In this Question and Answer session, Rockwell Collins Principal Program Manager Ken Wong, who divides his time between our California locations in Tustin, Irvine and Cypress, talks about his first-hand experience at overcoming tough challenges by using our Lean Roadmap.

Last year, one of our enterprise goals was to complete the Tustin Commons business integration. In September 2006, Wong and his team began using our Lean Roadmap to complete a very complex and ambitious plan to bring together two separate businesses within Commercial Systems.

Today, Wong - who received Lean Principal Certification in 2003 - also is using the Lean framework to improve processes within our ElectroMechanical Systems business, which is part of our Commercial Systems Air Transport Systems portfolio.

Q. You've had extensive classroom and practical Lean training, and you received Lean Principal Certification in 2003. How does your experience with Lean help you in your current role?

A. My current role within Commercial Systems is really all about implementing Lean. I specialize in business integration, so I coordinate programs that target improvements in the way we conduct business, with an end goal of improving customer satisfaction. I get involved in all aspects of the Lean Roadmap, from establishing the foundation to celebrating and reassessing.

Q. When a business is faced with a tough challenge, how can our Lean Roadmap help?

A. Lean provides a business or department with a proven approach to achieve an end objective. Using the value stream mapping process - without skipping any steps - you basically understand your problem, define what you want to do to resolve the problem, and then develop and implement a plan to achieve your objectives.

The Lean Roadmap is a logical flow that is pertinent for executing both overall portfolios of projects - such as what we had for the Tustin Commons business integration - as well as individual initiatives. By going through each step - whether at the macro or micro level - your teams have a proven approach for achieving success.

Q. The Tustin Commons business integration was an important goal to accomplish as it was part of our FY'07 Incentive Pay Plan. How did you use Lean to complete it?

A. Without Lean, I believe it would have been very difficult at best to achieve our goal. The reason I say this is that we would not have been as efficient or organized in working the initiatives.

Cabin Systems - which was formed in August of 2006 - is a result of the combination of Passenger Systems in Pomona, Calif., and the prior Cabin Systems that was located in the Dow Avenue facility in Tustin. We had a very complex and ambitious plan to bring the two businesses together and it was a total team effort to be able to execute it.

At the executive level, we followed the leadership side of our Lean Roadmap. One of our keys to success was the discipline we had in reviewing the progress of our extensive portfolio of 82 initiatives. Over the course of the fiscal year, we had 22 executive cadences focused on reviewing progress. I don't believe we would have completed all of the initiatives if we did not have the executive focus over the course of the year.

At the individual project level, the activity flow side of the Lean Roadmap was used extensively. The value stream mapping process provided the teams with a disciplined approach to achieve their objectives.

For example, in the case of our Switch Panel cycle time initiative, documenting a current state value stream map greatly assisted in highlighting where the problems were occurring and what processes were breaking down. This led to developing a future state and action plan that effectively reduced build cycle time.

Q. The Lean Roadmap provides a framework to guide our employees along their Lean journey, but sometimes it's tough to get started. What did you do as part of the Foundation step on the Lean Roadmap?

A. First of all, leaders were immersed in and aligned with our Lean transformation. They believed that working this plan to completion would significantly help the business. They also set expectations with the departments and ensured linkage to Performance Review & Development Plans (PR&DPs).

As I mentioned before, there was a firm discipline in setting a rigorous cadence schedule and sticking to it.

Q. What type of leadership support did you need to make the program successful?

A. As with any major goals, to achieve desired business results, you have to have commitment from senior leaders. Before you can get the commitment, you need the buy-in from a tactical and strategic perspective. When you get that buy-in, senior leaders will allocate the resources.

Tommy Dodson, vice president and general manager of Cabin Systems, was immersed in our program and had high expectations. During cadence reviews - which could last a full day - the team worked through a lot of issues with him. Working together, problem-solving and team-building were critical to the success of the plan.

There were occasional roadblocks and barriers that were encountered over the course of the year. Many of them involved resource issues or reaching an agreement on how to proceed with a solution. The team addressed these roadblocks in many situations through prioritizations, and in the case of disagreements, we tried to have honest and open communication. It ultimately led to us working together more effectively as a team.

Q. How did your team ensure that Lean events were tied to the value stream and the overall goal?

A. We reviewed all the proposed initiatives early in our planning process, and added or deleted projects until we were satisfied that the portfolio addressed the areas that were consistent with our high-level goals. We also had some mid-course corrections during the year that re-prioritized some projects and added others.

Q. How quickly was your team able to implement improvements?

A. Improvements were implemented soon after we launched in the fall of 2007 for some of the less complex initiatives. Others involving the more complex processes and projects - such as on-time delivery - took us to the end of the fiscal year.

Progress was evaluated at two levels: first, at the individual project level, and second, at an overall business integration program level.

Q. In the end, what were you specifically able to accomplish using the Lean Roadmap?

A. From a big picture perspective, I believe we have increased customer satisfaction in both the schedule and quality arenas. We work more effectively as an integrated business unit. We're further aligned with Rockwell Collins policies and procedures. We also have made significant progress with developing our personnel resources, and we've positioned our business for profitable growth.

Q. Wow, that's impressive. Now that your team has obtained the goal, what are you doing to continually improve?

A. We are currently in Phase II of our Business Integration/Lean plan. We have 25 initiatives in the 2008 portfolio, with completion expected soon. These 25 initiatives build on the success we had in FY'07, and will help elevate our performance to the next level.

Q. You also are currently using Lean to improve processes within ElectroMechanical Systems (EMS) in Irvine. At what stage is this program at on the Lean Roadmap?

A. The business integration program at EMS is in the implementation stage. While we're still at an early stage, positive results are starting to surface. We're already seeing improvements in several areas, including customer on-time delivery, customer acceptance rates, product costs and repair turn-around time.

From a high level perspective, we have a situation that most businesses would envy - success in order capture and a high sales growth rate. So, growth management is our biggest challenge.

Q. What long-term benefits do you expect the EMS team to obtain by using Lean tools, principles and methods?

A. The long-term benefit to using Lean will be continuous process improvement. A good start has been made with the FY'08 plan, and more work will elevate performance to the level that is satisfactory to the team.

Q. As EMS continues to grow, how are you helping new employees understand our company's Lean philosophy?

A. The team has placed a heavy emphasis on training. This calendar year, more than 100 employees at our Irvine facility have received classroom training for Associate or Champion Lean Certification.

Leaders also are involving many new employees in Lean events to get them immersed rapidly into the value stream mapping process, which is invaluable in providing a disciplined approach to problem resolutions.

For more information about Lean terminology, view the Lean glossary .