Questionnaire



31-Aug-09

Survey Questionnaire

Lean Tools in AdET[1] Development

Dear colleague,

Please find attached a survey questionnaire form, designed to gather information on how Lean tools may be used in the area of Adult Education and Training professionals’ development.

Before filling in the questionnaire, please read first some introduction information about the survey topics and myself. For any additional information do not hesitate to contact me at info@philean.ro.

It will take approximately 30 minutes of your time to complete the questionnaire and I hope your answers will be ready by 7th of September, 2009.

The information provided by you in this questionnaire will be used only for research purposes.

It is not necessary for you to provide full contact details, unless you want to receive a copy of the final research report (to be available by the end of September 2009). All personal information will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone else or used in other purposes.

Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this survey.

Yours sincerely,

Cristina Musat

PhileanCT Romania

+40745252428









Table of contents:

INTRODUCTION 2

A General INFORMATION 6

A.1. Personal and Professional Information 6

A.2. Organization Information 6

B Lean TOOLS IN AdET 7

C Training Needs Assessment in adet 13

D Brief Lean Terms Glossary 14

INTRODUCTION

Background

My name is Cristina Musat and I am the founder of PhileanCT, a small training and consulting company in Romania. I work as a trainer since 1995 and I am a fan of process continuous improvement techniques since 1996. Before becoming aware of Lean Manufacturing, I was involved in quality management, TQM and business excellence related services. So practically all my adult life consisted in mixing training skills with continuous improvement initiatives.

As member of ESREA (the European Society for Research on Adult Education), now I have the opportunity of presenting soon a paper at an international conference, addressing both topics enjoyable for me: Lean and Adult Training.

Therefore, the aim of this survey is to identify how Lean tools may be useful for the management of education and training activities or for people involved in training processes. Additionally, I would like to gain knowledge about any previous experiences in the area and to provide future drives for AdET development.

So this questionnaire focuses on issues that are currently faced by adult educators and trainers, covering most of the competence units described in the occupational standards. It has been designed to identify perceptions and ideas of both people using Lean tools and trainers not familiar with Lean concepts and tools.

Brief Lean Introduction

Lean is often seen as a philosophy, or as a collection of empirical tools, or as a methodology for continuous reduction or elimination of waste, useful to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, and time by focusing on process performance. Its history is long and rich in interpretations, but the term “Lean” became worldwide known after the issue of a book with a visionary title: “The Machine That Changed the World” [2]. A brief general definition is: “Lean is a philosophy that shortens the time needed between the customer order and the delivery.” Nevertheless, Lean is based on a series of common tools used originally in production, some of them being developed since 1950s as part of what nowadays is known as TPS (Toyota Production System). But more important, it brings also a set of Lean principles and specific approaches to all kinds of activities, which enable the development of the so-called Lean behaviours and Lean leadership, supporting the operational tools used to generate improved process results.

The five Lean principles are:

1. Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by product family.

2. Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family, eliminating whenever possible those steps that do not create value.

3. Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the product will flow smoothly toward the customer.

4. As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.

5. As value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted steps are removed, and flow and pull are introduced, begin the process again and continue it until a state of perfection is reached in which perfect value is created with no waste.

(Source: )

Obviously, there are some key words for understanding Lean principles.

1. Value

2. Value Stream

3. Process Flow

4. Pull Flow

5. Perfection.

In brief, value is what customers are likely to pay for. Let’s think of a trainer delivering a course. He/she needs some time for preparing before coming in front of the trainees. For example, how many clients do you know that would pay a 5 days-fee, for a course with a duration of 3 days? Obviously, no one is perfect; therefore usually it is impossible to do only what the client would pay. So Lean defines “WASTE” as any activity done that takes up time and uses resources, but does not add value when it transforms inputs into outputs that meet customers’ requirements. Waste is not about controlling financial loss (to be easily spotted in financial statements), but it means to identify and approach extra resources spent during current activities (caused by high variation due to process instability, by overburden processes and by unreasonableness operational decisions).

