Lean-ing Higher Education

Ruth Johnston, Ph.D Associate Vice Provost,

Organizational Excellence University of Washington

Ken Murphy, Ph.D Assistant Dean Undergraduate

Programs, Argyros School of Business and Economics

Chapman University

Agenda

• Case Study Review and Discussion

• Principles for Lean management

• Applying Lean to solving administrative process challenges in universities

• Examples demonstrating the successful application of lean principles in higher education

• Theories behind Lean

• Lessons learned

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Case Study Discussion

• Please read the case study.

• Find a partner(s) and list three of each:

– Areas of inefficiency

– Organizations at Regional State that are involved

– Organizations or persons that might hold responsibility for these challenges

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• Lean is “a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste...” There are many aspects and approaches. We start by— – aligning with our strategy – identifying current state – envisioning future state – launching rapid process improvements – ensuring customer/partner involvement

• Lean engages staff (and faculty)— – to identify and solve problems

• Lean encourages leaders— – to trust and respect staff to continuously improve their

work

What is Lean?

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• Helps leaders, staff (and faculty) to become more: – customer sensitive

– nimble/flexible

– efficient

• Lean thinking and actions help us to: – build a common culture

– use common tools

– develop a common language of improvement

– change to get better

– develop transferable work skills

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Why Lean?

Principles of Lean

Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way, 2004 – Four Principles

1. Base management decisions on a long-term philosophy:

create value for the customer, society and the economy

2. The right process will produce the right results

3. Add value to your organization by developing your people

and partners

4. Solve root problems continuously to drive organizational

learning

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What Is A Rapid Process Improvement (Kaizen) Event?

1. One to Three Day Workshop

– Team includes project leader, facilitator/coach, staff (and/or faculty) members, customers/process partners

– Value Stream Mapping, Identify Issues, Future State Mapping, Process Improvement (Kaizen) Projects

– Followed by work on Kaizens

2. 30-, 60-, and 90-Day Check-ins with Leadership and other interested parties

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Activity Scope (some use A-3)

Problem Statement /Background: Alignment with Strategy:

Process Metrics:

Event Mission/Vision: Sponsor: Goals / Objectives: Project Leader: Timeline: Facilitator: Team Members:

The problem, history and why is it important

What should be accomplished during the 90 days?

Where does it align?

Metrics that will be used to track process improvements

The overall goals / objectives for the team to achieve

Name and title

High level overview of the the beginning and ending steps within the 90 days

Name and title

Name and title

Names/titles including customers

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What Is A Value Stream Map?

• Visual map of work flow:

– From beginning to end, including the customer perspective (wing-to-wing)

– The steps in the process including time it takes to do it

• A tool to:

– Document the current process

– Point to problems

– Focus direction

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Focus on eliminating the wasted time and activity.

Reducing Processes To Core Value

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Identifying The 8 Key Wastes

Overproduction Waiting Transport Processing

Excess Inventory Movement Complexity Underutilized

People

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It all starts with getting the mess on the wall…

1. Chartered cross-functional teams participate in a launch.

2. They learn to value-stream map, identify pain points, see waste, “own” the problems, and envision a future state.

3. More important than tools, staff (and faculty) are empowered to make improvements that will make their work-lives better, together, with support from leadership.

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Time Schedule Current State Map

• Macro steps in the process

• Additional detail (stay at 80%)

• Pain points

• Re-work loops

• Time things take (process, wait, total)

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Set an Audacious Goal

• Anything less than 50% improvement encourages just working harder

• Tweaks aren’t worth the time you’re spending in the workshop

• An impossible goal requires that you dismantle a (often times dysfunctional) process and then rebuild it to something that works

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…followed by a 90-day improvement cycle: a ‘learning lab’ of sorts.

• Teams learn and experience:

– visual management – weekly rhythm – what it means to be in charge of

change – seeing gaps – problem solving through ideas

Along the way, leaders and team members discover each others’ untapped talents, creativity, and energy.

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Lean Event 30 – 90 day Visual Board

• Illustrates progress toward goals, shows accomplishments, roadblocks, cross-pollination, metrics.

• Also shows ideas, kudos, etc.

• It changes weekly, with monthly check ins with Leadership and others, or whenever someone wants to know.

• It aligns with broader strategies.

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What is Visual Management?

• Visual representation of a process/processes in a highly visible location that:

– Makes problems visible

– Tracks progress

– Highlights what needs to be addressed

– Engages staff (faculty) and leaders in conversations

– Allows for frequent communication and sharing

– Notes ideas, kudos, learnings

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Personal Visual Boards (Kanbans)

Tracks flow of work to meet each person’s unique work and value stream. Work aligns with the area’s Board, which aligns with HFS strategic goals.

Assistant Director’s board

Communications Manager’s board

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Discuss

• What are we trying to achieve?

• Where are we now?

• What obstacles are in our way?

• Next steps and what do we expect?

• When can we see what we’ve learned from taking that step?

From Toyota Kata, by Mike Rother

Meet at Your Team and Individual Boards

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Customize Your Boards to Visualize Your Own Work Flow

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What Is “Just Do It”?

Just Do It…

• Improvements that are quick to implement, that you have direct control over, and the impact is clearly understood and agreed upon that will be measured.

