Miriam and Gerry are receiving clerks. They are no different from millions of us who work hard and are underpaid. Their job only has visibility when something has gone wrong. Many days they will work hard all day and none of the higher-ups even know they were at work.
They open packages big and small. They verify a match to a purchase order and enter the transaction into the ERP system recognizing the part is now on hand and available for use. If there is a discrepancy, they will contact the buyer requesting a correction or resolution. You and I have different jobs in our organizations but we are all parts of something much larger than we are and we all help making money for the company.
They noticed over time that the same suppliers made deliveries almost every day and often the parts they brought today were the same as the parts brought a few days ago. Miriam and Gerry did not need an extensive course in Lean Business Processes to recognize this seemed like a waste. They handled the same parts over and over. The stock room people had to put them away in a bin over and over and purchasing placed multiple orders. Why don’t they order enough to last some time, especially when the parts were very low-cost items?
Both of them have wondered out loud why the company wastes money this way. Most people just replied, “That is just the way it is.” There was plenty of other waste going on and no one seemed to care so why fight it? Fortunately for the company these two receiving clerks were not easily put off. The company had bought and installed a new ERP earlier that year. They, along with almost everyone, had received training sessions on their particular jobs and enthusiastic promises of how much better it would be. Some voice in their heads told them there was a better way and the ERP should be able to help.
Because they never gave up their search to eliminate this waste, they eventually talked to someone who understood and helped begin a conversation with the lead person in purchasing. It turned out that Sheri had felt the same; they were placing too many orders for the same parts. The answer turned out to be simple. There was a setting in the ERP called a planning horizon. This setting found the first demand for a purchase order and suggested an order be placed. But the horizon looked out the number of days set and grouped any other demands within that horizon and suggested a single order be placed.
The fix was easy to implement and quickly solved one source of waste. Miriam and Gerry both got a small recognition and were happy to find their jobs a little easier.
The point of this story? Waste is all around us. We don’t need to use high-priced consultants or blue-ribbon executive teams to find it. Ask around the production floor and the maintenance areas. Talk to the clerks in accounting or sales. These are the people who deal with waste every day. Let them innovate in little ways or even big ways when opportunity knocks. Do you hear it knocking right now?
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