For that reason, Lean considers that any process is composed of value added and non-value added activities, even if the non-value added activities may be considered as necessary ones (hidden waste) or non-necessary ones (obvious waste).

The 7 waste categories defined by Lean are:

▫ Overproduction – doing more than required

▫ Waiting, or queuing – inactivity due to lack of needed resources

▫ Transport - unnecessary motion or movement of materials

▫ Extra Processing – doing smth more than once or more complicated than necessary, rework, reprocessing, handling or storage

▫ Inventory – larger quantities of material than the needed ones for a smooth activity

▫ Motion – extra steps necessary to be done due to inefficient process layout, defects, reprocessing, overproduction or excess inventory

▫ Defects – non-conforming products or services, causing customer dissatisfaction

Attempting to make a comparison with training processes, one may find similar categories of waste, such as, for example:

|Overproduction |More input than needed to achieve learning objectives |

|Waiting |Longer breaks then planned, postponement of training due to trainer/trainees availability |

|Transport |Long distance to/from training room |

|Extra Processing |Repetitions |

|Inventory |Larger groups than effective for training, more printed training materials than the number |

| |or participants |

|Motion |Poor content of written materials, difficult to find a topic |

|Defects |Misspelling, missing words |

Consequently, to be able to identify value, it is important to understand the processes used to provide products or services and to be able to focus on the value stream. Once the value stream is known, a flow as continuous as possible should be deployed for delivering the planned process results. Why a continuous flow? Because it means lack of waste, i.e. no wait time, no defects, no interpretational inventories, etc.

Another key word in Lean is “Pull”, usually used as an antonym for “Push” process flow. “Push” means to persuade the customers to buy the already existing products/services, available as inventory. Obviously, “Pull” means the opposite, namely being ready and capable to provide only what, how much, when and where is actually required by the customer. Process simplification comes from not doing things that are not yet needed, the main principle in Just-In-Time methodology also.

So, Lean operations, either in production or in service organisations, means low inventories, quality management through prevention of errors, small batch orders, just-in-time production, high commitment of human resource, team-based working, close relations with suppliers, and continuous improvement.

The last key word, but the essential one, is “Perfection”. It is not about the perfect product or service, but about pursuing the perfect processes through continuous improvement. So Lean encompasses the problem solving methodology and the traditional and modern quality improvement tools.

There are a variety of tools and techniques associated with Lean production, however the following are perhaps the most commonly used and easy to implement, in an office environment regardless the field of activity:

▫ Standardized Processes & Takt Time

▫ Value Stream Mapping (VSM), to clarify actual process flows and “see” waste

▫ Visual Workplace & Visual Management

▫ 5S (Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain & Safety)

▫ Jidoka & Zero Quality Control

▫ Poka Yoke (Mistake Proofing or Error Proofing)

▫ Pull Systems and Kanban

▫ Continuous process flow, Just In Time (JIT), Cellular Operation, Process Smoothing & Load Leveling

▫ Setup reduction or Quick Changeover (SMED)

▫ Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

▫ Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

▫ Hoshin (Policy Deployment)

▫ Quality and Analysis Tools: Pareto Principle - few vital vs. many trivial issues; process mapping; product family analysis, etc.

For better understanding of Lean terms used in this questionnaire, see the glossary (page 13) or check on or – only for Romanian speakers.

Questions and Contact

The questionnaire may be returned by email at info@philean.ro. For any questions, suggestions questions or further enquiries please contact me at the same e-mail address.

Acknowledgements and thanks

Your feedback on this questionnaire will be of great value for me. I hope you will accept to spare a little of your valuable time to answer and comment the following questions and send your response directly to info@philean.ro.

The outcome of this survey will be available at the end of September 2009.

Instructions

▫ Please tick the box next to the choice you pick or write down your answers or suggestions in the blank fields.

▫ There should be one or more possible answers to each question.

