Gemba in Japanese means site where work happens. It is a popular terminology of Lean Innovation as well as Kaizen based process improvement. 

Gemba Kaizen philosophy is based on the principle that best process improvement happens when people closest to the process give suggestions for improvement of that process. Moreover, the best place to assemble for the discussion to come up with improvement ideas is the Gemba.
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In Kaizen, process improvements can be done using multiple tools viz. Visual Management, Kaizen Events etc. Gemba Walk is one such important process improvement tool.

​​Gemba Walk is based on the philosophy- ‘Go and See’ in Gemba.

Gemba Walk is a process of making personal observation of jobs and workflows where work happens (i.e. Gemba) with those who actually do it, as against discussing about the solving the problem in a meeting room. ​It is like, you can’t be an expert in lawn tennis by learning about the sport in a classroom. You learn it best at a tennis court i.e. the Gemba.

This in-person observation allows leaders to see the difference between what they assumed is happening and what is actually happening. 

Gemba Walks may be conducted the traditional way as well as digitized.

​The objective of Gemba Walk is to better understand the value stream, its problems and how to improve upon those problems. 

By closely observing ‘the site where the value is created’ and listening to employees, business leaders and supervisors can get a fresh perspective on the business and new insights into how to make product/ service/ process changes better for their customers. 

​Tip: Note that the purpose of Gemba Walk is not to review results or make superficial comments.

Another objective of Gemba Walk is to identify wastes in a process. By identifying waste, one can save costs as well as increase process efficiency. As much as 40% overhead expenses can be saved by conducting Gemba Walks regularly at your workplace.
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However, Gemba Walk must be done correctly for it to give desired results. The video below gives important Dos and Don’ts for Gemba Walk; watch on …

​Gemba Walks may be done singly or in a small team of 3 to 4 members.

If a department head plans to go for the Gemba Walk then I would recommend that he/she goes alone (rather than a team), so that they get a chance to have open and frank discussions with the shop floor employees working on that process. The idea is to make your employees comfortable to open up, be creative and give useful suggestions, rather than worry about petty politics.

​You could have one-on-one or many-to-one discussions during the Gemba Walk.
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Also, leaders doing Gemba Walk must note that the walk is not an exercise for employee performance evaluation. Neither is it a time to engage in employee task management. 

​The frequency of Gemba Walk depends on the size of the organization and nature of business. Generally, process owners, supervisors must do Gemba Walk every other day. Managers and Senior Executives can do Gemba Walk once each fortnight.

​After completing Gemba Walk, make notes to capture your observations. Plan the day so that there is time to write notes and reflect on them. Document key takeaways.
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Categorize your thoughts, findings, and discussion points, and within a week or so provide feedback to employees on your walks. 

​Gemba Walk has a dual purpose- First to observe, understand, and ultimately improve process efficiency. Second, to gain deep knowledge about the process, reflect upon the information and explore opportunities of continuous improvement.

Note that Gemba Walk is not an audit. Audit is done to check compliance to 'documented' procedures. While Gemba Walk focuses on 'process improvement'.

Gemba Walk is a rewarding tool for big and small organizations, especially Startups.

Few key areas of using Gemba Walks may be to improve value quotient of a specific product, or increase productivity of a machine, increase sales, improve area utilization, or identify wastes in a business process and increase its efficiency.
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When done correctly, Gemba Walks can save as much as 40% of a business’s operating costs. 

Moreover, Gemba Walk can have a dramatic impact on a company's operational excellence since it entails engaged leadership- Go for it!.

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• How to cut costs strategically using Kaizen
• ​Leadership Kaizen: How can leaders keep employees happy?
• ​Continuous Business Improvement with mastermind Shruti Bhat series- What is Gemba Kaizen?​

#GembaWalk #GembaKaizen #ContinuousImprovement #ProcessImprovement  #ProcessEfficiencyImprovement #BusinessProcessImprovement #Lean #Kaizen #LeanMethodology #BusinessTransformation  #JapaneseKaizen #KaizenEvents #VisualManagement #KaizenForStartups

​A picture is worth a thousand words ... ​Visual Management hence is one of the top techniques to improve process efficiency. 

