Beyond LEAN: Trust your instincts

Developing a bone-deep understanding of your operations by honing intuitive talents.

Seasoned managers seem to develop a sixth sense — an instinctive way to evaluate performance and operating conditions based on staff mood changes or variations in the sound of equipment that’s operating.

Metrics are considered essential to any quality or performance management program today. Such metrics commonly utilize LEAN principles to assess operational efficiency by objectively evaluating data that’s gathered and poured into spreadsheets, graphs and efficiency reports. This process measurement is important in determining what really needs to be improved.

Some managers, though, take a step back from the metrics and use what might be called a sixth sense — an instinct — to gauge their operation’s performance. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell examines this kind of intuitive knowing. He reports about how our minds process information; dovetailing nicely with getting the most out of LEAN manufacturing principles and metrics.

In a LEAN manufacturing environment, work should flow smoothly between departments and processes, without special or exception processing or delays. A benefit of a LEAN-oriented workplace is that while metrics are important, you don’t need complex statistical analyses to recognize improvement opportunities. What you do need to is an understanding of your operation’s optimal operating characteristics, and your understanding of it needs to be bone-deep.

Gladwell points out that this kind of information-gathering is crucial if you want to strengthen your ability to separate important information from the “noise” that comes at us daily. He calls this “thin-slicing.” He also notes that the ability to sift out significant detail is one you can learn.

Developing your sixth sense should start with a slow walk through your operation, keeping in mind that the LEAN production operations goal is to be well-organized and efficient. Consider this field work and realize that it’s as important to focus on what you don’t see as on what you can directly observe.

No waste or red ink: The work environment is clean, well organized and logically designed. Machine controls are identical for all identical equipment, independent of vintage. Work instructions are comprehensive and identical for all jobs. Waste is identified and disposed of before it accumulates. Both materials and information flows easily and rapidly through the process.
No searching or wandering: Everyone should have the tools and materials available for the job. Tools should be organized and employees should use the right tool for the job. 5S principals are an excellent way to organize the work environment.
No delays or waiting for materials: Work should flow through the process; no one should be waiting for materials, people or paperwork to arrive on time. The JIT principals can organize workflow to deliver materials to the right place, at the right time.
No special processing or guesswork: Work is standardized and displayed. All the information for people to effectively do their job is available, accurate and complete.
No detours or obstacles: Everyone has a clear idea of the workflow and process. Employees have a clean work environment. Walk ways and work areas enable a straight shot to get between points. People should not have to walk around equipment, people, racks or materials.
No extraneous stuff: Work areas should contain the tools, materials and equipment for the job – no less or no more.
No injuries: All injuries are preventable. Injuries are typically the result of rushing, cluttered work environment or using the wrong tool for the job. Safety procedures must be built into the work processes. A comprehensive safety program and daily safety meetings emphasize the importance of safety and keep employees accountable for a safe work environment.

The information you gain by directly observing the performance and flow of work in your operations can be used to validate collected process data and statistical analyses. Others may see your abilities as “magic,” but it’s really a matter of developing the “sixth sense” all of us have.

Pressroom Performance Metrics

When you're talking about Pressroom or Inserting production - do you know how well your operation is performing? For many newspapers, Production's performance is evaluated only on delivering the newspaper on-time - also known as the press off-time, last truck out time or stop time. Independent of what you call it, making the newspaper delivery time will likely keep the Publisher satisfied until next year's budget cycle, but isn't a guarantee that the production process is efficient.

There are many times that the operation is not under deadline pressure or has a longer than necessary production window. If you're not careful, the production performance can shift into "cruise" to fill the production window, but this also reduces efficiency. Running the equipment at a slower than rated speed isn't giving the press a 'rest' or is any easier on the machinery - it's simply less efficient and increases production costs.

In today's newspaper industry environment, getting the most out of your operation is critical and tracking operating performance is essential to maximizing efficiency.

The basic benchmarks for any production operation is make-ready time, overall waste percentage, start-up waste count, running speed, and net speed. All of these variables can be measured and tracked to determine the efficiency of the pressroom.

A key evaluation point in a high performance pressroom is core waste - how much paper is on the core after a paster. Obviously core breaks and running off the core is not acceptable, but so is having 1" of newsprint on the core. The reel and paster adjustments should be fine-tuned to have approx. 1/4" of newsprint remaining on the core; otherwise it's like leaving dollar bills wrapped on every core.

Another important evaluation of your pressroom is start-up waste; the number of papers it takes to get a sellable copy off the press. If that number is 500 or 2500; start-up waste should be a continuous improvement initiative. The first question is to ask why was the first copy acceptable and the previous copy wasn't. Having the press-crew evaluate the last bad copy will enlighten them, and management, to issues and opportunities for improvement. Was the last bad copy rejected because of ink density - then investment in ink levelers or CIP4 ink presets might be easy ROI, or was the problem registration - then finding the root cause of the variation and upgrading reel stands or nips/trolleys might bring color into register faster and reduce start-up waste.

Not all jobs are created equal. If it's the press configuration or the number/size of inserts running in the packaging center; all jobs should have a difficulty factor. This is job specific performance targets based on history. If you're running all full-rolls on press, without angle bars or other special web moves, that the press should be able to run faster than if you have 1/4 rolls and angle-bars moving the web. So to maximize efficiency, establish performance targets for specific types of jobs.

So even if the newspaper is delivered on-time; the challenge in today's newspaper market is to establish detailed production performance metrics to find additional efficiency and reduce costs.

