This fear of self satisfaction has become all consuming within the ranks of Toyota’s management. As a result top management is keenly aware of activities on the floor and provides the energy and urgency to continuously improve-good times or bad. Toyota is re-writing the rules on how to compete in the automobile market today because of the investment they started over fifty years ago. Unfortunately western impatience doesn’t reward or encourage this type of long term thinking. “You’re only as good as your last quarter results” is the mantra that dictates many companies’ plans. This fact stands alone as the biggest obstacle to companies sustaining the gains from any improvement strategy.
Would you recognize complacency if you saw it at your company?
Here are some scenarios we’ve encountered over the last year or so in our consulting business that we thought would be of interest to our team newsletter readers. See if you can see some of your company in any of these scenarios.
Raise The Bar Once on the lean journey management has to define specific challenges for the company and be prepared to raise the bar when a goal is reached. We’ve seen companies slack off or stop completely after reaching a customer satisfaction target. These goals are only temporary stopping points and represent today’s challenge which is tomorrow’s baseline. In some cases management may have to create these challenges/goals even if the market isn’t demanding them today. If your customers are satisfied with three week delivery; can you win some of your competitors business by delivering in two? Don’t stop to enjoy the view; there’s no time.
Solution Management has to possess and exhibit the leadership and will to continuously improve.
Walking the Walk The biggest complaint from those on the floor is that they are being asked to do things that management doesn’t even pretend to follow. Unbreakable Rule: Don’t ask anyone to do anything management isn’t willing to do first and practice consistently. People on the floor have a lightening quick truth test and they see through cheerleading without substance very quickly. You’ll pass their test by what you do, not by what you say.
Solution Management must become educated on the strategy selected-how it works and what is possible. Read, attend seminars, join local chapter associations, and visit other companies to learn form their successes and mistakes. Management must outline the vision and be prepared to assist in overseeing that the vision is translated to specific activities on the floor.
VISION How is the strategy of the organization being carried out on the floor? Most often you hear responses like “We told everyone in a plant wide meeting in the beginning of the year” or “They all know we’ve got to produce as many__ (substitute product or service) __ as we can in three shifts and we’re actually doing pretty well.” Yes, but what is specifically being doing today by your teams to support the goal to say double production in two years without increasing the headcount?
Many companies still rely on sales alone as the main way to increase the bottom line revenue. This is short term thinking and has shown itself to have diminishing success against global competitors with lower price points. Your teams are the real engine and their effectiveness is the chief governor as to how far you’ll go on the journey.
Solution: Empower teams with improving their processes by removing waste and cost from the manufacturing process. Uncover existing capacity with lean, Six Sigma, or any combination thereof but do it. These efforts will help offset any hiccup in sales and will put you in a position to win more business in good times.
Supervisors Treat your supervisors like the management representative’s they are. We find that in many cases the supervisor are being introduced to and trained at the same session as the individual team members. This undermines the supervisor’s authority and puts them at the same knowledge level as everyone else. The supervisor is not in a position to explain any more than what everyone else knows. The supervisor needs to understand the strategy and reasoning behind whatever direction the company has selected. You’re creating a problem for your supervisor as a leader of the team because you didn't extend the consideration others in management receive.
Solution Hold a separate session for the supervisors where they not only are trained in the techniques but the strategy and reasoning for the strategy.
Measure It The leadership of the company must decide on specific strategic goals (not mission statements) for the company and then make sure these get translated into specific team activities on the floor. Underline specific activities and continually measure it along with other current measures. In many instances the company leadership ignores this or delegates it and never measures anything other than production goals. The company leadership must ensure that their vision is at work on the floor.
Solution Create simplified measures that are meaningful to the teams that they can impact. Include team activities that are in support of the company’s strategic goals with projects, progress and measures. Hold the team accountable for all the measures with recognition and rewards for both production and strategic goals.
Most of the solutions to the issues we uncover are just a matter of stepping away from the situation and looking at it objectively. Like many things in life, most times people intuitively know the right thing to do in most situations. They either don’t want to confront someone over it (it’s easier to say nothing) or they just need to be politely nudged out of their own comfort zone.
At Everest Consulting Group we train, counsel and assist in meeting strategic goals and we are great “nudgers”.
We will provide further observations in our next newsletter with some suggested solution’s to situations we’ve found while visiting dozens of companies in our travels.
Everest Consulting Group may be able to assist you in implementing lean thinking as described in The Kaizen Revolution or effective teams as described in The Journey To Teams at your company. Click on www.everestcg.com to learn more or send us an email us at ecg@everestcg.com
