But That's Just Common Sense!

By Nik Payne

Based in Lean Thinking principles as used by some of the most successful businesses in the world and over 17 years experience in implementing change strategies and tactics. But That's Just Common Sense! is written as a step by step guide to installing a fully operating continuous improvement system.

It gives you the systems and frameworks consultants normally charge a fortune for!

It is written for anyone in a supervisory role in a Manufacturing or Maintenance environment. So whether it be a Team Leader, Supervisor, Production Manager, Operations Manager or Business Owner, it's the playbook of how to get positive change.

"But That's Just Common Sense!" describes a practical and achievable approach that covers:

The mindset that everyone needs to succeed. And I mean everyone, including the head decision maker, the Management Team, the Supervisors and the Workers

The 5 step framework of transformation that works at all levels from the strategic to individual operational functions

How to create your improvement strategy

How to gather the facts and use them to decide exactly what to change

How to use the workers to create new ways of working

Tips in designing the new ways of operating so that there is no lost time in the new systems

How to make sure that the new systems are sustained and people do not slip back into the old ways of working

How to develop the communication systems so that understanding what is happening day-to-day becomes simple

How to create a world class system of workplace organisation that ensures everyone has what they need, where they need it and it becomes easy to see if something is wrong

A deceptively simple method of getting people to work "the best way" that ensures work is done to the best quality standards possible

The world class problem solving method used by Toyota

How to up your strategic reviews ability to ensure the business continues well into the future

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nik Payne
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005486358

Nik Payne

Nik joined the Royal Air Force at the ripe old age of 16. He was trained as an avionic engineer which mean that he got to tinker with electronic systems on a day to day basis.After 19 years of this, Nik was thrust into managing a Lean transformation of the base he was posted at. He had never heard of Lean Thinking.However he recognised that Lean Thinking was a very powerful thing. It was based in developing systems of working. Nik was used to systems so dedicated his time to learning and practicing how to implement this thinking style.On leaving the RAF in 2008, Nik moved to Australia and has spent from then until now assisting SMEs in implementing continuous improvement systems.He has worked across a range of different types and size of businesses, from chocolate, to recycling, to Building Management Systems.He decided to write this book to help the non-multi-nationals. He firmly believes that you don't have to be Toyota to use this stuff, but you can benefit from thinking in the same way they do.

Book preview

But That’s Just Common sense!

By Nik Payne

Copyright 2022 Nik Payne

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Thinking To Win

The Framework Of Success

Strategy Before Tactics

The Exciting Bit

Seeing Performance

Where’s My Stuff?!

The Single Best Method

Problem Solving. Like A Boss

Strategic Reality Check

Conclusion

About Nik Payne

Introduction

Well done you for getting this book!

There are other books out there that are based on Lean principles. Books like The Machine That Changed The World, The Toyota Way and The Toyota Kata. However, they seem to be directed at the bigger organisations, the ones that have already made it.

There is not much available for those that have gone through the emotional turmoil of turning something that they are passionate about into a business. Maybe you’re in a business that’s couple of years in and are ready to level up. This is where I want to help.

Some people are fortunate to have a guide or mentor, or have inherited a ton of money. They can afford to let someone steer them or throw enough cash at something until it’s dealt with. For the rest of us, it’s a voyage of discovery. We try things out to see if they work. Some do, some don’t. We hope for inspiration, a spark of an idea that will help drive us forward.

Well, I think that there’s another way. We can use principles that have been developed over centuries, that have been immensely refined since mid-last century and let them infuse into our way of thinking.

This book will give you the foundation by which a business can grow to whatever size it wants to be.

I joined the Royal Air Force in 1985 aged sixteen. I joined as an Apprentice in the trade of Air Communication and Air Radar. This meant that I got to learn how electronic systems worked. I graduated from my apprenticeship and went to work in the Royal Air Force proper. After a couple of years, I did a conversion course to enable me to work on the Tornado bomber, which involved learning more systems and changing trade titles to Avionics.

As a side note, the daily grind in my early 20s consisted of fighter planes, bombs, guns, lasers and military grade electronics. I thought it was kinda cool!

I got moved to another aircraft type, this time it was an AWACS. This meant another training course, this time learning about a mainframe computer and display system.

Well yeah you may think, what has this got to do with my business?

Well, I had so far spent my adult life working with systems. I then decided to further educate myself and studied science. And guess what? I found out about lots of other systems. Biochemical positive and negative feedback systems, atomic and sub-atomic systems, planetary and galactic systems, mechanical systems, electromagnetic systems. and the list goes on.

