Our services are tailored to office and service environments.

You may select a service ala carte, or you may choose to engage all the services to launch a Lean business transformation.

Training

Lean Strategy Deployment (policy deployment)

Value Stream Mapping

Kaizen Workshop

Lean Executive Coaching and Consulting

How to engage Straus Forest

Straus Forest, LLC does not practice traditional training. All training is delivered just-in-time as part of a workshop process—in the context of real work. We embed the training within the services listed below. This means that participants learn by doing a live project, and that you and your company are more likely to get an immediate payoff with an actual, usable work product. That is something rarely obtained with traditional training.

Lean Strategy Deployment workshop
(policy deployment)

Prepare for an effective Lean implementation in the Lean Strategy Deployment workshop (often referred to as “policy deployment” in the Lean world). In this workshop, you and your leadership team will:

• Align your business objectives with Lean operational objectives
  Make sure that you implement Lean in service to your business strategy—that’s where Lean gives you the biggest bang for the buck
  
  
• Form targeted actions to achieve your objectives
  Make every activity count towards achieving your business objectives
  
  
• Engage leadership support and sponsorship for the objectives and actions
  All successful initiatives require broad support from leadership; this process helps you get that leadership support
  
  
• Obtain buy-in and support from the rest of the management team
  Middle management can make or break progress; this process helps middle management see their role in the effort and get their buy-in
  
  
• Establish a means to track Lean progress in your organization
  “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done.” Establish a sustainable improvement process by tracking what counts.

Lean Strategy Deployment workshops range from one to five days depending on the scope and size of the workshop.  The workshop days are not necessarily contiguous. The workshop days may be scheduled over an extended period to accommodate schedules as well as the workshop process itself.

Preparation for this workshop typically commences four to six weeks prior to the workshop start date.

Preparation strongly influences the outcome of the workshop. This phase includes meeting with the executive sponsor to develop the role of Lean sponsor, and to plan the details of the workshop. Depending on factors unique to each company, the executive sponsor’s direct involvement in preparation may range from two to six hours.

Value-stream Mapping

Value-stream Mapping targets your on-the-ground Lean activities. In this workshop, you will:

• Identify the inefficient and ineffective qualities of your key processes
  There are good things about your processes, but here we find those parts of your processes that are causing problems.
  
  
• Identify the most promising opportunities for improvement
  We know from experience that there are so many opportunities for improvement, that it’s impossible to do them all. Find the improvement opportunities that will give you the greatest impact.
  
  
• Design a new, more effective and efficient process
  What does your value stream look like with the waste removed? You will create a tangible document of your exciting process vision.
  
  
• Develop a detailed plan to achieve that new process
  Until you have a plan with actions, dates, and names, your value-stream map is just a pretty picture on the wall. Creating this plan in the next step towards making the new value stream more than just a vision—a fully operational reality.

Why map your value stream?

• Your improvement teams—the ones who actually make the improvements—get a clear Lean vision towards which to work.
• This helps ensure that your improvements efforts are the ones that will give you the most bang for the buck.
• You avoid “popcorn improvements.” These process improvements may register a specific improvement in a specific part of the process. A problem arises when these improvements miss the critical path and fail to yield increased process velocity (or other critical process factor).

Value-steam Mapping workshops range from one to five days in duration, depending on the scope of the process you map.

Preparation for this workshop usually begins three to six weeks before the workshop start date.

Preparation strongly influences the outcome of the workshop. This phase includes meeting with the executive sponsor to develop the role of Lean sponsor, and to plan the details of the workshop. Depending on factors unique to each company, the executive sponsor’s direct involvement in preparation may range from two to six hours.

Kaizen workshops

Kaizen workshops are among the most exciting process improvement workshops on the planet. These are team-oriented workshops that often yield results that surprise everyone. This is what distinguishes kaizen workshops from other process improvement activities:

• Target improvements in the range of 50% are frequent
  We challenge the kaizen workshop team to work towards audacious goals. For those new to Lean, this can be—well—scary. But these dramatic results are common in the production environment, and every bit as possible in the office or service environment.
  
  
• The team is further challenged with a surprising boundary: achieve these improvements without spending any money
  Spending money, while sometimes genuinely and justifiably necessary, can siphon away the team’s creativity. That’s right. The challenge of zero budget sparks creativity in teams. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
  
  
• Most of the improvements are implemented by the end of the workshop
  A kaizen workshop is not a kaizen workshop if the improvements developed by the team are not implemented by the end of the workshop. Of course there are occasional exceptions to the rule, but immediate implementation means immediate benefit.
  
  
• The team is usually a cross-functional team
  The cross-functionality of the team enhances organizational communication.  Also, team-building is often a positive by-product of the workshop.
  
  

Kaizen workshops range from three to five days in duration, depending on the scope of the workshop.

Preparation for this workshop usually begins four to six weeks before the workshop start date.

Preparation strongly influences the outcome of the workshop. This phase includes meeting with the executive sponsor to develop the role of Lean sponsor, and to plan the details of the workshop. Depending on factors unique to each company, the executive sponsor’s direct involvement in preparation may range from two to four hours.

Lean Executive Coaching and Consulting

Success with Lean requires engaged, committed leadership. Without it, Lean languishes. Straus Forest offers the ongoing support to guide leaders and managers through the process of implementing and sustaining Lean.

One of the most common issues leaders and managers face is resistance. We help you to see how resistance is actually part of the change process, and a sign that something significant is on the verge of happening. Learn how to manage resistance so that it doesn’t derail your plans.

How to Engage Straus Forest

Projects range from single “pilot” or "knowledge transfer" workshops all the way to full system engagements.

The work is based on the ideas in this website and in Carlos Venegas’s upcoming new book, Flow in the Office: Implementing and Sustaining Lean Improvements. These projects have produced significant improvements in cycle time reduction, quality improvements, and in measuring invisible office and service processes.

If you would like to speak with Carlos directly to discuss your business needs, please contact him with the following information:

• Your name, company name, and your title
• The number of office and/or service people in your organization
• Total number of employees
• The products or services you provide
• A description of the primary problem you want to solve
• A brief explanation for why this problem needs to be solved now

Email your request to info@strausforest.com, or call 206-919-0960.

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