, during times when every single dollar in the cashflow equation counts, the last thing we want is to be working on non-billable work. We want to work for an hour, be paid for that hour, deposit the money in the bank account, pay bills, make payroll, and climb back out of the debt we have built up over the last year, trying to keep the team together and stay alive during the down-turn in the industry and economy.

But then we miss the most important part of our transformation to a World-Class Lean company, and that is the continual effort to get better.

And one of the more difficult parts of being a projectized company is managing resources so that they perfectly coincide and balance with project work-level requirements. Projects suddenly slow down due to external (client) circumstances. Projects often come to a stand-still for short periods of time. Then all of a sudden...the heat is on and there are not enough hours and not enough people to get the job done in time for the client's needs.

So how do you juggle short bursts of unexpected availability?

We have started the Mini-Kaizen.

Basically, a "job-jar" with specific personel assigned (based on expertise) with a mini-budget, scope of work, specific deliverables, and a time limit.

So now when people have a short wait for some unexpected reason beyond our control, we have the "job-jar" ready.

Yes, in these times, it can be difficult for the culture of the office to accept and understand the importance of investing time in the continual improvement program. Some may think it is better to stay on the project, and forge ahead, albeit a bit slow and with an inefficiency you may be willing to swallow in the interest of keeping busy....but we have learned this leads to nothing but disaster and loss. I'll cover that topic some other blog....

Right now, we are ready to start our "job-jar".

I'll let you know how it works out.

Time to focus again...

In the midst of economic struggles, fighting to bring work into the office, staying flexible when seeking and choosing work, making difficult decisions to downsize or modify the team, one cannot lose sight of the continual pursuit of perfection. I don't think we can afford to lose sight of Lean principles.


Lean is what can makes the difference between me and my competition. In the present and in the future. There has never been a time when this is more important to the life of my company.

I find it is not necessary to have achieved a specific level of Lean business practice. People do not look for that from me. But it is necessary to be dedicated to Lean. People do look for that. It is necessary to be dedicated to the fifth and most important Lean Principle. Continual pursuit of perfection.

Continual pursuit of perfection. Continual means continuing indefinitely over time, without interruption. Quite simply, this means we can never stop.

So in times of difficulty, I do what I have to do. I change focus, I place emphasis on doing the work. But I do not stop making notes in the background. I do not stop analyzing. I focus on the work at hand, but I keep my eyes open. I use all that we have developed to get our work done faster, of better quality with the reliability of our defined process. But I take the time to make a few notes. I continually take a look at what is going right and what may be going wrong. I save these notes.

The time will come very soon to bring out the notes and make some more improvements. The time will come when those notes will help us make up the next A3 and help us to discover the root cause just a little bit quicker than we expected.

I think I have to fous on the driving, but I cannot take my eyes completely off the dashboard.

Yes, I just talked circles around the time at hand at Genoa. We are focused on the work. We don't have a spare dime to invest in a well-needed improvement at this time.... but we are still making notes.

We all need to be taking notes.

The Lean Entrepreneur

A blog for Entrepreneurs...and especially Lean Entrepreneurs.

I've been thinking about Michael Gerber's book, E-Myth Revisited. I also listened to him speak in St. John's, Newfoundland, last week. His overriding message is "work on the business, not for the business".

In other words, work on developing the business, do not immerse yourself in the day-to-day activities of the business. The bottom line is that every successful business contains as much value in the process as in the people. As the entrepreneur, you create the team, you lead the team, and you guide the team to create the process.

Of course without the right people, it is next to impossible to accomplish this. The staff and the culture play as important a role as any other aspect of the company's personality. In the end, the team owns the process as much as anybody. So we are not robots....but...

The truly successful business is defined by the ability for any staff member to be able to do their job exactly the same way that the previous staff member completed the same job...same as the person on holiday, or the person out sick, or the person on the other shift. Who completes the work and when should be of no consequence or concern to the customer.

