Lean Certification Standards from ASQ/Shingo Prize

robertgerst | Feb 07, 2009 | Comments 0

The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the Shingo Prize recently announced their joint Lean Certification Book of Knowledge (BoK). Now that these standards are out, they provide an important benchmark against which organizations can examine their existing Lean training and development programs. For those experienced with Lean, much of the content will be familiar. There are some surprises, however.

The biggest (and most pleasant) surprise was the inclusion of basic data analysis tools more typically associated with Six Sigma. The inclusion of these tools is something for which Converge has long advocated. In fact, Converge Consulting Group was the only Canadian group consulted as part of the Lean Certification effort by the ASQ Lean Enterprise Division. That’s also why basic data analysis tools are required learning under the Quality Council of Alberta Lean Certification program which we developed and deliver.

Most Lean training fails to address basic data analysis which is surprising given the strong emphasis given to data analysis by Tachii Ohno. The ASQ/Shingo Prize standards will help provide an incentive for those providing Lean training to address shortcomings their training design and align Lean training and development to these latest standards.

The BoK

Here is the BoK as jointly released by ASQ and the Shingo Prize.

No.	Content	Bronze Effort	Silver Effort	Gold Effort
1	*Cultural Enablers*	21	32	25
1.1.	Principles of Cultural Enablers	1	7	3
1.1.1.	Respect for the individual	1	6	3
1.1.2.	Humility		1
1.2.	Processes for Cultural Enablers	11	14	20
1.2.1.	Planning & Deployment	1		1
1.2.2.	Create a sense of urgency	1	1	2
1.2.3.	Modeling the lean principles, values, philosophies	3	1	3
1.2.4.	Message Deployment – Establishing vision and direction	1	1	1
1.2.5.	Integrating Learning and Coaching		4	2
1.2.6.	People development – Education, training & coaching	1	2	3
1.2.7.	Motivation, Empowerment & Involvement	1	4	6
1.2.8.	Environmental Systems
1.2.9.	Safety Systems	3	1	2
1.3.	Cultural Enabler Techniques and Practices	9	11	2
1.3.1.	Cross Training	1	2
1.3.2.	Skills Assessment		1
1.3.3.	Instructional Goals
1.3.4.	On-the-Job Training	1	3
1.3.5.	Coaching & Mentoring
1.3.6.	Leadership Development		2	2
1.3.7.	Teamwork	6
1.3.8.	Information Sharing (Yokoten)		1
1.3.9.	Suggestion Systems	1	2
2	*Continuous Process Improvement*	*107*	69	29
2.1.	Principles of Continuous Process Improvement	27	20	6
2.1.1.	Process Focus		3	1
2.1.2.	Identification & Elimination of Barriers to flow	17	3	3
2.1.2.1.	Flow & the Economies of Flow
2.1.2.2.	7 Wastes (Muda), Fluctuation (Mura), and Overburden (Muri)
2.1.2.3.	Connect & Align Value added work fragments		1
2.1.2.4.	Organize around flow
2.1.2.5.	Make end-to-end flow visible
2.1.2.6.	Manage the flow visually
2.1.3.	Match rate of production to level of customer demand – Just-in-Time	3	3
2.1.4.	Scientific thinking	3	2
2.1.4.1.	Stability
2.1.4.2.	Standardization
2.1.4.3.	Recognize Abnormality			1
2.1.4.4.	Go and See		1	1
2.1.5.	Jidoka	1	1
2.1.5.1.	Quality at the source
2.1.5.2.	No defects passed forward		1
2.1.5.3.	Separate man from machine		1
2.1.5.4.	Multi-process handling
2.1.5.5.	Self detection of errors to prevent defects		1
2.1.5.6.	Stop and Fix		2
2.1.6.	Integrate Improvement with Work
2.1.7.	Seek Perfection	3
2.1.7.1.	Incremental continuous improvement (Kaizen)		1
2.1.7.2.	Breakthrough continuous improvement (Kaikaku)
2.2.	Continuous Process Improvement Systems	29	20	4
2.2.1.	Visual Workplace	10
2.2.1.1.	5S standards and discipline		1
2.2.2.	Lot size reduction		1
2.2.3.	Load leveling	3	6
2.2.4.	3P Production Process Preparation		1	1
2.2.5.	Total Productive Maintenance (including predictive)	2
2.2.6.	Standard Work	3	8	1
2.2.7.	Built-in feedback
2.2.8.	Strategic Business Assessment
2.2.9.	Continuous Improvement Process Methodology	3	1	1
2.2.9.1.	PDCA
2.2.9.2.	DMAIC
2.2.9.3	Problems Solving Storyboards
2.2.10	Quality Systems			1
2.2.10.1	ISO and Other standards
2.2.11	Corrective Action System
2.2.11.1.	Root Cause analysis		1
2.2.12.	Project Management	2
2.2.13	Process design	6
2.2.14	Pull System		1
2.2.15	Knowledge Transfer
2.3.	Continuous Process Improvement Techniques & Practices	51	29	19
2.3.1.	Work Flow Analysis	19
2.3.1.1.	Flowcharting
2.3.1.2.	Flow Analysis Charts
2.3.1.3.	Value Stream Mapping		1
