Five lessons from the first online PPFL

In the new normal, we are having to learn to do everything online: shopping, studying and working, for example. As everything migrates from in-person to digital means, we are having to reinvent ourselves to learn to navigate these networks that are so present in our lives but that, we now discover, we do not understand as well as we thought. As a result, we are dealing with various challenges that need to be overcome, but that, once overcome, yield valuable lessons and result in very rewarding personal and professional growth.

In this new scenario, Lean Institute Brasil held this year, for the first time in its history, the first Practical Lean Training Program delivered remotely, as a rapid response to the changes demanded by the emerging pandemic at the end of March. Using digital resources to support the teaching-learning process, the cohort went through five very exciting months, which brought many new developments and difficulties but, at the same time, delivered spectacular results for the participants.

On July 17, as is customary in the program, the closing event took place with presentations of the participants' A3s, which addressed real problems experienced in their companies and which were individually mentored by Lean Institute Brasil's team of specialists. Although all the presentations were made through digital means, they certainly did not have less impact and do not offer fewer lessons than previous editions. All the presentations bore good fruit and lessons; in this article, we have gathered some highlights from this closing event.

• First impressions are not always correct: The A3 from ADM Animal Nutrition Division

First impressions are the ones that last. But perhaps it should not be that way. One of the participants in this PPFL, Driane, from ADM Animal Nutrition Division, presented an A3 showing how her company used lean thinking to increase the productivity of its extrusion line, which accounts for 35% of the production volume of the entire unit. With a demand of 140 tonnes per day, the company was unable to reach its target, achieving only 114 tonnes per day, which ended up resulting in product delivery delays of up to 72 hours. Given the challenge faced, Driane used what she learned in the PPFL to produce an A3 aimed at increasing the productivity of this line.

Initially, the company focused on machine availability, believing this to be the main cause of its productivity problems. However, as it developed the A3 and carried out the cause analysis, the company realized that, in fact, the biggest problem was not availability but product performance: operators holding back the machine load, recording errors, lack of standardization in setup and difficulties extruding specific sizes were some of the difficulties they encountered along the way. The example of ADM Animal Nutrition Division reminds us of the importance of going to see what is happening in the gemba and deeply analyzing the causes of problems, so as to avoid falling into the trap of blindly believing first impressions.

• The cause is not outside your control: The A3 from National Oilwell

How many times have we heard leaders say: the order was delayed for external reasons that are outside my control? Another presentation that added a great deal to the PPFL closing was that of Igor Ribeiro, from National Oilwell Varco do Brasil, whose A3 showed how they used what they learned in the PPFL to deal with delays in importing parts for the company's oil and gas equipment remanufacturing department here in Brazil, especially those coming from the company's unit in Houston, in the United States. This department is the second-largest in revenue at the unit, and the 46% delay rate on imported parts directly affected the company's customers, who paid penalties for having their production stopped.

While carrying out the A3, they soon realized that there were many causes for the delay that were beyond their control, such as loss by the airline and flight delays due to bad weather. However, they realized the importance of not falling into the trap of simply blaming these external factors for the delays, claiming there is nothing to be done, something we routinely see happening in companies. Instead, they thought: what is within our control that we can do to avoid the delays? The answer lay in alignment between the units (USA and Brazil) and, above all, in creating a supermarket, that is, a strategic stock. That way, even if all the external factors acted negatively at the same time, the supply of spare parts to the customer would be guaranteed. This shows us that, although there are external situations, there is always something we can do, based on a consistent cause analysis, to attack our problems and propose improvements.

• Established practices need to be questioned: The A3 from Yara

We often do things simply because they have always been done that way, without critically reflecting on why they are done this way and whether this method is suitable for our situation. At the PPFL closing we also had the presentation by Marcio Werneck, from Yara Brasil Fertilizantes, who presented his A3 on increasing gypsum sales while reducing cost and environmental liability. The high cost of the company's gypsum operation meant that it could not achieve much profitability in this process and had difficulty meeting customer demand.

When carrying out the cause analysis using the five whys and the cause tree, they found various kinds of waste: motion, waiting, space… By tracing the origin of this waste, they reached a conclusion: the company used a solution of transporting gypsum as slurry and storing it in open-air stacks, which was more viable when the plant began operating in the 1970s and is still a standard in this type of industry today. However, this process had never been challenged, and people simply kept doing it the same way for fifty years, without thinking about why it was done this way. As a result, they began to focus on a study to design a new system for transporting, storing and shipping gypsum, better suited to today's reality, and thus showed the importance of always questioning established practices.

• Planning prevents frequent firefighting: The A3 from Amendola Couto

Many leaders need to be almost firefighters, putting out fires on a daily basis, but there is a way to make this constant firefighting unnecessary. Another presentation that brought great lessons at the PPFL closing was that of Paulo Henrique, from Amendola Couto Ace Construtora, who presented an A3 on construction delays caused by a lack of materials. On the construction site used for the A3, work was stopped for 16% of the time, which was equivalent to almost one hundred square meters of construction, a very high figure.

By being present in the gemba and analyzing the process up close, it became evident that the main issue was that, while the work was being carried out, people needed to be heroes, putting out fires every time some material was missing; this, from a lean perspective, is bad and generates waste. When carrying out the cause analysis, they realized that two measures could be very effective in preventing the fires: proper planning – with a review by the site foreman the day before to ensure that the material needed for the next day is available – and a small supermarket of the most frequently used parts – to avoid unwanted surprises. With this, the company shows the importance of having planning and not needing heroes and firefighters.

• It is people who carry out processes: The A3 from Sodimac

It is no use having the best processes and procedures in the world if the people who carry them out day to day are not prepared to deal with them. Yet another presentation that yielded a great deal at the PPFL closing was that of Raphael Menechini, from Sodimac Brasil, with an A3 that focused on store stock with no display location. Based on a study carried out in one of the chain's stores, they realized that many of the store's items were not located at the point of sale, making them invisible and inaccessible to customers.

When carrying out the cause analysis, the company was able to trace the problem to the product lines that most often caused this “hidden” stock, namely those that were above the customer's reach on the shelves or that had no defined point of sale. The main issue here was not the lack of a procedure or an adequate process to ensure that this problem did not occur; the issue was that the people who carried out these procedures had not been trained to do so, which led each person to do it their own way without a standard, causing these difficulties. Through a process of training and continuous improvement of the process, the company showed the importance of always focusing on people if we want to achieve the best results.

The first Practical Lean Training Program delivered remotely promised many challenges, with people having to step out of their comfort zones to adapt to a new way of learning and developing. However, the excellent results we were able to see at the closing show all the participants' commitment and how this new teaching and learning methodology tends to be increasingly present in our realities in the future.

The future today may be more uncertain than ever, but what we are learning from this new normal is of immeasurable value. We are very excited to see the next Practical Lean Training Programs using everything we learned during this unique experience, and we hope that we can increasingly adapt to challenges and learn from them, using the difficulties and obstacles in our path to continuously improve. After all, that is the spirit of lean thinking.

Our thanks to all the participants who shared their learning with us and who allowed us to experience this new form of PPFL: Thiago Rosa, Márcio Werneck, Driane Ventura da Silva Nascimento, Elvis Farley Figueira, Luan Sousa, Raphael Menechini, Rafael Oliveira, Maria Luiza Kobayashi, Igor Ribeiro, Paulo Henrique, Erika Duailibe, Camila Amorim, Renan Viero, Tharles Castriani, Mariany Oliveira, Jaciclea Gomes.