So according to Michael Gerber, a successful entrepreneur is one who creates a business and creates a process for the business to run predictably, in a repeatable and reliable fashion. The successful entrepreneur is one who will spend the majority of time developing the system, and less time working within the system.

Well I say that the successful entrepreneur is a Lean Entrepreneur. And I do not necessarily mean that a successful entrepreneur uses Lean techniques throughout their day....I mean that the successful entrepreneur is focused on Lean. A successful entrepreneur creates a business that lives and breathes the 5 principles of Lean.
1. Identify the value.
2. Map the value (process).
3. Create flow (smooth and reliable, predictable, repeatable).
4. Create pull (don't over-produce).
5. Continually improve.

Any great Lean company does excactly what Michael Gerber recommends...and more...but let's keep to what Michael Gerber is talking about.

Let's think about what Mr. Gerber says to focus on. Focus on process. Focus on repeatability, predictability, reliability. Do not work within the system, work on the system. Yes...go to Gemba...but give the "doers" the power to help create, control and maintain the system.

Everything within Genoa Design, my company, is centered around an engineering process. All designers doing the engineering tasks exactly the same way every time. Sit two people side-by-side and what will you see? Identical process.

This is what makes a company valuable from an entrepreneur's perspective. Once you know the staff are doing their jobs every time, exactly the way they said they would do it, then you, as the entrepreneur, have the freedom to focus your energy on other things business.

Like getting more business, like continually improving, like creating more processes, like growing the business, like planning the next party for the staff!

What can separate you from the competition? How about the other 4 Lean principles?

Is there much difference between Michael Gerber's smart entrepreneur (one who get's it) compared to a Lean Entrepreneur? Well... the Lean Enterpreneur has another toolbox full of tools that can be used to continually improve the business. But the start point is the same.

Funny how all these cutting-edge thinkers are all singing the same song....maybe it is because they are right?

If you are an entrepreneur, visit Michael Gerber's website http://www.e-myth.com/

If you are further interested in Lean, start with http://www.lean.org/

Hoshin Kanri vs. Leverage Your Best

I just finished reading "Leverage Your Best, Ditch The Rest" by Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan. The book is subtitled "The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On". What I found was a Hoshin Kanri approach to personal coaching. This is not a negative comment in any way...this is a very positive remark. I think the application is perfect for us Lean Champions.

The authors use a system we have been using at Genoa to monitor and move our Lean transformation forward. At Genoa, we use a Lean diagnostic to evaluate our progress within 16 categories of Lean implementation. We use the results to guide us and tell us where we need improvement...in which categories. We use the items on the diagnostic, which we have not completed, as an indication what needs to be done next. We prioritize according to our business goals, and then proceed.

This is exactly what the authors of the book have done for a personal coaching approach. The authors encourage the reader to complete a self-analysis that covers what they call "The Seven Leverage Points". These seven points outline areas of self-discipline and personal management, that if you master two or three of then at least, your life will improve drastically. As you analyze yourself according to these points, you focus in on specific ways to master elements within each area, and understand the benefits that you will realize once you have mastered an area, or gotten it under control.

They use the Hoshin Kanri method of getting life under control. Strategic Planning for your life. Strategic Management for your life. If you are inclined toward Lean Principles in your work-life, you will be inclined toward this approach toward personal life. Get the book and read it. www.leverageyourbest.com.

Lean Engineering on the Shipyard Production Floor

A brief discussion with a shipyard today. Their vision is to have a virtual product model of the vessel available for the fitters, welders and shipwrights on the floor so that they can rotate, zoom in, zoom out, pan and analyze areas of the product model that will help them assemble the vessel. This will be combined with isometric assembly drawings with minimal annotation and dimensions. Makes for clean and low effort production drawings, increases the responsibility on the production floor to look carefully at the product model and see what the intent to build is. The care and guidance is focused on the sequence and Lean process. The waste in this case is the duplication of providing dimensions on coded and computer-cut parts.
The product model can be started at concept, and matured throughout the design spiral.
This is the way of the future as I see it.