2.3.1.4.	Takt Time Analysis
2.3.2.	Data Collection and Presentation	2
2.3.2.1.	Histograms
2.3.2.2.	Pareto Charts
2.3.2.3.	Check Sheets
2.3.3.	Identify Root Cause	6
2.3.3.1.	Cause & Effect diagrams (Fishbone)
2.3.3.2.	5-Whys		1
2.3.3.3.	Failure Mode and Effects Analysis		1
2.3.4.	Presenting Variation Data	1
2.3.4.1.	Statistical Process Control Charts
2.3.4.2.	Scatter and Concentration Diagrams
2.3.5.	Product and Service Design (make sure to include engineering changes re: capabilities)	2	1	11
2.3.5.1.	Concurrent Engineering		1
2.3.5.2.	Quality Function Deployment		2
2.3.5.3.	Product or Process Benchmarking
2.3.5.4.	Design for Product Life Cycle (DFx) – cradle to cradle		6
2.3.5.5.	Variety Reduction – product and component
2.3.5.6.	Design for Manufacturability
2.3.6.	Organizing for Improvement			1
2.3.6.1.	Kaizen Blitz Events		1
2.3.7.	Countermeasure Activities	19		2
2.3.7.1.	Mistake and Error Proofing (Poka Yoke)		1
2.3.7.2.	Quick Changeover/Setup Reduction (SMED)		2
2.3.7.3.	One Piece Flow
2.3.7.4.	Right sized equipment			1
2.3.7.5.	Cellular Flow		1
2.3.7.6.	Sensible Automation
2.3.7.7.	Material Signals (Kanban)		2
2.3.7.8.	Source Inspection
2.3.8.	Supply Processes External	2	3	2
2.3.8.1.	Supplier managed inventory
2.3.8.2.	Cross-docking		2
2.3.8.3.	Supplier Assessment and Feedback		1
2.3.8.4.	Supplier Development		3	2
2.3.8.5.	Supplier Benchmarking
2.3.8.6.	Logistics
2.3.9.	Supply Processes Internal
2.3.9.1.	Material Handling
2.3.9.2.	Warehousing
2.3.9.3.	Planning and Scheduling
3	*Consistent Lean Enterprise Culture*	11	21	29
3.1.	Principles of Consistent Lean Enterprise Culture	4	7	11
3.1.1.	Systemic Thinking			4
3.1.1.1.	Part-whole relationships are clear and explicit through holistic thinking			1
3.1.1.2.	The organization evolves as necessary to accommodate future conditions through dynamic thinking		2	1
3.1.1.3.	Closed-loop thinking to assure effective feedback of organizational learning
3.1.2.	Constancy of Purpose	4	5	3
3.1.2.1.	Focus on Results
3.1.2.2.	Focus on Waste Elimination			1
3.1.2.3	Focus on Value to customer
3.1.3.	Social Responsibility			1
3.2.	Processes for Developing Consistent Lean Enterprise Culture	7	12	17
3.2.1.	Enterprise Thinking	3
3.2.1.1.	Organize around flow		2
3.2.1.2.	Integrated business system and improvement system			2
3.2.1.3.	Reconcile reporting systems			2
3.2.1.4.	Information management			4
3.2.2.	Policy Deployment / Strategy Deployment	4	2	1
3.2.2.1.	Scientific thinking as a strategy process
3.2.2.2.	Series of nested experiments
3.2.2.3.	Dynamic give and take
3.2.2.4.	Forming consensus		1
3.2.2.5.	Align strategies and execution		5	2
3.2.2.6.	Standard work for strategy communication – how we think and talk
3.2.2.7.	Resource deployment and allocation		2	6
3.3.	Consistent Enterprise Culture Techniques & Practices	0	2	1
3.3.1.	A3		1
3.3.2.	Catchball			1
3.3.3.	Redeployment of Resources		1
4	*Business Results*	18	42	43
4.1.	Principles of Business Results	6	14	9
4.1.1.	Create Value first to drive performance	6	4	3
4.1.1.1.	Measure what matters to the customer		2	1
4.1.1.2.	Measure normal versus abnormal conditions – (triggers response)		2
4.1.1.3.	Guidelines for Measurement Categories		6	5
*	Customer demand and characteristics
*	Customer retention
*	Waste
*	People Development Measures
*	Quality
*	Cost and Productivity
*	Competitive Impact
4.2.	Measurement Systems	2	16	16
4.2.1.	Measurement	2	3	3
4.2.1.1	Understand interdependencies between measures and measurement categories		1	2
4.2.1.2	Align internal measures with what matters to customers
4.2.1.3	Measure the results from the ‘whole’ system		2	2
4.2.1.4	Measure flow and waste
4.2.1.5	Lean Accounting		8	8
4.2.1.6.	Voice of the Customer
4.2.2.	Goal and Objective Setting		1
4.2.2.1.	SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely)
4.2.2.2.	Tied to the customer
4.2.3.	Analysis – Understand what moves the dial on measures			1
4.2.4.	Reporting
4.2.4.1.	Visible feedback real-time		1
*4.3.*	Key Lean Related Measures	10	12	18
4.3.1.	Quality	1	1
4.3.1.1.	Rework
4.3.1.2.	First Pass Yield		1
4.3.2.	Delivery	4	2	2
4.3.2.1	Takt Time		1
4.3.2.2	Cycle Time
4.3.2.3	Lead Time		2	1
4.3.3	Cost	2	1	3
4.3.3.1	Inventory turns		1
4.3.3.2	Queue time		1
4.3.3.3	Wait time (delays)			1
4.3.3.4	Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)		1
4.3.3.5	Changeover Time			6
4.3.4	Financial Impact	3		4
4.3.5.1.	Cash Flow
4.3.5	Competitive Impact		1	1
4.3.6.1.	Customer Satisfaction