Sometimes when you set out to help someone else, you end up benefitting as well.  That's what happened with AIDT's Continuous Improvement Workshop program.  By creatively adapting a program created for the assembly line, AIDT was able to improve it's own internal "production line" of services, forms and reports.

HOW IT STARTED

In 2007, AIDT formed the Continuous Improvement Team as a way to assist automotive suppliers become more efficient.  At the time, suppliers were working hard.   Too hard, in fact.  Some of them were pulling their hair out trying to keep up with the fast-paced requirements of their new breed of customers.

World-class, just-in-time manufacturing means more than producing on time and in the right quantity; it means closing the gap on defects and costs every single day.  It means you have to get better all the time.  Hence, the term:  continuous improvement.

In the manufacturing world, it means that you never settle for the way things are now.  Everything can be improved.

The term "continuous improvement" is synonymous with the Japanese term "Kaizen," which is formed from two words "kai" (meaning change) and "zen" (meaning good).  Good change is always a good thing.

To get the ball rolling, AIDT sent a team of its employees to Vance, Alabama to participate in a two-week continuous improvement workshop hosted by Mercedes-Benz.  The team worked alongside employees of Mercedes to learn and to help improve operations on the production line.  When the workshop ended, the team possessed something more than a new skill; they had the curriculum for a brand new hands-on workshop.  And they were given permission to share that workshop with any Alabama manufacturer that needed it.

THE WORKSHOP

A Continuous Improvement (CI) workshop is a learning experience that involves hands-on teamwork to actually measure and improve a real-world process.  AIDT's CI team facilitates the event and provides structure and guidance, but students do the actual work.  More than that, students actually propose the solution to the problem and work to make it happen.

The workshop begins with a few hours of classroom instruction.  Basic principles and philosophies are taught and terminology is explained.  Students begin to experience the "a-ha" moment of finally understanding some of the secrets of the great companies like Mercedes, Honda and Toyota.

But it continues for several more days.  Students learn to measure the manufacturing world around them.  They begin to understand the production process through a new set of eyes.

Using that data, students set targets and objectives for improvement.  Then, they simulate the new methods and see if their ideas will work in the real world.

Finally, they actually implement their idea on the line.  The whole process can be a lot of fun and is very rewarding, both for the individual team members and for the company.

ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

The AIDT CI Team began to deliver more and more workshops.  They began to discuss how the principles of CI and lean manufacturing could be applied in a million different ways. 

The director at AIDT began to quickly see the benefits of continuous improvement in the workplace, and charged the CI Team with an initiative to begin an internal CI program.  This initiative included training our own staff in the continuous improvement process.

One particular warning sign that things might be going too far was a 20 minute discussion between two team members about whether or not the amount of Oreo toppings on a Dairy Queen ice cream cone amounted to over processing or not, given the expectations of the customer and the price point of the product.

With that kind of overanalyzing floating around, it was only a matter of time before somebody proposed using the CI process to improve things inside AIDT.

AIDT INTERNAL CI WORKSHOPS GET UNDERWAY

So, beginning in early 2008, CI workshops were modified to fit the office environment.  AIDT's management gave the go-ahead to host regular workshops.  The idea was that, over time, just about everyone inside the AIDT system should begin thinking and acting in a way consistent with the Kaizen philosophy.

These CI workshops usually met only one day a week for about five straight weeks.  Students tackled inefficient or error-prone paperwork trails.   Problems came to light of day because students used their new skills to flowchart things and gather the necessary data.  When problems were solved, support for the CI process began to grow.

Since 2008, the CI team has facilitated 12 internal workshops.  53 students participated in the events (some more than once), meaning that almost 40% of the entire AIDT workforce has had a chance to solve real problems by using the continuous improvement process.  Nearly all the departments within AIDT have had someone in their department exposed to the concept of Kaizen.  Given the fact that the workshops are long and intense and that day-to-day operations must go on at the same time, this is an impressive achievement that speaks well of the willingness of AIDT's staff to tackle a challenge.

The benefit of this training, beyond the obvious improvements in the processes themselves, is that a growing number of AIDT associates speak a common language; the language of Kaizen.  Requests for help in researching or implementing a CI project from one department is understood by another department.

It is rewarding to hear someone say, "We need to CI that process."  It means that there is a willingness on behalf of AIDT associates to make their world run just a little better than it did yesterday.