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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
July 2018 #10228 Page #40
How the DMAIC Process Can Improve Design Time # 9 in our Ready for Change? article series By Keith Parker Structural Building Components Industry Professional Certified Lean Practitioner
s a follow up to our last article, How the DMAIC Process Helps Sustain Achievements and Drive Continuous Improvements, below is another example and case study based on the need to reduce design cycle time. After setting the parameters, I will outline the DMAIC Lean method and demonstrate how this process can be used.
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One of the many challenges and perhaps the root cause of all these challenges is the demand to design and mass produce a custom-made product. In a Toyota factory on a production line, they will not build a Tundra truck, an Avalon sedan, and then next a Prius. No, they dedicate a line to the production of only one model. When the component and truss industry designs a ranch home, even two similar homes can have many different details. Architectural specs for hips, pitch, heel height, span, overhang, interior vaults, coffers, and cathedrals can all vary. This is not the post-war 1950s and 1960s. In today’s market, the customer often wants to modify plans to create something unique and personal. Today, even a tract housing project offers so many options to a base plan that the next 5 “models” can each be different, requiring additional design time and costs. Case Study: Great news, your sales team is selling more, 25% more. With a team of all stars or not, every design department only has so much capacity. How will your company tackle additional work to take advantage of additional sales? In today’s market, hiring new designers to relocate and join your company is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Working with remote designers can be a struggle as well. If it takes 4 hours to design a 2,800 square foot house, what is involved and why does it take this amount of time? Whether you’re uncertain of the answers or completely confident that you already know them, I encourage you to try this approach. Sit down with your team, ask the 5 whys, and carefully listen to their response. The following questions are 5 examples of what you might want to ask and topics to explore. • What are the challenges involved in the design of this house? • Once you’ve started, do you face interruptions? What interrupts you? Do you have all of the information you need to start the design; if not, why? • What steps in the process take you the most time? • Is the design software a challenge? Have you received training to take full advantage of the program or do you need additional help? (How many of us understand and take full advantage of Microsoft Word or Excel?) • Does everyone in the department tackle house design in the same way? What are the steps and approach of each designer, and is there an opportunity to apply a “best practice” to this process? Applying the DMAIC method to this case study starts with these actions: • Define—outline the new goal, explaining the challenge, reasons, and urgency The goal: design 25% more, cut design time 25%. The challenge: how can this goal be obtained without adding additional members to the department.
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