Episode 14 – Lean Six Sigma

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

Welcome again to another episode of the Linen Uniform and Facility Services podcast by TRSA sponsored by 6 Disciplines Consulting Services. I’m your host, Jason Risley, senior editor of digital and new media at TRSA. Before we begin, we’re always interested in hearing feedback from our listeners, so I’d love to hear your comments on the last episode of the podcast about the hospitality market. If you operate in that space and haven’t heard it yet, please go back and listen to episode 13 for a rundown of trends and opportunities in the hospitality market, and send us a message at podcasts attrsa.org. Once again, that’s podcasts attrsa.org.

 

In this week’s episode, we discuss Lean 6 Sigma with Audrey Carmichael, a client coach with 6 disciplines. Audrey is a certified Lean 6 Sigma black belt and a certified American Society For Quality or ASQ Quality Auditor. She brings more than 25 years of experience in light manufacturing, product development, technical communications, quality assurance management, and continuous improvement. As a full time Lean 6 Sigma black belt, she led and coached improvement projects and production and business processes to eliminate waste and produce more consistent outcomes. Prior to joining 6 Disciplines Consulting Services, Audrey was the global director of quality assurance for Canberra, an international business unit of Areeva, a leader in the energy industry.

 

In addition to strategic advisory services, Audrey has worked with 6 disciplines clients using her lean expertise to review and improve processes, train teams of client employees in lean and problem solving, run turnkey improvement projects, and perform data analytics. Audrey shared her thoughts on the benefits of running lean in a commercial laundry operation, how Lean 6 Sigma can improve safety as well as production, and more. We’re back again with Audrey Carmichael of 6 Disciplines Consulting Services. We’re gonna talk today a little bit about Lean 6 Sigma. Audrey, can you share with us what is Lean, and can you give some examples of how Lean can benefit a commercial laundry?

 

Sure, Jason. What we think of today as lean has its origins in the automotive industry at Toyota, where it’s known as the Toyota Production System. Since then, it’s evolved to include many tools and best practices. Distilling it down to its essentials, Lean’s focus is utilizing the talent and creativity of all workers and eliminating waste in processes. Even though Lean started out in manufacturing, its principles can be used in all industries.

 

For example, in the last 10 years, the health care industry has been using lean extensively. Commercial laundries can definitely benefit from a lean program. It gives you a framework to evaluate all your processes and make sure they’re running as efficiently as possible and producing the quality output they should. Commercial laundries use lean in lots of ways to manage their inventory better, improve the flow through the plant, keep their equipment running longer, reducing rewashes, even improving the interface between departments. At 6 disciplines, we started a laundry lean training and coaching program to help our laundry clients learn more about lean.

 

That sounds great. How do you recommend laundries implement lean? When I implement laundry lean for a client, I’ll go down 2 paths simultaneously. I’ll focus on changes in the plan, creating visual management systems and a program to improve their improve their processes. And the 2nd path is creating structures for engaging the workforce and continual improvement efforts.

 

Typically, the visual management system will be through a system called 5 s. 5 s is a classic lean technique to improve workspaces. It helps you define the flow of work through an area, organize it so it’s as efficient and safe as possible, and keep it operating that way. Another component of the visual management that I teach is integrated with a daily coaching technique so that each department has clearly posted goals and results and has improvements they’re working on every day. The other part of lean I start out with is creating a culture of continuous improvement.

 

We train the workforce on problem identification, root cause analysis, basic data analysis, and working in cross functional teams to tackle problems that come up. We don’t want employees just to accept the status quo. Before launching the lean program at a client, I’ll conduct training. Usually, the first group includes production managers and supervisors. The executive team should also be trained early on.

 

Like any initiative in a company, support from the upper management is critical. Ideally, the executive team will have a good strategic plan in place so that the lean projects align with their operational objectives. Are there benefits for frontline employees as well as managers or the CEO? For frontline employees, they’re empowered to identify and help solve problems and make improvements in their daily work. For managers and the CEO, higher costs, and better customer service can be achieved.

 

If a company doesn’t do follow ups after the original training is completed, does the positive impact deteriorate over time? It can. But when a commercial laundry has really implemented lean, it becomes part of their DNA, just the way they do things. But to make sure the changes stick, I recommend 3 remedies. 1st, the best follow-up is continuing to implement lean principles in the organization and keep running lean improvement projects.

 

2nd, within each lean project, the last step is to institute a control plan to make sure the changes stick. This could include writing new SOPs or changing the layout of an area. If this isn’t done rigorously, there is a tendency to backslide on the gains. 3rd, as a part of onboarding, make sure new employees learn the lean principles you’ve put in place. And I’d just like to add that the real power of lean thinking is that it’s not only a set of tools.

 

It’s a mindset that focuses on the customer and using the talent of your workforce to keep striving for perfection. We’ve heard about Lean and 6 Sigma and Lean 6 Sigma. Can you explain the differences to me? Sure. While Lean has its origins in the Toyota production system, 6 Sigma originated in the United States at Motorola.

 

If we were to use a simple definition of lean to reduce or eliminate waste, we can simply define 6 Sigma as a way to reduce or eliminate variation in processes. But these oversimplifications aren’t all that important. Both Lean and 6 Sigma focus on delivering excellence to the customer. In practice, one difference is that 6 Sigma deployments tend to focus more on statistical analysis and a structured project management approach. Many organizations choose to use a 6 Sigma project management approach when a problem is very large and complex, and little is known about possible causes.

 

Lean 6 Sigma integrates the two approaches and teaches practitioners to use the toolset and analyses that best match the objectives at hand. I think the key is to work with a coach who can help guide you. As a Lean 6 Sigma black belt, I’ve had over 200 hours of classroom training and run dozens of projects. Working with someone like me can help you out a lot to determine the best course of action to take. Tell me about some lean training or work you’ve done in the commercial laundry industry.

 

The training I’ve conducted for commercial laundries is a 2 to 3 day course that focuses on practical use of lean methods and tools. This is my laundry lean yellow belt training. This course covers all of the fundamental lean methods and has active exercises for students to practice on their own processes. After the class is over, I’ll coach and advise on the projects the students are working on. I’ve also led lean projects for clients without having a training class.

 

For example, with one client, I’ve done a process mapping and analysis to improve their linen inventory. We pulled the office service and production folks together, identified some weaknesses and gaps in the process, agreed together on solutions, and wrote new SOPs together as a team. Is there a place in Lean 6 Sigma training for safety or incident prevention as well as production? Absolutely. Lean 6 Sigma techniques can be applied to improve safety programs.

 

The structured steps in a project will help you focus your efforts while it’ll have the most impact. You’d follow the problem solving method to set a goal, look at what data you have available, determine root causes, make the changes, and monitor the results. Also, if you’ve deployed the 5 s system, you can add safety walk throughs as a regular part of your lean program. And where can our listeners find out more about laundry lean? Any of your listeners can contact me directly.

 

My email is acarmichael@6dconsulting.com. You can find me on LinkedIn or on the 6 disciplines consulting website. Thanks again for coming on the show and talking with us more about Lean 6 Sigma. Thanks, Jason. Implementing Lean 6 Sigma can be a great benefit to your laundry operation and can lead to improvements in both safety and production, among other things.

 

If you are interested in implementing lean in your laundry and have any questions for today’s guest, Audrey Carmichael, feel free to send them to podcasts attrsa.org, and we’ll make sure to follow-up. Thanks again to our sponsor, 6 Disciplines Consulting Services. And as always, make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our show on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.