Reflection – Incremental Inventory Amount 

 Challenge & Selection 

 One challenge I faced recently was in the inventory area of my company , I needed to figure out 

 together with a team the reason why the total inventory had been increasing in the last months and work   on a solution to reverse that trend and have healthy inventory levels . We made a multi – disciplinary team   and , as all of us has different backgrounds , I decided to first start with visualization in order to better   understand the problem . 

 Visualization was the perfect tool to start because it mitigates some assumptions we made on our 

 own , if I only talk everybody would understand according to their respective area and profession . With   the visualization we could “ draw ” what each one of us understand about the problem . We decided to   work with post – it in different colors , flowcharts , pictures and arrows for the relationships . Once the team   started to visualize we could understand the same thing about the problem . 

 Application 

 I started by getting the team together and explain what we were going to do , every process owner 

 ( purchasing , planning , warehouse , finance , IQA ) started to put each activity in their areas related to   inventory , each area had a different color and we were putting all the activities on a white board . We   draw the relationships between the areas and we also noted that there were duplicated activities   between one area and another , as well as some areas that were working like silos . 

 We put all the activities together and made kind of a “ giant flow chart ” , with their connections 

 and what is coming after what . This specific exercise was very liked by the team because we could better   understand all the activities and persons involved with the inventory management . 

 After that , we wanted to “ see the inventory ” not just as numbers but as the material it is . We then 

 made a gemba walk through the warehouse from the receiving area to the storage area . We took pictures   of the process , how the material is received and stored , the different areas , racks ; well everything that   could help us “ see the inventory ” . We placed the pictures on the same white board where we had the   post - its and now we had the final result of all the activities : the inventory on our warehouse . 

 Insight 

 With this exercise I learned , first of all , that it ’s important for all the people involved in a project 

 to understand what is happening before jump into a solution ( in this case for example , the first thing some   of the team members said before even start any discussion was : “ obviously the inventory level is   increasing because buyers are buying too much , we need to change purchasing parameters ” ) . I think it ’s   maybe because of our human nature that we need to solve everything as quick as possible but to sit and   understand what is happening is the key to a brilliant project . 

 Besides , it was really helpful to the team to actually see all the activities involved in the inventory 

 management and all “ the hands ” involved as well . Once the team worked on the connections and   relationships and could see all the arrows , colors and the step by step ; the actual state became flush and   the understanding was a lot better . Also the pictures , the pictures helped us to make the inventory   something tangible and not only numbers in a laptop . 

 Approach 

 I realized that visualization is a powerful tool to start a process of design thinking , or any kind of 

 project I think . For the next time I would use more drawing simulating persons and storytelling to make   real what those persons are doing every day , to “ put into their shoes ” . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Incremental Inventory Amount 

 Challenge & Selection 

 One challenge I faced recently was in the inventory area of my company , I needed to figure out 

 together with a team the reason why the total inventory had been increasing in the last months and work   on a solution to reverse that trend and have healthy inventory levels . We made a multi – disciplinary team   and , as all of us has different backgrounds , I decided to first start with visualization in order to better   understand the problem . 

 Visualization was the perfect tool to start because it mitigates some assumptions we made on our 

 own , if I only talk everybody would understand according to their respective area and profession . With   the visualization we could “ draw ” what each one of us understand about the problem . We decided to   work with post – it in different colors , flowcharts , pictures and arrows for the relationships . Once the team   started to visualize we could understand the same thing about the problem . 

 Application 

 I started by getting the team together and explain what we were going to do , every process owner 

 ( purchasing , planning , warehouse , finance , IQA ) started to put each activity in their areas related to   inventory , each area had a different color and we were putting all the activities on a white board . We   draw the relationships between the areas and we also noted that there were duplicated activities   between one area and another , as well as some areas that were working like silos . 

 We put all the activities together and made kind of a “ giant flow chart ” , with their connections 

 and what is coming after what . This specific exercise was very liked by the team because we could better   understand all the activities and persons involved with the inventory management . 

 After that , we wanted to “ see the inventory ” not just as numbers but as the material it is . We then 

 made a gemba walk through the warehouse from the receiving area to the storage area . We took pictures   of the process , how the material is received and stored , the different areas , racks ; well everything that   could help us “ see the inventory ” . We placed the pictures on the same white board where we had the   post - its and now we had the final result of all the activities : the inventory on our warehouse . 

 Insight 

 With this exercise I learned , first of all , that it ’s important for all the people involved in a project 

 to understand what is happening before jump into a solution ( in this case for example , the first thing some   of the team members said before even start any discussion was : “ obviously the inventory level is   increasing because buyers are buying too much , we need to change purchasing parameters ” ) . I think it ’s   maybe because of our human nature that we need to solve everything as quick as possible but to sit and   understand what is happening is the key to a brilliant project . 

 Besides , it was really helpful to the team to actually see all the activities involved in the inventory 

 management and all “ the hands ” involved as well . Once the team worked on the connections and   relationships and could see all the arrows , colors and the step by step ; the actual state became flush and   the understanding was a lot better . Also the pictures , the pictures helped us to make the inventory   something tangible and not only numbers in a laptop . 

 Approach 

 I realized that visualization is a powerful tool to start a process of design thinking , or any kind of 

 project I think . For the next time I would use more drawing simulating persons and storytelling to make   real what those persons are doing every day , to “ put into their shoes ” .
### Output: 