Canadian Conference on Modern Shipbuildng

There were approximately 160 attendees at this week's conference in Ottawa. Many presentations on different aspects of the state of Canada's shipbuilding state.
I was asked to present my take on success.
Of course I talked about Lean.
It was a very broad overview on how Genoa Design tackled the transformation from a normally successful technological company, to a more successful company who embraces the principles of Lean Manufacturing to achieve continual improvement on the road to perfection.
I had a captive audience. They had to listen. Some did. Some slept.
I know many thought that my company was small potatoes...and reflected on how easy it is to apply change in a small organization.
So all you small organizations out there.... there is no excuse why you cannot embrace change, seek innovation, and employ a philosophy of continual improvement.
All you big organizations...you should still pay attention. Even though you think the answer lies in size and new equipment, and expanded capability...you have to start by looking at the floor.
We all need to pick ourselves up by the suspenders and start looking at the basics, and why we may not be able to compete on a global level, before we start purchasing equipment and increasing capability. Because all we will end up with is a capability to build bigger things and many more types of things just as ineffectively and just as expensively, as we do presently.
There is no excuse why we should not all start with the basics.
I believe that Health Care organizations in Canada would do well to follow suit. State of the art equipment can be operated with as much inefficiency as older equipment.
When the shipbuilding conference was presented with examples of successful shipyards in Malaysia, and China, who employ low-level technology to build a ship, we should have noted that the quality of vessel rolling down the slipway was comparable to any vessel built in North America. Yes, the labour was less expensive, but the overall quality was comparable. But what about schedule?
Herein lies an opportunity for competitive advantage. Build faster. Less mistakes the first time. Reduced inventory. The launchway pulls the vessel through the panel line, through the paint shop, through pre-outfit, into the erection area, and finally into the water.
Yes...we have some lean lessons to learn.
We had better start paying attention.
Efficiency does not lie in someone else's equipment.

Teamwork

First entry in over a year. Lets try again.
This entry focuses on teamwork. I'm trying to build our management team. Its going to be a long and hard and difficult process....but amazingly simple too. I started by asking everyone in the management team to read Pat Lencioni's "Five Dysfunctions of a Team". Good start to a long process.
Pat bases his theories on a set of five dysfunctions, starting with an absense of trust, which spawns a fear of conflict in the team. Since there is no conflict, and people do not voice their concerns, they cannot commit to any given resolution, and if they are not committed, they are certainly not accountable. Failure to bring accountability to a team leads to inattention to results. So quite simply, it all starts with an absense of trust, and leads right up the ladder to lack of results.
This is where we are going to start. We are going to start by building trust within the team.
We're going to need help.
We're going to need time.
We're going to make mistakes and we're going to fall apart, but hopefully only to come together stronger in the end.
After all, the only true competitive advantage is the team.

Leadership and Project Management - according to Leonard Cohen

Last night I attended the Leonard Cohen concert at Holy Heart auditorium, in St. John's. Small intimate setting for the concert. Leonard was humble, gracious and a true entertainer. This was without question the best concert I have ever seen in my entire life. His words impacted me like no other live performance has. The only other live performance which runs a close second is the performance I have th chance to see each year when I visit Preservation Hall, in New Orleans.

Leonard Cohen's lines I remember most from last night:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

I had to present at the CME Leadership convention this morning. At 5 this morning, I threw out the notes I had prepared and wrote new notes on Leadership according to Leonard Cohen.

According to the Canadian military when I undertook officer training camp in 1987, leadership is "the art of influencing human behaviour so as to accomplish a mission or a task".

The bells you ring are the resources, the team, and the skills you have at your disposal to get the job done. Use them with all your heart. Use them sincerely. Honesty is the key, and when you are honest, you open yourself as necessary to build the relationship.

Your perfect offering is the perfect solution. It is the data you must collect, the research you must complete, the work that must be done before you make your decision. Forget it. Make your decision. Take the risk. The risk of inaction is paralysis.

