At Lumen Electronics, they used to have constant stock outs, over stock, obsolete stock, chaos around ‘have we ordered this?’, ‘when is that due in?’, on and on.
Kanbans changed all that. Kanbans done with GembaDocs REALLY changed all that!
So how can YOU make that happen for YOUR organisation?
We can help.
Recently, Tom wrote a book on “how to make any workplace better with SOPs” called G.R.E.A.T. Processes. The G.R.E.A.T. being an acronym that you can use as a checklist to get the process of making your SOPs right. It’s recently occurred to Tom that the exact same issues apply for the PROCESS of getting Kanbans in place. So let’s get started.
G is for GEMBA
You want to make your Kanbans where the action is, on the GEMBA (workplace in Japanese) not divorced from the work, at your desk. The GembaDocs mobile app help you do this 100%, One of our guys was able to create and implement a few hundred Kanbans in a couple of days, when using the old methods with emailing photos, playing with excel would have taken weeks! Just use a phone, snap a photo of the item and complete the details in a few minutes and use our “duplicate” functionality to save time creating Kanbans for similar items / from the same supplier. It’s so EASY! Here’s a detailed video on how to do it using the GembaDocs mobile app.
When they are done on the Gemba preferably created by the people who will be using them, it really helps with your next letter…. Just while we are “here,” most our clients don’t go into rocket science for calculating Kanbans quantities and re-order points, but if you would like to, here’s a link to an article that does.
R is for RECOGNITION
Kanbans only work, when the people who are using them, recognise them as the method that we are using for managing material. This is made much easier when the people using them, created them and therefore own them and are much more likely to stick the systems that are implemented, rather than be casual about how the cards are moved around, losing them etc.
E is for EASY TO USE / FOLLOW
There needs to be a clear system for what happens when a Kanban is “pulled,” where the card goes for ordering, waiting for receipt of goods and when replenishment occurs and who is responsible for the card at each stage. Here’s how we do that at Lumen. If that system isn’t clear to all who are using the cards, there will be trouble!
A is for AVAILABILITY AT POINT OF USE
One of the challenges that organisations often have is how to physically place / attach / insert the cards on to the material that they are being used to manage. Vastly different sizes / shapes / nature of material can make that a challenge. We can help! We recently asked some of our customers to show us how they do that and this video was the result.
T is for TESTED & TRAINED
Testing is more applicable for SOPs than Kanbans but still your system is going to be tested every day and it’s important that as you encounter improvement opportunities that they get acted upon. TRAINING is probably the more pertinent of the “t’s” here. Everyone who is participating in the system needs to be aware of the system and the level of discipline required to make it work, as ambiguity and gaps in understanding will make life harder for everyone. Many of our clients practice 2 Second Lean, an approach to lean that incorporates a daily Morning Meeting. Perfect to have that daily review and reinforcement to keep things on track.
