Re-Union Canal Boats workshop

Taste of Lean case study

Re-Union Canal Boats is a social enterprise in Edinburgh and Falkirk operating across the Union and Forth & Clyde Canals. They bring people together to develop their skills, learn from one another and realise their potential whilst maintaining and promoting the canal as a remarkable asset for the community.

I was delighted to run the first ever Taste of Lean workshop with the Re-Union team on their lovely wide-beam canal boat, the Lochrin Belle. They chose to use the workshop to look at improving ways of working.

I kicked off with some brief theory, and then discussion, about Lean thinking. Lean is all about giving value to customers and to stakeholders: value from their perspective.

The team then identified many of the challenges that get in their way when delivering value. Together they prioritised their problems and we were able to address the top two during the rest of the workshop.

For each problem we considered a way to measure the problem and set targets for improvement:

• “In 2020 we want to consistently have 100% confirmation of skipper and crew assignments for each subsequent week,
• Within one month we want to have 100% of the team able to find documents on the server.”

We explored root causes together and then the team worked creatively to develop various ideas that would help them achieve their goals. We also identified owners for the ideas they selected.

After the workshop I documented the activity including their action lists. They will now build out their ideas, measuring and adjusting as they learn what really works.

“Fantastic way to take stock of how you work and how the team can make changes for the benefit of individuals and the organisation.” Lesley Young, Development Manager