Constructing Paper Planes Instructions for Facilitator Constructing paper planes

							Constructing Paper Planes – Instructions for Facilitator

Constructing paper planes is a change management and work process redesign exercise
that illustrates how changing a process can lead to a more efficient and effective
outcome; it also empowers staff members to make decisions to improve the process.

The exercise will be to make specified paper planes (details on design below) in 3
separate production runs:
   • 1st Run – A functionally designed system
   • 2nd Run – A team designed system
   • 3rd Run – A team defined system

In the first run you will select 6 people from the CO to follow a predetermined process
(detailed below). The team will have 10 minutes to make as many planes as they can that
meet the specified requirements (detailed below). You will then note how many planes
they have made that pass the requirements.

In the second production run, you will ask the group if there are 6 people who think that
they can do it better. Select 6 people and tell them that they can design the process any
way they want to, but that the plane still has to be made to meet the specified
requirements. Let the team strategize on how they will design their production process.
Then give the team 10 minutes to make as many planes as they can that meet the
specified requirements. After 10 minutes note how many planes they have made that pass
the requirements.

In the third run, you have the option – you can either have 6 more people try to make as
many planes as possible, and they can design the system however they like, or, you can
tell people that this time you do not need to have 6 people – the challenge is to see how
many planes can be made with a smaller group – and the outcome can be compared to the
number of planes made per person on the group.

Requirements in all 3 runs
- Planes have to be at least 11 cm high from nose to tail
- There must be two paper clips on the nose of the plane
- Sticker must be on the back left tail close to the edge of the wing in the following order
– silver, green, gold (note: we had silver, green and gold stars – you can use whatever
sticker(s) you like and create the order of the stickers if applicable)
- Planes have to fly over the 2 meter mark (total distance does not matter – but it must fly
at least 2 meters)


Runs

1st Run – A Functionally designed system:
The planes must be made using the following production design (more detail on each step
below):
There are 6 people who will make the paper planes
- Drawer (1st person) draws 2 lines on the paper (has a ruler)
- Cutter (2nd person) cut the paper into the four boxes (has scissors)
- Folder (3rd person) folds the paper into a paper plan (see below for instructions on
    how to make the plane) (folder has instructions)
- Assembler (4th person) – apply paper clips and stars on the plane (has stickers &
    paper clips)
- Inspector (5th person) – inspects the plane to ensure that it meets the requirements
    (has a ruler)
- Tester (6th person) – tests the plane to see if it can fly the 2 meter required distance
NOTE: Everything is in a batch process – things can only move in groups of 3 – at each
station you can only commence your work when there are 3 items in inventory in the
station before you


Details on Paper Plane Process

(Note: The facilitator should make one paper plane in advance as a “demo” – give the
demo to the inspector so that they know what the plane should approximately look like)

One piece of paper (normal letter sized paper) makes 4 planes. Remember everything
must flow through in batches of 3.

Process 1. Get a normal piece of paper (note: there should be a stack of paper waiting
beside the Drawer for them to use). With the ruler, the Drawer measures out the
approximate center of both the width and length of the page and draws a line down the
middle and across the center of the page. They CANNOT fold the paper.

The paper will look like this:




Drawer puts the papers with the lines on it in an inventory pile.

Process 2. Once there are 3 papers in the inventory pile, the Cutter can work on the 3
papers. The Cutter takes each paper and cuts along the lines so that there are four small
pieces of paper (there will be 4 small rectangles). The Cutter puts the smaller pieces of
paper in inventory beside them.

Process 3. When there are at least 3 small pieces of paper in the inventory in front of
them, the Folder can start folding the paper planes. The plane must meet the design
requirement (detailed below).
Process 4. When there are 3 planes waiting in inventory, the Assembler must put 2 paper
clips on the nose of the airplane and place three stars on the back left tail close to the
edge of the wing in the following order – silver, green, gold.

Process 5. When there are three assembled planes waiting for the Inspector they should
inspect the planes to make sure that they look like the demo plane, that the plane is at
least 11 cm high from nose to tail, that the paper clips are in the right place and that the
stickers have been applied to the right place, side, and in the right order (silver, green,
gold).

