DIY Lean Manufacturing Training
[Read more…] about LS 004 | Eliminating the 7 Roadblocks to Empowerment
Today we share about the idea of “Fix What Bugs You” from Paul Akers and 2 Second Lean. It is one of the simplest concepts to teach everyone about lean. It engages everyone every day and sets the bar so low that every contribution counts–no matter how small. If you want to create a culture of continuous improvement this idea is essential!
I was recently thinking about the problem of empowering front-line employees in a regulated environment.
It is extremely hard to do. There are layers of approvals and complex change control documentation that gets in the way. On top of that, there is usually a division of walls between manufacturing and the support departments they need to create change.
Even in less-regulated industries, the division of departments creates all kinds of challenges for operators to participate in continuous improvement. Tooling, purchasing, quality, scheduling, maintenance, and other departments could be buildings and parking lots away from where the workers need help. [Read more…] about 5 Reasons To Move Engineering To The Production Floor (Tear Down The Walls!)
For lean to work in an organization it has to involve everyone every day. There may be other ways to create a lean culture, but this is one way we teach companies to practice lean.
It’s because it works.
And it’s because if you don’t involve everyone every day there are some very likely consequences. [Read more…] about 4 Ways to Involve Everyone Every Day
Empowerment.
Can you define it?
It’s a word that is tossed around quite frequently, but what does it mean? Unless it is made practical, it won’t be very actionable. In that situation it might be better not to use the word at all for clarity’s sake.
Thankfully, someone has made “empowerment” practical and clear—or at least one person. His name is John Kotter and I discovered four requirements for empowerment in his book Leading Change when scanning through it.
If you want employees to take broad actions to transform your organization and apply lean, you should take a moment to consider Kotter’s four S’s. (There’s no connection to 5S or 3S in Kotter’s 4S’s). [Read more…] about 4 Requirements Before You Empower Anyone (Use All Four to Maximize Organizational Change)