Sustaining lean


paying special attention to several supervisors. We focused on them for a reason. Like many Canadian organisations, Melet had developed one internal champion to coordinate a number of lean projects. Unfortunately, too many questions, concerns and initiatives were being funnelled through this person, causing a bottleneck.


Melet is now relieving this congestion by spreading the responsibility for lean projects down to mid-level managers and supervisors, training them to a level where they can actually conduct mini-Kaizens on their own. If a supervisor is unhappy with the way a


process is laid out, they can organise a half-day session with the department in question to come up with a better way. Melet has also set up


continuous improvement teams – front line people working in various areas – who come in for two extra hours each week (receiving overtime pay) and who are free to work on


Management Services Spring 2012


projects of their choice. The work is generally done just before their shifts so it doesn’t impinge on their day-to-day responsibilities. Supervisors are given a small budget to implement ideas, some of which come from the company’s employee suggestion box.


Employee empowerment Leaders might choose to set up whiteboards for an area or perhaps install a clean-up station. An initiative could be as simple as running over to Home Depot to get a broom stand or a toolbox. Melet can justify the budgets for these projects since they have an immediate impact. Normal avenues, which might include going through management to get the requisite funds and fi lling out paperwork, can take time – better to gain some improvement right away. Supervisors have also been known to give out a small monetary award to the employee with the best idea in a given month. This is not a token gesture; it contributes to a general feeling of empowerment among staff members.


And such policies mean employees are less likely to see Melet as a place where they simply arrive, park their brains at the door and do what they’re told. Instead the company continues to fuel the fi re on lean by allowing people to make changes on the fl y, aside from and outside of a more formalised structure. The fact that this is encouraged by management helps promote and sustain lean, while increasing levels of trust between employees and management.


After all, lean never really ends: it’s a race without a fi nish line. Keeping the race entertaining – and rewarding – for people over the long-term is the best way to ensure they’ll keep participating.


19


ABOUT THE AUTHOR Don Kivell is owner and President of Lean Manufacturing Solutions Inc.


He has an extensive background in manufacturing


operations, beginning as a shopfl oor employee before advancing to senior operations management.


His expertise in lean manufacturing includes continuous improvement strategies, plant layout and cellular manufacturing, total preventive maintenance, quick changeover and zero defects.


Don has successfully implemented lean manufacturing


techniques in numerous manufacturing companies in the past 25 years, fi rst from a senior management position and, for the last 18 years, as a lean manufacturing consultant.


Don has spoken at numerous conferences on related subjects in both Canada and the United States and has led plant layout, 5S/ visual controls, and set- up reduction workshops for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence.


Don’s work has been published in Advanced Manufacturing Magazine, Automation Magazine, Plant Magazine, Auto- plant and Superfactory. com as well as in the busi- ness sections of the Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star. He is also featured in the Canadian Federal Government’s video on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies.


lean@sourcecable.net www.LMSI.ca 905 902 2367


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