Lean is a philosophy centered around continuous improvement and the removal of waste.

A lean organization is one whose processes are streamlined, containing minimal waste.

Mike Rother, in his investigative book Toyota Kata, revealed that engrained in each worker at Toyota is a continuous improvement mindset. A mindset that manifests itself as an acute awareness of one’s surroundings and a reflexive reaction to amend anything that inhibits optimal efficiency.

This practice, the lean practice, has brought Toyota to its impeccable state as one of the top global car manufacturers today.

Kata are practice routines that help us master and maintain new skills. Just like the musician routinely practices their scales or the basketball player their ball handling drills, engineers must also engage in practice routines that result in excellence. The practice routine for an engineer is what we have defined as a HYPER-Kata. A HYPER-Kata is a practice routine that helps us master the continuous improvement mindset (lean), and therefore achieve engineering excellence.

Repetitively performing HYPER-Kata will build and strengthen new neural pathways until the continuous improvement mindset becomes habitual.

Implementation

The CORE team began with implementing practice routines in the form of template worksheets, but found that it was ineffective. The worksheets were not relevant or of direct value to lab members’ work.

We were searching for relevant ways for engineers to practice routinely, but have now found the solution: the Improvement Kata, a practice routine for continuous improvement, is to be practiced under the guidance of a coach. Every day, lab members will meet with a coach who will ensure we are continuously improving each day (aka exercising the Improvement Kata). The daily routine practice of meeting with a coach is the Coaching Kata.

More on the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata further into the page.

Community Event

The first community event was designed to set an expectation for the summer and present our plans in terms of lean implementation. We were going to follow each lean theme with an accompanying practice routine in the form of a worksheet.

Warm-Up. We began our first community event with a paper airplane competition to see who’s airplane could fly the furthest. We learned quickly that the lack of boundaries in the directions would result in a throwing contest with some planes and some papers crumpled up into balls.

Presentation. Following the warmup was a 15 minute presentation on Kata, HYPER-Kata, and our plans for the summer. We also included a generic outline for how the future events would run.

Activity. For the activity, each team completed a worksheet (HYPER-Kata worksheet) which brought them along for a ride in analyzing the lab’s current state and how each team already practices their own routines for improvement.

Personal Developments

For our “Sprint Retrospective” after each event, the Core Team would complete what is called an “SII” to reflect on our Strengths, Improvements for next time, and Insights.

Here is our SII for the HYPER-Kata event:

Strengths

• Good presentation energy
• Engagement from community when we asked questions

Improvements

• Arrange the sequence of slides for better transitions/flow during presentation
• Make the material more short, concise and digestible so that it’s easier to retain
• Rather than preparing a script for the presentation, have a loose plan with key points to hit
• Make more eye contact during presentations to engage the audience
• Create an itinerary to stay on track
• Instead of providing a worksheet for the activity, design a hands-on, competitive activity

Insights

• Engage the community in more discussion rather than just presenting to them
• Worksheets is not the most effective means of engagements and participation

Key Points: Implementing HYPER-Kata will foster the continuous improvement mindset the HYPER Lab is aiming for. After finding that daily worksheets is not the answer, we now have a new development for HYPER-Kata’s…refer to “Coaching Kata.”

What is the Improvement Kata?

The improvement kata (IK) is two things:

1. A daily practice routine for continuous improvement, a HYPER-Kata
2. A systematic method that guides the process of achieving a goal or solving a problem

Rother, Mike. The Improvement Kata Pattern. May 2013, https://www.slideshare.net/mike734/the-steps-of-the-improvement-kata. PowerPoint Presentation.

In summary, the IK process is determining a general direction, and experimenting towards a series of intermediate goals in line with that direction.

The Improvement Kata:

1. Understanding the direction or challenge. What is the final vision or ultimate goal?
2. Grasping the current condition. Before moving forward, you must understand where you are. What is your current condition?
3. Establishing the next target condition. Based on where you’re at, you can now more effectively assess where you want to go. Describe your next desired condition, the intermediate goal toward the ultimate goal.
4. Experimenting towards the next target condition. Experiment with methods or processes that will get you to your target condition. Use rapid PDCA cycles (Plan, Do, Check, Act).
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you’ve completed the ultimate challenge. When you’ve successfully attained a target condition, revaluate where you are, set a new target condition, and experiment toward it again.

Here is a template designed to guide the use of the Improvement Kata: Daily HYPER-Kata Template

Navigating Uncertainty. Because uncertainty is inevitable, detailed plans that are created before a project begins will almost always get derailed. There is simply not enough known in the beginning to make an accurate assessment. All that time and energy that went into creating the detailed plan goes to waste.

