Lesson #1 of 4:
The Fastest Way to Stand Out from Your Peers, Colleagues, and Competition in the Office...
For more than 10 years, I’ve been on both sides of the desk.
1. I've been the boss who decided which ones to promote and overlook.
2. I've also been the mentor who taught employees how to get a raise. If they didn't get the raise, I helped them get a 6-figure salary somewhere else.
That’s why I can EASILY spot if an employee deserves a raise or not. I evaluate employees in an objective, pros-and-cons way. Fortunately for you, that’s also how most boss evaluate their employees.
So why am I saying this?
Well, in this mini-training series, that’s what I want to show you. In the next few days, you’ll learn how to become an employee that deserves a raise.
But this will only work if you take action and apply everything I will teach.
Does that sound good to you?
If it is, then great!
Now...
Before anything else, let’s get ONE THING straight.
Bosses who financially reward employees have one thing in common: they’re perceived as experts who solve problems.
Let me be clear...
There are two parts to this. They’re *perceived* as experts. Most of them aren’t necessarily experts. The second part is that they are problem-solvers.
When a problem comes, they don’t go to their boss or superiors. They will try to solve the problems themselves.
Now, you might be thinking…
“But Frances? My company has no problems...”
Yes, they do.
They are just hidden. You need to find what these problems are and be the first one to solve them. 
In this first lesson, that’s EXACTLY what you’ll do.
You’ll learn how to spot the hidden problems in the company, solve it systematically, and show your accomplishments to your boss.
Normally, that would be a tedious process. But thanks to Lean Six Sigma, we have a way to spot the problems and hastily solve them.
So the first concept you need to grasp is there are...
8 Process Obstacles Multi-Million Companies Face Every Single Day
Waste #1 - Defects
This is when products or services did not meet the standards or quality the customer/client expects. If you’ve been in production a long time, you’ll know what this is.
Even you, as a consumer, has experienced buying defective products and defective services.
Now, this is the most obvious waste out of the 8. This is something top management will try to fix right away.
Why?
Well, it’s because defects bring BAD reputation to a company. Not only that, but it increases dissatisfaction among current and prospective customers/clients.
But what they don’t see (AKA the hidden problem) are the long production times.
When a defect is detected (or reported), the company will need to find the root cause, rework it, and fix it so it won’t happen again.
That’s where you swoop in.
If you can eliminate a step or two in that process, you’ll immediately save your company time and money. Since 1 or 2 steps are eliminated, the customer gets the product back faster.
Now, that won’t make a difference if your company is handling 1 to 2 defects a month. But if you’re working for a large company? And they get 100 to 200 defects per month? You’ll save them time, money and rescue their reputation at the same time.
You were able to do that simply because you addressed the hidden problem they didn’t.
Now, on to the next…
Waste #2: Overproduction
Overproduction happens when the company’s production targets have been met and goals accomplished, the process is allowed to continue.
They seek comfort in stockpiling finished products. They think of them as buffer for unexpected customer demands or production interruptions.
So what happens?
The company manufactures excess products. These excess are no longer “fresh” and are more prone to defects. So overtime, they become liabilities than assets. Not only that, overproduction will incur other costs --- like aging inventory, investment with no return, space, and other costs incurred in making those buffer.
What executives of some companies don’t realize is that to be more cost-effective, they need to reduce if not eliminate the causes of production stoppages instead of building buffer stocks.
How do you address this?
Conduct root cause analysis (AKA Lean Six Sigma approach -we’ll study this next week) to stop production stops and improve machine availability and performance.
Reduce cycle time so it’s easier for you to spot problems and address them . Gather and analyze data on order, demand trends and inventory to enable you make production schedule decisions.
Now, let’s go to...
Waste #3: Unnecessary Transportation
This happens because of poor production design. Processing is done by different departments rather than within one cell environment.
People within the company make unnecessary movements within the facility to accomplish one simple task.
This is a hidden problem not every company addresses. Even the Philippine government has this problem.
Remember when you got your first job? You needed to get different documents from different departments. You needed to go from one office to another.
If there was only one place where you get all those documents, you will save time (traveling) and money (fare).
The same is true with multi-million companies.
You can easily solve this problem by doing what the DFA did. All the departments an OFW needs to go to are within walking distance of the DFA office.
Waste #4: Waiting
This happens when a machine or employee stopped working in an assembly line.
For example, “Employee A” leaves their workstation to buy more ballpens, papers, and other office materials for the company. Yet, “Employee B” is waiting to receive a document from “Employee A.”
