A orach ticead (Gaelic,I think..) - The golden ticket

 

I'm very proud of my Scottish heritage, but at the moment we could be doing a
bit better at the old Continuous Improvement within the country.

-Scotland has the worst obesity in Europe

-Scotland has the worst record of heart disease in Europe

Oh, and what about our recent award for having a business with the biggest loss in Corporate history.

We need to get up an hour early each day to achieve these levels of performance.

Thank goodness for Partick Thistle, to re-dress the balance (That didn't really work did it)

Yes, but what about all the stuff we've invented:

Yes, Graham but that was billions of years ago.

Ok, we recently invented the deep fried mars bar.

I'm starting to understand where things have gone wrong.

Anyway this rant on the current state of affairs is nothing to do with this article.

It was the use of Gaelic ( I think) in the title that got me going; So apologies for that out of character
outburst.

The Golden Ticket

What a strange title for something to do with Lean Thinking.

These articles are supposed to be about lean thinking aren't they?

Of course they are. Just be patient, I'll get focused in a moment. I promise.

To tell you about where "the golden ticket" came from I will need to continue this diatribe for a few more
 seconds. Honestly it will be worth the wait. I promise......

I don't know if you have ever seen the film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”? (I'm talking about
 the original version with Gene Wilder)

In the film random chocolate bars are inserted with golden tickets as a special prize to visit Willy Wonka's
amazing factory.

Let' just park this idea for just now.

The other idea I want to tell you about came from the game show “It's a knock out” (Jeus sans frontieres)
from the late 1960's.

In the game teams could double there points in one round by choosing to play their "Joker Card"

The joker card was large and outrageous looking. i.e. it was obvious to everyone when the "joker" card
 was getting played.

"Are you quite finished?”

Yes, you will be glad to hear that I am about to reveal the Secret of the Golden Ticket and how it can help
you in your "Lean" efforts

The Golden Ticket Technique Description

The golden ticket is a technique that I've used multiple times to help clients  measure the
 overall turnaround time or "lead Time" for producing their product or service.

How it works

The basic idea is very simple. We create a document (golden ticket) to help us track the
progress of the product or service from beginning to end.

Just like Willy Wonka we don’t put these golden tickets with every item. Just put them in occasionally

To make them stand out like the “Joker”, the more obvious you can make them the better.

The golden ticket should have columns for the following type of information which requires to be recorded
 at each step.

The start date and time, the name of the person(s), a brief description of the work being carried out, and
 the end date and time.

As the product or service progresses through the process each person working on the product or service
needs to update the golden ticket

Once the product or service is completed, it is easy to work out the overall elapsed time.

The golden ticket can also open our eyes to how long each individual process took, how many steps were
involved, and where the big delays occur.

 Some tips for doing it

 Let everyone know ahead of time what you are doing and why you are doing it.
  (i.e. trying to understand the “lead time” so that we can improve it)

 Design exciting looking “golden tickets” that capture the imagination and cannot be missed

 Only do it for a short period of time.

 Don’t let it become another job or a new part of the recording process long term

 Tell everyone about the outcome and results, and thank them for their help.

 Do this periodically to measure how your lead time reduction efforts are going
 and keep up the momentum on lead time reduction

This is a simple method for measuring turnaround times that can get everyone involved

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Graham Ross

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