​The purpose of Visual Management is to improve communication in an enterprise. Excellent communication is the master key to good employee collaboration leading to smooth workflows.

​An example of explicit Visual Management (also called Visual Control) is flow of people at an airport. Isn’t this view familiar?

Visual Management is routinely practiced in air transport industry. ​Almost everyone at an airport follows instructions provided by signage to reach their destinations- Boarding gate, food court, restrooms, baggage pick-up, customs, immigration, transit etc.
 
A gadget placed near the boarding pass kiosk must be tried out to judge if your cabin luggage is of the permissible size allowed in the plane’s overhead baggage locker. This check prevents over-size cabin bags from getting onto the aircraft, thus, improving boarding process efficiency.
 
An example of Visual Management in daily life is a flashing red light (and siren) of an approaching ambulance or a police car which informs everyone around to stay clear and give them priority on the road. 

Visual Management is also popular in service sectors such as hotel, retail, logistics etc. ​The picture below is an example of Visual Management from the retail industry. 

This simple Visual Management approach gives bigtime boost to a customer’s shopping experience at a mall. No path-breaking innovation is always necessary ... Good creativity and a visual can do the job. The visual is bang-on to its objective. ​

​As a shopper, would you not like to visit that store again? ​

There more than 70 Visual Management tools; for example- Signage, Andon lights, Activity Boards, Huddle Boards, Gemba Walks, Kanban, 5S, Control charts, Kamishibai Boards, X- Matrices etc.  

All Visual Management tools comprise of two parts- Visual Metrics and Visual Control. 

The choice of tools depends on the organizational size, culture, product mix and geographical locations. Best results are usually obtained when 10 to 20 tools are used in synchronicity. 
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Visual Management tools aim to do one or more of the following:

• Share information.
• Communicate standards.
• Enforce and monitor the standards.
• Bring attention to deviations and/or irregularities.
• Augment CAPA (Corrective Action Preventive Action).

​Visual Management or Visual Control can be used in each and every process of any organization.
 
Let me take an example of traffic or stop lights. Red color for ‘stop’, Orange for ‘caution’ and Green to ‘go’ is a universal sign language. Now if you were to use this traffic-light color code in a project Gantt Chart or a RACI Matrix, it will provide instant understanding of the project status; no query calls and no back-n-forth emails …
 
This color coding in project charts is exceptionally helpful for decision-makers and project teams alike situated at different locations or working remotely via cloud or those in a multi-cultural workplace as in a multi-national company.
 
A popular example of Visual Management in manufacturing setups are Andon lights. Andon lights are useful in automated as well as automatic processes. A flashing red Andon light on a production belt means that the line is held up. It draws attention so that someone on the shop floor initiates to sort out the problem and re-start operations. 
 
Another example of Visual Management is ‘Activity Board’ that depicts task status as- Doing, Done, To Do, New Ideas, On Hold etc. ​Traditionally Activity Boards used to be hand-written. However, now there are digital ones too.

Activity Boards are especially popular in the auto sector; both in auto manufacturing as well as services. 

​Next time when you go to pick-up your car at a service center, do checkout for their Activity Board. It is usually displayed on the right side of the service representative's desk. The information displayed there tells you a whole lot about their work style, processes and how good or bad an experience you would get while dealing with them.​

Here are five signs that indicate your organization needs to go for Visual Management-​​

1. There is slow progress towards achieving strategic objectives.​
   
2. Your company deals in complex projects.
3. Stalled work-in-progress happens often at workplace.
4. There are frequent bottlenecks and/or poor capacity planning.
5. Your company has multi-locational distributed teams.

Visual Management escalates process efficiency in manufacturing as well as service set ups.

​​Make Visual Management a part of your business, improve process efficiency and watch your business grow year-on-year despite adverse market dynamics.
 
