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The LEAN e-NEWSLETTER: #005
September 5, 2006
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
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Left to right: K. Sivasmurthy, Director of Productivity and Quality Publishing, India, V. Rajagopalan translator, and Michael Wader, President of LeanPlus, India |
On 29 August, 2006, we were privileged enough to release the fifth (5th) version of the Lean Tools: A Pocket Guide to Implementing Lean Practices. This version is in the Indian dialect of Tamil. We spent a large amount of time to get the translation "just right" and understandable for the average shop-floor worker in Southern India. After all, the book was originally written in 2003 to help us carry the concepts of implementing Lean Practices to the most important people in the chain... the people who actually change the form, fit, and function of the raw materials to make the products or services that the customers really want.
Now this book is available in Tamil in additional to the English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian already in publication. The English and Russia have taken off well but the Spanish and Portuguese have not reached many of the shop floors in South America and Brazil respectively.
It is our desire that this book reach as many people around the world as possible to help shop-floor workers build products faster and better for all of us around the world. This month's newsletter will be about getting these critical readers involved in the process of implementing Lean Practices and helping all of our companies become more globally competitive.
Mike Wader
FEATURE ARTICLE
Getting Workers Involved
In Implementing Lean Practices
By Mike Wader
During the training discussions about Value Added steps in a process, it always becomes very clear that only those workers who change the form, fit, or function of raw materials into products or services, that are valuable in the eyes of the customers, are Value Added. But many companies only train their engineers or Continuous Improvement staff in the basic Lean Practices. The Japanese found that the power of the line-level workers in Quality Circles and improvement teams brought a tremendous flurry of ideas to make their processes better. In America, teams of workers and mid-level managers jointly use many varieties of Continuous Improvement strategy based on PDCA or an expansion of this basic idea. But as I travel around the world, I find that the classification of people and workers at different levels within societies and companies sets barriers to available knowledge. Too often it is only the Engineers and mid or senior level managers that are asked to attend our classes or partake in our improvement processes. This has to change. The first step has to be the education of the workers of what "Lean" is all about. One of our customers had 400 employees at their facility and they decided to train all of them. So they sent four engineers to be trained first. Then these four engineers came back and trained the 400. This is easy if you do it as they did. They decided to train 25 employees each day for 16 days of one month.
Their training consisted of just the basics for 3 hours, followed by lunch, and then 1.5 hours on the shop floor and in offices finding the Hidden Wastes that Lean Practices reveals. Then another 1.5 hours in the classroom again to discuss what they found and began discussion about how to improve it. These short classes with tour to the shop floor also open the eyes of the senior and mid-level managers to see the processes the workers work with everyday in a different perspective. This is the best time for them to ask the workers, "what do you think we should do?" Too often this question is never asked to the lowest level of workers in offices and on the production line. Here is an example: One of our customers identified an improvement that would drive their cycle time from 42 days down to 29 days for the manufacturing and assembly of a large industrial machine. They had to open a wall and install a door in order to move large, and very heavy, parts from one bay to another bay within the facility. They made the opening, built the door and then found out that there was a problem. A one meter wide workbench that was used alongside a large CNC lathe was blocking their route. All of the improvement team members struggled to figure out what to do about it. So we asked the 52 year old operator who had been working the machine for 15 years what he thought we should do. I told him that we had a problem and "he was the expert on this machine." I asked him for his help in solving this problem. He was not a team member and at first was reluctant to help. But I made it clear to him that he new more about this work area than anyone on our team and that his help would be actually helping the company to become more globally competitive. He said it was easy, "just cut my workbench in half!" He continued to explain that the parts he made were heavy and he never lifted them to the back half of the bench. He only used the front half and had no problem giving up half of his bench to facilitate an improvement. Do you think that anyone on our team would have come up with that solution without his help? I don't think so.
Many companies began their "lean" journey by starting with 5S efforts. This workplace organization improvement involves first cleaning up the workplaces and offices. Then, removing what is not needed and finding homes for whatever is left in the offices and shops. This is an area where you can get the lowest level of workers involved from the beginning. If they first understand why this needs to be done, then they are usually more than willing to help make this successful. Most workers do not want to come to work in an area that is dirty or messy. If you give them the time and tools to maintain a clean area the usually will. If tools or equipment are to be used on more than one shift be different people, do not let one shift or even worst one person decide where all of the equipment and tools should be located. Even worst than that, don't let an engineer or mid-level manager who never uses the tools decide where to put them. Ask the workers or office staff who handle these items every day where they should be kept. You can help them to design an easy to use method of storing them and controlling their location, but get the workers involved in deciding what stays and where it is kept. This method of getting them involved early in your process of implementing "lean" will go a long way to getting their support when you want to do more complicate doings like reducing machine set-up and change-over times or implementing JIT and Kanbans.
Get the workers to help in developing the checklist that they will have to use daily on their machines and in their offices to make sure 5S procedures are followed. For most of them it will have been a long time, or never, since anyone asked them their opinion about the layout of tools or how to keep their areas clean. Then after the checklist are developed and are being followed, mid-level and senior-level managers need to be on small teams with the workers to inspect the work areas and help to select the best ones based on a standardized scoring system. Leadership then needs to recognize and reward those work areas and/or offices that have excelled at implementing the 5S practices and have shown efforts above the rest. This recognition and reward process will help to ensure the continuation of their efforts and build a desire for them to be the best. This type of involvement and participation from the lowest level can be taught and learned, and is priceless in it's value. But managers and directors need to first recognize that the workers perform these processes every day and they have ideas about improving them. The problem is that too often in our eagerness to solve the problems from an engineering or management level, we never stop to ask the workers what they think.
The next time you are assembling an improvement team, do not forget to put a couple of line operators on the team. If they speak English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese or now Tamil, there is no reason why they don't bring along with them their Lean Tools book to increase understanding. Those companies that have had a few successes with this methodology of involving people from all levels with equal voting power in the decision making process have seen huge results. They also now have workers volunteering to be on these teams and taking ownership of their own work areas and wanting to make them better. Ask these workers, "what is causing the problem in your area?," "how would you change the process if you could?," "how can engineering and management help to make your job easier?" This is the powerful result of getting the workers involved in implementing Lean practices. All of your companies want to become more globally competitive and you only have a limited number of employees. Why not use all of them?
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