Lean Action Workout (AWO),Florida,US

The lean AWO is a great way to solve for cross-functional problems. In addition to being a catalyst for idea generation , it helps  break down departmental silos  and aligns the organizational focus and culture to the problem resolution.

In Aug 2013 SigmaWay facilitated a lean AWO for its  client, a leading PEO in Florida,US. The objective of the workout was to reduce the cycle time and wait time for their overall implementation time by 50%. The workout was attended by more than 25 participants from departments in order to maximize cross functional perspective. Though the workout was only for one and half days , it was preceded by weeks of preparation where data was collected as well as current risks in the process identified. A grid which contained all process steps as wells as related data points (typically found in a data box in a VSM like cycle time, wait time, inventory,people etc) was used in preference to a VSM exercise in order to optimize time.

The session was launched by the operations and sales leadership talking about the importance of the exercise from a customer perspective which was followed by a short lean module by Mark Reinisch to orient the team before the problem identification session.

The team came up with a lot of creative ideas which were affinitized and then further detailed by three sub groups. Ideas were prioritized and project teams were aligned. The quantified benefits (reduction in cycle time ) met the AWO objective easily and by the end of day 2 teams were already on their way to implementing the quick hits.

For more information on how to conduct lean AWO for optimized impact please email: contact@gosigmaway.com