Category Archives: Performance

How Are We Doing?

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Henry took the pushpins out of yesterday’s report and tacked today’s report in its place. This was a new initiative to provide statistical feedback to the floor. On the report were numbers indicating percentage of capacity, scrap overages and mean time to complete. Next to today’s number were the accumulated numbers for the month and the year. Each section of the report had a snappy little graph in color.

When Henry told me about his idea to provide daily feedback to his production floor, I was quite interested. When I saw the posting, I had more questions. I asked Henry to identify his three weakest links on the floor. That was easy, Henry pointed them out immediately.

I asked Henry to take the posting and get some feedback from his three chosen technicians. “How are we doing?” Individually, the three studied the sheet, then slowly shook their heads. “I don’t know, I guess we’re doing okay, my supervisor isn’t yelling at me.”

Henry was disappointed. He had worked hard on his charts. I asked him, “In what way could you present something that everyone will understand, quickly and easily?”

Henry finally settled on one number, today’s units produced. If the number was better than target, it was green. If it was below target, it was red. Next to it, in black, was tomorrow’s target. One week later, everybody understood. Henry’s feedback system was a success. -TF

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Walker Up

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The paceline was moving north, into a headwind, still pulling 20mph. “Walker up!” The shout came from the lead cyclist on the nose. He pulled his right hand off the handlebars, arm straight out, pointing to the pedestrian in the bike lane. One second later, his right hand pats his butt and he moves left into the active traffic lane. Though they may not have been able to see the walker, each cyclist in the line knew about the hazard and knew to follow the lead bike into the active traffic lane to avoid it.

Intentional, agreed-upon communication. It was simple, efficient and effective. As the paceline continued north, there were other hazards to avoid, potholes, a tree branch in the road, narrowing traffic lanes, overtaking cars. Through a series of hand signals and audible shouts, the group made its way safely through urban traffic.

How does your team communicate in its daily routines? Do they have simple, efficient protocols to warn of impending hazards, delays, material shortages? Do they agreed-upon signals to provide each other with feedback?

Chances are good that prior to a delay, prior to a material shortage, prior to a change in schedule, somebody knew. Someone could have warned the group and the group could have acted according to an agreed-upon protocol.

Get your team together and play the “what if” game. Find out what problems occur often and how they are best solved. Then create the “signal.”

“Walker up!” -TF

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I Saw Something Today

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Esteban was disturbed. His last conversation with the lead tech on the floor clearly indicated the line workers had no clue how their product was being installed or how it worked once in operation. They had been having quality problems, it seemed forever. Just this past month, they had added a third QC person to staff the last shift to catch the errors quicker.

“Everybody on the bus. We’re going to make a visit to one of our best customer locations to see how our manufactured equipment works in the field.” There was a sudden excitement on the floor, a conversational buzz. Esteban was sure it was because everyone was getting paid and didn’t have to produce any product while they were on the bus. It was like a vacation.

Once on the bus, but before they pulled away from the shop, Esteban distributed a dozen drugstore cardboard cameras and some pre-printed 3×5 index cards. On the card was printed, “I saw something today.” Esteban explained they were to look for specific examples of quality issues that had an impact on the way things worked in the field. It could be about the way something fit together. It could be about the speed of the units and the volume of production at the customer’s location.

I Saw Something Today became the central piece of their quality initiative. The team built a quality book complete with photographs of things that worked well and not so well.

What would your quality book look like if your team put one together? No typing allowed, just 3×5 index cards complete with pictures. -TF

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White Boards

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One inch higher on the left and the magnetic white board would be level. It had been the subject of much speculation on the shop floor that morning. There were several theories floating around, but no one had correctly guessed what the boss had in mind.

While the shop floor was organized according to a logical work flow, production had gotten further and further behind. The right jobs were late, the wrong jobs were early.

Last Friday, the boss had taken an informal poll. “George,” he said, “tell me, how do you know if we are ahead of schedule or behind schedule?” It was a fair question, but one that George did not know how to answer. “Well, boss, I guess if we were behind schedule, someone would come out here and tell us.”

It was an interesting response, seeing as how the floor was running only 28% on-time delivery. The boss walked over to the foreman’s office, leaned in and asked, “Say, John, when we are behind schedule, which I know is most of the time, do we ever tell anyone out on the shop floor?”

“Oh, no, boss, if we did that, they might get discouraged and quit.” Another interesting response.

You see, the boss had just heard of an experiment in a plant where they simply published production numbers on a daily basis to everyone in the plant. Every time there was an improvement over the previous day, the manager would circulate and thank everyone. No bonuses, no pizza, just a complimentary remark. The slow group in the plant improved from 83% efficiency to 87% efficiency. The fast group, however, improved from 96% efficiency to 162% efficiency (62% beyond predicted capacity.)

One inch higher on the left and the magnetic white board would be level. I wonder what your numbers would be. -TF

How to Set Weekly Goals

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Credit to Barry Shamis, Selecting Winners for this model.

Materials: 3×5 index card, a stack of them.
Each Monday (or other consistent day of the week), the Manager meets with the Team Member. The Manager always asks the same question, “What 5 things do you intend to accomplish this week?”

The Team Member responds, “After reviewing all the things on my plate and the needs of the other folks around me, I intend to accomplish the following items on my 3×5 card:”
Item #1
Item #2
Item #3
Item #4
Item #5

The Manager takes the card, clarifies something about items #2 & #5, adjourns the meeting.

The next meeting, the Manager asks the question, “Of the things on the list from last week, what did you get accomplished?” The Team Member responds:
Item #1, I got finished, no problems.
Item #2, we started, but had to postpone due to inclement weather.
Item #3, we finished, no problems.
Item #4, we finished, but on inspection, noticed a defect, had to scrap the effort and start over, still incomplete.
Item #5, we finished, had to make an adjustment to the final outcome, but delivered to customer, they accepted the change.

As you review the list, is it possible that the Manager and the Team Member could have a short, but meaningful conversation about progress the previous week?

The Manager finishes with the same question from last week, always the same question, “What 5 things do you intend to accomplish this week?”

The Team Member responds, “After reviewing all the things on my plate and the needs of the other folks around me, I intend to accomplish the following items on my 3×5 card:”

This is the Five by Five system. Five items in review for five minutes per week. In the real world, I have Managers who are working 2×2, 3×3, 4×4. Whatever works for you. —TF