How Lean contributed in a large re-organisation.

Operational Re-organisation

APPROACH

First things first. We needed to get a grip on our challenge as soon as possible: what are the goals, which deliverables shall we need to reach this goal, by when, who are the stakeholders, etc. Thus a core project team with representatives from all stakeholders got assembled.

Worthwhile to realise: all team leaders and managers within Ops had followed the extensive Lean trainings, and they had white boards, in which our project-related communication got integrated.

As a rule of thumb: the less time you have and the less resources you have, the more important it is to work rigorously effective and efficient, in a collaborative environment, with clear communication lines, maximising each persons contributions, levering their respective knowledge and expertise – and discipline.

Within a just a few workshops the PBS (product breakdown structure) was made, showing all deliverables to produce during the project’s lifecycle, in a structured way. Having turned the PBS into a roadmap, it became the bases for our project white board.

We started out with 2 white board sessions a week, and as the target date neared, we increased the session’s frequency, up to daily sessions during the last few weeks.  These sessions were efficient, mainly thanks to the discipline everyone showed by coming prepared to these sessions.

First Time Right yield of end-deliverables (including intermediary deliverables) was our compass, as were many other Lean principles, here applied in the context of a project. I.e. we wanted CUC communication (Complete, Unambiguous, Correct), all teams got updated regularly on the progress, by the COO himself. Several deliverables had to be produced in large quantities, for which we made templates, thus ‘guaranteeing’ best practices based standardisation – while at the same time allowing ample room to maximise Fitness For Use. Practically, i.e. particular information that is critical for one team, might not even be worthwhile to mention in other teams. As they had already built a significant set of WPI’s, on many instances we only had to ‘adapt’ the existing WPI and they didn’t need to start from scratch. SO, the investments they made on WPI’s prior to this project now saved masses amounts of time and effort.

 For more elaborate communications to the entire Operations population – i.e. after each Milestone - here too ‘communication templates’ were made available. It ‘guaranteed’ all relevant topics got addressed appropriately, while still leaving sufficient room for ‘modification’ to meet the respective needs and circumstances of the teams intended. Evidently, we ensured communication forums to appropriately and timely involve all other departments, i.e. legal, HR, Finances, ICT, etc.

The existing white boards in the operational teams were the ideal forum to facilitate all project related communication. Top-down, bottom-up, and also between peer operational teams.

RESULT

Later on, once the new customer and its related processes got embedded in Operations, many other teams (at their request!) implemented Lean best practices.  This included; HR, Finance, CRM-Sales, Customer Service, ICT Helpdesk.

Every single day, the customers can reap the benefits from the knowledge, experience, and competences, which management, the team leaders, and the employees acquired throughout the project.

With this ‘maturity’, and support from senior management, they also obtained the ability to make continuous improvement a reality.

Recall that Lean is actually common sense, applied in a professional environment, with a smidge of discipline. It is no rocket science, it relies on easy to understand principles and best practices, which in turn means that nearly everyone in an organisation can –and should – contribute by applying ‘Lean’ in their environment.