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Today's kaizen co-blogging topic is workstream kaizen. Compared to a workgroup, where the members of the team work together in close proximity and usually know each other well, a workstream is a group of people who may work for different departments or companies. To illustrate the concept of a workstream, Hal Macomber uses the example of a group of subcontractors, working together to build a wall in a new house. This project is performed in a succession of steps by specialists (carpenter, electrician, plumber, painter, etc.) who may not necessarily know each other, but need to cooperate in order for this project to flow smoothly. In a manufacturing setting, a workstream may incorporate suppliers, who provide key components that are assembled as part of your finished products.
As you might expect, introducing kaizen into a workstream is harder than it is with a workgroup. In a project stream that spans multiple teams or companies, the team members usually aren't closely aligned with one another. They may work for different companies with divergent interests and assumptions about the project. As a result, handoffs from one team member to another across the workstream is where bottlenecks often occur, and thus they represent the greatest opportunity for kaizen.
In his workstream post for our coblogging effort, Bill Waddell and Joe Ely explore the issues of handoffs and communications, while Marc Graban shares with us a real-world example of workstream kaizen in the software industry. Not surprisingly, open-source software, with its loosely coupled teams of collaborative developers is a fine example of workstream kaizen. Finally, Hal Macomber explains how loosely coupled and tightly coupled workstreams demand different strategies for kaizen.
Tomorrow's topic will be Quick 'n Easy kaizen, which helps individuals make ongoing incremental improvements within their own work area, within their realm of authority. |
