LEAN Archives - PowerTips Unscripted

Ep.131: All About LEAN and Value Stream Mapping with Dean Tompkins

December 3, 2020 00:28:15

Increasing efficiency is one of the easiest ways to increase your company’s profitability, and LEAN process improvement is an extremely popular direction to take for successful remodelers and builders out there.

We have discussed LEAN concepts in past episodes, including Episode 10 when we had Doug Howard on to talk about the LEAN consulting work he is doing with remodelers and builders around the country.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark look more closely at some of the aspects within the LEAN system and welcome Dean Tompkins to the show to discuss how using Value Stream Mapping can rapidly improve your business.

Dean is the Owner and Integrator for Payne & Payne Renovations and Design in Cleveland, Ohio and he, and his business partner David Payne, recently embarked on a LEAN process improvement journey.

Victoria, Mark and Dean talk more about:

How Payne & Payne got started with LEAN Manufacturing concepts.
How LEAN applies to remodeling and the custom building process.
Aspects of the LEAN toolbox and which ones they used.
How the Value Stream Mapping process went and what surprises they found.
What the results of the process were and whether or not they would do it again.
And more…

Imagine being more profitable than your competition, without having to be more expensive.

LEAN is a method of process improvement designed to simultaneously improve customer service, enhance employee morale and increase profitability — all with little or no capital investment.

Here at Remodelers Advantage we’ve taken the core principles of LEAN and developed the LEAN Remodeling System (LRS), which addresses the specific challenges facing remodeling businesses today.
[Click Here to Learn More]

Ep.93: [Unscripted Back-Up] How LEAN Principles Have Improved My Business with Paul Kowalski

December 18, 2019 00:29:32

As 2019 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of our more popular episodes, and this episode explains how LEAN principles really work in a remodeling company. Perfect for any company looking to improve their business in 2020.

In this episode, Paul Kowalski shares his experiences in applying LEAN in his business with Victoria and Mark. His company recently implemented the process, and he says the results have already been eye-opening.

Paul owns PK Builders in Charlotte, NC, and is a member of our Remodelers Advantage Roundtables group. PK Builders has a team of eight, including Paul, with four project Managers, an estimator, and a draftsman.

When PK Builders was experiencing growing pains in 2018 — bottlenecks in the design-build process, some cash-flow issues, higher overhead — Paul called in Doug Howard for help. Paul says it was intimidating at first, but soon becomes second nature to look for ways to speed up processes. It started with 16 feet of paper festooned with sticky notes detailing steps in the design process. Hear how they implemented LEAN, including:

Explaining it to your staff
Sharing in chunks
Finding the hiccups
Why the people closest to the work have the best feedback
Getting over the intimidation factor
Timelines and swim lanes
Not including time for revisions
Building in collaboration up front
Unintended consequences
And more …

Paul and his team are deep in the LEAN process, and excited to see what their future brings, including how it affects their positive cash flow. See the video Paul talks about outlining LEAN principles from the Food Bank For New York City on YouTube.

And here’s that 16-ft. chart Paul talks about:

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Ep.64: What Healthcare Can Teach Remodeling about LEAN with Liz Moisan

May 15, 2019 00:26:58

Toyota pioneered the LEAN manufacturing system, and we know — houses aren’t cars. But neither are people, and the LEAN concept of continuous improvement is used by hospitals too.

So even if remodeling isn’t brain surgery, we can learn a lot from how LEAN has been applied in healthcare. You can get some of the best help with your business by looking at how other industries use continuous improvement.

In this episode, Liz Moisan talks to Victoria and Mark about using LEAN principles in healthcare and how it can be applied to remodeling. She says Kaizen or LEAN principles give you a common language for things we already know, creating a foundation to move forward.

Liz is a product innovation specialist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, and has been a practitioner of the Virginia Mason Production System since 2008. She teaches, facilitates, and works to continually evolve how Kaizen is applied in a health-care setting. She’s married to R/A Roundtables member Matt Moisan.

The hospital employs daily Kaizen, so even the smallest roadblock can be eliminated, as well as higher-level applications. She shares some real-world examples, including cutting down on waiting times for patients (yay!), working with vendors to get what the hospital needs when it needs it, The Five Ss, and how to look at a particular process to improve it, including:

Where to start
Staying true to the tools
Identifying and eliminating waste in processes
The evolution of continuous improvement
Breaking the status quo and getting buy-in
Understanding supply and demand for materials
Onboarding new employees in LEAN principles
Training at the management level
Finding the “rock in your shoe”
When and why to get help
And more …

Here are those two books Liz recommends for getting started understanding the Kaizen principles:

If You Would Like to Learn More About LEAN For Remodeling…

Consider attending our online course, “LEAN For Remodelers” where our “LEAN Guru” Doug Howard helps you improve your profits & grow your business by mastering continuous improvement through LEAN. This 6-session class, meets weekly & is a combination of online instruction and hands-on exercises, in a virtual classroom setting. Classes start on July 10th, so click here for more information & registration.

Ep.58: How LEAN Principles Have Improved My Business with Paul Kowalski

April 3, 2019 00:29:32

We’ve talked about LEAN before on the show with our own experts, but you may wonder what it looks like in the real world. Today we’ll hear about using LEAN in the remodeling business from an award-winning design-build company that focuses on residential remodeling.