Rother, Mike. Figure 1-2. Toyota Kata, by Mike Rother, McGraw Hill Education, 2009, p. 8.

The Most Direct Path. We often get distracted from doing what must be done, and find ourselves doing extra tasks that bring us no closer to our end goals. By setting intermediate goals, you are only focused on the obstacles between you and that short term goal. You are not spending time preparing for obstacles that aren’t immediately relevant.

Community Event

Warm-Up. To begin the community event, we asked the group to solve a simple problem and map out their problem-solving process. The idea was to have their own problem solving process fresh in their thoughts, ready to compare it to the IK. However, it did not have the intended effect as lab members were confused with directions.

Presentation. We gave a presentation about the basics of the improvement kata, its utility, and provided an example.

Activity. We asked lab members to exercise the improvement kata by designing a paper airplane in 20 minutes. The challenge was to design an airplane that could hit a target when released from a certain distance.

The process looked something like this:

1. Understand the challenge. Hit the target from measured distance.
2. Grasp current condition. My plane is flying straight but not far enough.
3. Establish next target condition. I need my plane to fly further.
4. Experiment toward target condition. I will lengthen the wingspan of the plane to see if it will fly further.
5. Repeat steps 2-4. My plane is flying further, but now it doesn’t fly straight. I need it to do both. I will build planes with various wingspans to try to find the appropriate design.

The more successful groups rapidly tested and adjusted their designs (Do, Check, Act) as they went. The less successful groups spent the majority of their time in the initial (Plan) designing and building phase.

Discussion. Upon a group discussion of the paper airplane-building exercise, we collectively concluded that rapid testing, adjustment, and iteration was the key to success. Further, the group agreed that the most important part of the IK was the experimentation. It is where the most progress is made, and the most learning is done.

Proposed Worksheet. At the end of the meeting, we introduced a worksheet guiding the use of the IK as a warm-up and cooldown to each work day. The warm-up was establishing the current condition, setting a target condition, and planning an experiment. This acted as determining a focus for the day. The cooldown was the retrospective of the experiment.

We found that the worksheet did not work as a warm-up because of the deep thinking it required. Warm-ups should be an easy exercise that aids in the transition to more challenging work.

In response to the unsuccessful attempt, we restructured our community events as outlined in Trial #2.

Personal Developments

Strengths

• Great energy and enthusiasm in leading the activities and discussion
• Spoke louder and clearer than in week 1
• Activity had enthusiastic participation
• Activity successfully illustrated the benefits of rapid PDCA cyclers in the improvement kata
• Closed with a one strong takeaway
• Better recoveries and improvisations after unplanned occurrences

Improvements

• We should streamline presentations to keep it as simple as possible and have one key takeaway. This week we quickly unloaded too much information, none of which was retained.
• Practice run the presentation before presenting
• Plan the activity together
• Limit research time
• Move Jake’s meetings to Tuesdays

Insights

• Things are often different in action than on paper
• Planning parts of the event separately leads to a disconnect between our individual ideas and the team’s execution
• Spending too much time researching the finer details of a concept is not a valuable use of time. Research enough to know the general concept to teach it. Teaching the general concept is more effective for retention than teaching excess details.
• Having one day to prepare before presenting our event outline to Jake might make our meetings more productive
• The warmup could be used to prime the community for understanding the main concept
• We’re often closer to being ready than we realize. We were going to push this meeting back one week because we felt unprepared, but ultimately went forward with the event. The event wasn’t perfect, but we learned from everything that didn’t work out.
• We can learn faster by trying and failing rather than strenuously preparing for something we are unfamiliar with.

Key Points: The Improvement Kata is a practice routine for continuous improvement and serves as a guide to solving problems. The defining characteristic that makes the Improvement Kata effective is that it encourages rapid experimentation toward intermediate goals, which is where the most learning/growth happens.

6S is a systematic approach to organization and waste elimination. Applying 6S makes continuous improvement easier, as inefficiencies are more easily spotted when the surroundings are in order. For example, it would be hard to tell if a box of staples is on the wrong shelf when it is buried behind a clutter of materials. After decluttering, the specific placement of the box of staples could more purposefully selected. The 6S method is a great way to start leaning out a system.