The purpose of Visual Management is to improve communication at an organization. And excellent communication is the master key to good employee collaboration leading to smoother workflows.
 
Visual Management is not just a signage, furniture, or a label. It makes your workplace alive- Because it speaks!
 
To introduce Visual Management technique in your organization, start with process mapping. Then identify areas of implementation based on communication touch points. Make sure that Visual Management at your workplace evolves as you develop a deeper appreciation of stronger teamwork, workflows, product offerings and business landscape. Also do conduct a dry run before its full-scale implementation …
 
Note that there are eighteen such awesome proven process improvement techniques; learn more here. And I will see you again with yet another topic on how to improve operational efficiency at your organization.

#visualmanagement #visualcontrol #continuousimprovement #operationalefficiency #processefficiency #kaizen #lean #businessprocessimprovement #operationalexcellence #organizationaldevelopment #processdesign #workplaceorganization ​#activityboards #businesstransformation #operatingefficiency #projectmanagement

​It is time to reimagine work and workplace for the ‘new normal’. From high-tech to transportation, healthcare, retail, hospitality and financial services, industry sectors across the world, are seeing dramatic shifts in market value. 

The uncertainty of the pandemic has caused a lot of people to reconsider how they spend their money. So, what will bring shoppers back to stores?

As millions of shoppers were forced to go online due to regional lockdown because of the pandemic, new customer habits got formed. Now we see few established brands closing stores and focusing on selling online; but brick-and-mortar stores aren’t dead yet. Carefully cultivating the in-store experience is key to drawing customers back. Retail companies that act now to mitigate #Covid19 risks while delivering distinctive human-centric experience can emerge from the pandemic with stronger operational resilience, more agile organizations and sustainable competitive advantage.

Moreover, the impact of changing customer behavior is not just on the retail industries, it is also on all those manufacturing companies (such OTC medicines, herbals & supplements, cosmetics & personal products, packaged foods, others) that produce goods which retail companies sell.

The impact of Covid-19 on customer behavior has been sweeping and inevitable. To win in this next normal, both manufacturing and service companies can start improving sales by taking following six key actions steps-

1. Identify interactions: Collate all types of interactions that happen while conducting your business. Then classify those interactions into three categories-(a) Employee-to-employee, (b) Employee-to-customer and (c) Customer-to-customer. Now use data analytics to create customer persona and product portfolio. 

Note that this is a moving target meaning, customer personas change with time. So, make sure that the 'interaction' data capture is continuous. 

2. Create customer-centric product line by modifying existing products, develop line-extensions or new products based on the information from step 1. Build an effective innovation strategy and execution modality to gain market share. 

Use proven innovation management tools such as TRIZ, DOE, Hoshin, DFSS, DFM, QbD, Design Thinking, Agile etc. to manage your product portfolio.

Note that, using appropriate innovation tools brings-in trifold benefits such as- (i) Creation of customer-centric products, (ii) Speedy product development and (iii) Lower innovation / product development cost. As much as 30-40% cost-savings happen when you employ innovation tools while developing products.
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3. Diagnose all types of risks and then prioritize them based on their intensity. You may use a Prioritization Matrix to set-up risk priorities. Further, use risk management tools such as FMEA to prevent or mitigate risks. Once process/ product risk management activity is completed, the next step is to develop effective solutions.

4. Develop solutions that will most affect your products and business at large and begin executing solutions.

5. Adapt and calibrate your product mix as well as business processes to the changing customer persona and market landscape. Having the right product at the right time in front of the buyer is key.

6. Continuously improve your business. That is continuously improve your sales process, technical process and other business processes by using continuous improvement methodologies.

There are eighteen proven continuous improvement techniques you may choose from based your workplace size, culture and demands. Sustainable growth and increased profits are obtained with Lean, Kaizen, Agile and TPM. These methodologies may be used either singly or in combination depending on the process. You may checkout how to choose a business process improvement methodology for your organization here.

