Improvement Tools/Processes

We offer several options for our clients so that we can satisfy their needs. We use many conventional improvement tools and methods, plus one or two unique approaches that give our clients a distinct advantage in maximizing their improvement opportunity. See below for brief abstracts that describe each option, tool and method. Please contact us if you have any questions.

CUSTOMIZED IMPROVEMENT SYSTEMS - We do not sell a “canned system” or software, but work with your employees to develop and implement what will work for your production, maintenance, administrative groups and management teams using the systems that you already have. We use a balanced approach between conventional tools and methods and the "people side of improvement". All tools are implemented to help people change the way they work and promote sustainable change. Elements that your system and scope of work are shown in the box below:

IMPROVEMENT MAKEOVERS for Existing Programs (Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, etc.)

If you already have an improvement system and are struggling in some areas - key measures, valuing projects, process control, leading/sponsoring improvement teams, etc., we can help you identify the barriers that are preventing your success, recommend strategies for barrier removal and facilitate changes that help you achieve your improvement goals. As your partner in improvement, we will help you improve what you have put in place, not start with something new.

THE TWO DIMENSIONS OF IMPROVEMENT
1) Improvement Tools and Methods
2) People Side of Improvement

Most consultants specialize in the what we call the 1st Dimension of improvement - the tools and methods that come with most improvement initiatives - flowcharts, trend charts, control charts, root cause analysis, project management steps (DMAIC), etc. These tools and methods are essential to understanding problems and analyzing improvements. However, the power for delivering results to the bottom line is in the 2nd Dimension - the "People Side of Improvement". Because this dimension contains the barriers to success and the keys to culture change, we have developed processes that help clients remove the barriers, achieve sustainable improvement and experience real culture change. Our implementation approach intentionally balances the two dimensions.

DIMENSION #1 ELEMENTS - Improvement Tools and Methods

Following are abstracts that describe some of the tools and methods that we implement for our clients:

Using Values for Losses that employees can understand.
Do you know “what an hour is worth?” Values of losses do not have to be expressed in millions of dollars that employees have difficulty connecting with. Losses can also be calculated for hours, units of production or other elements tied to specific processes. These values can be communicated to the workforce to emphasize the impact of recurring problems and ensure that the workforce is “working on the right things.” Alternatively, managers that know the value of the gap between what could be produced and action production changes their priorities and helps them respond more urgently to recurring problems. The power of valuation is in the urgency it creates to fix problems that have been accepted as "part of the process".
Creating Control/Response Plans linked to production processes, SOPs and ISO programs.
Keeping processes in control is key to achieving a consistent state of operating and financial performance and eliminating the fires that distract the workforce, interrupt production and add to costs. Having the right measures and control limits for operators to monitor is critical, but just as important is a formalized plan to respond to out-of-control conditions. These “response” plans assure that employees will take the same corrective action to resolve process upsets. Both plans minimize downtime, control costs and contribute to achievable forecasts and budgets. Linking these plans to ISO strengthens your process control foundation.
Using Trend Charts linked to Lost Opportunity.
Tracking Continuous Improvement progress requires a view of performance through time. Transitioning from “snap-shot” reporting to trend reporting is a necessary step in developing an improvement system that can sustain itself long-term. But format is only part of the solution – the other part is selecting the right measures – measures that are tied directly to problems and process failures, not historical performance. We coach you through the process of selecting measure tied to opportunity and using trends to drive behavior with language and strategies that will excite your employees and involve them in improving performance.
Setting Process Optimums to Reveal Untapped Potential.
In simple terms, Optimum Performance means "no breakdowns, no surprises, no excess costs". Setting optimums for processes yields many benefits: 1) Defines the Gap between Process Potential and Actual Performance, 2) Prevents or Postpones Expansion Capital, 3) Reveals the Global Bottleneck in a plant or value stream and 4) Educates the workforce on "how good you could be". Without Process Optimums, it may be difficult to determine “upside potential” of a process, evaluate budgeted improvement goals, or be confident that expansion capital is really needed. We coach you on the language of optimums, since what you say about the numbers once they are established is key to how they are received and used.
Using Customer/Supplier Requirements to Increase Process Knowledge
Employees can be very good at executing the responsibilities in their job description, but can be organizationally ineffective when working with other departments if they do not understand what their (internal and external) customers need. Our process for capturing and communicating supplier/customer requirements includes Process Orientation (used frequently in Europe), which helps employees understand the 'Big Picture", where they fit into it and how their actions can contribute to the bottom line. This concept is effective in breaking down silos between departments and changing culture, especially when process owners participate.
Managing Bottlenecks in plants or across a value stream.
Bottlenecks are often determined based on actual data;however, potential capacity of the system to produce product can only be determined by setting optimums so that untapped potential is known. Millions of dollars are spent needlessly to create capacity when it already exists. Millions of dollars are forfeited because operators and maintainers do not know the absolute best that is possible to achieve OR because they believe that all the “freebies” have already been captured. We can show you how to find more “freebies” and save/postpone millions of dollars in expansion capital.
Project Tracking that Sustains Improvement.
Historically, project reports contain project name, total spending amount approved, YTD spending, project leader and comments on project status. This format does not track project effectiveness or if a project is completely implemented. It is possible to track a project to facilitate full execution, which means linking the project to the people involved and establishing measures that indicate whether expected results are being achieved. We suggest a format that becomes a tool to track action plan execution and assists users in holding people accountable for follow-through. Links to the Budget and Capital Approvals.
Unachievable budget goals take away from management's credibility and sets your workforce up for failure before the budget year has begun. You may not know if budgeted improvements are achievable unless you understand process potential. Budget reviews should include a "reasonableness check" tied to process potential and expansion capital requests. We show you how to evaluate your budget goals for achievability BEFORE final approval and distribution.
An Integration Plan to help employees “Change the Way They Work”.
Developing and implementing continuous improvement tools are often viewed as “doing continuous improvement”. It is, but success with continuous improvement requires a strong commitment to changing the way you work, which is something companies tend to overlook or assume will happen during implementation. We recognize that change is not easy and specialize in coaching people through the change process and helping them learn how to manage change at all organizational levels.
Training Materials Customized for Your Processes and Workforce.
I believe people learn best by doing, so I use exercises to accelerate the learning curve and connect people to their everyday work. Materials and class schedules are customized for your processes, business strategy and employee availability to minimize disruption and maximize the result.

DIMENSION #2 ELEMENTS - "The People Side of Improvement"

Opportunity Boot Camp TM -
Ultimately, opportunities to capture dollars for the bottom line are lost in two places: once when we fail to identify them and when we fail to execute actions plans after improvement project has been identified. Opportunity Boot Camp is designed to change your paradigms about Lost Opportunity and the Barriers that Prevent Us from Recognizing or Capturing It so that you recognize opportunity in problems and become great at follow-through to avoid leaving dollars on the table.

This course has two different levels of content - one for managers that links lost opportunity to decision-making criteria and culture change, and one for the workforce that simplifies the concepts but helps employees see opportunity in the problems they face everyday, understand the basic of the value of recurring problems, and become aware of the barriers that prevent problems from being solved. Creative visuals and exercises are used to illustrate concepts and the mathematics of opportunity in both sessions. It will help you end your search for the "right" improvement program because it positions your organization to receive the power that improvement tools and methods provide, regardless if you are customizing your own system or adopting Six Sigma, Lean or another well-known methodology.

Management Team Coaching -
Improvement Leadership, Management System Execution, Removing Barriers to Improvement, Learning how to meet to "problem solve", rather than just sit, listen and go back to work. Participants learn to:

Focus on improvement trends as much as they focus on today’s performance.
Give each other permission to speak frankly about what’s not working without being judged or reprimanded.
Solve problems between departments that prevent employees from making and sustaining change.
Select and monitor their own set of key measures (i.e., their most important things to measure) and use them as tools for decision making..
Actively “manage” and prioritize improvement projects instead of just reviewing a monthly report.
Remove barriers between departments that only they can remove.
Know what to say and what not to say to encourage and support employees in improvement efforts.
Identify/resolve conflicting goals & messages between the management system and improvement initiatives.
Understand their power to change a culture and directly affect the bottom line by the way they execute the management system.

