Lean for your organization contest, some tips to write your articles fast

Recently launched contest “lean for your organization” has gained momentum. I find that more and more people are getting interested in the competition and submitting their articles. At the end of the day I think it is very important for us to use our knowledge and share it with the world. But some people told me they have no experience in writing articles. So I thought of giving you some help in this.

You have more than two weeks to complete your articles and submit for the competition. Believe me even for a writer with no experience it takes about 30 minutes to complete their articles. Just give it a try. Some tips which I feel will help you to write a successful article;

1. Start by writing down the topic


2. Then think about the problems you face day to day in your organization


3. Write down the problem


4. Think what is the waste category associated with the problem you identify


5. Then write down the causes to the waste


6. Once you identify the cause you will have hundreds of ways of eliminating it from the system


7. Takedown how you will eliminate them from the system


8. Quantify the results you will get


9. You are done!

Below is an example:

Problem:
Having huge amounts of write downs at the end of each month as excess RM
Waste categories:
Inappropriate tooling for RM ordering, undertrained people
Cause:

1. People who do the ordering have no proper tools to monitor the RM stocks they have in-house. So they have to make a subjective call to do the ordering.


2. They are not able to monitor the orders sent out already. So they can not exactly figure out the quantities that they will get in future.


3. Consumptions are buffered up in various stages. So the ordered RM quantity is higher than the requirement. This is because people who were recruited few months back do not have the experience to carryout their job to the perfection.

Proposed solution:

1. Give access to people who do the ordering to the warehouse stock monitoring system so that they can have a look at the stock levels before they place orders
2. Simplify the data entry screens of the warehouse to make it easier to update, so the data will be reliable


3. Have a excel book maintained with purchase order numbers. This book should contain all the purchase orders sent out. Making the codes used in communication with external parties will make it easier to track the total ordered quantity at any given point.


4. There are some senior people who are looking after the consumptions of some part of the business. So train all the new people under them and supervise them until they become competent


5. Use a control chart to check for the write downs at the end of each week (+/- 2%). If the variance is higher then immediately reduce the unconfirmed orders with the vendors.

Expected Outcome:

1. We are currently wasting around 8% of our RM as write downs


2. With the training and increased visibility we will reduce the around 3% of the write downs


3. Monitoring will make the system stable and in long term (within 6 months) will reduce this by further 1%


4. We will save 4% of the RM write-offs at the first implementation cycle.


5. With the time kaizen events will reduce this further down

This is an imaginary scenario, but is true for most of the organizations. It took me only 15 minutes to complete this. With your experience and research it will not take more than half an hour for you. Give it a try. At the end of the day you will feel $200 gift voucher is only a small gift. You will enable your organization to solve the problems they have been suffering for ages.
Send your articles to azabadurdeen@yahoo.com . If you are the winner I will send you the gift certificate of $200.

For more information on the competition click on this link.
Knowledge is the only thing expands when you share! :-)