Turning Continuous Improvement and a PMO into an Innovation Team

Keine Notizen für die Folie

I’m currently serving in a cross functional role as interim Warehouse Operations Manager for night shift operations.

Four Seasons Produce, Inc. is a full-service wholesale produce distributor supplying Organic, Local and Conventional fresh produce and related products to Organic Markets, Food Co-Ops, Independent Retailers, Chain Stores, Juice Bars and other produce buyers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions
1976 Business begins from 5,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Denver, PA
1986 Primary supply begins to first Philadelphia area retailer group. Warehouse moves to a 25,000 sq. ft. building
2004 Open 262,000 sq. ft. 400 Wabash Road facility
2015 Major warehouse and truck garage expansions

Full service wholesaler of organic, conventional and local fresh produce
•Servicing independent retailers, chain stores, food co-ops and other buyers
•Proven programs for retailers, export, and ingredient

My role at FSP
Operations focus
CI Manager
Training focus and CI focus for operations teams

11 climate zones to store produce at its ideal temperature and humidity for maximum freshness
8128 pallet spaces of refrigerated storage at our primary warehouse
20 Ripening Rooms to condition up to 640 pallets of bananas or avocados at a time
Rail Car Siding to unload and receive up to 2 rail cars at one time
Sophisticated Warehouse Management and Inventory System
Quality Control Inbound Inspections and Quality Assurance Inventory Monitoring

Banana Ripening with 3 color stage offerings
Organic, Fair Trade, and Conventional programs
Avocado Pre-conditioning
Additional capabilities include tomato, mango, and pear ripening

GIRO net bagging machines
AG-PAK poly and combo bagging machines
Clamshell Machine
Flow-wrap and Over-wrap Machines
Grading Lines and Product Sorting
Custom Packs and Case Reconfigurations
Private Labeling and House brands

Step through these 3 topics as it relates to our timeline

Title: Turning Continuous Improvement and a PMO into an Innovation Team
- DEFINE PMO for the audience

Key Points:
How communications transformed a “siloed” focus to a cross functional effort for CI
What the value of communication is when it comes to educating versus cheerleading
How we leveraged the PMO efforts and CI efforts for key strategic projects
Get a snapshot of a new innovation team model that merges the best elements of CI and a PMO

Talk about CI and PM in the last 4 years. And how they fit together.

Now talk about just the CI journey to show the evolution over time to how we are now working to merge PM and CI into innovation.

Here are the tools – go do it

Tools work, people use them

No overall vision, direction

Here are the tools – go do it

Tools work, people use them

No overall vision, direction

Grapevine articles – ASKED TO DO

Training with provider (MANTEC) for 3 more managers

Lean team (senior manager level)

What was lean
Why we do it
What’s important about it

More technical
More educational
More factual
More tool talk

Started “communication” – but not focused in message
Tried to get people involved
Challenged to gain momentum

Cross functional projects
Engage teams
Supervisors and Associates drive decisions

Leads, Supervisors, and Managers identifying & driving projects

Engaged departments in cross functional projects– supervisors and associates drive decisions

Still in business to sell CI to the organization
Using the right “terms”
CI vs. Lean

Initiated Weekly Lean Topics to operations teams (October 2013)

200+ people
24/7 operation
6 – 7 meetings/day

Answer to getting REPETITIVE COMMUNICATION to teams

Started as just a word document with information

Evolved over the first 12 – 15 weeks
Change in way written and presented
Change in that we added visuals for managers to share as well

Challenges –
Managers weren’t comfortable with content
We weren’t consistent with all teams
Hard to follow to make sure it was happening
Radio silence from team members

Associate led CI Teams (November 2013)

Talk about the flow of ideas and how they are captured

Challenges with this group
They don’t know Lean well
They struggle to engage everyone
They weren’t 100% sure on how they could help
Didn’t feel they had a sense of authority

Successes with this group
They know the processes
They know the people
They were creative with their ideas

EDUCATION
REPETITIVE COMMUNICATION

Talk about other resources we have and how we were using them in addition to the big items.

TEAM Meetings –
All salaried staff meetings
Focused communications on projects and accomplishments
Selling the CI program to the business
Sharing terms without using the terms – you choose the vocabulary
Emailing key concept blog posts to focus group of CI people
Send with a question to gauge response

Online learning resources
People use this, but if we have them sit and do a course or watch, not many self motivated
Gemba Academy
Library of Lean books
This was not used too much – most people don’t want this is what I’ve found

Lean Thinking Network member

Changed format
Educational to cheerleading
Success, accomplishments learnings

Lighter article mixed with education
Less education about lean, more about our processes – others understand different pieces to the business

Focus shifted in 2013 to people

It was more important to understand the people side of Lean than anything else, but we still hadn’t given our teams the tools/knowledge
BUT…..
Something was happening

Turning Point – START BREAK DOWN OF SILOS WITH THIS PROJECT!!!
COOL Project
Looked at the process not the people – removed the human element
Participants found it eye opening
They didn’t realize how what they did impacted others
Started to see true team work – give & take
Initiative from associates to say I can do this to help you and maybe this to help me…
Agreement on process
At conclusion – they asked when can we look at…
Understood value of asking why versus attacking how everything is done

What Changed
Associates soliciting support

CHEERLEADERING/CELEBRATION

Supervisors, Leads, and Associates identifying & driving opportunities to improve
Vigorous focus on training:
Leadership Training
New Hire Orientation
Lean Training

Leveraged Technology

April 2014

What do you do when you walk back to your desk and you find this?

