Question:
Related to your discussion about Reserve Power. I understand not driving your team to the brink of exhaustion. But how do you build Reserve Power?

Response:
Building reserve power for a team would be like any athletic training. The point of athletic conditioning is to build either endurance or sprint power. Athletic conditioning uses drills which are planned and controlled. Here are some suggestions for drills to build reserve power with your team:

• Cross training drills.
• What-if drills.
• Higher volume production drills.
• All hands on deck drills.
• Change order drills.
• Change over drills.
• Time Motion studies.
• Broken machine/alternate machine drills.
• One-person-short drills.

Because these are drills, they can be planned and anticipated. My favorite is the cross training drill. Announce that “the second Wednesday at 10:00am, these selected people will work a 2 hour period in another position. Between now and drill day, team members should prepare with short term training. ”

These drills build reserve power so when things get tough for real, your team can effectively respond to extraordinary demands. -TF