Process 6. When there are 3 planes waiting after inspection then the Tester tests the
planes to see if they fly over the 2 meter mark, if they do they can be put in a ‘finished
goods pile’, if they don’t they can be put in a pile to be reworked.


2nd Run – A Team designed system:
In the 2nd run the team designs the system
 - Participants experience first-hand the impact of being involved in redesigning a
     process while still meeting quality standards. They will be more committed and have
     a higher morale by working with a system they have designed.

3rd run – A Team designed system - Continuously improving the system:
 - You can challenge people to make even more planes with less people, or to just try a
     new design process (hopefully more effective), still with 6 people
 - Participants learn that through collaboration and continuous improvement efforts,
     significant changes take place. These changes are easier to implement and maintain
     because of the participant’s ownership of the change process.

What does the Facilitator Need to Do?
- Firstly, make a “demo” airplane prior to the session so that the participants can see
  what a finished plane looks like
- Select 6 people (in the first run it would be fun if the RR/DRR/Head of Finance, etc
  were to get involved – you may want to ask them first, but don’t explain the
  exercise), explain how the first production run will work, explain each person’s role
  in the process, and give them their necessary tools (rulers, scissors, plane design
  instructions, paper clips and stars, and the demo plane)
- Mark two lines on the floor – one will be the line that the tester stands at to throw the
  planes, and the other, approximately 2 meters away, is the one that the plane has to
  get over to be a ‘quality’ product (note to facilitators, if no planes are making it then
  you can move the line closer)
- Time each run (10 minutes)
- After the first run note how many planes were made that met the requirements
- Select another 6 people, ask them to design the process however they like, there are
  no rules other then the plane must meet the quality requirements (detailed above)
- At the end of the run note how many planes were made that met the requirements
-   Then either select 6 more people to try to make more planes with a new and
    improved design, or have less people try to make more planes/person
-   At the end of the third run note how many planes were made that met the
    requirements
-   Then do a group debrief on the exercise (see B & C. Change Presentation)


Materials Required for the Exercise:
- paper plan demo
- a stack of normal paper
- 2 rulers
- scissors (2 pair would be best – then the team designed process could have more
   cutters if they wanted to)
- a box of paper clips
- stickers (if desired)
- stop watch (or normal watch)
- masking/duct tape (to mark the lines on the floor)


Ways to Optimize/Streamline the System
- Better for one person to draw lines on the paper and cut (merge responsibilities of
person #1 and #2) as both tasks only take a few seconds
- The bottleneck in the first run is between the cutter and the folder (person #2 and #3), as
such it will speed things up to have at least two people folding
- Combine the inspector and tester role (person #5 and #6) as the tester task only takes a
few seconds
- If you select the option to work with less then 6 people – by cutting down on the
number of people, you can still produce a lot of planes and other people’s time is freed up
so that they can work on other things (things that they would do if they had more time in
their daily work)


Some learnings
- Don’t just do things because they have always been done that way
- Rules matter and impact your work – in this case, batch sizes matter – when forced to
   work through the exercise in 3’s it is really slow – as such, just because some rules
   are in place, doesn’t make it right, question first if the rule makes sense, if it does
   not, maybe it should be changed
- Specialization may not always be the best way to organization things – in the first
   run every person had their own task, then when you look to combine roles and
   increase staff on the more complicated time consuming areas, you increase efficiency
   – you need to balance specialization and workload
How to Build the Paper Planes – Instructions for Folder

Step 1: Crease the small rectangular piece of paper length-wise (fold the paper in half
length-wise, crease it, and then unfold the paper)




Step 2: Fold the top right-hand corner of the paper to the center crease (refer to the
picture below).




Step 3: Now, fold the other corner to the center line (refer to the picture below).




Step 4: Fold the paper in half length-wise (refer to picture below)
Step 5: Fold one of the wings down (have the paper rest on the table as it looks in the
picture above, then fold one of the wings down by folding the wing in half – refer to the
picture below).




Step 6: Now, fold the other wing down (fold the other wing in half the same way that you
did in step 5).




Step 7: Now fold the wings out (NOTE: PAPER CLIPS TO THE APPLIED IN THE
ASSEMBY PROCESS)
Step 8: Bend the back corner of each wing into a small triangle




Now the plane is ready to move the Assembly stage.