Process Improvement Team Facilitation / Action Plan Execution -

It is often said that those closest to a problem are the best ones to fix it. Process Improvement Teams are formed for this purpose - to fix recurring problems that are most familiar to them while increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Good foundation training is critical to a team’s ability to identify/analyze opportunities for improvement and execute/monitor action plans for success. It also significantly impacts the benefits realized (lower costs, higher equipment availability and utilization, improved quality and communications). Our training approach is different. We strive for simplicity to help everyone feel connected and confident during the change process. This is especially important to maintain the enthusiasm for change with equipment operators, maintenance techs, foremen and operations superintendents.

We include:

Customized material for your operation, including information about your specific quality initiative.
Examples, exercises and scenarios that relate to problems that team members already deal with daily.
Methodologies for identifying and valuing lost opportunities (production losses, delays and excess costs).
Selecting key measures, a review of improvement tools,customer / supplier requirements,the “people side of improvement”,frank discussions about “what’s not working”,how teams are formed, developing a mission statement, tools for effective teamwork, setting expectations for management’s role, closing out a team.
Action Plan Execution strategies and practice. Opportunities to capture millions of dollars are lost on this improvement step because people fail to follow-through to finally change the way they work.

Teams we have trained and facilitated:

MINE MANAGEMENT TEAMS – Overview of improvement tools, methods for identifying and valuing opportunities for improvement, management’s role in forming, sponsoring and closing out teams.
OPERATIONS / MAINTENANCE – Drilling / Blasting, Dragline, Fueling, Operating Delays, Production Scheduling, Belt Splicing, Belt Moves, Longwall, Continuous Miners, CM Battery Change, Coal Haulage,Preventive Maintenance
COAL PREPARATION PLANT- Chute Plugs, Load-out, Process Control
MINE START-UP PROCESS - defined a detailed multi-departmental process for consistent mine start-up
SUPPORT FUNCTION TEAMS -Division Procurement, Marketing and Accounting Departments
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT – Belt Line - Identify opportunities for cost reduction and productivity gains
NON-PROFIT BOARDS - Strategic Plan Development and Execution.

Creating New Processes / Start-Up of New Operations:
When Creating New Processes, our emphasis is on the quality of interdepartmental hand-offs (hand-offs are the most frequent cause of delays, rework, and losses). We use a concept called Process Orientation to remove barriers between departments and for effective process design and implementation.

For Start-Up Processes, we strive to help you minimize contingencies because surprises are expensive! A 20% contingency for capital projects or start-ups is common and covers the unexpected and new information will cause changes in direction, excess spending and delays. For a $100,000,000 project, the contingency would be $20,000,000. For a billion dollar project, the contingency would be $200,000,000. Our process will help you improve ROI by minimizing contingency events.

YOUR CREDIBILITY SUFFERS when projects come in over budget and in a different year than promised to shareholders and investors. If you could bring a project into production within the projected time frame and under budget because unplanned events and excess costs did not occur, how many millions would be saved?

Removing Organizational Barriers between Departments

Organizational Barriers prevent your assets from performing at their optimum level and stop culture change in its tracks. These barriers must be removed in order to tap into lost production and millions of dollars in lost margin. Some barriers are caused by process/ equipment failures and inferior information systems, but most are created by people (management system execution,poor communications,perceptions about “normal” process performance,a lack of focus on equipment delays and customer/supplier requirements,a reluctance to talk about “what’s not working” and a belief that expansion capital is the only way to increase production.). It is possible to remove these barriers to optimize your operations and experience real culture change. We specialize in this area and incorporate it into all of our improvement work. Contact us for more information.