I am giving you a sudden question.
"For what" and "for whom" are you doing your work?
Are you conscious of "for what" and "for whom" in your daily work?
The protagonist of this story is a story of people in charge of maintenance services for a specific equipment manufacturer.
The maintenance service department consists of design and field support teams.
The primary business process is as follows.
Order received → Securing local workers → (Maintenance design) → Preparation of maintenance work procedure → Local work instructions → Completion report.
The local support team members perform all work other than (maintenance design).
This process has been going on for quite a long time, but recently, problems such as poor coordination and insufficient information sharing between the design team and the local support team have come to the fore.
They are busy working every day. So it's the best situation to do my work every day.
I don't see any signs of it getting any easier.
Among the local support teams, the work that requires the most person-hours is creating the construction procedure manual.
Therefore, all related members started activities to promote the efficiency of creating construction procedure manuals.
Currently, four people are involved in creating construction procedure manuals, but we have started activities to reduce the person-hours of one of them by 25%.
First, when I tried to visualize a specific production number's work performance (6H), I found a lot of transcription work. ⇨ Transcription work does not add value, so copy and paste the data to make it more efficient.
I also learned that the lead time for this production number was five days. The reason for the long lead time was that the completed procedure manual was checked by the relevant parties, such as the Quality Group, Design Group, and Construction Group. ⇨Improve circulation efficiency with workflow.
Now, how do you evaluate these two kaizen measures of the creators of the construction procedure manuals?
Do you think "Utilization of IT will solve the problem. This is good!"?
Wait a minute.
First of all, the construction manual.
"For what" and "for whom" are you creating?
In considering this issue,
The greengrocer's father talks directly with the customers and has a firm grasp of what the customers want.
To satisfy our customers, we purchase vegetables that meet their needs.
The greengrocer's father makes his own decision
when purchasing on that morning,
When customers buy with a smile, we can feel the results first-hand.
That's why the greengrocer's father is always in good spirits.
I want Kaizen members to continue seeking efficiency through IT.
They must work as efficiently as possible, as they are overwhelmed daily.
I do not deny it.
First, find out how much the people in charge of construction depend on the "procedure manual" you created.
You can go to the site or ask the work leader.
Take a step outside the office where you are currently working and see the reality with your own eyes.
Step outside the status quo and take another look at your work.
I suggested the above to Kaizen members.
I hope that new images will emerge in their minds shortly.
By stepping out of their comfort zone, they will see something different in their minds.
We hope to see the original meaning of our existence based on what we have newly seen.
-- I can report on this continuation by the end of this month (October).