Measure and Improve

Written by Dale Schattenkirk (Article previously published in Greenhouse Canada Magazine)

Creating a baseline ensures subsequent changes make a quantifiable improvement to the system

Welcome back! In this month's article we look at the Measure and Improve phase of the Valleybrook Lean project.

A PDSA trial marking
permanent lines on the
ground.

The reason we measure is to create a baseline, our starting point to an understanding of our current state. By knowing this we can ensure the changes make a quantifiable improvement to the system.

Deciding what to measure is important. If you measure too many things it can be daunting and disengages the team; measuring too little can cause the team to miss opportunities. The simple way to identify what to measure is to use the process map that was created during the Define day. The team walks through the process steps one at a time and identifies any of the two types of things that can be measured.

Measuring Efficiency and Effectiveness

Measurement can be broken down into two straightforward categories, efficiency or effectiveness, or simply how fast and how well.

The team came up with several measures of the laying-down process:

The team also wanted to identify any issues or defects that may come up during the laying-down process. Defects were noted as:

Determining Baseline is the First Step

A PDSA trial with two people
offloading plant material.

With the measure sheets in hand, a trusty stopwatch, and a clipboard, the team went out to discover their baseline. They set up to run the process as normal and measure the total time to lay down. Once the baseline was established, the team went back to the classroom and decided on the PDSA cycles.

PDSA stands for Plan-Do-Study-Act. A PDSA is a four-step action plan that is designed as follows:

PLAN: This stage is simply stating what process you are planning on changing.

DO: This is the action plan – what you are going to try, who will do it, when will it be done, and what will you measure.

STUDY: Once the DO is completed, this is a simple step of asking "is this an improvement?"

ACT – Does the team need to try other improvements or did the changes achieve the AIM?

Several Remedies Soon Identified by the Team

The team came up with several PDSAs:

A PDSA trial with two trailers
and one driver.

The PDSA cycles took most of the day, as the team tried different approaches. The true strength of using the PDSA tool is the safety in trialling what is thought to be a great idea to see if it really is!

The team continually measured their PDSA trials to see which one netted the best gain in time. The team also continually evaluated qualitative measures as well. They identified repetitive work, working in isolation and fatigue as negatives. The solution to these identified issues was a rotation of jobs from driver to greenhouse lay-down staff every two hours. This gave the team a break in their day and helped increase staff morale.

Using Quantitative Evidence to Make a Change

Once the trials were completed, the team headed back to the classroom for one last time to review the measures, pick the best change using quantitative evidence, and create an implementation plan.

Next month's article will present the control phase and final outcome measures of this project at Valleybrook.

This project was made possible through the Food Innovation Centre of BC, with funding through the federal-provincial-territorial Growing Forward program.

Dale Schattenkirk is president/CEO of LTS Consulting, a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, an ISO Auditor and a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP).

SmartSite created by Arxus