​In conclusion, rebalancing sales processes coupled with an on-demand customer-centric product mix is the lifeline for survival and growth of manufacturing and service companies today and beyond... 

If you need best expertise to help you with your business process improvement goals, sales target, reach out to us.

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“Winners change their business mix year after year; while laggards sit still” is a popular adage. So, why must you put your portfolio on the move?

Portfolio management has always been key to business growth across all industry verticals. It is more so now in the pandemic induced new normal, where organizations face daily challenges, be it running operations, cash flow, disrupted supply chain, employee engagement or customer care.
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An analysis of financial results of several hundreds of companies from 2008 to 2018 through a long cycle of downturn, recovery and growth indicate that, those businesses that put its portfolio on the move tend to outperform. The reverse is true as well. Businesses with a static portfolio serially underperform. Why? Because the market moves on and the company doesn’t. 

Let’s take them one by one.

Portfolio Management:
Here are seven main takeaways from my review of the aforementioned finance study-

1. Keep the portfolio moving:
There is an optimal rate to rotate the industry you operate in. Leading companies tend to rotate their portfolios steadily, not widely. Also, do not keep them fixed in a place.

2. Move with the market:
Headwinds and tailwinds matter a lot. Best companies identify where the winds are shifting and deploy resources aggressively where they predict the value creation to be. Work to create value. Anything that is not ‘value’ is ‘waste’; and wastes lead to high operational costs.

3. Manage innovations:
Organizations that wisely invested in innovation be it product or process innovations created profitable portfolios. Like all aspects of business, innovation too must be well-managed for it to be strategic, customer-centric and profitable. Innovation management becomes more critical in todays times where economy is battered, and organizations face heavy budget crunch. (Tip- Remember innovation is not R&D. I have a separate post explaining the difference).

4. Use M&A to speed up your way:
Mergers and acquisitions are generally essential to realize value creation. There are different approaches to M&A and they tend to produce different outcomes. I shall write a separate post on tips and tools for M&A during crisis/ challenging business environment. The central message though is that, high performers conduct programmatic M&A. The next logical question is- How far from your core should you aim M&A? 

5. Focus on acquisitions at the perimeter of your portfolio: 
The acquisition radius study is vital before each M&A deal and this acquisition radius is based on the type of acquisition. Broadly, there are four main categories of acquisitions-   
   

• Adding to portfolio’s primary, including segment.
• Adding to an existing secondary industry segment.
• Buying into a segment adjacent to an existing business.
• Stepping out into an unrelated industry.         

The odds are best when companies use M&A to accelerate a move towards new opportunities in existing but secondary businesses that is outside, but not too far outside of their core sectors.

6. Go harder when you are in a tough spot:
How you stack up against your competitors affects how hard you need to pull-on these levers. Make aggressive portfolio moves when you are fallen behind. When you have a declining business focusing on performance improvement alone and ignoring your portfolio does little for your odds of sharply turning things around.

7. Top performers are relentless capital reallocators:
They assign their current businesses to the categories 'grow’, ‘maintain’, ‘dispose’ and keep clearly differentiated rules for how much capital goes into each.

​How to conduct portfolio management strategically to thrive in the new normal is a vast topic. I shall be writing several blog posts on this in the coming days, so do stay tuned-in. For now, let’s move on to the second winning tool- Continuous Improvement.

Continuous Improvement:
A dynamic portfolio demands strategic Continuous Improvement of products and business process alike. In most organizations, Continuous Improvement on product usually happens as a part of business development group's product life cycle management agenda via market research and financial models, though it is not the ideal way to do it. 

Business processes on the other hand, even in profit making organizations usually are antiquated. And this is the starting point of the corporate's downfall, which generally begins with either customer complaints or high running costs, then unmet quarterly financial goals and if not checked in time, can have a free fall leading to the company's close down. ​

​There are over eighteen scientific and time-tested Business Process Improvement methodologies to choose from depending on the size and nature of your business; though Lean, Kaizen, Kanban, Hoshin and TRIZ give maximum benefits rapidly. Checkout more on Continuous Improvement here.
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Effective Portfolio Management and strategic Continuous Improvement have proved themselves in good times and bad, and they are also harder to apply than they seem on the face of it. But how much derives comes from taking steps to get there…

If you feel like the call to enrich your company's portfolio, manage innovations and implement strategic continuous improvement needs best expertise reach out to us.