LEAN & Six-Sigma Tools for Newspapers

Today, the newspaper industry is looking for anything and everything to improve efficiency and reduce costs to survive. Unfortunately, the typical approach is cutting staff and quality of goods; not looking at improving processes within the newspaper. The multi-media transition for the newspaper industry is begging for process improvements to lead the industry change. The answer is outside the traditional newspaper operation - there are two very important quality tools that can optimize the transition and reduce costs: LEAN and Six-Sigma

What are they?
LEAN: Root out waste so you can accelerate production.
Six-Sigma: Near-perfection is possible . . . so aim for it.

LEAN focuses on speed and efficiency, reducing cycle time, and focus on customer needs to define product value. To achieve such acceleration, LEAN finds waste and plans how to eliminate it. I.e., define optimal manufacturing processes to minimize production time and implements changes to improve efficiency. Waste is defined as non-value-added work, and there are eight types: wasted human talent, defects, sitting inventory, overproduction, waiting time, motion, transportation and waste processing—the time required to handle the consequences of the types of waste. LEAN uses specific tools to analyze process flow and delay times for each activity along the way. The results amassed provide a means of quantifying and eliminating the costs woven into the business complexities.
Downside: LEAN will not bring a process under statistical control.

Six-Sigma is all about manufacturing accuracy through a data-driven, problem-solving method to eliminate product defects identified by customers in ways that are sustainable. It involves a comprehensive set of quality-improvement tools, within a framework or set of rules and guidelines that has already shown itself to be effective at problem solving. Six-Sigma has been used to stabilize manufacturing operations by eliminating defects, produce products with higher reliability, and get new products to market faster. Applying Six-Sigma methodology is a complex process, one that requires internal changes in infrastructure to create an environment for obtaining results that are sustainable over time. The well-known Six-Sigma production standard is for no more than 3.4 defects per million product units. It’s a high target, and companies that apply Six-Sigma techniques correctly are meeting it routinely.
Downside: By itself, Six-Sigma cannot effect dramatic improvements in process speed or reduce invested capital.

United, the two tools quantify and eliminate the cost of complexity. Combining the two methodologies, LEAN Six-Sigma Manufacturing sets up interactions that reinforce each other. Percentage gains in Return on Investment Capital (ROIC) come much faster if LEAN and Six-Sigma are implemented together. “Just speed” or “just quality” will not produce the balanced results that enable an organization to ratchet up quality to a level defined by customers within a set time period. Industry leaders, such as Toyota and Motorola, have used LEAN Six-Sigma tools successfully to focus on customer needs and propel them to leadership positions in their respective industries. At the core, LEAN Six-Sigma is a data-based structure for making reality based decisions and eliminating waste out of the processes required to deliver news to the reader.

LEAN Six-Sigma Manufacturing Within the Industry
Many trends in the industry embody LEAN Six-Sigma Manufacturing principles, whether intentionally or not:

LEAN
1. Outsource functions for efficiency, cost reduction and better customer service.
2. Reduce the geographic area where papers are distributed, thereby reducing circulation, newsprint and transportation expenses, and allowing more targeted focus on the stated needs of core audiences.
3. Using common operational systems and data bases to optimize communication between departments.

SIX-SIGMA
1. Participate in the International Color Quality Club program and qualify for the SNAP Certificate to tighten and test printing competencies.
2. Participate in the ABC Insert Verification Process, as the audit program already has demonstrated that the industry is nearing 98-percent accuracy, indicating careful control of insertion processes.
3. Use production run data to track production efficiency and identify sources of downtime.
4. Determine the organization’s carbon footprint.

LEAN + SIX-SIGMA
1. Employ ink presets so that both ink and time are saved, newsprint waste is reduced, and product quality rises.
2. Use ICC profiles and GCR in your photo editing process to optimize quality and consistency of color photos.

All these suggestions will ultimately make your operation more efficient and cost effective, but more importantly it will refocus your management team and staff to look for answers and improvements beyond just cost cutting.

Looking for cost savings?

Everyone is looking to reduce costs and expenses today. The increasing cost of gasoline, energy and consumables are eating away at profits. So where do you look for cost savings and increased efficiency?

The first place to look is the condition of your printing press and how well it prints. The condition of your press will directly affect your productivity and waste. A maintained press can get to clean sellable copies faster on start-ups, maintain consistency over the pressrun and be a safer place for employees to work.

The press maintenance should regularly check roller settings, dampening system parts and functionality, and web tension. Rollers should be set or checked once a month. A common source of web breaks are dull slitters. Many pressrooms only change a slitter when it causes a web break. Be proactive and change slitters frequently, it will improve productivity by reducing web breaks and make cleaner cuts of the web. Properly set trolleys and nips are also important to controlling the web through the press - improving registration and reducing waste. Trolleys and nips should be set on the outside edges of the web to reduce set-off and quality problems.

Printing is all about consistency - when you shop for paper and ink out of the back of a truck parked in a dark alley, you generally get what you pay for. The consistency and quality of consumables; ink, paper, chemistry, rollers, etc., will directly affect your productivity and quality. The term: Garbage in, Garbage out, applies here. If you are constantly changing your process because of changes in material characterics or conditions, you are losing money and time. It is more cost effective to buy quality products, be consistent, and measure productivity and performance; then going to the bottom of the barrel, rock bottom priced stuff. Guaranteed, inconsistency and constantly changing materials will cost you more in both real dollars and head-aches.

Also look at technology. So many companies are afraid to spend a dollar, even when they would have immediate ROI and improve operational efficiency. If you have a person manually filling ink fountains to your press, invest in ink levelers - the ROI is there.

Lastly, have productivity goals and run speeds for everything you do. Many times, the equipment is run at lower speeds to make it 'easy' on the operation. The press and other equipment is designed to run fast - so don't dog it!