NGK or DWM is the most important aspect of sustaining a Kaizen/Lean culture. For e.g. If you go to the gym and work on various methodologies, of course you are able to lose weight. But what would you do to maintain this weight lost? What happens after you have lost weight?
So DWM talks about standardization, it talks about how to maintain the improved state. So it’s a system or a model or a tool/technique by which standards for running the day-to-day business are developed, maintained, controlled and improved on an ongoing basis. And this helps you maintain the Lean culture on the shop floor, it helps you maintain standardization on the shop floor, it helps you define standard work for everybody, and this way you are not only able to sustain the improvement but keep it up on the continual improvement journey.
The problems that we all are familiar are:
- Recurring Problems (Which are solved again and again)
- Inability to maintain Improvements
- 5S
- High Changeover time
- Operator mistake” or “Operator not trained”
- Unable to meet previously achieved targets
- Surprises
- Month End Pressures
Assumed results
>> But the reality is
If we do not strengthen the basics, we are probably going to back slide. The organization can deteriorate due to any of these 3 powers:
The result of above three powers can make organization weak. So what should be done in order to become strong or competitive?
Organization should respond to the above given 3 powers/problems so that it can help the organization from becoming weak. What is most important is to Sustain whatever improvements or changes are done.
As we can clearly see from the above given graph – if we do not sustain whatever improvements are done or whatever our current state is – we are bound to slide back from our current state. Therefore it is very important to focus on DWM in order to achieve our future state or maintain our current state.
The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, also known as the Shewhart Cycle or the Deming Cycle, is a popular model for continuous improvement. Similarly the Standardize-Do-Check-Act (SDCA) cycle is a popular model for establishing and stabilizing a process. A process needs to be stabilized through standardization to make it more measurable, predictable, and controllable. Improvements cannot and must not be made to a process unless it is stable.
SDCA
1. Standardization, the definition and documentation of operating procedures, process requirements, and other process specifications to ensure that the process is always executed in a standard and repeatable manner
2. Doing, the defined standards
3. Checking, the act of verifying if conformance to the standards results in process stability
4. Action, which is the response appropriate for the observed effects of the standards.
In step 4, if the process has become stable with implementation of the standards, then the standards are made permanent and even deployed more widely.
If the effects on process stability are negligible or even negative, the cycle is repeated using a different set of standard specifications.
Most of the abnormality that occurs in an organization is due to Change in 4M. But what is 4M.
1. 4M Standards: Man, Material, Machine, Method
Apart from 4M – what an organization should focus on is
2. Visual Control: Control after visualization. Normal Abnormal judgment made possible.
Visualization : Exposing and visualizing what is expected. Highlighting abnormality.
Display : Data posted on the board, no PDCA, no targets.
Focus on process: Change habitual focus on results and results. Process produces results Process should be well defined, clearly documented, operating in stable environment, etc.
The purpose is to focus on process and make it easy to compare expected versus actual performance.
3. Leader standard work: Leader Standard Work should be layered from the Bottom up. In addition to including regular checks on the status of visual controls, leader standard work also includes a process of follow up on the stories told by the visual controls.
4. Daily accountability process: Daily accountability process helps the leaders to scrutinize visual data daily. It helps to determine what steps to be taken by whom, assign resources & set due dates. Daily accountability board and tags should be used as much as possible.
To conclude, Nichijo Kanri (Daily Management) is the System that provides the ability to manage department, functions, processes wherein processes are defined, standardized, controlled & improved by process owners. It prevents Deterioration by making control and improvement in the norm.
Acknowledgement: Mr.Vinod Grover (Founding Director – Kaizen Institute India)
