This is the 4th year I have facilitated the Muda Walk for a Month event. This year had the highest participation yet. Individuals from 36 different companies signed up to participate. Some companies had several people participant and several companies had everyone in the company invited to participate. The average number of improvements reported per company/individual was 16. One company reported 51 opportunities for improvement.
One or more individuals from the following companies signed up for the Muda Walk for a Month 2010:
A. Zahner Company
Baker Group
Big J Enterprises, LLC
BMC Construction
CCI Mechanical, Inc.
Climate Engineers
D. D. S. Industries
Dee Cramer, Inc.
DPR Construction, Inc.
Grunau
Hill Mechanical Corporation
Holder Construction
J. H. Findorff & Son Inc.
James Sommerville Construction
Kinetics Systems
Limbach Facility Services, LLC
MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, Inc.
McKenney's, Inc.
Midwest Mechanical
Miller Bonded Inc.
Oscar J. Boldt Construction
Pankow
Plenums Plus
Shoemaker Air Conditioning
SMACNA Mid-Atlantic
Taft Electric Co.
Technical Building Services, Inc.
Tekia, Inc.
The Jamar Company
The Waldinger Corporation
Vipond, Inc.
Vision Mechanical
Western Allied Mechanical
Yearout Mechanical & Engineering Inc.
While not everyone who signed up actually did the walk in October, here is some of the feedback from those that did.
What worked best in doing the Muda Walk?
o Staying focused on just the department I am responsible for and those working directly for me. In the warehouse several departments overlap and it’s easy to muddle waste that you can’t control up with waste you can control.
o Talking to the labor while at the job sites worked well. They seemed to want things to get better and were willing to share the things that were wrong.
o Just showing up, mostly unannounced.
o I do think this was a good experience. We all try to reduce waist, but this makes you look a little longer and harder at each process.
o Watching the task for awhile, then asking the guys if they thought the process could be improved, tell them what I saw and then finishing with asking the guys if they see a better way to do it.
o Reviewing our everyday processes and trying to determine, is this the best way to do something. I have done a few Muda walks and I feel very seasoned on my way of doing them. My walk may not last a whole hour, and on the same note it could last longer. I review, analyze, then ask questions. Most are very simple questions. But when you ask employees why, then ask for input on the why, it sure does make them feel like there opinion means something. That is big.. It actually makes them think about other processes.
o Over the past 5 weeks I have identified several deficiencies in my shops. I have just finished organizing the MUDA for this year and will take these one at a time to make the shops better. Please send me the MUDA email next year.
o Staying focused on my mission – I found the toughest part was trying to stay focused on the purpose of what I was doing. It becomes so easy to be distracted with the everyday interruptions like phone calls from Customers and other TBS Employees or even the everyday thoughts of what had to be done that week. I found by staying focused you really put thought into how much time and money is lost with these findings whereas before you just take it for granted that this is just the way things work.
o I found the “WASTE AND WAITING” AND “WASTE OF MOTION” to be the most beneficial. We identified several items that needed to be addressed and came up with solutions and implemented them.
o Asking employees for their feedback on how to improve an MUDA walk issue
o For me it seemed to be thinking about what caused the most irritation to our daily workflow. What did we have to keep checking on in order to meet certain deadlines. The administration department receives input from many other departments and then processes further. This was where we found our best hits.
o We set up a MUDA blog page on our company website. The entire company participated. While the length of the list is not all I had hoped for, the term “MUDA” is firmly planted in our vocabulary. Another step on the Lean Journey.
What was one of the best improvements you made or plan to make as a result of the walk?
o Giving access to all of our forms and requisitions to all requestors outside of our area.
o Start times for one area need to be consistent; currently they are not which results in waits for PM’s, and interruptions to the other staff member who shares similar responsibilities. We also have to look at our paperwork and implementing error-proofing methods so information is not missed, which results in delays, waiting, and wasted motion.
o Better trouble Shooting practices – The need to approach service problems with an open mind and not a preconceived thought of what the problem is. We sometimes over look the obvious and waste numerous hours approaching the problem from the middle instead of where it should have been started (The Beginning)
o Identifying same day fab by flagging the fab with red stickers so everyone in the shop would know this fab is priority.
o Schedule sales to operations turnover meetings in a timely fashion to reduce waiting
o Setting up a standard checklist for how the estimator/project manager conducts a job site visit with the team leaders (foremen). It helps keep the est/pm on track and makes sure he touches all the important topics. It also helps the team leader understand what is important and gives him a guide for running the jobs as well as an agenda for the meeting.
o Improvement #1 was our weekly input to payroll from the service department. We do payroll weekly and start on Monday morning in a normal week. The input from the service department comes from their “transmitting” daily work orders to the system. Because of the complexity of the pay rates necessary, there is editing that has to be done before the data can be imported into the system. We were waiting for the input every week because the service technicians were not transmitting their work orders when they were completed and we had to chase their input to completion. While still not perfect, reemphasis to the technician about the timing of the process has helped shave 24 hours off the cycle and putting it in sync with the rest of the payroll input.
o Improvement #2 was a similar case of waiting for input of vendor invoices. We rely on input of vendor invoices at the end of the month in order to more accurately portray job cost for the completion of the financial reports. The purchasing department had, over time, begun to focus on other tasks at the close of the month forcing delay of financial statement preparation. Reiterating the importance of their input and their original requirements has gotten them back on track for invoice input, at least for this month.
o We discovered that there is a significant amount of over processing between drafting and our pipe shop (with regards to BOM). Drafting is now rounding pipe up to the nearest full length on the master BOM and this has eliminated the wasted time from our shop foreman. I think the MUDA walks are very valuable and I have them on my calendar to do once a month to keep them on my “to do” list.
