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Six Sigma and Working at Home

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Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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  • May 26, 2020 at 9:53 am #248034

    Saravanan
    Participant

    I have come across a question from my connect that “How do we apply lean and Process improvement implementation” in the current Work at home environment. The people are already exhausted about the long work hours, meeting additional business requirements due to uncertainties involved in work. The following were my answers to focus on the priorities at the same time spending time to focus on what is more important in the long run for the business and driving efficiency.

    1. Spend time to identify the process or business problems

    2. Identify the most practical method for collecting inputs from team members which have less back and forth follow-ups

    3. Collect the expert opinion and run through online feedback or multi voting to narrow down the best solutions.

    Has anyone come across this question and any better perspectives?

    2
    May 27, 2020 at 5:24 pm #248084

    Mike Carnell
    ★★★★★★★★★★
    Participant

    @saran2383 #1 and #2 are a great start. #3 has nothing to do with Six Sigma. At what point di anyone ever tell you Six Sigma was about an “expert opinion” or worse multi-voting?

    If you are going to take the time and effort to do #1 and #2 do it the way it is meant to be done take data, analyze the data and come up with a solution that the data supports. You want to do all that kumbaya stuff then don’t pretend it is SS.

    1
    May 27, 2020 at 11:22 pm #248101

    Strayer
    ★★★★★★★★★★
    Participant

    One thing I’d recommend is to apply 5S to your home office workspace, your work diskspace, and cloud storage.  It’s lean, not six sigma.  You probably know the drill.  Many people, especially those new to working from home, don’t do it.  They may think it’s all about utilizing the technology.  An organized workspace where you have ready, easy to find,  access to what you use most and that isn’t cluttered by stuff you rarely or never use makes a big difference.

    As you know, some of our tools utilize teamwork.  When we first started doing this in the nineties, meeting or sharing online rather than in a room, it was quite challenging.  Today it’s a lot easier but still a challenge since not everyone is good at it and people working from home often lack tech support when things don’t work.

    Beyond that, listen to @Mike-Carnell.   It’s about the data and the analysis.  Get trusted data.  If you or team members can’t collect it on-site such things as gage readings should be available on-line, rather than recorded and transcribed where transcription errors are possible.

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    May 29, 2020 at 10:51 am #248155

    Mike Carnell
    ★★★★★★★★★★
    Participant

    @Straydog The 5S is great advice. My wife was working at home for about 6 weeks and that was the first thing she did. Now she has a very nice little nest to work from. I stay away from recommending 5S because it is difficult for me to do. The minute I start to sort I find a lot of very interesting things I have been looking for, for years and I just never get very far. My intentions are good.

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    May 29, 2020 at 10:29 pm #248166

    Strayer
    ★★★★★★★★★★
    Participant

    Heh, heh @Mike-Carnell  I had the same issue applying 5S in my home office, basement workshop, and kitchen.  It comes down to being brutally honest with sorting.  Stuff you frequently use or reference?  Okay, store that as easy to find and access as possible, and as near as possible to where you use it.  No brainer.  Then there’s stuff you sometimes need.  Nearby and easy to find but don’t mix it with category 1.  Then there’s the stuff you rarely, if ever, need but have a good reason to keep — store it somewhere out of the way.  And then everything else, that you should chuck.  Differentiating between the latter two is where I have the biggest problem but it’s a minor one as long as it’s stored out of the way.

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    May 29, 2020 at 10:37 pm #248167

    Mike Carnell
    ★★★★★★★★★★
    Participant

    @straydog I started lockdown on March 16. I am on box #3. There is a lot of interesting stuff in those boxes. Actually I thought if I had a high volume scanner I could scan everything 100% and throw it all out faster than what I am doing right now. Books are worse. I have a book from third grade. Now I can’t throw it away or donate it because I have had it so long. I really need to pay someone to do this.

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    June 1, 2020 at 9:00 am #248191

    Michael Roth
    Participant

    Saravanan,

    We have worked completely virtually with two Value Steam Management Teams to redesign two production lines. They are on a mission to: “Reduce the Cost of Safely manufacturing Quality products On Time”. This is the process we followed to transform their Traditional “Current State” into a Lean Manufacturing “Future State”:

    Virtual Introduction to Lean Principals, Strategies and Techniques for management and front-line associates. (about 30 people)
    Chartered two cross-functional Value Stream Management Teams. (about 10 people each)
    Virtual, 8 Steps of Value Stream Management Training and Virtual Current State Mapping exercise and Virtual Current State AutoCAD Layout.
    Virtual, Future State Mapping exercise and Virtual Future State AutoCAD Layout.
    Virtual “To-Scale” Simulation with the VSM Team and Maintenance.
    Virtual 6-S Workplace Organization Training and Workshop. The Team with help from maintenance rearranged the processes according to the Future State Layout.
    Standardized Work and Visual Techniques are being put in place to “Sustain the Gains”. (A place for everything & everything in its place)
    The new transformed process flows will be ready to go live when their customer starts up in the next few weeks.

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