The concept of continuous improvement is commonplace in business and industry. Being a constant leaner and more responsive to customer wants has probably never been more important than it is in today’s competitive marketplace. Unfortunately, many industries and organizations without a specific, tangible product (like a school district) have been slower to adopt these philosophies and practices. Continuous Improvement is a core value of Pella Community School District (PCSD) in Pella, IA and it recently adapted a business-like continuous improvement process to solve a problem within the organization.
One continuous improvement process is Kaizen. Japanese for "improvement," or "change for the better,” Kaizen is a philosophy of constant improvement that aims to improve every niche and piece of business, organization or any process. In Kaizen, every piece to an organization (from the board to the CEO to the laborers to other organizations involved) can be changed for the better at all times. If standardized processes and ways of operating are improved, wasted resources and time will decrease and ideally eliminated.
This article is an example of how the thinking in the scope of Kaizen improved the technology support and repair system of PCSD, which had been under-performing for over 10 years. PCSD's example of using this continuous improvement philosophy also highlights the 10 Leaders on Thinking themes to how successful leader's think (see 10/18/2012 post). This themes appear in bold throughout the article.
PCSD was assisted by the Vermeer Corporation which provided an experienced continuous improvement consultant to lead the thinking process (experience matters). PCSD’s Kaizen event was a two-day disciplined thinking process. It led to improvements that increased customer satisfaction, improved productivity and created confidence in PCSD’s ability to meet current and future challenges. The following steps of of Kaizen were explored in PSCD's workshop--what the current reality is, defining the ideal reality and working with the new solution realistically.
PCSD was assisted by the Vermeer Corporation which provided an experienced continuous improvement consultant to lead the thinking process (experience matters). PCSD’s Kaizen event was a two-day disciplined thinking process. It led to improvements that increased customer satisfaction, improved productivity and created confidence in PCSD’s ability to meet current and future challenges. The following steps of of Kaizen were explored in PSCD's workshop--what the current reality is, defining the ideal reality and working with the new solution realistically.
Step #1:
Determine Your Current Reality – PCSD’s first step was to determine why the district was not able to meet its customer service pledge to analyze and respond to all technology problems in less than 24 hours. This started with an organized reflective process (reflective thinking) that examined the people involved in decision making, the number of decisions that had to be made and the number of hand-offs that occurred in executing the solution.
Staff members from all levels of PCSD were assembled for this analysis (collaborative problem solving). It was discovered that help requests could originate from anywhere in the school system and were then reported to the lowest level of authority to fix the problem. This led to as many as 14 people making over 40 decisions and the original request potentially being handed-off 10 or more times before a solution was implemented. The process was further complicated by the fact that a new request on the same problem could cause the system to start all over again. Day 1 of the Kaizen event was spent on collaborative problem solving to determine the current reality and depth of the problem.
Step #2:
Define Your Ideal State – The goal for the technology support and repair system was to have a request prioritized in conjunction with metrics for how long it should take to meet the request (goal oriented thinking). This would lead to measurably improved customer satisfaction and a systemic improvement in the ability of the system to meet the staff’s needs. Ideally a technology support and repair request would have one point of entry, involve a maximum of five people who would make less than 15 decisions with no more than five hand-offs between themselves.
Step #3:
Realistic State – The ideal system referred to in Step #2 is currently being piloted in one school building to isolate the learning curve before the plan is implemented across the entire school district (productive thinking = action). The IT staff must learn what parts of the revised technology support and repair system are theoretical and what parts can be executed as designed. The use of data (designed metrics and measurability of improved customer satisfaction) is causing continual reflection during the pilot experience (constantly learning through experience) and will ultimately lead to further changes in communication, delegation and procedures. No system is perfect and the leadership of PCSD is willing to change their minds when they learn more from their thinking. This will lead to improvements that are sustainable given the existing resources available to the system.
The thinking that was necessary for this practical solution mirrors Jim Collins's ideas about disciplined people: doing disciplined thinking allows them to take disciplined actions. If any of those parts is missing, you will end up with inaction and wasted thinking. Leadership is responsible to make sure that time and efforts are not wasted on short-cuts and that intentional and disciplined steps are taken to make significant change.
For more information on how the Pella Community School District used the Kaizen process, contact –
Lowell Ernst, Director of Curriculum and Instruction
641-628-2220
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