There is a crack in everything. You will make mistakes. You will find them, and others will find them. Through these cracks, you will build trust and respect, as long as you hold yourself accountable.

That's how the light gets in.

One must open themselves to looking at project management in a new light. Standardize the process where you can, and schedule a self-monitoring process.

VSM the project management process.

Break your meetings into manageable categories, such as daily technical, weekly tactical, and monthly strategic. Keep the subject matter narrow in each meeting.

Stage some schedule freezes. Make the stakeholder take notice and get involved. Make them notice and approve, before the project proceeds any further.

Standardize all work possible that must be scheduled. Free your time to manage what's going wrong, or changes, or risks.

Project management has a crack. It needs to be looked at and analyzed. It needs to be critically shortened and tested for value.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

The Quality Cycle

We’ve been away from the blog for a while but still working away on the lean projects discussed last time. Our designers have been very busy with production design project work and we’ve had some growth in the last months adding new staff and projects.

We’ve added another initiative to our lean work that ties together existing lean projects and complements our human resources plan.

The Quality Cycle Project, which I’m leading, links standard operating procedures, employee expectations, quality checks, error tracking, employee communication, training and development, and performance management.

The current state of quality control is not clearly defined and checking of work before release to clients is performed but not to any particular set of standards. Reliance on the expertise of project managers and senior designers is now the cornerstone of the quality process. It works but project managers needed a way to ensure consistency in the process and streamline it to reduce rework and ensure errors are not missed during our period of business and employee growth.

We met with project managers and decided that the whole cycle needed to be addressed and not just the quality check piece. There needed to be standard operating procedure for design and quality checks, error tracking for improvement purposes, an understanding by employees of what was being checked, and a feedback loop including, training and best practices. All of this is linked then to human performance management, which includes the training and development piece, coaching, and performance improvement.

It’s important to note that all of this is to be achieved with the lean principles in mind. Foremost in these principles is that the view of this process is from the customer’s perspective. The quality cycle objective is to deliver quicker with higher quality. It’s also about improving the performance of the value stream and that can only be achieved with employee involvement and participation in the process. The quality cycle is not about individualizing and tracking employee performance. It is designed to improve overall company performance.

It is about individual accountability though. Managers will review through feedback, coaching, and documented training objectives how employees develop skills to improve performance. If a skill deficiency exists, a training plan is established and employees are accountable to improve the skill. In relation to what is measured, the process is very open and employees will be provided the list of deliverables that will be reviewed during the quality check process.

We are now at the check stage where we will run a trial of the future state starting the end of this month and then review and adapt before implementation company wide.

Go Montreal!!

Ken Hogan
Lean Guy at Genoa

Five Lean Projects Underway

In a recent blog I discussed Lean Level 1 Certification through CME. Since then, the classroom portion of the training is complete and we’ve selected three projects for these teams.

In addition, two other lean teams are up and running and we've made significant progress.

In each case, project charters including scope, deliverables, and milestones have been established.

Team projects are summarized as follows:

1. Training and Development Team

This team was established in November to assess current skill levels and create a means to improve performance and develop employees. Led by Senior Designer Brian Newhook, the team has completed a skill assessment of all employees, established company skill level requirements, identified areas of risk, and put together the plan for improvement.
They are presently focusing on minimizing the risks identified in specific areas through a mentoring program to ensure expert level capability exists in all areas, with a minimum of three employees meeting the expert criteria. They also have an excellent plan that will be launched this week to all employees that will see individual skills improved using training plans to close skill gaps.
Employees will submit their individual training plans to the team who will approve training plans to raise the overall skill level at Genoa.

2. Total Productive Maintenance Team

Led by Gus Slaney, IT Support Specialist, the team will review the current maintenance requirements for all of our computer equipment. The objective is to provide solutions that will remove the need for individuals to run the various programs that scan for viruses and clean up hard drives. Ideally, automation of these functions will free up systems and operators to concentrate on design work. Presently, relying on manual interventions increases risk of infection and slows operations.
A cost / benefit analysis completed as part of the project will allow Genoa to decide which solution options are practical.