I, of course, was a bit baffled and just chuckled to myself.

My initial thought was – who would do this? Are they making fun of CI? What’s happening here?

Then I realized, this was a gold mine! I had a chance to share what people (or at least one person) is thinking about lean. So I did what I do and shared with the entire organization in our company newsletter – the grapevine.

My message: “You get it!” You are thinking lean, whether you realize it or not, you get it!

I never found out who left the image on my desk, but it was eye opening. And it sparked conversation in the office.

Ironically I was preparing for a board meeting the following week – this would be the first time in front of the board and sharing anything about CI with them. On a whim I decided to take the picture along with me. What a better way to communicate to the board how CI is all around us and to help them understand the impact CI is having on the organization.

It was a great discussion around the picture and I got some great smiles and input.

THEN>>>

I got this…

Ironically, after the Board meeting, I got the image of the empty rolls on the bar from a Board Member. His caption was, “Progress already!”

It may seem like a stretch, but when you are one person with a focus within one department, it’s the little things you celebrate.

This is a success and it was this along with many other things as to why we focused in 2014 on education.

I’d like to talk to you about the successes (and failures) I’ve had with communications when it’s come to CI within Four Seasons Produce.

New Hire Orientation (NHO) Part II – FRAME THIS UP FOR CONTEXT
20 minute Lean overview including training activity on visuals

Lean Training – CREDIT TO LTN: GREEN LEAF PLANTS
Project Management teams
All operations associates
Café,
Facilities

Lean
PM
Leverage lean thinking when considerign systems of future
Don’t want to automate what we have today – want to be better
All Ops
60 minute overview
General understanding – interactive and valuable
Build year over year
Challenge with language

Training Specialist
Support operations training with focus

Leadership Training
Operations leadership teams: Leads, Supervisors, Managers
Monthly training: focus on being a better leader
Consultant training: public speaking

Leadership
April topic: conflict management
Sharing stories among participants – more FS focused
Most valuable – “how” ideas
December/January training – Julie Baum
Presentation training
Pre-shift training

Admin role of ROI/tracking ideas time was cut in ½
Focus on people
Easy to use
Quickly see impact #’s for higher level team members

Dashboard
Impact Summary
User Engagement

Coaching and cheerleading
Removing barriers, bringing new ideas
LTN meetings
Other area meetings with associates
Helpful that KaiNexus can track everything

Talk about kata and the 5 questions:

What is the target condition?
What is the actual condition now?
What obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition?
What is your next step?
When can we go and see what we have learned from taking that step?

Ensure we focus on targets/goals – not just gut feel
+1 CI person – now a team of 2!
Peers and leaders say thank you on the spot

We are continuing to:
Senior Leaders saying “Wow!” Not “How?”
Middle Leaders delegating
Autonomous team

Training – leadership training
Training maybe ½ step ahead of our audience, but helping them see how they can work in that way and achieve those results
Teaching them to where we want them to be – setting the expectations
Help our associates focus on their jobs and not many jobs
Trainer positions
Support positions

Our Mission:
Engage associates, customers, and suppliers in continuous improvement efforts to create long term value and a seamless value chain that drives success for future generations at Four Seasons.

Growing CI team
Growing PM team

Working on same issues & trying to solve challenges and to push organization forward

Launch effort to talk about BPM (Business Process Management) team

Small team to figure out how to ensure our new OMS and TMS system sustain and grow in functionality as the business grows

Get the okay on the concept from exec team and them progress is halted.

Restart in August 2016 with same goal, but new focus pull CI & PM together (the best of)
- VP Innovation, Dir PM, CI Manager

Leverage the best of PM and CI

Best of CI methods and processes including KaiNexus
Best of PM – agile and dedicated team members

HOW:
Combine the best practices of Continuous Improvement (methods) and the Project Management team (dedicated resources) into an Innovation Team
Use Continuous Improvement methods, similar to Kaizen events, using KaiNexus to manage solutions and capture results
Create dedicated teams with all required skillsets that use agile methods
Utilize sprint concepts that achieve business value in a short amount of time
Guided by the “Product Owner”, drive priorities consistent with organization objectives
Deliver the solutions based on the priorities

EXPECTED RESULTS:
Improve margin, lower cost and maximize revenue
Achieve ROI from the Supply Chain (ACE) business case
Optimize value stream processes that flow across technologies, assets, and teams
Service customers by better utilizing our Effort, Space, Capital, and Time