Management Services Winter 2012


then undertake improvement studies in selected fi rms. The Institute then designed and built a ‘curriculum’ for Lean Lite and prepared training materials. In March 2012 we went to Pakistan to deliver this programme. We had designed the curriculum to be ‘light’ but hopefully rigorous and we delivered it in three days of intensive workshop activity based around a set of relatively brief presentations and lots of exercises. However the key to success was that immediately after this three day course, the delegates were taken to Gujrat to start to ‘practice what we had preached’. We had decided to work in one particular fi rm so that the delegates could work in teams and so we could monitor and support them easily. We had previously briefed the owner of this factory and – in return for the advice he would get on his production processes – he had agreed to involve his workforce in team-based improvement activity, facilitated by our newly-trained delegates. I briefed the workforce (via an interpreter since most of them spoke only Urdu) and did so in two groups so that production could be maintained. They were then put into groups and two or three of the delegates were assigned to each of the groups. (The delegates had also been briefed on their role as ‘facilitators’ rather than ‘experts’.)


Each group was then asked to look at the overall process and then narrow down to specifi c activities and workstations looking at fl ow, waste and workplace organisation.


Improvement suggestions The workers were extremely keen to get involved – no-one had previously asked for their


views on what they did and what they thought. Each team of facilitators worked with one group from the work force for two days (while half the workplace operated the factory) and then with another group for another two days (while their fi rst group went back to work). The delegates were then given some time to prepare presentations to give to the owner (and his senior colleagues) - and to representatives of the workforce. They had been briefed to make sure that fi ndings and recommendations were from the groups – and not from them as individuals. The result was that the owner received 27 improvement suggestions, some capable of immediate implementation, some of which needed some planning before a change could be made and a smaller number that needed some signifi cant investment.


After the presentations, a ceremony was held and I presented each member of the workforce with a certifi cate to recognise their participation and contribution.


The owner was very pleased and, in fact, had implemented three of the suggestions before we left that day! We also discussed with the owner how the gains from the improved manufacturing process might be shared with the workforce.


The next phase is for the national expert to visit the fi rm in three months time to repeat the measurement exercise and quantify the gains made. I will follow up with a visit to: l Discuss implementation issues with the owner so that we can learn lessons as the approach is rolled out more widely; l Check that he is sharing some of the gains and


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maintaining the improved health and safety practice contained within the recommendations; l Identify which of the improvements are more widely applicable across the fan manufacturing sector so that the entire sector benefi ts; l Discuss with UNIDO and the NPC how we can use our trained delegates in other sectors.


The approach seems to have been successful... we will know when we have re-measured... and we have created real improvement with a relatively small investment. We think we have


engineered a situation where we have:


Lite process, high impact! About the author


John Heap is a member of Council at the


Institute of Management Services, President of the World Confederation of Productivity Science, President of the European Association of National Productivity Centres, Co- editor of the International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management, Managing Director of the Institute of Productivity, a member of the Advisory Board at the Institute for Consultancy and Productivity Research, India and a director of Juice e-Learning.


LinkedIn profi le: www. linkedin.com/in/johnheap. Twitter: @johnheapleeds


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