The Siouxland Lean Consortium welcomes Tracey and Ernie Richardson for this exciting 4 days of training. The event is comprised of two, 2-day sessions.

• Session 1 (8 Step Problem Solving) Monday/Tuesday

In traditional Cultures only the "six sigma black belts" or "highly skilled" problem solvers are looking at the day to day issues team members deal with at their processes (manufacturing or material and information flow). There are so many problems and yet not enough of the "specialized people" to go around; often we create a low morale in the workplace because team members have lost faith in management to go and see and provide the resources they need to make a difference in "their" work area.

In Toyota's culture, we tend to think "Problem-Solving, Everybody-Everyday", meaning we empower our people to make a difference in their own work areas therefore in some ways they are contributing to their own job security. This is a powerful paradigm shift in how we do business in today's industry. How we measure success (how we are doing?) is also key in differentiating leading versus lagging key performance indicators. Many organizations are in a fire-fighting mode which creates the situation of the problem managing people, not people managing problems (pro-active-predictive thinking).

This can easily be applied by valuing and respecting people as the most important "asset" to the company. If we do not ask our people to think and respect that they are the "professional" on the job then we are missing out on the extraordinary "brainpower" they have to make a difference that could very well lead to improved company business indicators. Also as leaders, we must allow “space to think” if we are going to teach and ask the questions of PDCA we must respect the time to make it past assumptions. This is an essential element of Toyota's culture and how they implement so many ideas that leads to improving the "cost" indicator for the company. It's not only a process the team member learns but really an "expectation" of their job to think about improvements and not become complacent in their actions.

The process used to strengthen our problem-solving skills is called the 8 step Problem-Solving process, some know it as TBP or Toyota Business Practices.

The 8 Steps consist of:

Step 1 - Clarifying the Problem

Step 2 - Breaking Down the Problem

Step 3- Setting a Target

Step 4 - Root Cause Analysis

Step 5 - Develop Countermeasures

Step 6 - Seeing Countermeasures Through

Step 7 - Monitor process and results

Step 8 - Standardizing and Share Successful Practices

The 8 step Problem Solving is basically PDCA, then first 5 steps of the 8 Steps are planning, Step 6, 7, and 8 and the D, C and the A of the process. It's a very efficient and effective way to "think", again thinking is what we should value in people.

• Session 2 (Strategy Deployment, Caused vs. Created Gaps) Wednesday/Thursday

This workshop will help leaders understand /strategy deployment hoshin planning as a core process for defining and creating annual objectives and developing people based on those objectives and how they align with the key performance indicators like quality, cost, safety, productivity and people development. This thinking will encourage leaders to “purposely” create gaps when processes are stabilized in order to encourage continuous improvement for the organization and individuals as they develop the eye for waste.

We will also discuss and understand how hoshin planning (also referred to as strategy deployment) can be utilized to define a clear strategic framework that can strengthen an organization through enabling sustained high performance and produces long-term results. This thinking will help develop a line of sight from and individual perspective upward to the organization’s executives to ensure alignment to the true north of the organization.

We will ask the questions:

What is your role?

What is your work responsibility?

What is your job’s Purpose?

What are the goals that guide your Job’s Purpose?

What is your company True North/Vision?

This workshop will clarify the relationship of hoshin planning to A3 problem solving within each level of the organization (vertically and horizontally) ensuring all of the functional areas begin to see through the same continuous improvement lens.

Many organizations discuss with how to best engage the workforce to an aligned direction that ensures business viability. The session helps upper-level management understand that it has the responsibility of connecting the company's people to the purpose/true north of the organization. So how to do this effectively? How can managers build the culture of an organization into one in which management is purposeful in its approach?

Hoshin (Strategy Deployment) is a management system that aligns people to their process an organization's functions and activities with its strategic objectives/tactics. If differentiates strategic A3’s as they relate to problem-solving A3’s making connections that cascade through level/scope. Strategy deployment thinking encourages SDCA (Standardize-Do-Check-Act) before PDCA can effectively be done. Standardization is the foundation to see abnormality at a glance in order ensure the internal and external customer needs are being met.

Lastly this thinking/planning encourages creativity in each team member at each level as goals are developed in a dynamic, catch-ball process that involves a dialogue between each level of management about annual corporate objectives. This engaged dialogue promotes the capability of the organization to manage based on purpose.

Ernie and Tracey Richardson, Owners of Teaching Lean Inc. and the authors of The Toyota Engagement Equation

60 years combined experience for Teaching Lean Inc:

Specializing in the 8 Step Problem Solving methodology, Toyota Production System (TPS), Toyota Values and Culture based training, Building in Quality at the process (JKK-Jidoka), Value Stream Mapping,Visual Management Systems, Company Business Planning (Hoshin) targeting key performance indicators (Q, S, P, C), Standardized work development, Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA), and Quality Tools, Quality Circle Training (kaizen teams), and A3 Writing (problem solving theme report), Medical Management, Workers Compensation processes, Long-term Disability Management, Safety Culture, Skill Trades Management, Medical clinic processes, pharmacy processes, and human resources leadership standard work.

Siouxland Lean Consortium presents Problem Solving and Strategy Deployment Training with Tracey and Ernie Richardson in conjunction with the following sponsors; Seaboard Triumph Foods, Link Manufacturing, Mercy Medical Center, Dunes Surgical Hospital, Airlite Plastics, Aim Aerospace, and CIRAS. Thanks to our generous sponsors we are able to offer this wonderful training opportunity for the incredible price of $250 per session.