Thank you for your assistance!

General INFORMATION

A.1. Personal and Professional Information

This section consists of information regarding the person filling-in the questionnaire.

Optional:

|Name |(      |

|e-mail |(      |

|Website / blog |(      |

|Brief description |(      |

|Relevant personal info |(      |

Mandatory:

|Form of address | Mr Ms. |

|Age | |

|Country |(      |

|Initial Education |(      |

|Continuous Education |(      |

|Occupation |(      |

|If you are a trainer or involved in providing education and training services: |

|Average age of trainees | |

|What experience have you had with Lean so far? |

|I have heard of it, but nothing more |

|I have thought about using it, but nothing more |

|I am planning to try it out in a pilot area |

|I am planning to try it out on a large scale |

|I am using it in a pilot area |

|I am using it on a large scale |

|I was using it in another area of activity, but not now |

|Other (please specify)       |

A.2. Organization Information

The following data refers to the organization to which the person filling-in the questionnaire belongs.

Mandatory:

|Organisation Type |Which of these best describes your organization? (      |

|Annual Gross Revenue |(      |

|(total of all sales and operating | |

|revenues in the last fiscal year) | |

|Number of Employees | |

|In which area of activity is your |(      |

|organisation providing services? | |

|Country |(      |

|Geographic Area |(      |

|Department |(      |

|Job Title |(      |

|What experience has your organization had with Lean so far? |

|We have heard of it, but nothing more |

|We have talked about using it, but nothing more |

|We are planning to try it out in a pilot area |

|We are planning to try it out on a large scale |

|We are using it in a pilot area |

|We are using it on a large scale |

|We were using it before, but not now |

|Other (please specify)       |

Lean TOOLS IN AdET

|B.1. Look at the following table. Which of the mentioned activities best describes your work responsibilities? (Tick more than one choice|

|if necessary, in the first column) |

| | |% Time |VA – NVA activity |

| |Planning for Adult Education and Training Activities | | |

| |Determine adult training requirements of individuals |      % | |

| |Determine adult training requirements of a group |      % | |

| |Determine adult training requirements of an organization |      % | |

| |Develop learning objectives and strategies |      % | |

| |Interpret and clarify regulatory policies and standard nmethodologies governing adult |      % | |

| |education and training programmes | | |

| |Formulate teaching outline and select training procedures for individual training, group |      % | |

| |instruction, lectures, on-the-job training, demonstrations, conferences, meetings, and | | |

| |workshops. | | |

| |Plan training programmes and delivery sessions that meet the needs of the |      % | |

| |learner/customer | | |

| |Prepare outline of instructional program and training schedule and establishes course |      % | |

| |goals and learning objectives | | |

| |Plan course content and method of instruction |      % | |

| |Plan and develop strategies and methods to evaluate learning progress |      % | |

| |Plan appropriate resources to promote and facilitate learning |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Training Marketing | | |

| |Formulate a proposal for adult education and training |      % | |

| |Use appropriate resources to promote learning and adult education and training services |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Training Materials Design | | |

| |Identify, select and/or develop appropriate resources and training materials to enable |      % | |

| |effective learning processes for adults, such as: books, training manuals, handbooks, | | |

| |materials, supplies and equipment for training, courses or learning projects, lists of | | |

| |reference works, demonstration models, other teaching aids (instructional software, | | |

| |multimedia visual aids, computer tutorials, or study materials for instruction in | | |

| |vocational or occupational subjects) | | |

| |Design courses for adult education and training |      % | |

| |Design learning sessions for adult education and training |      % | |

| |Design testing, evaluation or learning assessment procedures |      % | |

| |Develop materials for open, flexible and networked learning |      % | |

| |Relate a distance education learning programme to the curriculum |      % | |

| |Implement the curriculum in a specific learning environment as a practising |      % | |

| |teacher/trainer in adult education and training | | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Organising Training Programmes | | |