The 6 S’s:

1. Sort – Removing nonessential items from the space. This is done by taking everything out and sorting it into three piles: put back, place elsewhere, trash.
2. Sweep – Tidying the entire workstation or space (cleaning, dusting, polishing, sweeping, vacuuming)
3. Systemize – Putting back essential items in an organized and efficient layout. Disposing of trash and finding a new place for other items.
4. Standardize – Setting a clear expectation to ensure everyone knows how the system works.

   Expectations can be set in three different ways: verbally, written, or visually.

   Verbal: training new members on our systems

   Written: written manuals, procedures, and guides

   Visual: labels, outlining, kaizen foam, etc.

5. Sustain – Taking all the previous steps and transforming them into ongoing habits.
6. Safety – Consider how the previous steps each contribute to safety.

   Example: Sorting a tools shelf revealed loose circular saw blades. There was a poor system in place, which resulted in the danger of cutting oneself on a blade. The systemization must be improved to increase safety.

Safety. The combination of the first five S’s all lead to the sixth S, Safety. Notice how by Sorting a space, any dangerous loose blades, defective materials, etc., can be found and dealt with accordingly. Then when the time comes to Sweep, the space and tools get cleaned up, which protects their longevity. Systemizing ensures there is a designated place for everything, including those hypothetical loose blades found back during the Sorting phase. Now fewer injuries are possible because the blades are no longer lost in a mess. Next, utilizing the three methods to Standardize the new system will provide a solid understanding on where things go. Finally, sustaining the space will result in less misplaced blades in the future, or other cases where danger arises. This is one example of how 6S keeps on cycling back to a safer space.

Community Event

Warm-Up. Divided into four teams, the lab members were given the hypothetical situation of being a pitstop crew for NASCAR. Each team, or pitstop crew, was given a few minutes to quickly assemble the most efficient tool station for making repairs on racecars as they roll in for pitstops.

To our surprise, teams organized their tools and fasteners with labeled sticky notes and tape. One even color coded their system. Even with our vague instructions, the HYPER Lab pitstop crews were sorting, systemizing, and standardizing all on their own.

Discussion. Ironically, during the follow-up discussion, lab members agreed that the HYPER Lab as a whole currently does safety the best, which is supposed to be a result of practicing the other five S’s. This reveals that we may not practice safety as well as we thought. We must perform the first five S’s better to achieve safety.

The community also believed that our strongest form of standardization was the written form, but agreed that the visual form is most efficient. If the visual form is most efficient, then why isn’t it the most practiced? To become more lean, we will be focusing our future efforts more on visual standards, like templates, kaizen foam boards, and shadow boards.

Activity. The activity involved 6S’ing a power tools shelf in the lab. Split into four teams, each team was assigned one of the first four S’s. Team 1 sorted, Team 2 swept, Team 3 systemized, and Team 4 standardized. Like a relay race, Team 1 went first and sorted the power tools shelf. Then the baton was passed over to Team 2 for sweeping. The flow kept going until Team 4, the standardizers, had finished their part.

Every team was given two minutes to complete their task, however most teams took more than two minutes mostly out of confusion with the task at hand. They found that 6S can be hard to perform quickly if you’re lacking in practice. Nonetheless, the shelf was sorted, swept, systemized, and standardized (with labels) by the end of the activity. Now, all that is left is to sustain it by actively following the set standard.

Personal Developments

Strengths

• The warmup successfully illustrated the utility of 6S
• Clear and concise presentation
• After practicing the first four S’s in the activity, the community was left with a clear understanding of how to use 6S

Improvements

• Try to quickly modify the event plan when a component of the workshop doesn’t go to plan

Insights

• Sustaining is the hardest part for everyone…we know lab members prefer an organized space (as shown in the warmup), but also understand they have a hard time sustaining them. This information will help us build a more sustainable lean system in the new lab space.

Key Points: The 6S cycle is a systemized process of organization that leads to waste elimination. While each ‘S’ seamlessly leads to the next, they all come together to create a safer work environment. Once a space is 6S’ed, a plan can be developed to eliminate the waste found in the process.

Poka yoke is the Japanese term for ‘error proof’. Poka Yoke, as defined by lean experts, is any mechanism that helps to avoid mistakes. Ideally, engineers would like to see error-proofed systems more than error-reduced, however some situations don’t allow for full error proofing.

Before continuing, here are two preliminary definitions:

• Error proofed: A system or process that can only be done one way—the right way
  • Example: An orbital tig welder requires that you load in the material, make the necessary adjustments, and then let the machine do the rest of the work for you. In this way, the welding can only be done correctly because it is automated.
• Error reduced: A system or process that has potential to be done the right way
  • Example: Bosch jigs: When building with Bosch, certain connectors between members are required, and the drilled holes for connectors must be a certain distance from the edge of each piece. A jig helps you find the correct placement of holes before drilling. Here’s the catch: the jig must be used correctly to get the right holes drilled. Because there is a possibility of using it wrong, this jig is an example of error reducing.

