Welcome 2016 with a Kaizen event

The end of one year, the beginning of the next. This is my favorite time to be a professional warehouse manager. It is finally here, that magical time of year after the dust has settled from the physical inventory, year end, Q4, and the holiday madness. This is the little bit of quiet time we get to
sit back, take a breath, put on some classical music, and review some good old fashion data.

Personally, I find it rewarding to compare this year's accomplishments to the previous years. As the department manager I have the opportunity to hold in my hands physical proof of my leadership successes and some areas that need may need some improvement. This is my very own performance review.

The successes are fantastic, but it is the areas in which our department performance has dropped that I am most interested in. There could be several different contributing factors that could decrease the performance of a department in a specific area. For example, turnover decreases productivity and efficiency for obvious reasons. Your department may have to operate short handed. New talent has to be hired. New personel  have to be trained, a workflow rhythm has to be established,  team cohesion has to be established, so on and so forth.

New process implementation could be another contributing factor for a decrease in efficiency and productivity. In some cases a new process may slow things down a bit while it is being implemented. A perfect example of this would be switching from one WMS to another. The outcome may be better performance overall but, there is no doubt that a learning curve will take place along the way. Anyone who has lived through a massive system overhaul or change can certainly attest to this being true.

So what do you do if there is no glaringly obvious reason for a drop in performance in a given area? I would suggest you gather your team for a Kaizen event.

Kaizen is the Japanese word for improvement, so one could call a Kaizen event an "improvement" event. A traditional Kaizen event involves everyone from the CEO to the mail clerks. In short, during this event a companies'  processes are mapped and discussed from all possible angles to improve those processes. (more details about Kaizen events in the links provided below)
Sometimes a Kaizen event in the traditional sense is not possible but a savvy warehouse manager can perform such an event in his department  on a smaller scale. What better time to do such a thing then right now at the start of a new year.

In my opinion Kaizen events do not all have to be large, grandiose, complicated, functions that aim to fix the entire department at one time. I have been witness to such events and saw little to no results. I would advise a smaller, more controlled,  more focused Kaizen event. Identify one issue and focus your team on that one issue. Once successfully completed you will have built momentum to move to the next slightly larger issue. If this is a new tactic to your department then I would advise setting your sights on a process that is very meaningful to your team. This will prove to them that Kaizen events are indeed valuable. You would be amazed at what your team can do if they all buy into this "crazy Kaizen thing" you're doing.

I once wanted my new team to understand the positive effects this type of leadership style could bring to our department. I was a new manager at a old company with a set culture of "never question anything."  Well if we never question anything then how do we learn?

I wanted to start with something I knew could be improved upon so I focused on the shipping/packing  stations in my warehouse. I asked my shipping clerks if they liked how their individual packing stations were configured. I got a lot of blank stares at first, but with a little prodding I started to get some suggestions. It started small, new tape guns, a few more small supplies, but with encouragement the ideas really started flowing. Rollers for packed shipments, a carousel for pallet wrapping, a relocation of the shipping stations closer to the dock door. This was Kaizen in all it's glory. My team and I working together to improve an area of the department and it's processes.

We had a greater brain storming session, then narrowed things down to fit our budget. At the end of the event we had, in fact, moved some shipping stations, bought a few new materials and greatly improved not only the efficiency of the shipping department but also the morale of the entire warehouse department. You can imagine how this first event lead to many more process improvements through out the warehouse.

So while you are taking a breath and setting your department goals for the upcoming year, why not take a look and see how a Kaizen event can benefit your warehouse. There has never been anything wrong with shaking things up a bit. Don't buy into the old saying " if it aint broke, then don't fix it," instead how about "it may be walking, but how can we make it run?"

Here is some reading about a Kaizen event to get you started: http://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/kaizen-event/
http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/625/planning-and-running-kaizen-events/

Like what your read? Take a look at some of my other post here:
http://thepallet-jack.blogspot.com/2015/12/creating-value-from-non-moving-inventory.html

Feed back is always welcomed!

My name is Matt Austin. I am a Professional Warehouse Manager. I greatly enjoy all areas of warehouse process improvement, and sharing ideas. Please feel free to contact me with any warehouse situations you may be experiencing for some outside perspective. Thank you for reading!