o MUDA FINDING
Sheet Metal
3 Machines needing to be inspected for maintenance or replacement
2 flaws in process
1 preventative maintenance issues
2 new pieces of equipment are needed
Piping
1 request for maintenance by maintenance department or Pipe Fitters needed
8 flaws in process
1 problem with building
3 problems with Engineering Services
3 flaws in process in the SPE department
o Observations Walk 1 – Pipe Fabrication Shop
We are inefficiently moving materials in our pipe shop (moving finished fab more than twice after completion and before loading). We are cutting faster than our welding operations can support. Raw material unloading was very inefficient
Tools used: Spaghetti Charts
Corrective Actions
Introduced QA/QC in drafting (drafting issues were one of the root causes of poor raw material handling).
We are trying to cut only what we need and use the free worker to clean up / properly stage material.
Re-assigning loading and unloading bays to prevent multiple material movements. I am in the process of checking and adjusting these changes now.
o Observations Walk 2 – Engineering / Drafting Department
QA/QC needed for shop drawing preparation
Shop drawing methods are not standardized
Corrective Actions
Add visual management to post current first pass drawing results
Institute feedback loop from shops to engineers
Develop measures to track
Build a plan to standardize drafting procedures
o Observations Walk 3 – Material Purchasing
Many people handle each order
Last planners feel like they don’t have control over materials
Processing orders takes a long
Orders are checked multiple times before being placed
Corrective Actions
Redraw purchasing value stream
Automate reporting processes as possible
o My partner in the shop and I did try to do a MUDA walk daily, ended up doing something about twice a week and did not do a good job of documenting/logging. He focused on movement of workers and I focused on inventory and movement of material. We did find some areas that we felt could be improved on, as we always do and have implemented a couple of changes. We are monitoring these to see if there is any impact. Simple things like moving machines for better flow, and trying very hard to keep everything moving in one direction. Sounds easy but not always accepted. On the inventory, it was interesting to watch material be prepared for process and then sit on a rolling bench for 3 days. This bench would get moved out of the way at least twice a day and then the items were looked for and finally processed on the third day. I have met with the decision makers for the shop to discuss ways of releasing work and lead-time needed for preparation of material. All in all, the MUDA Walk for a Month process is a great reminder for us to go look at what is happening on a more regular basis.
What could we (you or I) have done different to make this experience better?
o Make it the Muda walk for a year….LOL. No kidding sorry. I think we should make it mandatory for all people to do a Muda walk once per month in their areas and identify waste.
o I could have scheduled more time. I tended to leave if there was nothing to ‘watch’; I also felt like an intrusion at times. Watching office people type requires some level of interaction: ‘what’s that? How do you get the information, etc.”. I felt unproductive just watching.
o I like the way it was handled. I just wish I hade more time for it.
o I did enjoy the weekly communications from you; they were helpful.
o I can’t think of something to make the experience better but as for the purpose of doing the search, finding the waste is the easy part, following up and making the proper corrections to prevent from happening again is the harder. Maybe implement a follow up of success stories.
o A far as I know, there is probably nothing we could have done better. It was unfortunate that the timing of the Muda Walk came at a time where the shop was in disarray because of the construction taking place. The waste of waiting and the waste of motion made me focus a little harder on eliminating the obstacle coarse as soon as possible.
o Post items that other companies have found, prior to start of September, so companies have a springboard as to what they might want to look for right off the bat in their organizations
o Next year I will conduct a short meeting prior to the Muda walk month with more detailed information on what we are trying to accomplish and maybe some goals and reporting systems.
o One thing that would have helped was to involve the others in the department in suggesting problem areas in their world that might tip us off to a small, or maybe larger, area for potential improvement.
Would you be willing to do it again? Why/why not?
o Yes, depending on the timing and my schedule. Intermixing a Muda walker into another department would be an interesting concept.
o No, I did not have the time it required to do the best possible job at it. We are doing more with less these days and MUDA walk time is hard to come by.
o Yes. I would like to see it done more often. This actually has opened that door for me with my team and they expect that I will be showing up now and again. I don’t plan to wait for these formal opportunities to arise. I hope that as a result, we eventually become comfortable going to another dept. and doing the same, with their permission of course.
o Yes, I think every job has its own problems and ways to overcome the problems.
o Yes we will continue doing Muda walks throughout the year but not through an outside-organized program.
o Muda walks are always a good thing to do to just watch and see processes. Just because we started doing it this way a couple years ago, it may not work as good now as it did then. I will be willing to do it again.
o Yes I would, I think the findings are important to address and fix. I look at my findings as substantial, when combined with others findings it’s got to be very substantial in wasted time and money.
o YES! STILL WORK IN PROGRESS ON SOME ITEMS IDENTIFIED WITH LITTLE ACTION TAKEN
o yes. Uncovers real inefficiency in a short time
o We will definitely do the walk next year. I am planning on doing some training on how to conduct a Muda walk for everyone in the mean time. Any ideas of resources for training would be greatly appreciated.
o Sure…As I mentioned above, I think I would involve more people in my department in the search. If you could pick out or identify one thing at a time and pursue to completion or even a stymie. While the big hits are enticing, there are numerous small things that might pop up that would certainly add up over time.
o yes, but I will be looking forward to it more once I have moved into our new facility.
The Last Word – YES we will do the Muda Walk for a month next September too.
For more details contact dennis@YourQSS.com
For more details contact dennis@YourQSS.com
