SCI Pine Grove hosted AnneMarie Swanlek, the Department of Corrections (DOC) Lean Lead for Western Facilities, Jillian Deiley, the DOC Lean Lead for Eastern Facilities and Beth Andreoli, The Governor's Office of Performance through Excellence (OPE) DOC Lean Facilitator for a Lean Awareness Training on Oct. 31.
The Lean Awareness training is an introduction to Lean Theory. Lean theory stems from the manufacturing world and is used today to reevaluate processes in order to make them faster, more efficient, and more effective for the people performing the process while optimizing value of the product for the stakeholder. The Lean awareness training helps participants understand how Lean can help them address everyday inefficiencies they may experience in their jobs and will aid them in tackling backlogs, improving workflow, and increasing work quality. The training is meant to empower employees to identify waste and look for ways to improve their own work processes.
The origins of Lean date back to the 1450s in Arsenal Venice; however, the first person to truly Lean an entire production process was Henry Ford in 1913. Ford combined consistently interchangeable parts, standard work, and a moving conveyer system on the production of the Model T to create what he called flow production, which is otherwise known as the assembly line. Ford's assembly line was used by Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno of Toyota following WWII, but they reexamined the process and discovered that turning the focus from manufacturing individual machines to the full product flow through the total creation process would ultimately lead to lower costs, product diversity, quality products, quick production time, and better information and data management. Thus the Toyota Production System, which Lean theory truly hails from, was born.
Essentially, Lean is a mindset that answers the question, "How can we make our services better for our stakeholders?" A stakeholder can be any person who receives the final product of the process at hand, or is involved in the process itself. Often times, through Lean it is discovered that by making changes to a process in order to make them more efficient or effective for the process owner the value of the product is amplified for the stakeholder as well.
The LeanPA initiative was established by Governor Wolf last year and OPE is working with all state agencies to pursue continuous process improvement by helping agencies understand what Lean is and how to implement "Lean" practices. To date, the Central Office Lean Team has conducted Lean Awareness Trainings at SCI Huntingdon, Dallas, Frackville, Mahanoy, Waymart, Pine Grove, and Mercer, and trainings will be held at Greene and Albion next week. By the end of the training participants will have a better understanding of the following:
- Why Lean is Important to the DOC and Pennsylvania as a whole.
- The basics of Lean.
- How to start "thinking Lean."
- The individual's role in Lean.
- How to Apply Lean in your everyday work life.
The staff at SCI Pine Grove enjoyed the training and many of them have already started to implement Lean practices. If you would like to host a Lean Awareness Training at your institution or would like to host another Lean Awareness Training please contact the Central Office Lean Team.