“Many nurseries deploying Lean to make their processes less wasteful have found that organizing work spaces is a crucial part of their approach,” wrote Bill Goloski in the May, 2019 edition of Digger magazine.

“To do this, they are deploying a Lean methodology called “5S.” The letters stand for 1) sort, 2) set in order, 3) shine, 4) standardize and 5) sustain.”

“5S is about creating a culture of respect,” Elizabeth Peters, Lean consultant with The Peters Company, said. “When we have a clean, safe, orderly and visual workplace, we have improved employee morale, less searching for what’s needed, and better productivity.”

Read the full story here.

Digger magazine recently posted news of the Oregon Lean Consortium’s 2019 launch. Check out the story here!

The longstanding industry magazine is published by the Oregon Association of Nurseries, a non-profit trade association that represents more than 700 individual nursery stock producers, retailers, landscapers and related companies serving the nursery and greenhouse industry.

After another successful year together, the Oregon Lean Consortium is now open to new members for 2019.

The Oregon Lean Consortium is a tight-knit group of companies that work together to learn Lean principles and methods, and then apply them to processes in each other’s businesses. Each company engages three people who are trained and serve on improvement events—called “kaizen”—at different sites throughout the year.

These kaizen events (highly focused, rapid improvement activities) involve direct, hands-on changes at the hosting company with a professional facilitator. The team makes rapid changes to immediately reduce waste and help create standard work for a process.

“Participating with the Oregon Lean Consortium we started to ask what would it look like if our business was the best at getting better—and what that would look like to our customers,” said Chris Lee, Eshraghi Nurseries’ Shipping and Inventory Manager. “Interactions with other Consortium members help bridge the gap between Lean concepts and tangible results.”

What is Lean?

Lean is a proven method for eliminating waste that results in more value to customers, delivered at a lower cost, in a shorter time, with fewer defects and less human effort. The system engages everyone in the organization to continuously improve. “Our highest gains are from the encouraging attitudes Elizabeth and Rick instill in our employees through the seminars and events,” said Lee.

Six companies participate with the Oregon Lean Consortium today: Smith Gardens Aurora, Marion Ag Service, Robinson Nursery, Eshraghi Nursery, JLPN Liners and Weyerhaeuser/Western Regeneration.

Most members leverage the program to develop Lean thinking and leadership capabilities of their staff. “The Lean Consortium has transformed the way I think and operate–not only at work, but in my personal life,” said Anya Hall, Seed Orchard Supervisor with Weyerhaeuser. “I’ve adopted a new way of thinking that strives to organize, optimize, and innovate. I no longer look at processes as a burden, but as an opportunity to eliminate waste and grow professionally. The Consortium has also taught me leadership and shown me the power of teamwork.”

The 2019 Oregon Lean Consortium begins in January. For more information, visit www.petersco.net/consortiumor contact Elizabeth Peters, 503-250-2235 or epeters@petersco.net for an application form.

First printed in Greenhouse Grower magazine.

Horticulture businesses across the U.S. are deploying Lean, a proven method for eliminating waste that results in more value to customers, delivered at a lower cost, in a shorter time, with fewer defects and less human effort.

A handful of Oregon and Washington companies, however, are taking this even further by forming consortiums to sustain Lean over the long-term.

How Does a Lean Consortium Work?

A Lean consortium is a small group of companies that work together to learn Lean principles and methods, and then apply them to processes in each other’s businesses. Each company engages three people who are trained and serve on improvement events at different facilities throughout the year.

These kaizen events (highly focused, rapid improvement activities) involve direct, hands-on changes at the hosting company with a professional facilitator. The team makes rapid changes to immediately gain improvements.

The Oregon Lean Consortium Has a Bias for Action

The Oregon Lean Consortium members are Smith Gardens (Aurora), Marion Ag Service, Robinson Nursery, Eshraghi Nursery, JLPN Liners, and Weyerhaeuser. When this group met last spring at Smith Gardens to look at staging for the shipping process, it improved productivity by 122%, cut operator travel by 97%, and reduced the crew size by nearly 30%.

The Oregon consortium opened up to suppliers last year. The group assisted Marion Ag Service, one of the region’s major fertilizer providers, as it created new standard work for fulfilling sales orders. The event team cut process steps by more than half, reduced rework by 92%, and improved the value-added ratio by 112%.

“Rarely do you have the opportunity to open up a process to new ideas, fresh eyes, and unique perspectives,” says John Hockett, Marion Ag Service Head of Sales. “The Lean Consortium provides us with the environment to rethink and improve our processes with our customers’ input.”

Corey Hill, Head Grower at Skagit Horticulture’s Mount Vernon, WA, operation, served with the Oregon consortium one day last spring at Robinson Nursery to advocate for starting a consortium in Washington’s Puget Sound region.

“Bias for action was off the charts,” says Hill. “When an idea was hatched, someone was trying out the concept within minutes.”

The Washington Lean Consortium Doubles Productivity

The Washington Lean Consortium was launched last July with Skagit Horticulture, T&L Nursery, Botanical Designs, and Skagit Farmers Supply. The dynamic new team has already held five events showing significant gains across a range of business processes.