Paul Kowalski is the owner of PK Builders in Charlotte, NC, and a member of our Remodelers Advantage Roundtables group. PK Builders has a team of eight, including Paul, with four Project Managers, an Estimator, and a Draftsman.

PK Builders was experiencing growing pains in 2018 — bottlenecks in the design-build process, some cash-flow issues, higher overhead, so they called in Doug Howard for help. Paul says it was intimidating at first, but soon becomes second nature to look for ways to speed up processes. It started with 16 feet of paper festooned with sticky notes detailing steps in the design process. They began by diving into the design process, and he discusses how they did it, including:

Explaining it to your staff
Sharing in chunks
Finding the hiccups
Why the people closest to the work have the best feedback
Getting over the intimidation factor
Timelines and swim lanes
Not including time for revisions
Building in collaboration up front
Unintended consequences
And more …

Paul and his team are deep in the LEAN process, and excited to see what their future brings, including how it affects their positive cash flow. They’ll be looking at the Production process as their experience with LEAN continues. We’ll check in with Paul on how it’s going in the future.

Here’s that 16-ft. piece of paper!

Getting LEAN

See the video Paul talks about outlining LEAN principles from the Food Bank For New York City on YouTube.

If you want to learn more about LEAN, and download the free process mapping tool, go to leanremodeling.com.

Ep.50: LIVE from the Extreme Business Makeover in Baltimore

February 6, 2019 00:48:05

For our 50th episode, we gathered a panel of industry experts and took questions from the audience at the Extreme Business Makeover in Baltimore at the the end of January 2019. It capped off an intense two days of learning, sharing, and networking among the remodelers attending and our Remodelers Advantage team.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark direct the lively discussions with our panel. We were joined by:

Michael Sauri of TriVistaUSA Design + Build and the 2018 winner of the Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Doug Howard, RA’s director of consulting services
Judith Miller, financial guru
Tim Faller, RA’s master of production

We talk profits and payroll, cash flow, the owner’s role in a growing business, margins, staying top-of-mind in your marketing, smart lead qualifying, planning and making decisions on your job sites, and the power of asking “why?”

It’s an insightful and all-encompassing discussion of how to run your business to get bigger margins, more profits, and creating a real life/work balance. If you missed it, you need to listen to this episode.

Ep.20: Constantly Improving Your Business Using Kaizen with Michael Sauri

June 6, 2018 00:34:44

Kaizen means (literally) “Change for Good,” and that can mean REALLY good things for your growing remodeling company. This process of constant improvement, with every team member participating, allows your company to constantly raise the bar on its target metrics.

In Episode 20, Victoria and Mark learn more about the Kaizen practice of process improvement by welcoming Michael Sauri, CEO of TriVista USA, to the show.

Michael and his wife Deborah started TriVistaUSA in 2005 with the goal of providing an outlet for creativity and a Ritz Carlton-level client experience. “Our Thoughtful Design Builds Fine Living,” is their mission statement and their mantra as they bring phenomenal, award-winning design to the Design/Build community in the Washington DC area.

The Kaizen practice focuses on improving existing, standardized processes by eliminating waste and was first practiced in Japanese businesses after the World War II.

Michael provides some great insight on how TriVista has adopted Kaizen throughout his business and includes:

The background of Kaizen and how TriVista got involved
Hiring and developing a team within the Kaizen structure
The differences between Kaizen and other process improvement practices
3 metrics of measurement to measure client satisfaction
What a Kaizen Event is and what the goal of the effort is
Issues and examples where Kaizen improved their business
Managing team buy-in into the process
And More…

To learn more about TriVistaUSA, visit their website at https://www.trivistausa.com/

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Ep.10: Higher Profits Through LEAN Process Improvements with Doug Howard

March 28, 2018 00:24:44

If there is one take-away from more than 30 years of working with R/A members, it is this: Successful remodeling companies are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves and subsequently are able to achieve a higher net profit.

In our 10th episode of PowerTips Unscripted, Victoria and Mark welcome back Doug Howard, Director of Consulting for Remodelers Advantage, to talk more about his experience with LEAN process improvement.

LEAN is a system aimed at continual process improvement. Born out of the Toyota Production System, it became a common tool used in manufacturing and over the past 20 years, it has found its way into government, healthcare and service industries, including our remodeling industry.

Since joining R/A last year, Doug has worked directly with several Remodelers on using LEAN to improve their businesses and will lead a Masterclass on LEAN For Remodelers coming up in April.

Victoria, Mark and Doug dig further into the benefits of LEAN process improvement and along the way uncover:

Examples of using LEAN in Remodeling
Driving profit through process improvement
Identifying instances of waste in remodeling production
Implementing change resulting from LEAN results
Doug’s Process of working directly with companies to implement LEAN within their organizations
How LEAN impacts the client and their ultimate satisfaction

Where Can You Learn More?

As stated above, Doug will lead a Masterclass on LEAN in April and that class is filling up now.

We have a website dedicated to LEAN For Remodelers, called LeanRemodeling.com and as Doug mentions in this episode, there is a FREE download available on the website; a Process Mapping Template that will help you get started with your own effort to improve.

As always, Doug is available to answer any questions you may have and is looking forward to working with more companies this year. Doug@RemodelersAdvantage.com

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