3. Cut the Waiting Team

One of three projects undertaken by the leaders trained by CME, this project is looking at sources of waiting that impact production, and cause delivery delays. The team, led by Project Manager, Chad Mercer has identified many sources of waiting and divided the list into two categories. External waiting includes all issues outside the direct control of Genoa. Studying these issues will identify issues in which Genoa can influence outcomes and improve lead times as a result. Internal waiting is directly within the control of Genoa and with corrective actions can greatly impact lead time. Both categories have been assessed and assigned to a priority matrix. Impact on operations, and ease of correction are criteria used to determine areas to work on.
Next, the team will meet with senior managers selecting items to work on.

4. Value Stream Mapping - Modeling

Led by Project Manager, Kyran Pennell, value stream mapping techiques will be used to analyze the modelling process. The objective is to identify waste, create flow, and introduce lisp routines minimizing designer effort. A training and best practices component of this project will allow designers to share knowledge and create learning opportunities improving performance. Of the projects ongoing, this one will identify and eliminate the waste within the work. In all other projects, waste identified could be considered as external to the design process.
Experienced designers on this team have their work cut out as the nature of the work lends itself to creativity and operator-unique approaches to completing tasks. The challenge will be in finding methods of improvement without removing the creative aspect from designers.

5. Standard Operating Procedures, Checklists, and Tools

Senior Designer, Angela Porter leads this team to formally identify, document and/or establish standard procedures and tools for the performance of all tasks. The goals and objectives of the SOP Project include standardization of procedures, work instructions, checklists and other tools relating to Genoa's operations and project deliverables.
It includes items such as, consistency in standards related to Genoa deliverables, assisting new employees with clearly defined procedures and documentation, assist training and development, and creation of an environment promoting employee involvement.The team will compile and index existing procedures, review them for relevance, opportunity for improvement, standardize a format, and identify needs for new procedures. It will develop a mechanism for continuous review and renewal. A communication component ensures awareness of procedures.


This is great progress and many thanks to team members for remaining focused and to employees for contributing to the results.



Ken Hogan

Lean Guy at Genoa

Data Analysis Term Paper

In our search for takt time, Allison Kennedy, a Memorial University Naval Architecture student, wrote a final work term paper on, "Lean Principles in a Marine and Shipbuilding Engineering Environment."

This detailed analysis used data collected from past projects at Genoa and tested theories of production rates existing in the marine engineering design field. This is something we've been working on as a R&D project and I've referred to it in past blog postings.

While the entire paper most accurately describes the process and findings, the following is a summary of Allison's conclusions and next steps.

It doesn't read like a John Grisham novel but contains some valuable information.

Ken Hogan
Lean Guy at Genoa

"Lean Principles in a Marine and Shipbuilding Engineering Environment"

