How to Stretch 90 Second of Work to 2,700 Seconds

Sometimes it seems like the most difficult part of helping some companies implement lean is sorting out the various legal and purchasing details to finally get a signed contract. While the whole process can seem bureaucratic and non value added, it’s always better to spend the time upfront to have clear written agreements. Today I learned that even a simple thing like signing a contract (the part where you literally put ink on paper) can take 45 minutes. How much of that time was value added? Well, if we count only the approximately 1.5 seconds it took for me to put my signature on a piece of paper about 1.5 seconds out of 2,700 seconds, or 0.55%.
Under normal conditions it should take mo more than 90 seconds to hit print, retrieve the envelope while the document prints, sign the document, stuff, seal and address the envelope and place it in the outgoing mail. Here is how to stretch 90 seconds of work to 2,700 seconds, with a little help from unforseen circumstances.

1. Print entire document
2. Walk to printer
3. Check quality of print outs
4. Sort out half of the pages (bad quality due to ink cartridge running low)
5. Open printer and remove ink cartridge
6. Open ink cartridge box
7. Replace ink cartridge
8. Close printer
9. Return to desk
10. Print missing pages (10-end)
11. Walk to printer to check
12. Identify that page 9 is missing
13. Return to desk
14. Print page 9 only again
15. Walk to printer to check
16. Identify only header of page 9 printed – no text
17. Return to desk
18. Investigate page 9 – learn document is write-protected
19. Print page 9 to PDF file on desktop
20. Open PDF document and print
21. Walk to printer
22. Combine sheets
23. Find ruler
24. Draw signature line on last page
25. Sign document
26. Find envelope
27. Put contract in envelope
28. Seal envelope
29. Cut address from printed sheet
30. Glue address to envelope
31. Search for address label
32. Ask Isaac location of address label
33. Find address label
34. Attach label to envelope
35. Find marker
36. Cross out old address on pre-printed envelope
37. Place envelope in mail outgoing area
38. Return ruler
39. Walk to recycling bin to throw away paper and cardboard scrap
40. Return to desk
41. Close contract document
42. Bask in tremendous sense of accomplishment

The customer wants a signed document mailed to them so in this process examples of some of the value added steps include:

• Printing the document
• Signing the document
• Putting the document in envelope, addressing and sealing

The non value added steps which are required to guarantee quality or to avoid greater wastes are:

• Check quality of print out
• Ink cartridge changeover
• Walk to recycling bin to throw away paper and cardboard scrap

The vast majority of time and effort during this 45 minutes adds no value and can be classified as waste. Let’s review some examples:
Walk to printer

• Why? The printer is shared and centrally located. Multiple walking to and from the printer was caused by the defective print jobs, caused by ink running low and also the document settings which prevented printing a single page

Sort out last half of pages

• Why? Pages were faded
• Why? The ink cartridge was running low

Print page 10-end again

• Why? Same reasons as above – ink cartridge

Print page 9 only

• Why? Page 9 on the footer of the page was not the same as the page 9 in the printer setting due to the way the pages were numbered in the document

Print page 9 only again

• Why? Only the header printed
• Why? The document was write-protected in some way and did not allow printing of a single page
• Why? Unknown, so printed page 9 as PDF and printed from PDF instead of original document

Draw signature line on last page

• Why? The customer document had no signature line
• Why? Unknown. They asked us to write our name in and sign under it on last page

Search for Gemba address label

• Why? The location of labels was no immediately obvious
• Why? Locations of labels, etc. are below knee-level and cannot be seen from standing position
• Why? Design and placement of storage area
• Why? Problem not discovered until untrained operator (me) tried to find labels

Cross out old address on pre-printed envelope

• Why? The old address needs to be crossed out
• Why? We use envelopes with the old address rather than throwing them out
• Why? The address labels were clear, not on white paper stock so the labels does not cover up the old address

I wish we had been video taping the whole incident. No, I will not reinact it. Unless of course it is on the happy occasion of signing another consulting contract.

---