Its first event focused on a sedum harvesting process at one of Skagit Horticulture’s Mount Vernon sites. One team doubled productivity and another improved by 40%. A third team increased units per worker hour by 67% and cut people travel by 3,000 feet.

The Washington consortium’s most recent event focused on a truck loading process for Botanical Designs, a high-end commercial interior and exterior landscaping company in Seattle. The team eliminated the need for staging, combined pulling and loading (plus reduced that time by 63%), and set up a process to discontinue misses and errors, catching any problems right at the source. The lead-time to load a truck was reduced by 98%.

“Lean has been an incredible tool for us to evaluate and improve our efficiency,” says Natasha Blanchette, Botanical Designs Production Manager. “The consortium is wonderful; we appreciate the interaction and feedback from others.”

When asked to describe “Lean,” many professionals cite cost reduction, labor savings, or “Isn’t that a manufacturing thing?” With consolidation, workforce reductions and the shrinking labor pool, it’s no wonder many see Lean as just another way to save money.

Viewing Lean as a cost-cutting effort alone understates the real power of Lean. Worse, if company leaders attempt to apply Lean with a one-time “fix it” mentality and let workers go as a result of improved processes, they’ll destroy the initiative. Why would your team members help you lay off their associates?

Lean’s power is in its strategy for engaging your people to continuously improve. When deployed effectively, your organization will gain advantage over the competition because you keep getting better every day.

This article in American Nurseryman magazine describes how standard work and visual controls help organizations keep the improvement momentum going.

It’s not just “Lean Manufacturing”

Lean is a proven method for eliminating waste that results in more value to customers, delivered at a lower cost, in a shorter time, with fewer defects and less human effort. While the principles are more broadly recognized in manufacturing, Lean applies to all types of organizations. It’s a business strategy based on respect for people and the continuous improvement of all processes in an organization.

Lean seeks the “least waste way” to perform tasks. It’s a never-ending quest. Today’s advances become the baseline for future improvements. As people learn to see and eliminate as much waste as possible, they discover still better ways of performing the work, and the cycle repeats.

Most leaders have heard about the dramatic results of Lean. It is common to see productivity improvements in triple-digit percent gains the first time the principles are effectively deployed in any area. The real benefit, however, is in developing standards that keep your team improving over the long term.

Keeping Lean going

The principles of Lean are simple, but difficult to sustain. While initial activities show results, many companies struggle with keeping improvement gains without a plan and support for continued application. Leaders often miss the human factor of implementing change.

So, how do you keep processes from backsliding to the old way of doing things? Develop standard work – the “standard” way in which a job is expected to be done.

Standard work includes a description of the work, the sequence of tasks involved, any equipment or tools needed, and the time required to complete each task. It should be posted at each operator’s location.

The process of developing standard work usually delivers productivity gains. This fall, the Peters Company mapped out the order fulfillment process for three different organizations and doubled sales capacity by eliminating unneeded steps. Andres Alamillo, Continuous Improvement Manager with Smith Gardens, said, “In our selecting process with pack items we were able to improve our units per worker hour by 55 percent just by developing standard work.”

Continued improvements are not possible without standard work. Quality and productivity vary based on the knowledge and capability of the person doing the work. This reliance upon human experience is called “tribal knowledge.” It is an environment where only certain individuals have the ability to do a job well, and understanding of how to do a job is passed on from person-to-person.

Tribal knowledge can be destructive. This type of work environment not only creates the opportunity for power plays and control situations, but also limits the ability of the company to staff and schedule consistently. If there are functions in your company where the ability to do a job relies on a small group of people – or worse, a single skilled and experienced person – you need to develop standard work.

Standard work needs a visual workplace

Lean companies work to create a visual workplace. This is an environment where anyone can walk into an area and understand what’s going on with the process, if the work is on schedule or not, and if there are any abnormalities. A visual workplace makes it easy for people to follow standard work.

Examples are area signs and walkway markers, checklists, safety alerts and status boards. Color-coding is effective and often used; red-yellow-green commonly reflects bad-alert-good.

Visual controls are commonly used in our world today. Imagine a parking lot with no stripes, roads with no lanes or signs – or a grocery store with no labels or pictures! Examples of effective visual controls are everywhere, yet many organizations still rely on tribal knowledge to accomplish much of the work.

Language differences make creating standard work more challenging, but should never become an excuse for not doing so. These language “gaps” can be mitigated by the use of good visual controls, translated documentation, and ongoing training and support from leadership.

See these principles in action:

• Improving Efficiency in the Elections Process
• Lean’s Impact in the Plant Yard
• Standardized Maintenance Carts Reduce Time and Steps

Continuous improvement requires leadership

It takes strong leadership with vision and tenacity to make significant, ongoing improvements in an organization. Some resist change because it’s uncomfortable – it’s human nature. Organizations that short-circuit the process of creating standard work will find improvements are lost over time due to a tendency to drift backward to a prior, more wasteful state. To minimize the impact of change, give ownership and promote buy-in, always involve those doing the job in developing their own standard work.

With the aging of our working population, labor is less available, and competition for skilled labor is greater than ever. Companies that want to stay in business over the long term are building up their workforce to support continuous improvement.