Conclusions
Implementing lean into a virtual marine and Shipbuilding Company is not a straightforward process. There are no physical objects to count or measure in order to determine the production rate. It is still unknown if a valid production rate can be determined by analyzing accumulated data from past projects. This may be an aspect contributing to the fact that there are hardly any similar companies worldwide that have attempted to implement lean. Since there are no guidelines to follow, the process is deemed as research and development and this adds to the level of difficulty of the problem.
There were a total of six tests completed using the accumulated data from past projects in an attempt to determine a valid production rate. Five of these tests were based on the same idea, which is to use the collected data to find parts per volume and parts per hour value. These general values were used to determine the number of completion hours required to complete future projects. The first step taken was to determine the calculated number of parts by multiplying the calculated parts per hour value by the known volume. Next, the number of completion hours could be found by dividing the calculated number of parts by the calculated parts per hour value.
Tests one through five grew increasingly more detailed in attempt to determine a smaller completion hour variance. The first test was general and determined ppv and pph values from analyzing the entire data set. The second test divided the data based on ship type assuming that similar ship types would have similar ppv and pph values. Test five was the most detailed test in which the data was split into ship type, ship section and ship length. The outliers were also removed in this test. The results prove that as the testing process moves forward, the completion time variance between actual and calculated values becomes smaller. Test five provides the best results having a variance of approximately 23 percent. This variance is still high and therefore the production rate calculated would not provide beneficial results. However, one must note that the results are continually improving as testing continues. This is a positive factor, which gives hope that an accurate production rate can be achieved.
Test six was based on the determination of a volume per hour value from the analysis of vessels of similar types. The idea for this test was sprung from the thought that additional inaccuracies are introduced from the calculation of a number of parts and that this uncertainty was introduced into the calculated number of completion hours. The method used in test six is more direct than that of tests one through five because the completion hours are calculated in a single step. The results of test six are poorer than that of test five. The barge results of test six are compared to the results of test five since test five was completed only on barges. It can be seen that test six produces a variance that is higher by approximately ten percent. This was the first test completed using the volume per hour method, further testing will undoubtedly determine a closer approximation.

Recommendations
There are a number of recommendations which should be taken in order to develop the most efficient and effective method of completion time determination. These are all outlined below for review and consideration:
1. The validity of data should be studies to determine usefulness. As discussed, old data is less valid than newer data for various reasons. A study could be completed to test variations in new and old data and remove any old data which falls out of a certain range.
2. Data capture process should be more accurate. A process should be put in place so that employee time recording must be done at the end of each day. This will decrease the chance that time is allotted to the wrong task and increase the validity of the collected data.
3. There should be consideration put into performing an analysis based on the input of design drawings received from the client. Some details contain less detail causing more PM, set up, modeling etc.
4. An analysis should be done in which the actual hours worked are compared to bid hours. This will give an idea of the variations in bid and actual hours.
5. Additional columns should be added to the ‘Time Estimation’ spreadsheet to ensure the user compares the vessels, which are indeed the most similar. For example the overall length, draft and hull form coefficients should be displayed for each of the completing vessels so that they can be compared with the proposed vessel.Research and development should continue in this area so that an efficient and effective method of determining completion time can be found.

New Year's Resolutions

It's a new year, and the air is full of resolutions.

I just received Jim Womack's latest e-newsletter concerning cadence, and the fact that he has resolved to write one e-newsletter per month.

Personally I have set goals that may very well exceed my capabilities in 2008. Writing this blog once per month may be an example...or may not.

Already, my to-list list is far too long to see an end.

How to prioritize? How to start the lengthy task that we know will take 2 days to complete, when there are other tasks of similar priority that only take one hour and can be easily stricken off the list? How on earth does one organize such a mess? Throw on top of this a Lean Project that will occupy the Lean focus within our company for the next 5 years? With so many items that need attention, focus, teamwork and research, how to pick which Lean project or task to accomplish first?

Cadence mixed with prioritization mixed with low-hanging fruit dangling around our heads...

I believe that this is why we have a tidy little tool we call the Lean Diagnostic. This handy-dandy tool enables us to self-evaluate in an organized fashion, within a variety of topics that span the complete spectrum of running a business.

So as we analyze, it becomes obvious through the low scores, where the weaknesses are, and where the priorities lie.

So as we analyze, we create pull.

Isn't that what a good to-do list should do? It should pull our efforts from us. But the to-do list must be developed intelligently enough that it pulls from us as the customer demands, not in an arbitrary fashion that depends on our moods, or our likes or dislikes. One can compare this to brain "setup" and batching in our brain according to our likes of the day. Every good Lean practishioner knows that batching ain;t good.

Back to cadence. Introduce cadence into the customer pull, and you come up with a way of setting daily goals to strike to-do items off your list. But how do you know how many to accomplish per day if you have not levelled the individual tasks? How about conducting a Value-stream mapping exercise on a to-do list to see which items are wasteful? How about levelling the tasks into equal efforts so that we can set a cadence for ourselves? Not quite Takt, but the cadence that Jim refers to.

