When it all breaks down

Howdy folks, here I am once again on another aircraft flying to work teaching and implementing Lean on the front lines.  Tonight's posting will be about something we know all too well.  When multiple pieces of equipment break down, and what do we do to prevent this from happening.

Preventative Maintenance, PM as we will now call it, in some organizations is absent.  The PM records, how many hits a punch and die can take before dressing the tool is needed, changing the oil in presses and press brakes, forklift PM, tooling PM on press breaks, basic service to the Lasers, overall PM not only of the equipment but the processes also.

Yeah buddy, that was painted with a broad brush stroke.  We have covered a lot of ground with that paragraph.  Yet, what are we doing as Lean leaders and implementers to help bring PM into the game.  This week my teams took some major hits with equipment that should have been PM'd.  The teams and I understood what was happening and why, and we had to devise a plan to sell PM to the suits.  Sometimes those who sit in an office all day don't see the value of spending money on equipment that isn't broken, yet will spend tens of thousands of dollars in expedited shipping costs that actually are more expensive than the parts needed.

What we did was use this as a baseline, a baseline of what you may ask.  Well cowpokes, when something breaks that sends a piece of equipment to boothill, we want to know the date/time and tech who replaced it.  With this we can start collecting data on service life of parts.  This will also allow your maintenance department to understand which parts to keep on hand and a qty. because the team is harvesting the data to pass off to the accounting folks, who then can become allies when you justify keeping spare parts on hand because..... when you are failing to produce customer orders on time deliver starts to look a lot like habitual overtime.  We all know from a previous blog entry that habitual overtime leads to burnout and lowered productivity.

Doing a regimented PM program isn't easy, I know as I've been trying to sell it to those who write the checks and get our PO #'s.  This is where the salesmanship coupled with data is paying off.  When your team starts to engage individuals on the senior team about not giving them what they need to produce a quality product in a timely fashion, they are holding the senior team accountable.  This is when silos are broken, and a true dialog is started.  Front line guys describing the problem, engineering harvesting data and scoping the true root cause, senior team writing the checks to make sure the mission is carried out, and me well I'm orchestrating it all teaching and living Lean principles along the way.  Yes this cowboy made is sound very simplistic and I've left out some steps, but you get the gist of what I'm saying.

I'd like to thank everyone who stops by to read my blog and watch what I'm doing with this organization.  It is a learning experience every day, both for me and my teams.  Yoda and I have been doing some rearranging in my office with a paint scheme and that in and of itself is an exercise in Lean as we don't want rework, we are doing the legwork and constructing the vision before we buy any of the paint.  It is going to be a grand project and I may post some pics of it along the way.  Remember folks always listen to the people doing the work as they are a highly underutilized resource that can help solve many issues.

Thank you once again for stopping around the campfire

Cowboy

Long Hours

Howdy folks and here I am once again writing to you from an aircraft on my way to work.  Yes, it has been a few weeks and in these weeks this cowboy has been doing the 60 plus hour weeks with his team to implement Lean and learn about process improvement from the front lines.

This posting is going to be about something all of us can experience.  Burnout.  When we continually work our team sixty plus hours a week, be it voluntarily or not time in is time in.  What do we as Lean leaders do to help alleviate the stress and burnout that comes with burning the candle at both ends?  Well that is what I'm going to discuss here today.  So grab a cup of coffee and have a seat at the fire and we will dive right into this stampede of a topic.

One of the biggest things I do is listen to my team.  Yes, listening to your team is sometimes all that is needed to defuse an issue or lend a shoulder.  You may even find that you have something in common with this team member and can use these times to build bridges with that individual.  Another one of the techniques I use is to buy my team lunch when they have gone above and beyond.  Yes I've touched on this before, yet it is imperative that your team understand you appreciate them.  Lean is more than just improvement, it is building capability in people.  That in an of itself is improvement.  When people are dedicating six days a week to an organization ten plus hours a day that needs to be recognized by you as the leader.  When I talk about leader, that could be CEO/CFO all the way down to front line supervisor.  Leading your team in every moment requires you to recognize and acknowledge people.

The more I've recognized efforts and advancements with my team, the more I've seen us grow.  Grow in our problem diagnosis skills as well as implementation skills.  How does this happen you may ask?  It all stems from the People, Process, Culture trifecta my wife talks about each and every day.  Though times may be busy, product needs to be manufactured, and overtime is to be worked.  Recognizing the concerted efforts of your team and being fair and equatable with them is something we as leaders need to be cognizant of all the time.  Think of it as listening to the machine.  When the machine is making odd noises, we get maintenance to look at it do we not?  The same thing when our workforce is in need of help, we need to listen to them as they are on the frontline.  When they need help we are morally obligated as Lean leaders to listen and implement the required help our team needs.  For if we fail to listen, then we are destined to break the machine.  When we break those bonds with our team rebuilding those structures can be very difficult if not impossible.

We must remember that though the hours may be long, the trail may be filled with hard work, the weather may not always be pleasant, we as the leaders MUST make a concerted effort to go above and beyond to help the team.  Note I did not say coddle, I said help.  Big difference their cowpokes.  When the mutual respect of your team works hard and you work with them to blaze that trail, your organization will experience progress.  When you run your cowboys and cowgirls into the ground without recognizing their efforts and helping pull them forward, well.... you are a poor trail boss and it is time to course correct.

Well folks, I'd like to thank you for stopping by reading my latest post.  The Respect for People concept isn't just words it is reality and when truly practiced great things can become reality.

Happy Trails

Cowboy