What are we going to do?

When we are at home and have some time to spare, we often think that now would be fun to make something good. We can do something we have done a thousand times before, something that is always going to be successful, or we can try something new. Then we find a recipe in a cookbook and assess whether it looks exciting. Do we have the equipment and raw materials we need, and do we want to try the recipe? We have read many cookbooks, and we are quite experienced in both baking cakes and cooking.

At work, there may also be things we have thought about many times, and never quite come to terms with: We would like to introduce #lean. We have been to many courses and read a lot of books, and we have also had some consultants visit over the years. But we have somehow not experienced a major lean transformation. This would be a good time to work with now.

Most of our experiences from books and courses are about deep dives into one of lean's many tools, methods and philosophies. What is Jidoka, how do we conduct a value stream analysis, is SMED and 5S suitable for us, when do we use Kanban and why is continuous learning important?

OKTAV is a book that describes a process to follow through a lean transformation, or a recipe if you like. It is originally written in Norwegian and is based on practical experience in Norwegian companies and organizations. Here it is described step by step how to start with changing leadership behavior and continue with strategic continuous improvement, organizing teams in a logical structure, establishing arenas and developing a culture where everyone is active in improving their own processes. It does not delve into what everything is but describes practical measures and pitfalls to avoid.

Oobeya and strategic #leadership

The first step in lean transformation is a change in leadership behavior. Establishing a vision and a clear direction to work on. The vision must be communicated and broken down, focusing on the important challenges. Goals and strategies must be made visible in the daily work form, and everyone must be involved in a joint effort to achieve the goals. Takashi Tanaka has described how in Toyota they introduced strategic management in organizations abroad, when they established new enterprises. He called this form of work Oobeya, as part of Toyota Management System (TMS). A term also known from Toyota's Development System (TDS). Tanaka stressed the importance of Visualization of Purpose.

Kata, #Continuous improvement and #problemsolving

In order to continue the strategic challenge of daily improvements, it is important to learn basic understanding of problem solving and process improvement. Kata is a working method for experimental improvement work, where we carry out actions and solve problems continuously, without going detours via action plans and control of completed activities. Here, the entire organization can be involved in daily improvement work through continuous learning.

#Team and team organization

Toyota describes in its Shusa system how a Chief Engineer plays a central role in product development. We can use this way of thinking in any organization. An effective team structure is a cornerstone of lean, and here we go through this step with clear boundaries between discipline and customer focus.

Arenas, visualization and scorecards

Visibility has been, and is, a common concept. If we are to break down over-the-years vision and strategies, these must be made visible. If we are to involve management in continuous improvement, managers must be visible and interact with their teams. If we involve people in the development of our own workplace, we must highlight the processes. If we are to achieve quality, we must highlight the problems. #Arenas are key meeting points where teams meet to inform, decide, take action and follow up results. Scorecard is the team's own follow-up, to see ongoing development and contribute to the team's #motivation.

Value-streams and processes

Many starts with #processes and value streams when introducing lean. These are good concepts, but establishing external teams, support organizations or consulting projects to analyze and develop other people's processes has minimal effect. The main essence of lean is that the teams themselves should learn to see the potential of their own processes, they should be given authority and the opportunity to analyze and improve the processes and they should have the full trust, support and help of management in this work. This provides #involvement that leads to continuous improvement through continuous #learning. It is the operational teams themselves who will learn to carry out value stream analyses, and it is the operational management that should be their support. That is what is lean.

Big goals are achieved by taking small steps

All development requires daily training. we cannot buy this, we need to start somewhere, get a recipe, follow a process, train and improve our way of working as we learn. Maybe the first cake we bake after a new recipe was unsuccessful? Then we try again. Should there be something you do not understand when working on one of the steps in OKTAV, then you can make a phone call to the author.