The process is stalled. The waiting time increased. And time wasted does not add profit to the company. In fact, it costs the organization money.
So how do you solve it?
There’s an elegant solution to this. It's called the "5S Organization Technique". More on that later…
For now, let’s move on to the next...
Waste #5: Inventory
Inventory becomes a waste when Capital is needlessly tied up in raw, work-in-process, as well as finished products you can’t sell yet.
The organization should only produce what it is able to sell according to current customer demand.
You need to know when to replenish the inventory. And when to leave it as it is. Or else, the organization will end up with excess products NO ONE wants.
A good example are Coffee Shops. Some grind 400-cups-worth of coffee beans on Monday. Only 200 cups were sold. So what happens to the other 200 cups?
They either sell the 1-day-old coffee on Tuesday (which no one will want) or grind fresh ones (throwing away the 200-cups-worth of coffee).
Imagine how much savings you can make for your company if you can recognize and address wastes on inventory.
Waste #6: Motion
This is when employees, machines and raw materials waste time moving pointlessly from place to place.
You can use spaghetti charts ( or simply use a diagram that traces the movements in while performing tasks) to study movements in a workplace.
Imagine a plate of spaghetti. The noodles represent your movements (overlapping and criss-crossing aimlessly) from one space to another. The more spaghetti looking your diagram is, the more wasteful the process in terms of motion.
You can actually measure the total distance travelled and time while just simply preparing a cup of coffee for a customer. (Think how should be the lay-out for a coffee store like Starbucks to allow faster delivery of that cup of coffee.)
You can solve this by creating ergonomic spaces...
What’s the optimum lay-out? Maybe you need to rearrange, merge substeps and even eliminate steps to make it more efficient without compromising quality and customer satisfaction.
Not many companies know they’re wasting time moving pointlessly. Imagine how much time they’ll save if they re-layout their workspace to reduce motion.
Now, let’s move on to the last two:
Waste #7: Over-processing
Over-processsing is adding more value to a product or service more than what the customer requires. The entire process uses up more time and tools than actually needed for the desired result.
This means you’re spending money more than what your customer is willing to pay for.
Overprocessing forces employees to spend time performing extra work rather than producing new products. This, in turn, costs organizations more money than they actually make.
Examples are multiple fields in an application form that require the same information and too many approval points for a simple process change. This uses up time unnecessarily and therefore, wastes your time and your customer’s time.
Here’s how to fix this:
Step 1: Identify what's causing the over-processing
Step 2: Standardize
Step 3: Sustain and review
Finally, we go to the 8th waste…
Waste #8: Non-utilized talent
This is when employees are not effectively engaged in the business. Their talents and skills are overlooked, not tapped and developed.
The organization only relies on “experts” to solve problems and come up with ideas. They don’t make employees feel like their suggestions for improvements matters.
When the “experts” make decisions, the implementation and execution is slow.
As a result, the organization will fail to make improvements at a good pace. Thus, the competition --- with highly-engaged and motivated employees --- will slowly move ahead of you. They will win business simply because they have better services than you...
If you feel like this is your organization, here are a few ways you can fix this:
- Encourage people take ownership of their work
- Provide continuous training so employees will strive for perfection and continuous improvement
- Allow employees to provide input so they will have a sense of pride and involvement in the company
How to Use the “8 Wastes” to Stand Out from the Crowd
Step #1: Find the obvious and hidden wastes
Step #2: Determine if you can solve it right away by your own
Step #3: Tell your boss
Step #4: Execute your plans
Step #5: Observe, optimize and report results
Now…
The biggest challenge now here is...
How do you tell your boss?
You can’t just say:
“We need to remove defects from this organization”
Or
"We need budget for training because we're not utilizing our talent.”
Before you tell your boss…
You need a plan. You need a strategy. You need show him a systematic way of eliminating the waste.
That’s where the
"5S Organization Technique" comes in.
This is a simple, intuitive and easy to apply technique to eliminate wastes. So simple you can even use this in your own home.
And that’s what you’ll learn in training #2...which I’ll publish this week.
You'll learn how to use the 5S technique to eliminate wastes so you stand out from the crowd. .
But before I end, let me ask you:
“What do you think is the #1 waste you can eliminate in your organization right now?”
Comment your answers below. Would love to hear your thoughts and insights.
PLUS, If you know the answer to this, you're one step closer to getting that raise.
If you have any questions, leave a comment too. I read every comment and will respond as best I can.
Until the next post....
To Getting that Raise,
France Garcia