So...with these things in mind, I should be able to insert this blog-writing task, which is of equal effort to other items, into my to-do list, set the day, accomplish the task, and strike it off my list once per month. Thus, I too have cadence, and the blog gets done regularly.

This is not the final frontier, but when we can start using Lean lessons and tools to change the workings of our brain, we start making some tremendous hits. To 5S the brain is like finally letting the 5S team enter your office to mess with your drawers. After all...we all know that 5S is good for the other people, but will never work for us.

I think this year I have made some resolutions:
1. Let the 5S team into my drawers.
2. Set a cadence for my to-do list.
3. Get the blog out once per month.

A couple of fun resolutions:
4. Change my voice mail daily, so people know they are leaving messages on a dynamic system, not a useless tool.
5. Run a road race.

Leonard

Genoa Lean Update

A lot has happened since the last blog post way back in October, so here are brief updates on some of the things that have been going on:

International Trade Shows - We've attended both the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) Maritime Technology Concference and Expo in Fort Lauderdale and the International Work Boat Show in New Orleans. Leonard and I presented at both shows innovation sessions on how a company can get lean started. Both sessions were well attended. We also had a lot of interest at our booth in what we were doing in lean and how our pursuit of lean is helping clients success. Besides rising our lean profile, the new business from the shows is impressive and will keep us busy back at the shop for a while, OK maybe a little longer than a while.

Congratulations to Genoa's employees on the excellent reputation you've established in the industry as evidenced by feedback we were getting at the booth. Also, the Kirby 90ft Towboat won a "Boat of the Year Award"...production lofting work done here.


Training and Development Team - I discussed this a few blogs back and I'm pleased to report that we are moving ahead most excellently. Brian Newhook, Chad Mercer, Angela Porter, and Dimitry Kapiturov are the team members focused on improving the skill level of employees at Genoa and have already begun the work by completing the scope and identifying the year 1 milestones of the initiative. This is in keeping with our five year plan of sorting out the skills of our people and improving our production processes through training and development. They've been meeting regularly and right now are in the process of verifying the information we've collected and determining skill level requirements.


Lean Level 1 Certification - Six employees have been selected to complete the Lean certification program offered by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. In addition to Brian, Chad, and Dimitry; Penny George, Kyran Pennell, and Dean Noseworthy will attend six days of training and complete three lean projects over four months to attain certification Level 1.


Search for Takt Time - Allison Kennedy is heading into the final term of her Bachelor of Naval Architecture program at Memorial University and is writing her workterm paper on Lean Principles in a Marine Engineering Environment. She's done a fabulous job of analyzing and summarizing the data that's been collected. So much so that we will be using it to bid some potential projects (we'll test it the old way of course). If you want to learn more on our search for takt time read blogs of May 10, June 14, and Sept 5.

On a related topic, Angela Porter has been assigned some responsibility for the bid process so she'll be working with Allison and Leonard over the next weeks to understand the data and use it to work up the bids. When Allison leaves we'll be looking for a "champion of the data"!! Angela???

Lean and Project Visuals - Cheri-Lynn Chafe is back with us and has been assigned the new role of Planner and Projects Administrator. She is currently completing the Project Management Masters Certificate at Memorial University's Center for Management Development and learning Microsoft Project. We want to get better at managing projects and this role at Genoa will accelerate that process. Picture every ongoing project accurately set up, updated, and visually displayed using Microsoft Project. We'll visually represent project completion status, deliverables, milestones at risk, etc.. We will eventually set-up projects using our production rate data to set the pace. "Big job" Cheri Lynn....good luck with it.

First Christmas gift arrives at Genoa - As I write here, several employees are playing with the new toy that arrived today. Genoa's gift to employees. Nintendo Wii, 32 inch flat screen, and leather couch. Nice!!

Ken Hogan

Lean Guy at Genoa