Lean Leadership in Manufacturing

Lean Leadership in Manufacturing

lean leadership in manufacturing

 

Manufacturing leadership can easily become about nothing but processes, logistics, safety, and efficiency. If it’s your daily routine to circulate from your office to the boardroom and back again, that needs to be disrupted.

Change Leadership requires the leader’s personal evolution from managing tasks to managing people. It’s a change of focus that needs to leap off the memos and into your routine.

Be more visible. Be seen on the shop floor and on the odd coffee break. Be the “good cop” sometimes, and ask about more than work. Get to know the people who are going to build your business.

 

Inspire People, Don’t Bulldoze

Change Leaders need to articulate their vision clearly to themselves (don’t skip that part), and then to their team. But what about those who are comfortable just the way things are?

If you bulldoze through them with your vision, it taints the process from the beginning. When you encounter the “but we’ve always done it this way” crowd (often referred to as the old guard), you need to use your vision to erode their resistance. Here’s how:

change leadership in manufacturing

 

Communication

If you’re a quiet leader who likes to keep to yourself, that will need to change. Change Leadership is about building people, and that takes advanced communication skills. If you lack these, but want to become that leader, there’s no harm in reaching out to a professional coach or other mentor to help you.

Here’s what communication looks like in a change-driven manufacturing business:

communication change-driven manufacturing

 

Delegation

Change Leadership begins with authentically asking your team for their ideas. But it goes on from there.

Ideas aren’t worth much without accountability driven execution. You’ll be spending more of your time coaching and developing your team, but your other pressure aren’t taking a holiday.

Delegation is the natural evolution of empowerment. Invest in your team, build processes for them to be able to execute their ideas, then learn to step back. Your stress level will decrease as your employees’ new responsibilities become routine, and their ideas become part of systemic change.

 

Visualize It

Process improvement is about constant definition and measurement. People need to see where change is needed, what change is happening, and how successful change has been. And they need to see it in a glance.

Be transparent with your KPIs for delivery, cost, safety, etc. Buy a big whiteboard and use it to track the course of each KPI daily. If delivery isn’t on target, there’s a reason. The team directly involved with transportation needs to know that, be motivated, and sniff out waste to change the course.

Make the whiteboard democratic. Put it in the centre of the office (not in the boardroom) and provide post-it’s for ideas. Make it the hub of your daily stand-ups and keep it simple.

 

A successful shift to Lean Leadership relies on making the transition feel natural to your team. Start small. Introduce the whiteboard, and invite people to use it as a team communication tool. Build trust by helping your team get to know you as well as you’d like to know them. Successful change is cumulative, so taking it one step at a time can help build a more cohesive team dynamic as you move forward.

 

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

 John Maxwell

 

8 deadly wastes seminar cta april 16

 

the winding path toward culture change cta april 18

Lean Principles to Lead Culture Process Involvement

Lean Principles to Lead Culture Process Involvement

Lean Principles

 

 

 

You look at your net profit and it’s not where it should be. You can feel the waste.

So you decide to take some action. You’ve heard about Process Improvement, possibly at an HLH seminar or read “2 Second Lean.” You talk to your core team and they’re on board.

Now there’s a fork in the road. We typically only see it through hindsight, but it’s there. There are 2 ways to implement change. Neither option is “wrong,” although one of them will impact that net profit more.

 

 Change Management

This is the kind of change that is planned, deliberate, and typically small. Here’s the process:

change management

You hope that the change will stick when the boardroom turns its focus to the next matter. It usually doesn’t. That’s because if change is driven by a formal plan, it will evaporate when the plan expires.

Change Management is often effective and it can save you money, especially if it’s consistent. It also allows the boardroom to retain control of the entire process in exchange for the process being limited to containable targets.

 

Change Leadership

This is the sort of change that focuses on a cultural shift over a plan. It’s about empowering your entire team (not just specific stakeholders) until they’re driven to deliver unpredictable, uncontrollable, paths to Process Improvement.

It’s like injecting your entire business with a sense of urgency. It can get out of hand, can drown you in multiple visions that often compete with each other, and is the only path to lasting, systemic change.

change leadership

Change Leadership turns your entire team into a collective engine for change. Don’t expect that engine to take you to predictable places. Guide it with your vision, and be open to the experience.

 

Questions Towards Leadership

Change Management empowers stakeholders to a degree, but it’s still driven and controlled by the boardroom. It’s an extension of standard management practices and mindset.

If you want to become a Change Leader, you must first trust your team. If you mistrust them to the point of micromanaging, it will be impossible to trust their new ideas to move you forward.

Articulating a vision to your team is different than emailing them exactly what the change process will look like. The latter is a to-do list, the former is an agent of inspiration.

