Don’t Forget the Power of Questions.

We just uncovered a large form of “overproduction” within our office that survived under the radar for several years.  Yes, a few associates said they knew the work we were doing wasn’t necessary, but never made it clear to the right folks to have it addressed. 

Kaizen events didn’t uncover it.  Changes in leadership didn’t uncover it. 

So how did we arrive at the breakthrough?  A new employee asked a simple question… “Why are we performing this task when it doesn’t appear the downstream department has value for it?”  This “task” accounted for several hours of unnecessary production time, each week, (Work that was never charged to our clients, and as well, should not have been charged to them.) 

What’s the lesson to be learned from this discovery?  Remember the power of questions!  They can make the difference between success and failure.