When I was 18 we (my family and I) had just returned on an accompanied tour with my father (a U.S. Marine) in London, England. We were in Jacksonville, NC for around two weeks when he received orders to ship off to the middle east to be a part of "Desert Storm". I was preparing to go to college in Greenville, NC which was about three hours from Jacksonville. I changed my plans when we got the news that my father was to be deployed again. I decided to go to the local community college so that I could watch after my mom and two sisters. 

My first order of business once I was registered for school was to find a job. The only employment I found that would work around my schedule was McDonalds. I was hired as a night shift cook. I have always had the mind to be frugal with money. Like teaching, you don't enlist in the Marine Corps to get rich. I say this because I immediately saw waste at the McDonalds though At the time I did not know the concepts of Lean nor Six Sigma.

For those of you who remember in the early 90's, McD's used to cook their sandwiches and place them in a heating bin. We would place a marker behind a batch if sandwiches to let everyone know when those sandwiches expire (thus becoming waste). The management were using either "gut feel" or forecasting to predict demand. Most would over predict during peak hours (especially when rumor of a bus was ciming full of hungry athletic teams) and under predict during non peak. In either case, they were taking a risk. I saw the result in the waste bin every day. This was the case during my 1.5 year employment at McDonalds.  

Jump ahead 15 years. I was in a McDonald's during the peak of lunch and I saw that the bins were empty except for special orders. I thought that maybe I had come in on the tail end of a massive rush and they were trying to catch up. I decided to sit in the lounge where I could watch their process. What I discovered were steaming bins (almost small closets with trays) that the cooked meat were being stored at the place of sandwich assembly. Every order was being assembled immediately after the order was made. I thought to myself this is a perfect example of "Pull" production! 

In the old process of creating inventory of sandwiches under a heating lamp, the constraint in the whole process that kept it from being "just in time" was the cooking of the meat. In this new system, that constraint is removed. I also remember that when you received your hamburger from the bin, the ketchup and mustard were soaked into the bun and the bun itself had lost some of it's "fullness". In the new Pull process, the bins for the cooked meat are referred to as the supermarket. When the sandwich order is placed, the meat is pulled from the supermarket into the assembly area. The sandwich is assembled just in time to fulfill the order. 

There is a lot more that makes up a flexible Lean system. This example is just one of the many things that companies are doing to improve upon their processes. For more examples, keep checking into my blog.

Kevin Clay
kclay@sixsigmadsi.com
www.sixsigmadsi.com

I'm sure most of you have seen thousands of infomercials over the years of "get fit quick" gimmicks. The man on the TV that I call "the Circus Barker" that excitedly tells you of a way to lose weight and get fit in seven days. We fall for these gimmicks time after time with the same result ... a new contraption that sits in a closet or in the middle of the room as a clothes hanger. Why does this happen? Because we want the quick fix with minimal investment. 

Let's correlate the above example with an organizations investment in process improvement. When I am asked by people "Kevin, what do you do?"... I answer "I am like a fitness trainer for your organization except that I focus on the health of  your processes not necessarily the people". Organizations investing in process improvement are investing in the health of their company. For those of you that have significantly improved your health and sustained that improvement know that this takes time and discipline. I can tell you story after story of companies that start with good intentions, but because of the need for "the quick fix" and the inherent lack of focus, discipline and buy in, they change direction. They listen to the "Circus Barker" and opt for the quick fix. I often follow up on these companies to get some data on the result of their new "quick fix" direction. The outcome is often the same as those fitness contraptions that are now in the closet, are clothes hangers in the middle of the bedroom, or sold at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar. 

Einstein said "we cannot solve problems with the same thinking that got us into them". My interpretation of Einstein's quote is that we have to change the way we think when our current path does not result in the required outcome. When using this quote in my classes, I often follow with "what is the definition of insanity". Someone will eventually answer "to do the same thing over and over and expect different results". I have a good friend that was overweight and had declining health. She was on several medications including blood pressure meds. She smoked, drank alcohol often, amongst many other bad habits. She tried many of the quick fixes to regain her health. Nothing worked ... Why? Because she didn't change her culture. She didn't change her habits. One afternoon, she had a mild heart attack which happened in part because of diet pills and also because of her declining health. This was the "burning platform" that altered her way of thinking. Fast forward to a year after the heart attack. She is now running several miles a week; she has made the choice to be a vegetarian; she has lost over 50 pounds and she is off all medication.