by Julie | Nov 4, 2015 | Consulting, Efficiency, Employee Training, Interim Management
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As an athlete, I have some recurring injuries that flare up when training for an event. Since my issues were always on my left leg, I often joked that I should just cut off my left leg and grow back a new one, preferably without these nagging injuries.
While that might seem like a far-fetched idea, I had client who was having systemic issues with their workforce and made the decision to fire a majority of the employees and then hire new employees. In their mind, this would resolve the inherent cultural issues and allow them to hire operators with a skill set that would be better suited to support the new direction of the company.
What appeared to be overlooked was the amount of time required for an operator to master a specific job function. How would a new employee learn those skills if they weren’t taught by someone who possessed them? How long would it take to develop those skills?
Here is what I believe to be true about operators – they don’t purposely decide to do a bad job. People inherently want to take pride in their work. So, if they aren’t following the process, the logical question is why?
So, we started asking questions, including:
- Do the operators know and understand what is expected of them?
- Do the operators receive feedback on their individual performance and the performance of the department?
- Are there established procedures to follow?
- Have the operators been trained on the procedure(s)?
After reviewing the responses from the questions above, I proposed a different approach. Start by training the employees on what is expected of them and put the systems in place to ensure the training is reinforced. This isn’t as drastic as hiring all new employees, but, in the end, the results are much more sustainable.
So, just like my nagging sports injury, we identified the root cause of the problem and strengthened the areas that were causing issues. And over time, the organization became much stronger. Do you have some issues that are keeping your organization from operating at maximum efficiency? Let’s connect and see if we can work together to make your organization healthy and happy.
by Julie | Sep 9, 2015 | Consulting, Efficiency, Interim Management
During a recent assignment, I was the acting Interim Director of Manufacturing while an executive was putting a new management team in place. This was a difficult time for the company – scrap was at an all time high, a manager with almost 20 years of knowledge had just been let go and they had just failed a quality audit which put their business at risk with some of their customers.
During periods of transition, I have found it beneficial to give a team something to focus on. So, my mantra was simple: Safety, Quality, Communication. Safety of employees is always first and foremost. Quality must be a priority for every employee. And effective Communication is key to efficient operation of a business.
Changing the safety culture wasn’t easy. We started with personal protective equipment (PPE), specifically safety glasses. Once that was in place, we focused on slips, trips and falls, a top cause of safety related incidents. It took time but, slowly, the employees began to accept and embrace the changes.
We also focused in cleanliness of the plant. Cleaning up the plant went a long way towards improving the way the employees viewed not only their work area but also the quality of their work. Positive feedback on plant cleanliness from customers and vendors reinforced the habit.
Improving the quality of the parts we produced required educating the operators on their work and how it impacted the final product. While there was a quality system in place, the system hadn’t been fully embraced by the operators. Often times, operators didn’t understand how their individual job could impact part quality. The answer to the question, “Do you want good parts or parts at the specified rate” was Yes. And, if operators were struggling to make good parts, we took the time to fix the problem, not apply a band-aid.
Open communication was lacking with the previous manager. And it took time for the employees to change the way the spoke with each other. After a few coaching sessions, I overheard one of my direct reports say to another, “Our manor of communication needs to change.” And from that comment, I realized we were on our way.
Of course there were other obstacles that we needed to overcome. But slowly, we made improvements to the plant, scrap, and culture. Having a mantra that the employees could focus on during the period of change was vital to sustaining the business during the period of transition. Is your business in a period of transition? Do you have a mantra that your operators can focus on? If you need some assistance as you transform your business, emailme so we can arrange some time to talk. Together, we can make your business thrive.
by Julie | Jan 16, 2013 | Consulting, Efficiency
I don’t know about you, but, I tend to steer way from New Year’s Resolutions. I haven’t been all that great about keeping them and so, instead of motivating me, they tend to discourage me. But, from a business perspective, the new year brings opportunities to find ways to be more efficient. This can be a more efficient use of my time, employee’s time or the overall process. One way to achieve that objective is to trust your employees to take ownership in fixing issues that are impacting their efficiency.
I remember when I was working in a bottling plant, we had a spot on the conveyor that collected the fallen bottles. But, the collection system wasn’t working and as result, kept backing up and knocking more bottles over. I spent some time (OK, a lot of time) and came up with this over-engineered solution to the problem. I showed my mechanic the problem and gave him my drawing on how he needed to fix the problem. Fortunately, I was working with an empowered mechanic who quietly studied the problem and presented a solution that was far superior to mine.
That experience taught me that we don’t always have to tell someone how to fix a problem, we just need to talk about the problem and allow input on how best to fix it. Chances are, their solution is much better than we could have imagined.
Having confidence in your employees is critical. And, if that isn’t something you are ready to do, than perhaps that would be a good New Year’s Resolution.
by Julie | Jun 6, 2012 | Consulting, Efficiency
I love this time of the year when the warm weather finally appears! The plants are growing and life is good! However, it is also the time of the year when shell drying related issues start to creep up!
So, I thought I’d share a few items to check if you start to see an increase in shell cracking as the weather outside starts to warm up.
1) Check to make sure all your fans are operational. Regardless of the type of drying system you use, it is possible that a fan is not operating and as a result, some molds are seeing less air movement.
2) Look for hot spots in the room. The outside walls may start to radiate more heat and molds in that area may start to heat up.
3) Ensure that your RH sensors have been calibrated.
4) Evaluate your current intra-coat dry time against your standard. Changes in your throughput over time can impact dry time between coats.
5) Review your final dry procedures. Are the molds being exposed to enough air flow during final dry?
Obviously, there are a number of factors that can cause shell cracking. But, taking a little time to evaluate changes in your drying conditions will help in identifying the root cause of the cracking. If this review doesn’t resolve your issue, at least you can feel confident to move onto other potential causes of the cracking .
If you want to talk about where your process variability might be coming from, send me a quick email at Julie@keyprocessinnovations.com and I would be happy to help you troubleshoot your process.