In 2004 I got promoted again and was moved to another base. I had to do another course which covered aircraft electrical systems. Then when I finally got to my new place of work, was asked by the boss if I could head up a new improvement team. It would be beneficial with me being new as I would have no predisposed ideas about the place. Reading between the lines, I thought Yeah right, no-one else wants to do it! I knew that my value there was not so high due my lack of experience in that environment.

I was given the contact details of a team on a nearby base (we had 2 about 20 miles apart) who could give me some guidance. I got in touch and arranged a meeting. When I got there, I was given an hour long presentation called The Basics of Lean. At the end there was the usual Any questions?.

I said: Just one, why haven’t we always been doing it like that?

This was not their typical response. But it made perfect sense to me. Work at making the workplace more productive through getting rid of non-value adding activity, make doing the work safer, increase quality and generally solve problems. Why wouldn’t that make sense to everyone? Especially business owners, right?

My first improvement task was to get the Engine Workshop to produce an engine every four days from the five they had been working to. I was given a team of six, three from the Engine Workshop and three from the Avionic Workshop.

Now even though Lean principles seem simple, it was a bit like reading a book on swimming. While the explanation seems perfectly reasonable, a non-swimmer doesn’t really understand how to swim without getting in the water.

Fortunately, we had consultants assigned to us and they had helped define a process, which was documented. So I got my team to follow the process. It involved fifteen days of data gathering followed by a week of improvement/change, followed by fifteen days follow up and tweaking.

In the data gathering period we found that the Workshop were producing an engine every seven to twelve days. That made our target even more daunting. We also found several other things that were not ideal, and I managed to develop a cracking headache by 3 p.m. every day.

In all honesty I didn’t know what the answer was, I thought I had to fix things and I couldn’t see what to do. I thought I was going to fail at my first task. Was my journey going to end before I could get it started?

The team that gave me the Basics of Lean presentation arrived like the cavalry. They asked us questions about how the Workshop functioned, what the problems were, where the waste was. They asked us for solution ideas. I gave one, it was probably not practical. Someone else came up with another one, that wasn’t going to deliver either. Then one of my team came up with something (he happened to be the lowest ranking person there), it was the lightbulb moment, the Aha! moment. That was the way things were going to be.

All we had to do then was make an implementation plan, put it into place and see what happened!

Actually, we had to convince the whole Engine Workshop and Management Team of what was going to work and why. And because we had collected the data and evidence, we were able to demonstrate it in such a way that the Management had to say yes.

We implemented the plan and ran the new system. After four days… boom, success, an engine. Another four days, another engine. In fact, every four days there was an engine. We achieved our goal.

Even our senior management sponsor said that he didn’t think we could do it but thought he should at least let us try! I’m so glad that he did.

That first improvement effort changed my life. It enabled me to think differently. It enabled me to question things and think creatively to come up with different ways of working.

From that point in the Royal Air Force, I applied Lean thinking techniques to various functions including Administration, Avionic Workshop, Survival Equipment (including parachutes), Ejection Seat Workshop, Testing and Calibration Cell, Painters and Finishers, Logistics, Aircraft Drop Tanks, and more.

These techniques worked. Every. Single. Time.

The response I had, mostly from middle managers, led me to naming this book. Explaining what we needed to change to get an increase in output often prompted But, that’s just common sense! I’m not sure what these people were expecting, but it showed that taking a step back to review the way work is done can reveal simple, practical methods of working in a better way.

One of the least successful things we did was get a 10% productivity improvement in four weeks. The Quality manual stated that each area should look to improve by 5% annually! So not only did we double the annual target in four weeks, this 10% was on top of a 25% improvement, achieved previously using similar thinking.

I also got involved in a working group to see how best to apply Lean Techniques to the Royal Air Force as a whole. We agreed that embedding it into trade training was probably best although there was consensus that it would be great if it was introduced to children at school. After reading this book you’ll see why.

Around that time there was plenty of academic literature about moving away from Command and Control style of Leadership and Management, and move to systems thinking. There was that word again – System. Maybe due to my adult education and experience working with systems, it seemed a natural progression to move into Lean thinking?

I recently heard to think of the word system as an acronym:

Saves You: Stress, Time, Energy & Money

This is why I have brought this transformation system to you. Follow this system and you can only be successful.

Return to Contents

Thinking To Win

Business owners are probably risk takers. Otherwise, why would they start a business in the face of overwhelming odds? Statistically 96% of businesses fail within 10 years, with 80% failing in the first two!

To give a business the best chance we can have a systematic approach to running and developing it, and it involves having the right mindset, or way of thinking.

This will need to work at two levels, the mindset of the leadership and management functions and the mindset of the workers.

Unless the workers with the right mindset have already been hired, the Leaders in the business need to nurture, guide, mentor, coach and coax everyone else into thinking and acting in the correct way.

Once the workers