After drafting the designated section of the final project for the workshop and posting it to the discussion topic, students are required to critique two peer drafts, providing substantive feedback and discussion. As a Reviewer: 1. Take the time to read the drafts thoroughly. Refer to the Final Project Document as you review your peers' work. You might want to read through each component in its entirety and then jot down your first impressions. Then, you will want to read it a second (and even a third) time to develop your critique. 2. You are critiquing the work, not the person. Your goal is to help the author achieve his or her goal. The critique should start with the strengths of the work. What works and why? Identify at least two places in which the writer does something successfully, and provide concrete examples. 3. Next, suggest any areas for revision. Keep the tone positive and provide concrete suggestions forrevision. 4. The final comment should be an overall summary of the piece and your impressions, focusing on thepositive. As the Author: 1. Listen to (or read) the critique carefully, avoiding any desire to defend your interpretation. 2. If you are unclear what the reviewer means, ask him or her toclarify. 3. If you have any questions after hearing/reading the critique, feel free to pose them to the group. 4. Thank the reviewers for their feedback and address any questions/comments that your peers may have posed of your work. 5. Remember, it is your writing. Your peers may have approached the same topic differently. However, do not just dismiss suggestions out of hand. 6. Accept that negative feedback comes with the territory. Your job is not to make everyone happy but to make your writing the best that it can be.

PDCA MODEL - CEASAR CASINO

PLAN Solution: embrace customer service as an essential element of the corporate operating strategy, continuously increasing customer satisfaction on a hyper-competitive landscape as gauged by rating scores by increase process effectiveness to tackle the decrease of revenues and challenges of profitability Plan: Implement a LEAN rollout around a series of kaizen events (intensive five-day workshops involving employees from multiple functions and levels working together to identify and improve target processes).

DO: 63 five-day workshops took place during 2009 following the next program: Day 1: explanation of LEAN concepts, explanation of waste trough the acronym DOWNTIME (defects, overproduction, waiting, not engaging people, transportation, inventory, motion, and extra processing) giving real life examples for each concept Day 2: Mapping of work processes targeted for improvement (individual description of specific process to a process map in group), being able to visually distinguish processes and systems from waste. A second activity on day 2 is the waste walk, looking for additional waste in function of the DOWNTIME rubric. Day 3: identification of the root cause of each waste in the easy-to-remove, large impact quadrant of the matrix generated in Day 2. Day 4: proposing and testing possible remedies to root causes of problems identified the prior day. Day 5: presenting work to the property executive team and managers. sharing their value stream maps, waste analysis and try-stormed solution The company in the case study can test the solutions by comparing data from before the implementations executed from the feedback received after the kaizen workshops, to show the effectiveness of the changes statistical data (such as average times of movements, inventory levels and rotation, or average overproduction) must be compared.

CHECK: After the company implemented changes, the data supported that the proposed solution helped to face the problem stablished. Some examples are reorganization of kitchen equipment and supplies to reduce the time and motion involved or the implementation of 5S on the kitchen dry storage, resulting on the application of inventory principles such as rotation of older inventories, relocate functionally or avoid overstocks. An additional example is the sandwich production per minutes, where times were considerably reduced for good.

Each five-day workshop included a set of activities intended to build knowledge, engage participants, solve problems, and develop solutions. These events resulted in improved customer-service scores and $3 million in documented savings.

ACT

The solutions proposed addresses the identified problem given the week-long kaizen events laid the foundation for creating a LEAN culture to solidify the gains and sustain the transformation, three post-kaizen pillars were crucial: standard work, key performance indicators (KPIs), and a daily focus on problem solving reinforced through gemba walks.

Standard work processes were documented and included easy-to-follow instructions, including pictures and tools required. KPIs were established after each kaizen event and tracked on a KPI board, which was updated daily and became the focus of daily problem solving. While executives conducted gemba walks each week to observe processes and hear about ongoing improvement efforts.

Improvement might be generated by keeping generating a spiral of constant improvement trough the regular implementation of the PDCA cycle, exploring ways to reduce waste in function of the exploration of new technologies and brainstorming sessions.

Source: (Continuous Improvement Tools and Techniques, p. 182) Continuous Improvement Tools and Techniques. [VitalSource Bookshelf 10.2.1]. Retrieved from vbk://9781308993737