| |Review enrolment applications and correspond with applicants |      % | |

| |Arrange for lectures by subject matter experts in designated fields |      % | |

| |Schedule events, programmes, activities, as well as the work of others |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Training Delivery | | |

| |Deliver group training sessions to adults |      % | |

| |Deliver learning presentations to adults and conduct discussions to increase trainees’ |      % | |

| |knowledge and competence, using visual aids, such as graphs, charts, videotapes, and | | |

| |slides | | |

| |Deliver on-the-job training to adults |      % | |

| |Facilitate effective learning |      % | |

| |Facilitate adult learner’s individualized learning |      % | |

| |Facilitate group learning activities for adults |      % | |

| |Facilitate interactive learning sessions for adults |      % | |

| |Facilitate learning in an open, flexible and networked learning |      % | |

| |Facilitate people to transfer existing competence into new context |      % | |

| |Create an inclusive learning environment |      % | |

| |Promote, support and implement learner involvement |      % | |

| |Observe and evaluate trainees’ work to determine progress, provide feedback, and make |      % | |

| |suggestions for improvement during training delivery | | |

| |Advise and support learner responsibility for learning and self-development |      % | |

| |Solve operational problems and provide technical assistance with equipment and process |      % | |

| |techniques during training delivery | | |

| |Use ICT for adult education and training purposes |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Trainees’ Assessment | | |

| |Use valid and reliable assessment that meet the needs of the learner |      % | |

| |Test trainees using oral, written, or performance tests to measure progress and to |      % | |

| |evaluate effectiveness of training | | |

| |Correct, grade, and comment on learning assignments |      % | |

| |Use standards to assess candidate performance |      % | |

| |Prepare candidate(s) for assessment against standards |      % | |

| |Verify evidence for assessment of candidates |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Training Evaluation and Improvement | | |

| |Evaluate effectiveness of adult training courses |      % | |

| |Evaluate effectiveness of adult learning sessions |      % | |

| |Obtain and act on feedback from learners |      % | |

| |Reflect critically on adult education and training assessment |      % | |

| |Improve quality of training processes |      % | |

| |Evaluate trainers’ performance |      % | |

| |Review and evaluate adult education and training programmes for compliance with reference|      % | |

| |standards | | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |Other Training Management Activities | | |

| |Evaluate strategic aspects of adult education and training |      % | |

| |Support and promote the adult training and development function within an organization |      % | |

| |Formulate training policies and schedules |      % | |

| |Manage the training needs assessment process for an organization |      % | |

| |Manage learning events for adult education and training |      % | |

| |Manage open, flexible, and networked learning |      % | |

| |Document or record Information in written form or by electronic/magnetic recording |      % | |

| |Get information needed/observe, receive, and otherwise obtain information from all |      % | |

| |relevant sources | | |

| |Prepare reports and maintain records, such as grades, attendance, training activities, |      % | |

| |production records, and supply or equipment inventories | | |

| |Performing administrative activities (approvals, paperwork, day-to-day administrative |      % | |

| |tasks) | | |

| |Communicate with persons outside the organisation, representing customers, the public, |      % | |

| |government, and other external sources | | |

| |Make decisions and solve problems in adult education and training |      % | |

| |Monitor and controlling resources |      % | |

| |Recruit, interview, select, hire, and promote trainers |      % | |

| |Prepare training budget for department or organization |      % | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |AdET Development and Self-Development | | |

| |Reflect critically on own teaching/training skills and practices |      % | |

| |Integrate professional knowledge and relevant field information into planning for |      % | |

| |learning and teaching as a practising teacher/trainer in adult education and training | | |

| |Develop own professional knowledge, skills and practice in adult education and training |      % | |

| |Develop productive relationships with those involved in learners’ support |      % | |

| |Evaluate and support innovations in adult education and training |      % | |

| |Think creatively to develop new applications, ideas, relationships, new training |      % | |