According to a Gartner study 2019, traditionally companies have spent as much as $2420 per employee comprising- flexible work policies, workplace redesigns, learning & development opportunities etc. However, only 13% employees in the study reported ‘satisfied’. 

Satisfied and motivated employees bring-on innovation, continuous improvement, increased productivity and in general creates a ‘happy’ space for everyone to work together in the organization.

Employee morale is one of the key ingredients of business success, thus it cannot be overlooked. So, the glaring question here is- How can leaders keep employees happy?

I would say that it is a three-part process, namely:

1. Calibrate expectations.
2. Personalize experience.
3. Shape memories.

Calibrate expectations-
Organizations should be clear about what it can and cannot deliver given their available resources and priorities, which will change as the economy ebbs and flows.

Once this map is ready, HR leaders should involve employees in creating a topography thru a survey about what changes they would like to implement and what makes them excited to come to work.

I would recommend using Personal Kaizen (or Employee Kaizen) tool to create an ‘experience blueprint’. You may combine Kaizen with day- long workshops designed to help employees determine and document their priorities. Use these blueprints for employee engagement.

Next, Managers should engage in one-on-one dialogue with workforce to align each employee’s aspiration with organization’s vision.

On the face of it, this exercise may look lengthy and cumbersome, but it is not. Calibrating employee expectations with organizational expectations is a sure win-win approach to go for.

Personalize day-to-day experience:
Employees might fear repercussion from voicing their requests or objections if any, so leaders need to create a psychologically safe environment for discussions. Encourage transparent, often and intellectual dialogues between leaders and employees. Scrap-off ‘Do as I say’ work code (that is, if it still exists at your workplace) .

Shape memories:
This involves shaping memories both good and bad. HR leaders can ask employees to reflect on how the employee development programs have improved their work lives. Encourage them to post their stories on company blog, newsletter, and share them at team meetings, open-house gatherings, off-site boot camps and other forums.

As companies emerge from the current economic crisis leaders might seek ways to highlight examples of how they supported their employees, such as- by continuing to pay sidelined workers or providing extended sick leave.
Of all the times, today’s business leaders and decision-makers must exhibit high emotional maturity, empathy and tolerance.

Installing a culture of Leadership Kaizen at your workplace creates successful leaders, motivated workforce and a thriving business.

Checkout how can Kaizen be used effectively in Life Sciences and allied industry...

Governments of practically all countries have initiated unlock procedures after a complete lock down for 3-4 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Organizations are slowly getting back to business, but situation is different now. Wearing mask in public spaces and offices, physical distancing is the new normal. And companies must gear up to this challenge while ensuring operational productivity and profitability.

Here are top 3 guidelines which companies can follow to keep their workforce safe despite the uncertainties posed by crisis such as Covid-19:
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1. Protect the workforce.
2. Engage the workforce.
3. Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow.

Protect workforce:
Formalize / revise SOP (standard operating procedure) and tools that keep your workforce safe. This includes man and/or material flow, air flow patterns, building maintenance, housekeeping etc. Conduct regular swab tests and volumetric air sampling to monitor clean air and surface conditions at your facility.

Engage workforce:
Leaders and superiors must exhibit high emotional quotient and tolerance. Let there be a two-way communication with your workforce than just top down. To achieve this, ramping up your company’s communications strategy is a sure winner. Regularly share information about your company’s evolving knowledge of the crisis and how it is using that knowledge to protect its employees and organization.

Clarity, simplicity, transparency, positivity, framework, and frequency of message together play an important role in effective communication.

Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow :
Just as it is important to receive correct information, it is also equally important to stay away from fake news and rumors. This implies consistent content, reflecting a single source of information at the corporate center.

Open offices are shrinking; soon they will be a thing of the past. Remember we went for open offices because it allowed better people contact and created mini bonds between members of the workforce which ultimately boosted productivity.

Now with social distancing, work-pods and remote working in place, we have moved a notch farther away. In such a scenario circulating fake news or rumors can cause a state of chaos and confusion among employees thus resulting in apprehension and conflicts.

3Cs- Clear, Correct and Concise communication plays a vital role in ensuring uninterrupted workflow, high employee morale and productivity.

So how do we head-on to it?

Managers and supervisors must maintain open and two-way dialogue with their workforce. Collect queries and concerns from front-line team members each morning.

The company’s HR/ PR division can publish an updated daily list of Q&A which are displayed on the company’s intranet, staff notice boards or sent out as email or text messages to employee cell phones. This will help drop absenteeism and increase productivity.

As an additional benefit this approach will uncover several previously un-asked questions perhaps unrelated to the pandemic, but these questions may have been brewing in the minds of front-line workforce for a while.

Answering such questions and dealing with whatever needs to be done to sort out any issues will boost productivity and workforce satisfaction.

A parting note- Capitalize on these improvements by standardizing the enhanced communication approach, periodically improve communication SOP in order to prevent letting things regress to pre-crisis norms as the situation stabilizes.

Begin Kaizen-ing your communication SOP. It does not cost much. Just 10-15 minutes daily and you can reap exponential rewards.

Kaizen is a time-tested Japanese technique of continual improvement. Kaizen professes small incremental changes to business processes and brings-in faster returns. 

Want to initiate Kaizen at your workplace?

‘Go- digital’ is the new magic mantra in today’s time of the ‘new normal’. The new normal induced by the pandemic compels us to work differently as we successfully wade thru the un-lockdown phase …

Clear and inspiring communication is central to making returning to work a success. In addition to moving decisively on strategic changes, leaders need to help unnerved workforce believe in the future.

Traditional ways of working are ebbing fast. Most companies have installed sophisticated IT infrastructure such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, payroll programs etc. More companies are moving towards automation and digitization. Industry 4.0 involves automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, IoT (internet—of-things), cloud-based working, big data etc. Needless to say, this involves big money.

A well -defined post-pandemic IT strategy should guide cuts and investments. Consider following three points while building your tech modernization strategy-
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1. Define the target product portfolio based on current and new business with strongest prospects and most feasible funding models.
2. Invest efficiently and stick to the plan, operational and commercial excellence will deliver the strategy is full potential.
3. Create clear structure and processes for executing the new strategy across the organization.

Companies will also need to greatly improve their IT productivity to lower their cost base and fund rapid, flexible digital solution development.

Firstly, this requires quickly reducing IT costs and making them variable whenever possible to match demand. This means figuring out what costs are flexible in the near-to-medium terms. For example- by evaluating nonessential costs related to projects or maintenance and reallocating resources. Using process design methodologies such as CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) can give first-class improvement in IT productivity while lowering costs to minimal.

Secondly, this involves defining a future IT product platform, establishing the skills and roles needed to sustain it, mapping these skills onto the new organization model and developing leaders who can train people to fill the new or adopted roles. Using process improvement methodologies such as- Design Thinking, TRIZ or Hoshin during new product platform development ensures a customer-centric product.

Thirdly, the adoption of cloud and automation technologies will need to be speeded-up, including bringing cloud operations on the premise and decommissioning legacy infrastructure.

Increasing the speed and productivity of digital solutions is key. To deal with the crisis and its aftermath, companies not only need to develop digital solutions quickly, but also to adapt their organizations to new operating models and deliver these solutions to customers and employees at scale.

Solving this challenge requires integrating business processes, incorporating data-driven decision-making and implementing proven change management models to manage the change. There are different ways to do this …

#ContinuosImprovement  #NewNormal  #ITStrategy  #DigitalSolutions