The Finance Department Explores Continuous Improvement

By Alastair Irvine

Discover for yourself Lean principles; following in the footsteps of a tax professional's journey through the world of Continuous Improvement as told via weekly email newsletters distributed throughout the fictional multinational organisation, Irvine Group plc.
This is a an easy, light-hearted introduction to the world of CI that draws upon The Toyota Way principles to extoll the virtues of continuously improving.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alastair Irvine
• Release date: Jul 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310652417

Alastair Irvine

An ethically aware tax professional cyclist & husband & father who enjoys pushing into the Stretch Zone and learning about motivating teams and people.

Book preview

Subject: FIT Launch >> -2 days and counting

Dear Fellow Collaborators

I came to the CI party a bit late and I am still not quite sure what the dress code is, but I am sure that we can still set up our own space and have a good time alongside the rest of the gang.

What’s It All About?

¡¡¡ This is not just another load of tasks delegated down to be ticked off !!!

This is our opportunity to shape the future strength, direction and capability of the Finance team and we want your teams to show us how to get there. Over the past 18 months we have strengthened the structure of what we are working within, now we need a final polish of the fittings and to decide what to do with all these new toys.

Everybody’s area of focus is now decided (you know your FIT) so now please think about how you will encourage a group of people to help you design that area better and how they can help you get us all there.

On Thursday you have total carte blanche to present whatever you like. This is your baby to work on, the 5 mins is over to you. However I suggest that we should not be focused on the solution in this meeting – we should be thinking about how we develop a solution.

Areas you might like to consider are

>> What does the area look like in the future?

>> How do you propose to get us there?

>> What people have you identified and are they enthusiastic about being on your team?

>> Which areas are suffering from a lack of enthusiastic people?

>> Who is the most junior person who is capable of delivering an area of your focus (a swimlane)?

>> Can you help somebody out – who from your team mentioned a swimlane from a different FIT and how do we connect those two together?

FIT Progress

This entire thing will be most effective if seen as a bubbling up of energy rather than a dictatorial edict. Therefore the Macro Plan Tracker is one that you currently have complete control over. You are setting your own swimlanes with your own deadlines (pretty much) and this Macro Plan is a tool to show off your progress.

Some of you have yet to decide on things (especially dates) so I encourage you to think about this.

Looking forward to seeing you all this week.

Alastair Irvine

Senior Tax Manager

From: Irvine, Alastair (MASH)

Sent: 06 November 2015 16:35

To: FIT Team;

Subject: What is CI again !?

Continuous Improvement is exactly what it says on the tin – continually assessing how to improve process efficiency. Fundamental to that is the eradication of anything the customer would not pay for (also known as Waste, or Non-Value Add).

(Check out who has been on training – Me!)

Which all sounds so obviously a good thing (duh!) that it can switch one off thinking about it; which is the trap most of Irvine Industries finds itself in.

It may be obvious, but that doesn’t mean that anybody is actually doing it.

Lean is most easily visualised in a manufacturing environment a la Mini

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033zflq (apologies to the non-Brits)

But the obviousness of the benefits fit in a whole world of places

https://youtu.be/EedMmMedj3M

If anybody wants to make a home-grown video extolling the virtues of Lean in the Finance function, please just shout. I need a follow up to my Lego-based tax training vid.

Just a bit of Friday fun :) feel free to share, its step #1 to collaboration.

Alastair Irvine

Senior Tax Manager

From: Irvine, Alastair (MASH)

Sent: 18 November 2015 17:19

To: FIT Team;

Subject: How to teach a 7 year old 5S ...

It’s not rocket science !

Mess

Improved