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Introduction: 

 Welcome to episode 29 of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast. I am pleased to have with us today Sean Fields and Michael Sanders, co-authors of "Quantum Lean: Taking Lean Systems to the Next Level." They are a network member and the co-founder, respectively, of BeehiveFund.  Quantum Lean offers a new approach to operational excellence, and I look forward to exploring this with Sean and Michael today.

Episode Summary 

For many years, Sean and Michael experimented to find a more simple approach to driving greater adoption rates and results for employees, customers, and the organisation. They looked at two main ideas. The first involved the fulfilment of the product. The second assumes that time applies to the product only—from when a customer places an order (the purchase order, known as a PO) through scheduling and production to delivery. 

What does a product need, and what does it take to get it out of here?

When beginning a journey into Quantum Lean, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is my business situation right where Lean can address my immediate issues? Do I have sufficient demand, and production cannot keep up with demand? Or I need a price reduction. Not relevant if you are experiencing plummeting demand.
2. Will management buy-in and follow up with the program? All types of leaders can work with Quantum Lean thinking, but follow-up and buy-in are essential.
3. What metrics and incentives do we place on our people? Wrong measures can lead to behaviour that harms an excellence journey. 

Sean and Michael co-founded BeehiveFund (www.beehivefund.org). This non-profit organisation helps small to medium-sized manufacturing and service businesses in production scheduling, inventory control, and quality management systems. They are more than happy to help any business in their Lean journey and have resources available right now for complimentary assessments. Get in touch via:

 Links

Email: Michael - [email protected],  Sean - [email protected] 

Website - www.beehivefund.org

LinkedIn:  Michael, Sean

 Key Takeaways 

 1.     Keep things simple

2.     Focus on the product flow and time

3.     Measures drive behaviour 

Quotes

 08:40min with Quantum Lean, the fundamental idea we go at is that we bypass the waste idea and we go right to the issue of a product's time and fulfilment. Because number one, everybody can relate to time, and everybody can relate to the idea that time is money.

 15:00min the idea is to put a timer, a clock, on a product from the moment it is incepted in terms of accepting the PO from the customer until it is delivered.

 22:58min we go there, we talk to them and say, "You know guys, you see that item right there? By the end of the line, you want to make sure it's not going to be stopped; it's going to be flowing as much as possible". Because every stop means that the product is in delay more, once it is in delay, it incurs time, and you don't want that.

 43:06min But the point we bring up is, we say, "What does the product need?" Most of the time, it shows scheduling is t

To learn more about what we do, visit https://enterpriseexcellencegroup.com.au/
Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.