5. Implementing Lean Stephan needed to decide on where he would act. He had created an expectation with Andre that there would be tangible improvements in the short term, so he needed to focus on these results first to gain support for his Lean ideas. The next logical step after having audited the operations was to begin targeting the proverbial low-hanging fruit.

The following six-month period was busy for Stephan. With the assistance of Bernd, he started implementing changes in the factory. There was a general clutter of old machines and surplus equipment. The rationale around keeping them had been that they may be needed for future production. After asking the right questions, Stephan realized that most of the equipment had not been used for years and some had simply been dumped there when they moved into the current premises. The solution was to move some of the more valuable equipment to a separate storage area while the rest was disposed of. There were other immediate tangible improvements that could be made. Surplus hand tools were removed, work spaces tidied up, and the remaining items were color-coded per station. The factory floor had previously been demarcated; however, this had not kept up with changes in the production lines and so tape was applied to the factory floor demarcating where items should live and where carts could travel. Bernd lamented on the recent changes: The factory certainly looks smarter. We are starting to perform better in our food safety audits as well. The number of non-conformances has dropped dramatically from around twenty last year down to about only five per year since we started doing this. 5.2 Implementing One-Piece Flow and Pull Stephan decided that scaling and batching was the department where he could experiment with some Lean concepts, see the results quickly, and then implement them elsewhere in the factory if they were viable. He identified a problem relating to multiple batches of ingredients sitting for extended periods of time in open containers waiting for mixing. The workers wanted to appear to be productive. As long as there were order cards, ingredients to draw and containers to mix in, they wanted to produce batches for mixing. The batches would sometimes spoil at this step and needed to be discarded. A change in mindset was necessary. This was a perfect place to start implementing one-piece flow and then pull. He chose to play a series of games with the workers in the department to teach them the practicalities of the new system. After assigning each worker to a station, they manufactured paper aeroplanes using the Kanban system. Everyone seemed to enjoy the exercise and grasp the concept. However, a few days later everything lapsed back to the old system with batches again piling up. Then Stephan had a conversation with Fezeka, the supervisor working in the area. She suggested that they use the trolleys as the mechanism

to run production. There would be only two containers and trolleys in a bay at any given time. The operations department had purchased additional containers and trolleys the previous year with the hopes that it would assist the department. Now they took away all but two per station: one that could be ready for mixing, a buffer, and one container that was in the process of being completed. This immediately solved the problem. There was, however, massive resistance from some the employees in the department. They had previously measured their own success through how quickly they could process the days batches, which generally involved a mad rush in the early part of the day followed by idle time in the afternoon. Stephan and Bernd needed to explain that they were not being judged on how quickly they could produce all their batches but rather on quality and consistency. Gradually most of the employees warmed to the new way of doing things. A pull system was introduced through providing the order card to the mixing department rather than scaling and batching. Mixing would only provide the next order to scaling and batching as they took the buffer container. Again, this was successful and then needed to be extended throughout the factory processes.

5.3 The Shop Floor A year after beginning Lean, Stephan commissioned a study to get the shop floor employees views on the company and what changes if any Lean had brought. The following are summarized quotes from the findings, voiced collectively: We are usually nervous when Stephan or Bernd walk around the factory. We are worried that they will find something wrong and issue a warning. Things have improved, but we still need to feel more respected and valued as employees at Nibbly Bits. The reason we belong to the union is because we are worried about losing our jobs. It is a form of protection. On Lean, we are on board with the concept, however we do not feel as if we are a part of the change initiatives and the project is still being driven by Stephan.

While implementing Lean, what waste was addressed when Stephan removed the surplus of machines and hand tools?

Which waste was reduced with the color coding of items and floor demarcations for carts?

and How lean helped the workers to organize their work with the aid of the pull system that Stephan had invented?