To inspire them, you must have a clear vision. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you move towards that:

four questions to change leadership

The more honestly you can answer those questions, the more urgency you’ll be able to spread across your business. Get inspired, inspire others, then let them flourish.

Systemic change can be planned in advance. It’s about creating a sense of urgency to drive forward unproven ideas. Your team members aren’t Change Consultants, so don’t expect polish. Polish is for small and temporary change; collective urgency is systemic and sustainable.

 

“Change your thoughts and you can change the world.”

 Norman Vincent Peale

8 deadly wastes seminar cta april 16

 

the winding path toward culture change cta april 18

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Construction

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Construction

Process Improvement is at its best when it doesn’t look like much. We often fall into the trap of needing expensive equipment or consultants to save money, and in the end it costs us money.

Rule of thumb: real change needs to develop from inside. If you try to force it from the outside, it will be short-lived and expensive.

In Construction, you’re managing multiple remote sites, operating on different projects and under unique circumstances. Change needs to occur uniformly within the company’s culture; if your foreman and crews don’t buy in, things will simply revert back to the way it used to be as soon as you’re not around.

Change that makes real money has 2 overlapping qualities: it’s about leadership (it starts with you, not them), and it’s about culture (buy-in required, which leads to consistency). Time is money, and in the construction industry, a shared enthusiasm for always finding more efficient ways to complete projects lays the groundwork for daily process improvement.

 

Leadership

Don’t tell your troops to leap out of the trench while you finish your power lunch. Go to the job sites and and ask what bugs them. Have those conversations that we always think we don’t have time for.

Your crew is paying attention to their environment and their cohorts differently than you are. If the port-a-potty is too far away and the cinder blocks, which no one has used for weeks, are too close, then your team will catch the inefficiency long before you do. If someone doesn’t have the training they need, your team is the most likely to spot it before a dangerous accident. Trust that your foremen and crews have a perspective that you don’t, and create opportunities and incentives for them to offer solutions where they see problems.

If it gets the job done faster, your crews will embrace the “lean way.”  You’ll drive the initiative and your team will respond admirably because they see the wins. But, these changes will evaporate in 4 months if you put the autopilot on now.

Systemic change is a commitment. It’s:

3 steps to leadership in construction

Good leadership is about fostering a healthy sense of urgency. Unhealthy urgency is unsustainable and corner-office-driven. You need urgency that comes from the work site and sustains itself month after month, year after year.

It’s not enough to keep the machinery well oiled for a month. There’s a sense of urgency – akin to a project deadline that never goes away – that needs to stay consistent day in and day out.

 

Culture

“Empowering” is a great word for a PowerPoint or a pep talk, but what we need is follow through. That looks like 4 things:

empowering daily process construction

Together, your company is building more than infrastructure. You’re building a company culture, and all of the standards that go along with it. Make consistent process improvement a part of your corporate ethos and you’ll immediately notice the positive impact to employee morale, productivity, and your bottom line.

 

“Processes underpin business capabilities, and capabilities underpin strategy execution.”

 Pearl Zhu

 

eight deadly wastes seminar cta april 16

the winding path toward culture change cta april 18

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Professional Services

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Professional Services

Process Improvement is at its best when it doesn’t look like much. We often fall into the trap of needing expensive equipment or consultants to save money and, in the end, it costs us money.

Rule of thumb: real change needs to develop from inside. If you try to force it from the outside, it will be short-lived – and expensive.

In Professional Services, improving efficiency usually means increasing turn around times (whether that’s a file for a lawyer or a patient for a clinic) without sacrificing attention to detail. Spoiler alert: if it feels easy to start, you’re doing it wrong.

Changes that make real money have 3 overlapping qualities: they’re about leadership (it starts with you, not them), problem-solving (as in, they must address the root source of inefficiencies that already exist within the organization), and culture (the buy-in required, which leads to consistency).

 

Case in Point

Let’s imagine a busy dental clinic as our case study. The waiting room is chaotic, patients are waiting long periods for their appointments to start, and dental hygienists are feeling rushed as frantic receptionists react to impatient clients. The practice owner hears complaints from staff that they’re under enormous stress.

The first thing the owner does is hire a consultant. The consultant hears the words “busy”, “chaotic”, and “disorganized” from the practice owner, and walks into the clinic. He assesses that the software the receptionists are using is outdated and recommends a more powerful software tool. The software is exorbitantly expensive, but the consultant assures the practice owner that it will answer all their problems.

But does it? Not necessarily. The receptionists struggle to re-learn their jobs as they adjust to the new software. Patients continue to wait, as the receptionists struggle to navigate the program. Dental hygienists are still rushing, as the extended check-in time cuts into their appointment blocks. Staff are more distressed than ever. How could this investment be putting the clinic further in the hole, and not further ahead?

