LEADERSHIP MESSAGE BOEING FRONTIERS / SEPTEMBER 2013 7 Solving problems, the first time Lean+ provides Boeing employees a framework for continuous improvement Our commitment to Lean+ continues to get strong traction across Boeing, enabling us to capture billions of dollars in productivity improvements to meet customer needs, and to secure our long-term growth. We’ve seen continued success in our factories, in each of our functions, and even in our supply chain as an enabler to our Partnering for Success efforts. Lean+ is getting significant visibility outside Boeing and we have been benchmarked by many industry leaders. Our approach of building Lean+ on our strong foundation of Lean, Employee Involvement and Engagement, and the passion our people have for a culture of continuous improvement, has proved to be incredibly powerful. Where are we going with Lean+? As part of the Lean+ restaging, we bring a new focus on the discipline required to clearly define our problems and solve them permanently. We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve encountered a problem we’ve been through before, a problem we thought had been solved. How frustrating it is for us and our teams to have to go back and solve the same problem again and again. As we continue to ensure that our Lean+ efforts are closely tied to our business needs, the latest emphasis of Lean+ is to drive more thorough, longer-lasting problem solving. We must find problems, fix problems, and make sure the problem never comes back. To that end, a renewed focus in Lean+ is the Boeing Problem Solving Model. Like other aspects of our Lean+ framework, the model is representative of many of the effective and proven techniques that have been used around Boeing. When the passion and innovation of our people are coupled with the structured problem-solving model, we have an effective tool to solve problems both small and large. All too often we tend to quickly try to come to a conclusion on what we need to fix and then we find we didn’t fully understand the real problem. We often hurry to solve the symptoms and not the problem. The Problem Solving Model helps us address problems in a more disciplined fashion, starting with the most important part of problem solving—spending the appropriate amount of time defining what the actual problem is we are trying to solve. The Lean+ framework, and specifically the Problem Solving Model, will enable our teams and individuals to make another improvement and unleash another wave of innovative ideas around how we can drive first-time quality and continually improve all that we do. Later this month, during the Lean+ Forum, employees and leaders from across the enterprise will come together to get a better understanding of how to put the Problem Solving Model into operation. When we couple Boeing’s Lean+ framework with the passion of our people, we unleash innovation that allows us to break myths and achieve breakthrough improvements in performance. And that enables our customers to meet their needs—and Boeing to secure its long-term growth. n PHOTO: ron bookout/boeing For more about Lean+, including information on the Boeing Problem Solving Model, visit the Lean+ website at http://leanplus.web.boeing.com Bill Schnettgoecke Vice president, Supply & Operations Chain, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and Enterprise Lean+ Initiative leader
Frontiers September 2013 Issue
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