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How Cklean (Typo) is Your Process ?

Article about Lead Time by Graham Ross of Lean KaizenNow before you e-mail, to tell me that there is a typo in
the title, I already know. It is obvious isn't it.

That said, I have been well knownto fire in the occasional typo without realising it. Before I set up Leankaizen, seven years ago, I was working for the American Polaroid Corporation as Continuous Improvement Manager.

We had a Continuous Improvement Notice Board in the centre of the factory where we regularly updated information about upcoming kaizen events, 5S activities, and story boards about recent projects.


I remember on one occasion I put up some information, that I had personally created, that had the word 'POLAROID' in the title.Unfortunately I had decided to omit the letter 'L' so that it read 'POAROID'.

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I was having a great day, till half an hour after putting up the Kwality Notice, I happened to be walking
through the shop floor, through our four high volume packaging lines.
 

These words started as a whisper as I walked past. "PO...AROID"..."PO..AROID"
 

As I got towards the end of the lines the words "PO...AROID" were being shouted like some medieval
demonic chant, by, it seemed, the whole shop floor.


It's a "West of Scotland" thing that we call slagging! To slag someone is a term of endearment. Honestly...


 

Anyway, it was very funny at the time. (You had to be there)


 

Today, it would probably be called industrial bullying in the workplace and I should probably have received
some form of counselling for the mental trauma caused.


 

It had a profound affect on my career and my ability to function in groups of more than two people...


 

Anyway..... I am going on a bit so let's get focused about why I have chosen to use the title "How Cklean

is your Workplace".


 

In this article, I wanted to take you to the 50,000 feet view of what Continuous Improvement to me is all about.

 

 

I decided to invent the word 'Cklean' (Patent Pending) for dramatic effect, and to cover a lot of Continuous
Improvement ideas in one small word.


 

If you want to find out how this pans out then you will have to wait till the next instalment. 


 

Don't you just hate when they do that on television.

 


Anyway...

 


There is a danger that this is going to turn into the equivalent of that song "The Deck of Cards" by Ted
Dexter.


 

You know the one.....



"When I count the number of spots on a deck of cards I find three hundred and sixty-five, the number of
days in a year"

 


So here goes:

 


A manager once put up a sign with the phrase, "Our Processes are Cklean" on an official notice board in
the reception of the Company Head Quarters.


 

He signed the notice Mr Tim Wood, Continuous Improvement Manager.


 

Later that morning, the CEO of the Company, Mr Fred Myway arrived at work, saw the notice, and went

into a fury.

 

 

He immediately picked up his phone to talk to his PA.

"Hi Mandy, get me this joker Tim Wood in my office right now!"


 

Tim Wood had never been asked to the CEO's office before. Was it that promotion he had been hoping for?

 


He sat outside Fred's office dreaming about the extra money he would have to spend on his family over
the festive break. They may even have turkey this year...

 


"Mr Myway will see you now", Mandy said, in her soft but direct voice.

 


"Sit down! What on earth are you thinking about man, putting badly spelt notices outside my office?

 


This sloppy performance is just not acceptable.... What do you have to say for yourself?"

 


Tim Wood stood up and looked the CEO straight in the eye.

 


"Well you see sir, I spelt the word clean like that for a reason.

 


When I think of the letter C I think about our customers. Often  we make improvements to our processes,
but forget about our customers.

 


When I think about the letter K, I think about Kaizen. To me it is all about making small improvements
ever day.

 


When I think about the letters CK I think about Cpk (For those of you who need to study a bit harder,
Cpk is a term used in Six Sigma) and our ability to improve Quality for our customers.

 


When I think about the four letters LEAN I think about where we are trying to get to. We want to use the
minimum resources whilst maximising customer service.


And finally, when I think about all the letters and the word Cklean it makes me think about Workplace
Organisation and the 5S.

 


So you see, Sir, when I spell the word Cklean it serves as a reminder to me of what we are trying to
achieve.

 


It reminds me about customer focus, quality, kaizen, lean and workplace organisation and the 5S."

 


Mr Myway stood up from his large leather chair.

 


He smiled knowingly at Tim Wood and said:-

 


"You are a complete and utter idiot. You're fired .Clear your desk
and leave this facility immediately"...

 


Sorry, that was the wrong ending to the story.

 


It should have been like this:

 


Mr Myway stood up from his large leather chair.

He smiled at Tim Wood and said:-

 


"Tim, you are a genius. How can one little misspelt word mean so much?

 

As of now I am going to promote you to Director of Continuous Improvement for the World.


 

Please accept this 50% pay rise, share options, and a brand new, top of the range Lexus Company Car.


 

And by the way, I have decided that from now on, every employee is going to receive a polo shirt with the
word cklean embroidered on it.

 


Both men wiped a tear from their eye and hugged each other with a sense of pride and passion...

 


And friends, I know that story is true, cause I knew that Continuous Improvement Manager.....

 

In Conclusion


Obviously I am having a bit of fun with this, but there are a couple of very serious points that I would like
you to take away.

 


The first point is that we often try to implement Lean ideas,improve our "internal" processes, but
completely forget about the actual customer, who is paying our wages.

 


Remember Henry Ford:

 


"You can have any colour as long as it is black"

 

.
......Wouldn't it be a great idea to have an automated front end for our "customer services" system, where
people  just need to enter a digit to be automatically transferred to......

 


That probably came out of an "improvement" activity..

 


When implementing Lean ideas, it is very easy to forget about the actual customer experience and focus
on the internal nuts and bolts of your "internal" processes.

 


Don't do it. It is not big or clever.

 

Finally, you could actually use the word 'Cklean' as a wee aid memoir to remind you about the important
things that you need to think about in transforming your business.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Graham Ross


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