One Point Lesson (OPL) is a short 5-10 minute learning tool on a single topic, usually on a single sheet of paper. It usually consists of figures, pictures, and diagrams rather than text. It is usually produced by hand by anyone who wants to share the best practices with others in the organization. An OPL enables a team to share key learnings and builds a common understanding of the systems and standards that apply to a work area. They support greater dissemination of knowledge and help improve the general level of capability of the entire team. It is used whenever an important point may be missed by others to be documented and communicated in the spirit of continuous improvement.
There are three main reasons why an OPL may be developed:
Basic information sheet: This shares essential basic information required to operate effectively. For example, how to clean an area, how to change the setup, change filters, lubricate, etc.
Problem case study: This teaches how to prevent the recurrence of a problem that a piece of particular equipment may be having.
Improvement Idea: Describes a method or approach for a better way of working usually developed out of a case study, Kaizen, etc.
This particular template helps with a simple format for documenting the OPL, which the team members can print out and use to report the OPL. Once an OPL has been created, it has to be approved by management to ensure everyone aligns with the proposed change, and then it should be kept in a central, easily accessible location and used to train the remaining team members.
To add this template to your workbook, click on Lean and then select Reports > One Point Lesson.
Inputs
Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.
Checklist
A sample screenshot of the checklist menu is shown below.
1
Checklist:
The input dialog box asks a set of questions concerning the OPL report that you are creating. This is just a checklist to ensure you have thought about all the key aspects of this report.
Before you roll out the OPL, you must ensure that the right stakeholders have approved the OPL. They may want to check for the accuracy of the OPL and if any changes are required to represent the OPL.
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Do you have a central location that is easily accessible to all the team members to disseminate the OPL? Have you ensured that the current OPL is placed in this central location? There is no point in having an OPL on some computers that is difficult for the team members to access. It should be easily available to all members at the right place and time.
Finally, is there a process that has been defined to roll out the OPL to other team members? There should be a regular process for communicating OPL with the team members so that the organization can realize the benefits of the OPL. You may also want to consider recording who has seen and gone through the OPL to ensure the effective spread of the OPL.
2
Status:
The status of each checklist item is shown here. It indicates a green checkmark if the item has been completed.
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View Example:
Click on this button to open the example file. You can view the example to get an idea of how to fill out this template, or you can use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your project needs.
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Help Button:
Click on this button to open the help file on this topic.
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Cancel Button:
Click on this button to exit without saving any changes.
6a
Create Button:
Click on this button to save changes and update your worksheet layout. This will take you to the worksheet, where you can enter the information required. When you are done with the update, you can either click on Compute Outputs or click on Analysis Setup and then click on the OK button to update analysis results.
6b
OK Button:
Click on this button to save changes and update your analysis results.
On the worksheet, you will need to enter the specific OPL information. The OPL worksheet consists of the following sections:
Num
Description
1
A brief title of the OPL, which is a short one-line description of the issue that is being covered by this OPL.
2
The area where this OPL is being created or applied. Ideally, all members of this area would be the target audience for this OPL.
3
A picture or diagram of the current and proposed ways of working. You can either take a picture and attach it to this worksheet or handwrite or type the message. Ideally, you should use pictures as they are easy for others to understand, and you should use arrows and text to highlight the key messages on this diagram.
4
If you have identified any benefits of following this OPL, they should be captured on this page. This will help with change management and convince users
of the importance of following this OPL.
5
You must classify the OPL into one of the three basic categories.
6
Document the name of the person or the team that suggested the OPL so that if there are any follow-up questions or additional information, we will know where to
go or who to ask.
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Finally, document that this OPL has been reviewed and received the necessary approvals before roll-out.
Verify
If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below.
The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
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Item:
The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2
Status:
The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3
Overall Status:
Shows the overall status of all the checks performed. If all the checked items are okay, the status image in the header will show a green checkmark. If any checks fail, then the status image in the header will show a red cross mark.
Outputs
Click on Compute Outputs to update the outputs. If you have answered all the questions in the input dialog box in the affirmative, then it is recorded as such on this worksheet. If all template elements have been completed, the following message is displayed when you click the Compute Outputs button.
There are no specific outputs to interpret on the OPL sheet. You will need to print the OPL sheet, store it in a central location, and use it for communication and training.
Notes
Here are a few notes regarding this analysis:
Since there are no computations on this sheet, please modify the OPL format to meet your needs better. Make sure to update any required header information.
Examples
The following examples are in the Examples folder.
Create a simple OPL for one of the issues you have faced in a document using the OPL tool (OPL 1.xlsx).