The Challenge
Vessel Packaging provides scalable beverage packaging solutions across Canada. They have been a market leader in providing innovative canning services to their clients. After experiencing rapid growth in recent years, Vessel Packaging identified an opportunity to embark its team on the Lean Journey to harness a culture that consistently strives to deliver customer value. Vessel Packaging engaged Propel Solutions to deliver a curated curriculum of Lean Process Improvement training to all levels of the organization.
The Objective
Propel Solutions, who holds industry-leading Lean Certification from the Society of Manufacturing and Engineers (SME), designed and facilitated a four-part Lean Training series for the Vessel Packaging team. The training consisted of four virtually-led workshops, covering the following topics:
- Introduction to Process Improvement: In this workshop, the Vessel Packaging team gained a practical understanding on how to apply Lean Process Improvement principles into action. Through the use of MURAL, a virtual collaboration tool offered by Microsoft 365, participants created Value Stream Maps, and examined one of their own Value Streams to apply process improvement techniques to eliminate non-value-added steps in the process. Participants left this workshop with a practical understanding of continuous improvement techniques to begin improving customer value right away.
- Identifying Opportunities to Improve the Process: A key step in improving any process is identifying the opportunities within the process. Using a variety of engaging tools, Propel provided the Vessel Packaging team with an overview of the 10 Causes of Lost Time, followed by the Lean Process Improvement tools required to improve processes.
Participants had the opportunity to take this new knowledge one step further by learning about the key activities necessary to achieve a culture of Continuous Improvement within Vessel Packaging, which was achieved by having participants apply Lean Process Improvement concepts directly to one of their own processes. - Tools for Measuring Process Improvement: In this workshop, the Vessel Packaging Leadership Team learned all the steps required to design an effective Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system within their teams. Participants learned about the four different types of KPI’s – Schedule Attainment, Quality, Service, and Speed – and how to leverage various management techniques to track, communicate, and manage KPI’s to instill a culture of ongoing continuous improvement. Following this workshop, participants learned how to identify and develop Key Performance Indicators for their areas, allowing leaders to spot off-schedule conditions quickly to further identify opportunities for improvement on an ongoing basis.
- Sustaining Change and Developing a Continuous Improvement Mindset: Many Process Improvements fall off the wagon as organizational priorities change and as staff slip into their old ways of doing things. The final workshop in this series focused on how to build an effective implementation plan for change to set Vessel Packaging up for success. This hands-on workshop had participants developing customized tools and accountabilities to allow for sustainment and betterment of change activities.
The Results
The Vessel Packaging team capped off the four-day workshop series with a presentation to Vessel Packaging’s Executive team, sharing key learnings and highlighting the improvements that will be put into immediate action. This meeting solidified the learning for the participants and created a path for Vessel Packaging moving forward.
Participants walked away from this Lean Improvement Training with a toolbelt of ready-to-use skills and an actionable game plan that could be immediately applied to improve customer value in projects and processes moving forward, forming the foundation of Vessel Packaging’s culture of continuous improvement.