In everyday life, error-proofed systems might look like microwaves that don’t turn on unless the door is shut, car doors that don’t lock when the keys are inside, or filing cabinets that only allow one drawer to open at a time to avoid tipping.

Why Poka Yoke?

A key idea, articulated best by Dr. Leachman, is that there is increased value in machinery that can be used in many ways. The drawback, however, is that the more ways something can be used, the more it can be used wrong. So how can we harness the value of a multiuse system and minimize its drawbacks at the same time? The answer is to create jigs, a form of error-proofing, for specific tasks on the multiuse system.

In any case, poka yoke is important because it reduces defects. Less defects results in less time spent fixing problems that could have been avoided in the beginning. Poka yoke also increases safety at the lab because everyone is set up with the same standards for tools and machinery.

Community Event

Warm-Up. We began our poka yoke workshop with a warmup that resembled a relay race. There were two teams and each team was split two groups (Group A and Group B). Team 1 encountered an error-proofed (or poka yoked) situation, whereas Team 2 encountered an absence of error proofing. The end result showed the consequences of a lack of error proofing.

Here’s what happened:

• Team 1: Group A was tasked with grabbing a few random tools from our kaizen foam toolbox. Then they gave the tools to Group B and instructed them to put the tools back without telling them exactly where.
  • Experience: There was no hesitation as to how and where to put back the tools because there was only one way to do it—the right way. The kaizen foam toolbox was error-proofed since tools physically could not be placed in the wrong spot. Additionally, the drawers in the toolbox were labeled. Group B got the tools back in their places efficiently and with minimal time, motion, and complexity waste.
• Team 2: Group A grabbed random hardware from Durham drawers that were not error proofed. Handing the fasteners off to Group B, they instructed them to place the hardware pieces back where they belong, similar to Team 1.
  • Experience: Group B had a very difficult time returning the hardware supplies back to their respective places. The drawer system was not error-proofed. Firstly, all the drawers looked the same and were poorly labeled, causing excess time and motion waste looking through opening up multiple drawers. Secondly, in the drawers themselves, many of the neighboring hardware components looked similar causing a hesitation in returning the component to the correct place.

Results: Team 1 won this relay race because the poka yoked tools drawer allowed them to quickly retrieve and return tools. Team 2 struggled against the clock to put their hardware back because of the lack of error-proofing in the Durham drawer system that caused hesitation and contemplation as to where the correct spot for the components were.

Discussion. Interestingly enough, crickets followed our startup questions: “What are some error proofed systems already present in the lab?” and, “What are some ideas of systems that need error proofing at the lab?” Almost no responses. It took some digging to get a couple examples of jigs here and there, but the discussion that followed the community warmup indicated that our lab doesn’t have enough jigs that error proof or error reduce our most general use machinery. Our next step is to continue brainstorming areas of the lab which are subject to user mistakes, and error proofing the relevant systems.

Personal Developments

Strengths

• The warmup got the community thinking about the benefits of error-proofing systems without context

Improvements

• Could have more clearly connected the warm-up to how it was an example of poka-yoke
• Make quicker decisions on how to adapt to changing situations
• Run through the slides once or twice before hand
• Instead of leaving the event planning to the last second, plan in earlier in the week. Work a little bit every day to allow ideas to come through.
• More thought should be put into considering personal work limits

Insights

• Having signed up for a summer course and working another job at the university on top of being at the HYPER Lab, Victoria found herself with too much on her plate and her workflow began deteriorating. As a result, she allowed herself to depart from the lab mentally and the work fell on her teammate.
  • In the future, Victoria will know her limits and ensure there’s ample time each day to give her best to the lab.

• Over the course of the summer, Kerstin had taken on an unsustainable load of work and work style. She didn’t take enough breaks and burnt out. Instead of asking for help, she wrongly pushed through. The result of this was procrastination and progressively poorer community events in the last couple of weeks.
• Without considering our personal bandwidths, we didn’t know our limits before it was too late

Key Points: Poka yoke is Japanese for ‘error-proof’. In lean application, there are two types of poka yoke, error-proofing and error-reducing. Poka yoke reduces defect waste which in turn reduces more wastes associated with inspecting and correcting errors. Jigs, a form of error proofing, can be utilized to maximize the function of a multiuse system.