Hey, Don't Forget the Front Office

Just about every metal caster today focuses on going lean on the shop floor. The shop floor is a the place to implement Lean due to the amount of waste and non-customer value activities. However, I believe Lean can and should be applied to the front office as well. Why? The front office is part of your organization's value chain.

I was recently at a prospect's site (now a customer) that told me they went lean on the shop floor. In fact, they went on to explain they no longer report production. When I asked why, their response was "That is not Lean". (Not indicating the reasoning behind this alone gave me a clue they really didn't understand implementing lean.) I then interviewed the front office where I found some interesting information. B/c the shop floor no longer reports products, the front office, every evening, goes down to the floor and counts the number of molds made. That front office person then goes back and updates several spreadsheets, including one that tracks the number of impressions on a pattern. The front office person then adds up the number of impressions since the last overhaul and compares that number to the "rework ceiling", or when maintenance should inspect the pattern for any defects. If the # of impressions on that pattern exceeds its "rework ceiling" a call is made to the maintenance department which then schedules a work order for the pattern.

My question is to them was "Have you truly implemented lean in your organization?" Their response was yes. I disagreed. Why? The core value of Lean is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste throughout the entire value process. The front office is a value process and in this case was ignored. Why just focus on one (albeit critical) area, the shop floor?

I remember asking the prospect's executive team the following questions:
1. Are you maximizing customer value when you ship quality castings? Answer was yes.
2. Are you maximizing customer value when you ensure quality patterns are used to make quality castings? Answer was yes.
3. Is the front office part of the value chain? Answer was yes again.
4. Then why not have the Shop Floor report production, or simply the quantity they made using that pattern?

I went on to explain that with one simple production entry (and all they had to enter was quantity, with the system defaulting what step, takt time, etc.), the # of impressions on the pattern is updated and auto compared to the pattern's review limit. If the review limit is met, a work order is automatically sent to the maintenance department. The time the shop floor employee spent reporting production quantities eliminated massive amounts of time and confusion in the front office and helped to ensure the customer is getting a quality casting. Now, isn't this maximizing the customer's value (ensuring quality castings) while minimizing waste (Not having to walk around and count, updating spreadsheets and making phone calls)?

My point in all of this? Do not forget the front office is a value stream within your organization. When implementing lean, think of all departments.

Well, that's it for now.