What is Zoning?

Zoning is a holistic system for ensuring that all items used in an enterprise can be engaged efficiently.

Why is it important?

• The Rational Reason - a well-organized enterprise that is “at-the-ready” to meet customer demand is an invaluable competitive advantage that can be achieved very inexpensively.

• The Emotional Reason – Zoning is the management system that enables and safeguards 5S, and 5S is an essential platform, for the engagement and continuous improvement needed to achieve and maintain excellence.

• The Tangible Reason – The direct value of Zoning is an improvement of overall performance by 1-2%. The systems it enables, such as 5S, Safety, Standardized Work, and Genchi Genbutsu improve overall performance by 8-12%.

When do you use Zoning?

Whenever you find it valuable to have a well-organized and at-the-ready workplace.

Who uses it?

Every member of the enterprise applies Zoning Principles.

How do you apply Zoning to an Enterprise?

1. Align Senior Leaders with the concept of Zoning.

2. Make Zoning an Imperative.

3. Establish Geographic Zones.

4. Set Maturity Based Milestones for the whole facility.

5. Initiate 5S and zone-specific projects.

6. Embed Zoning into daily life to ensure sustainment.

What are the Key Tools and Concepts?

• Every square meter in the facility is owned by someone.

• The enterprise is divided into Zones, and each Zone is owned by a Zone Steward.

• The entire facility moves through the process together from general overall standards, to specific, work center standards, with no use of pilot-implementations.

• Meeting Zoning Standards is an expectation of employment.

• 5S is the method used to animate Zoning.

• Zoning is sustained with the Relentlessness Techniques of Op-Ex.

View the full WWH here: Zoning_WWH_full_2024

What is the Origin of Lean Manufacturing?

• We see the roots of Lean in the writings of Ben Franklin. In his book, Poor Richard’s Almanac, he writes about the reduction of waste when he writes, “avoiding unnecessary costs could provide more profit than increasing sales”.
• Franklin’s thoughts are further developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in his 1911 book, Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor outlined and named the process of “Proto-Lean”, calling it Scientific Management. He wrote, “Whenever a workman proposes an improvement, it should be the policy of the management to make a careful analysis of the new method, and if necessary, conduct a series of experiments to determine accurately the relative merit of the new suggestion and of the old standard. And whenever the new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the standard for the whole establishment."
• Shigeo Shingo read Taylor’s book and dedicated his life to the furtherance of Scientific Management. He and Kiichiro Toyoda refined Taylor’s philosophies in the textile and automotive industries. As time went on, the great engineer, Taichi Ohno, brought these methods together to form the philosophy known as “The Toyota Production System”.
• In 1988, we first see the term “Lean” in John Krafchik’s article, Triumph of the Lean Production System.
• Next, we see the term, “Lean Manufacturing” surface as the philosophy of Lean is detailed further by James Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos in the 1990 book ‘The Machine that Changed the World.’ Womack and Jones continued to clarify the Lean Philosophy in their 1996 book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. In that book, they laid out five key principles, “Precisely specify value by specific product, identify the value stream for each product, make value flow without interruptions, let the customer pull value from the producer, and pursue perfection”. From that time on Lean Manufacturing was a mature business philosophy.

What is Lean?

• Let’s start by saying that Lean means many things to many people. It has its purists, its revisionists, its visionaries, and its charlatans. So, it is important to think of Lean as a general school of thought rather than a specific discipline.
• Since the dawn of time, the desire to manufacture things has been a very human trait.
• Almost no other creature makes things, and humans alone engage in mass production.
• We human beings have been continually improving things for eons. Each generation improves upon the last.
• The Term Lean Manufacturing or Lean was first defined by James Womack and Daniel T. Jones in the Book Lean Thinking – Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation – 1996. They defined Lean as “a way to do more and more with less and less - less human effort, less equipment, less time, and less space - while coming closer and closer to providing customers exactly what they want."
• We at Avanulo believe that Lean is a business philosophy that calls for process owners to relentlessly pursue the reduction of variation for the benefit of the customer.
• We also believe that people will naturally seek to improve their environment, work processes, and lives whether or not there is a formal system to help them do so, and that Lean Manufacturing is a school of thought and some tools, that help us to . . . “Improve the way we improve”. Lean is a Meta-Improvement System.
• Lastly, we believe that Lean Manufacturing is mostly tactical, local, and very human. It is not a generic strategy, but an augmentation to an organization’s generic strategy.

Why is Lean an important part of a Leader’s toolbox?

• Rational Reason – Lean provides an educational base, an integrated set of methods, and a vetted set of tools, for...

What is Commitment Lock?

• Commitment Lock is a simple, ancient, and powerful tool for ensuring individual alignment with a decision, plan, or action. It is comprised of two proven methods combined – Oath-Taking, and Public Square.
• Commitment Lock is a call for action posed in the form of a question to each person present at the time a decision is made.
• Commitment Lock, in its modern form, was revived by restaurant owners who used it to confirm reservations and persuade people to call them if their plans changed.
• Having seen this simple idea work so effectively, Avanulo used it to ensure compliance with safety standards and then, over time, extended its use to decision-making sessions from the shop floor to the boardroom.

Why is Commitment Lock valuable?

• Rational reason – Commitment Lock is supported by well-accepted concepts in psychology. When people make an active “I will” or “I Shall” commitment in public, they are much more likely to honor that commitment than when the commitment is private or passive.
• Emotional reason – The regular use of Commitment Lock builds a culture of professionalism that minimizes lip service and exposes sycophants.
• Tangible reason – When a decision is clear, and everyone commits to it, the chance of success doubles or triples.

When is Commitment Lock used?

• Commitment Lock is used when it is important to be certain that everyone involved will do their utmost to make a decision work.
• Commitment Lock is used after the decision is made and after the path forward is made clear with a Commitment Question.
• Commitment Lock is never used as a selection tool, to decide upon an option for a path forward based on who will commit to it.

How do you use Commitment Lock?

1. Confirm that the decision has been made and that you are on the eastern (right) side of the Decision Line in the Theory of the Decision Line Model (See TPL Show, Episode 5).

2. Write a Commitment Question, which begins with “will you”.

a. Include in that Commitment a call to action to support a clearly defined decision, plan, or step.

b. Determine withier the commitment is a Goal Implementation or an Implementation Intention.

i. A Goal Implementation is a commitment to bring about a desired state such as achieving one million dollars in sales – “We will increase sales to one million dollars this year”.

ii. An Implementation Intention is a commitment to do something when a certain condition is present such as, “if the raw materials come in late, then we will work on Saturday to finish the order on time”.

c. Make sure that the Commitment Statement is written in the form of a Question that one can answer, “I will”, or “I will not”.

3. Review the Commitment Question with all involved and make sure they fully understand it. Allow for discussion and modify the Question, if needed.

4. Starting with the lowest-ranking people and ending with the highest-ranking people, ask each individual whether or not they will commit to the decision.

a. If someone will not commit (which is rare because the decision has already been made and this is a commitment check), discuss and attempt to gain their commitment. If this proves impossible, after a reasonable period of time, close the session in one of three ways, but be very clear.

i. Have someone in authority over all present, simply declare what the path forward shall be.

ii. Set a date and time and defer the discussion until that time.

iii....