| |materials, systems, products, games, etc. to support learning processes | | |

| |Encourage and build mutual trust, respect, and cooperation in adult education and |      % | |

| |training environment | | |

| |Train trainers in effective techniques for training, such as: specific on-the-job |      % | |

| |training, apprenticeship programmes, adult training, retraining | | |

| |Other (please specify) | | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

| |      |      % | |

|B.2. For the activities above selected, please: |

|Estimate the proportion of time used* currently by you to perform them (for example, if the time to plan, prepare, deliver and follow-up |

|training is 100%, how much time do you use to do each necessary activity?), and |

|Select the appropriate category for every activity (knowing that there are three possible categories – see page 3) |

|B.3. Which problems have you had in adult education and training, as a teacher/trainer? |

|Delays |

|Bottleneck of resources |

|Unsuitability between training materials and learners’ expectations |

|Fear of changes |

|Underestimating the learners’ needs |

|Other (please specify)       |

|B.4. Which would be the reasons to engage in adult education and training processes improvement? |

|Cost pressure |

|Mandatory requirements of regulating authorities |

|Shorter Lead Time (time from customer’s order to delivery) and cycle times |

|Improved competitiveness |

|Customer satisfaction |

|Increased innovation |

|Standardization of process flows |

|Evaluation of cost efficient activities |

|Other (please specify)       |

|B.5. Considering your experience, please give examples of waste in adult education and training activities: |

|Name of waste |Obs. (situation, characteristics, effects) |Category of waste |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

|      |      | |

Other remarks (please specify)

     

|B.6. Considering your experience, please appreciate the possibility to use the following improvement tools, including Lean tools, to |

|eliminate waste in adult education and training processes (Tick more than one area if necessary): |

|Lean Tool |Process Area |Appreciation |

| |

|Learning Level |

| |

| |

|Topic |

|Standardized Processes | |

|Continuous Flow |Only one work item is processed at a time and it is moved directly to the next process. It implies no |

| |waiting time for the item after entering the process. |

|Flow Production |A philosophy that rejects batch, lot or mass processing as wasteful. Product should move (flow) from |

| |operation to operation in the smallest increment, one piece being the ultimate. It implies no defects on|

| |the process flow, only quality parts are allowed to move to the next operation. |

|Hoshin (Policy Deployment) |Japanese term for annual planning process, used throughout operational, financial, strategic, and |

| |project based scenarios, focusing on a few major long term customer-oriented breakthrough objectives, |

| |critical to a company’s long term success. This process deploys major objectives to specific support |

| |plans throughout the organization. |

|Jidoka |Built-in quality, such as if a process is not capable of creating the required output then it will not |

| |operate until it can. |

|Just in Time (JIT) |A strategy that concentrates on delivering quality products/services, in the quantity needed, when and |

| |where it is needed. |

|Kaizen |Continuous improvement of cost, quality, delivery, safety and responsiveness to customer needs |

|Kanban |A signal that specifies what and when to produce within a pull system. It is generally used to trigger |

| |the movement of material where one piece flow cannot be achieved, but is also used to “signal” upstream |

| |processes to produce product for downstream processes. |

|Lead-Time |The total time from the beginning of the supply chain to the time of delivery. It includes the sum of |

| |the VA/NVA time for a product to move through the entire value stream. |

|Lean |A business improvement strategy persistently focussing on reducing waste within a system. It is |

| |applicable also to business processes such as paperwork flow through an office. |

|Overproduction |This was considered by Taiichi Ohno to be the worst type of waste as it creates and hides all other |

| |types of wastes. |

|Pareto Chart |A vertical bar graph showing the bars in descending order of significance, ordered from left to right. |

| |It helps to focus on the vital few issues rather than the trivial many (a.k. the 80/20 rule). |

|Poka-Yoke |A method or device that prevents errors from occurring during the process. |

|Pull / Push |Pull |

| |Material flow triggered downwardly by actual customer need rather than a scheduled production forecast. |