The practice owner started from the wrong place. Consider the qualities of effective process improvement for your team, and how they could have changed the outcome at the clinic:

 

Leadership

You have a well-educated, professional team who trained for years to get into your office and make it work. You don’t need to make process improvement an edict. They want to help, just let them.

Catch 10 people at their desks (when they aren’t fighting deadlines) and ask them what bugs them.  They probably have answers to that question and have been waiting to be asked. Have those conversations that we always think we don’t have time for.

Authentically support your team and they’ll embrace process improvements.  That brings in the next hurdle; that change will evaporate in 4 months if you put the autopilot on.

Systemic change is a commitment. It’s:

4 steps to professional leadership

Good leadership is about fostering a healthy sense of urgency. Unhealthy urgency is unsustainable and corner-office-driven. You need urgency from lunchrooms, cubicles, and front desks.

 

Problem-Solving

The problems of one department are often connected to the problems of another. Sometimes, those issues originate from a lack of clarity from the top. Get to the bottom of the barriers holding your team back by:

  • Mapping out the challenges across the organization: As leaders, we can never look at our teams’ issues in a vacuum. It can be helpful to create a visual ‘org chart’ and list the struggles under each department. Then, we can take a step back and truly see where issues originate and how they intersect.
  • Finding out what’s getting in the way, and changing it: Your team can’t do the job without the right tools. Whether breaking down departmental silos, training for more skills, or reorganizing your management structure, you need to make it happen for your strategic culture to take root.
  • Document, document, document! It’s great to experience that “aha!” moment in a staff meeting and verbally agree to a new process. But time goes on, people leave, and new people replace them. Processes that aren’t documented – and accessible! – are the dormant problems of the future.

 

Culture

“Empowerment” is a great word to include in a PowerPoint, but we need more than lip service. We need follow-through. You can create cultural shifts 3 ways:

Let’s visit our dental office in a parallel universe. In this universe, the practice owner started by speaking to staff and explaining his vision of a calm, efficient clinic. He listened to their problems, asked questions, and took notes. He stepped back and realized that the triage process for new patients was being done verbally, tying up staff unnecessarily. The receptionists documented their triage process, which became a form for patients to fill out upon arrival. By encouraging all of this, he also set a precedent for everyone to think differently about their impact within the workplace.

 

In its most effective form, process improvement is the path of least resistance, even if it has a few overgrown weeds in the way. It’s up to us to clear the lines of communication and help our teams move forward.

 

“For companies to change, we need to stop thinking like mechanics and to start acting like gardeners.”

 

 Alan M. Webber

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Manufacturing

What Daily Process Improvement Looks Like in Manufacturing

daily process manufacturing

Process Improvement is at its best when it doesn’t look like much. We often fall into the trap of needing expensive equipment or consultants to save money, and in the end it costs us money.

Rule of thumb: real change needs to develop from inside. If you try to force it from the outside, it will be short-lived and expensive.

Change that makes real money has 2 overlapping qualities: it’s about leadership (it starts with you, not them), culture (buy-in required, which leads to consistency). In manufacturing, we think a lot about changes like value stream mapping and big capital improvements, but these will fall flat without a cultural shift.

 

Culture

“Empowering” is a great word for a PowerPoint, but we need to follow through. That looks like 4 things:

 

what empowerment looks like in daily process manufacturing

 

Leadership

Don’t tell your troops to leap out of the trench while you finish your power lunch. Go to the shop floor before the boardroom and start with them. Ask what bugs them. Have those conversations that we always think we don’t have time for.

If the tool box is too far away and the storage, which no one uses, too close, then your team will catch the inefficiency years before you do. If someone doesn’t have the training they need, your team is the most likely to catch it before a dangerous accident.

Your staff will probably embrace the “lean way.” You’ll drive them and they will respond admirably. That brings in the next hurdle; that change will evaporate in 4 months if you put the autopilot on.

Systemic change is a commitment. It’s:

  • Articulating your vision and sharing it transparently with your team
  • Providing the resources that you all need: it’s an investment
  • Creating a Process Improvement System that will help you and your team stay the course even if enthusiasm falters

Good leadership is about fostering a healthy sense of urgency. Unhealthy urgency is unsustainable and corner-office-driven. You need urgency that comes from the shop floor and sustains itself month after month, year after year.

It’s not enough to keep the machinery well oiled for a month. There’s a sense of urgency – coming from not wanting the engine to seize – that keeps the urgency strong. As leader, it’s your job to keep it strong across your business.

“For companies to change, we need to stop thinking like mechanics and to start acting like gardeners.”