Examples:

• Make revisions to one of your reports

• Reduce Time in Meetings

• 5S (Sort, Set in order, Shine, Schedule, Sustain) within your work area

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Some UW Lean Examples

• Time Schedule process (School of Nursing)

• Curriculum Scheduling (UW Tacoma)

• Human Resources – hiring to leaving, all position types (School of Nursing)

• Faculty hiring, all types (UW Tacoma)

• HUB Event Reservations process (Student Union/Student Activities)

• Small Business Plans (Business Diversity/Procurement)

• Budget Closings (Grants & Contracts)

• Campus Citations (Parking)

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Some Lean-related Results

• Master purchasing contracts saved $40 million over 4 years

• On time delivery of materials went from 46% to 90%

• Discrepancy resolution in AP now take only 3 weeks

• 50,000 payables checks have been eliminated, saving $100,000 annually

• Grant & Contract Accounting now sets up new grant budgets in one day, after eliminating a huge backlog

• Elimination of mylar drawings is saving $100,000/year

• Internal Audit has saved $40,000 by streamlining the annual audit.

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Case Study Discussion Continued

• Talking again with your partner(s):

– What would “lean” mean in this context?

– What aspects of these business process are not lean?

– How could these processes become (be) lean?

– Is complete process reengineering/redesign required here? (Is it possible?)

– What are the next steps at Regional?

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Review: What is Lean?

• Process Synchronization and Efficiency

• Process Synchronization: Just the right information in the right quantity at the right time in the right place, at minimum cost

• Efficiency means eliminate waste (Muda)

– Waste includes defects, waiting, excess movement, etc…

– Eliminating waste means exposing sources of waste (Jidoka)

– Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)

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Review: What is Waste?

• Waiting in queues and repeated waiting in queues

• Unnecessary processing of customers or materials

• Unnecessary movement for workers, customers or materials

• Producing defective products

• Producing too much

• Carrying inventory

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Lean Considerations for Regional State: Variability

• Manage variability effectively

• Variability causes queues and queues tend to

hide “defects”

• Does Regional know why they have lines?

How many different types of customers are

there in each?

• Possible solution: Differentiate customer

types via different queues

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Lean Considerations for Regional State: “Defects”

• Known as “Jidoka” or making visible “defective” items

• Student is “defective” in the sense that he cannot register

• Was he made aware of this? Was the message clear and concise? Was the option provided to address the defect ahead of time?

• Possible Solution: Pre-registration email with a clear direction on how to address roadblocks and challenges

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Lean Considerations for Regional State: Empowerment

• Empower your people to solve problems when they occur AND

• Separate the problem from the person

• No person that the student interacted with provided a full summary of how to address the challenges

• Possible Solution: Provide staff with the ability to see student records more broadly, understand registration hold codes and direct students accordingly (aka cross-training)

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Lean Considerations for Regional State: The Bigger Picture

• Address student and employee input on the process in regularly scheduled meetings or a Kaizen event

• Develop a mechanism to make visible, track and classify defects systematically

• Build a culture of continuous problem solving (Kaizen)

• Implement improved systems to streamline information to students and automate processes

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What Processes Might You Lean?

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Lessons Learning

• Lean is new to higher education; tread carefully

• Jargon (Kaizen, value stream map, etc.) may not be accepted or understood – use what will be (process improvement, current state map, etc.)

• It always takes more time than expected – prepare folks

• After success and effective teamwork, it’s hard for members to go back to regular work

• Sponsor is really important – make sure you have an engaged and empowering on

• Lean is not the only way to improve an organization

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• Benson, Jim and Tonianne DeMaria Berry, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work|Navigating Life, (2011)

• Edmondson, Amy C. , Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Enonomy, (2012)

• Hamel, Mark R., Kaizen Event Fieldbook: Foundation, Framework, and Standard Work for Effective Events, (2010)

• Imai, Masaaki _, Gemba Kaizen (2nd Ed) A commonsense approach to a Continuous Improvement Strategy (2012)

• Liker, Jeffrey, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2006

• MacInnes, Richard L. The Lean Enterprise Memory Jogger: Create Value and Eliminate Waste throughout Your Company, (2002)

• MacInnes, Richard L. The Lean Enterprise Memory Jogger for Service: Create Value and Eliminate Waste throughout Your Company, (2009)

• Miller, Jon, Mike Wroblewski, and Jaime Villafuerte, Creating a Kaizen Culture: Align the Organization, Achieve Breakthrough Results and Sustain the Gains, 2013.

• Rother, Mike, Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement,Adaptiveness and Superior Results (2009)

Some Resources

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• Rother, Mike and Schook, John, Learning to See, Lean Enterprise Institute (2011)

• Spear, Steven J., The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition (2010)

• Womack, James P. and Daniel T. Jones, Lean Thinking (2003)

• Womack, James P, Lean Solutions; How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together, Lean Enterprise Institute (2005)

• Womack, James P, Gemba Walks, Lean Enterprise Institute (2011)

Websites

• UW Organizational Excellence, https://uwff11.s.uw.edu/2y2d/oe/home

• Lean in Finance & Facilities, http://f2.washington.edu/lean

• Emiliani, Bob, We Can Do It! Improving the Relevancy and Value of Higher Education Using Lean Management –ebook: http://www.bobemiliani.com/we-can-do-it/

• Lean Enterprise Institute: http://www.lean.org/

• Toyota Kata: : http://www,personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Homepage.html

• Gemba Penta Rei: http://www.gembapantarei.com/

• Personal Kanban: http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/#sthash.bUplZzAT.dpbs

• PEX Network: : http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/

More Resources & Websites

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Contact Information

Ruth Johnston, Ph.D. Associate Vice Provost, Organizational Excellence

University of Washington Email: ruthj@uw.edu Phone: 206-685-9838

Ken Murphy, Ph.D.

Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Education Programs,

Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University Email: kmurphy@chapman.edu

Phone: 714-628-2876

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