| |Downstream processes signal to upstream processes exactly what is required and in what quantity. |

| |Push |

| |The production of goods regardless of demand or downstream need, usually in large batches to ensure |

| |“efficiency”. |

|Quick Changeover / SMED |A method for rapidly and efficiently converting a process from running the current product to running |

| |the next needed product. |

| |Single Minute Exchange Of Dies (SMED) |

| |A technique to reduce setup or changeover times, therefore eliminating the need to build in batches. |

|Six Sigma |Six Sigma may be approached at three different levels: |

| |As a metric |

| |A process that is six sigma generates a maximum defect probability of 3.4 parts per million (PPM), i.e. |

| |a probability of 99.9997% to have good products. |

| |As a methodology |

| |Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology that focuses an organization on driving rapid and |

| |sustainable improvement to business processes by minimizing variation in those processes. At the heart |

| |of the methodology is the DMAIC model for process improvement (Define opportunity, Measure performance, |

| |Analyze opportunity, Improve performance, Control performance) |

|Standardised Work |A defined work method that describes the proper workstation and tools, work required, quality, standard |

| |inventory, knacks and sequence of operations. |

| |Related terms |

| |Standard: A prescribed documented method or process that is sustainable, repeatable and predictable. |

| |Standardization: The system of documenting and updating procedures to make sure everyone knows clearly |

| |and simply what is expected of them. |

| |Standard Work: It details the motion of the operator and the sequence of action, based on the best |

| |process currently identified. Standard Work has three central elements; Takt time, Standard Work |

| |Sequence, and Standard Work in Process. |

|Takt Time |The pace at which the customer is demanding a product (how frequently a sold unit must be produced). |

| |Takt Time = Available Time / Customer Demand |

|Total Cycle Time (TCT) |The time taken from work order release into a value stream until completion / movement of product into |

| |shipping / finished goods. |

|Total Productive Maintenance |A means of maximising production system efficiency by analysing and eliminating down-time through |

|(TPM.) |up-front maintenance of equipment. It is based on the principle that equipment improvement must involve |

| |everyone in the organization, from line operators to top management. |

|Toyota Production System (TPS) |The production system developed and used by the Toyota Motor Company which focuses on the elimination of|

| |waste throughout the value stream. |

|Value Added Activity / |Value Added Activity (VA) |

|Non-Value-Added Activity (NVA) |Any activity that transforms input into the output for which a customer is willing to pay for. |

| |Non-Value-Added Activity (NVA) |

| |An activity that takes time, resources or space but does not add value to the product sold to a |

| |customer. The activity may be necessary from the point of view of the provider, however the customer is |

| |not willing to pay for it. |

|Value Stream |The value stream of a business is the sequence of steps that a company performs in order to satisfy a |

| |customer's need. |

|Value Stream Map |A visual representation of the aggregated material and information flows within a company or business |

| |unit. Using VSM icons, it shows interdependent functions, material and information flow, buffer |

| |inventory, flow time, cycle time, and decision points. |

|Visual Management |Systems that enable anyone to immediately assess the current status of an operation or given process at |

| |a glance, regardless of their knowledge of the process. |

|Waste |An activity that that consumes valuable resources without adding value for customers. Eight types of |

| |waste have been identified for business processes: |

| |Waste from over production |

| |Waste from waiting or idle time |

| |Waste from unnecessary transportation |

| |Waste from extra processing (inefficient processes) |

| |Waste of unnecessary inventory |

| |Waste of motion and efforts |

| |Waste from producing defective goods |

|Zero Quality Control |Each individual is educated, trained, and empowered so there is no need for inspection of their quality |

| |of work. |

Sources: ,

-----------------------

[1] AdET – Adult Educators and Trainers

[2] Womack, James P.; Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos (1990). The Machine That Changed the World.

* Obs.: Take care not to have a total more than 100%!

* Levels defined according to the revised taxonomy of the cognitive domain (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001)

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