 

 Alan M. Webber

4 Ways to Create a Culture of Process Improvement in Professional Services

4 Ways to Create a Culture of Process Improvement in Professional Services

culture process improvement professional servicesIntroducing process improvement into the culture of your organization will remove waste and bring value. We know it. You know it. And we’ve both seen the improved product quality, happier employees, and optimized resources that process improvement brings.

But if we want these improvements to stick over the long-term, we need a transformational change in the way people look at their work.

So, how can this transformation happen?

The companies who have succeeded swear that it is a multi-year process that will do well only with long-term vision and commitment.

Dr. Andrabi, the former president of Mercy St. Vincent Medical Centre in Toledo, Ohio, spotted the inefficiencies in how patient transfer was being handled and saw an opportunity to jump-start transformational change. They began by bringing various staff members together to map out the existing process. Then they discussed where the group wanted to go and brainstormed how to cut inefficiencies at each point in order to get there. Next, they tried out their ideas, evaluating the results along the way. Once the best plan was chosen, it was implemented in the long term.

Today, St. Vincent has a single hub that receives transfer patients and assigns them a bed in 10 minutes. Previously, the process took at least an hour. The hospital runs so efficiently that they witnessed a 26% increase in transfers.

Here are four ways to incorporate process improvement in your company’s culture to usher in transformational change.

 

1. Kanban Board

A Kanban Board is a workflow optimization tool that helps you monitor and improvise the flow of a project.

Kanban Boards can map your team’s workflow by showing you the various stages of progress. At its basic level, a Kanban board is divided into three phases: Requested, In Progress and Done. The board will help you identify how the requested work is progressing and where work is stuck. If managers find the work getting delayed continuously, then they can investigate and find the root cause and solve it.

The beauty of this concept is that it allows you to divide work and allocate it to people within a team. Though responsibilities rest on different shoulders, the workflow remains coordinated.

Sound Immigration, a Washington based immigration firm, started using a Kanban board, and they identified that the response time from clients was the main reason for delays in case processing. By making changes, they benefited in the form of organized workflow, improved collaboration and preventing wasteful processes.


kanban board by bossarro

Team Kanban Board for Product Development by Bossarro

2. Continuous Improvement Meeting

Meetings are an ideal venue to analyse the workflow and identify specific waste elements with your team. But we’ve all seen how too many meetings suck our time and can become the ‘waste’ we are trying to eliminate.

A quick way to prevent this, but continue to monitor workflow, is to conduct simple, daily stand-up meetings. As the name suggests, they are conducted while standing, and every team member must answer three questions:

  •    What did I accomplish yesterday?
  •    What will I do today?
  •    What obstacles are preventing my progress?

This simple and quick meeting will encourage information sharing between team members and encourage collaboration. The fact that you are standing will prevent the meeting from going off course and dragging on for too long.

Read our own experience with Stand-Up Meetings here.

 

3. Shared Leadership

Contrary to what you may think, shared leadership doesn’t mean letting the team loose. It’s about creating an environment of trust and encouraging accountability.

When you invite team members to become project leaders, you:

  •    Break down the hierarchy that prevents independent decision-making
  •    Boost motivation
  •    Cut back on the bottlenecking caused when one or two people have the sole authority to make decisions
  •    Free up your frontline staff from focusing on tiny project details

After implementing this concept, LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for A New Economy) discovered an increase in mutual respect and trust among staff and accountability among leaders. The projects became transparent, and each staff member became aware of who is involved in decision making. LAANE’s end goal was to develop shared metrics of success for individuals and teams and interconnect various departments and programs. Besides achieving this target, the change encouraged staff to ask questions, voice concerns, and offer suggestions using open dialogue.

culture process improvement professional services

4. Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication Training

Good communication is essential to process improvement. Period.

The problem is that most people communicate poorly. They pick the avenues that are most convenient or comfortable for them without considering the people on the receiving end. And, if you have a team that doesn’t interact or collaborate well, it has a direct impact on the outcomes your company achieves.

To help your people get on the same page, start by teaching them two communication models:

  1. Synchronous communication – communication that needs immediate attention and should be conducted face-to-face, through telephone or videoconference.
  2. Asynchronous communication – communication that can be delayed, and can be submitted by email or chat platforms.

Half the battle in getting communication right is choosing the right channel. By helping your people choose well, you’ll eliminate the mixed messaging and delays creating unnecessary friction in your workplace.

Creating a culture of process improvement in your organization is a long-term strategy. Investing now in workflow optimization, consistent facetime with employees, leadership experiences, and communication training will pay dividends as it builds problem-solving into every aspect of your organization.

“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

 George Bernard Shaw

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