Jul 27 2016

What a Plant Manager and Town Mayor Have In Common | Darrell Edwards | Industry Week

leadership-dictionary-page“If there is ever a time to discuss the similarities between plant leadership and politics, perhaps during an election year is as fitting a time as any.  Some time ago I was attending a class at Columbia University, and over a conversation at lunch with a professor, we discussed what a day in the life of a plant manager was like (I was a plant manager at the time).  After a bit of conversation about my typical day, the professor said, ‘It’s like you really are running for election as town mayor, aren’t you?'”

Sourced through from: Plant Manager/Town Mayor

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

In my presentation on the Lean Leadership Role of the Plant Manager at the Lean Leadership Summit last month, I used the ship captain as a metaphor, but the plant manager as town mayor is enlightening as well. The abstract of my talk was as follows:

The plant manager is like a ship captain, in daily contact with a team that may range from a handful to thousands of people, and accountable to an organization that is remote and has entrusted him or her with a valuable asset. The plant manager is the voice of top management to the plant and of the plant to top management, and represents the company to the local community. Of course, the plant manager must know how to pay bills on time and let maintenance use qualified technicians to fix forklifts, but there is more to the job, particularly about Lean leadership. The plant manager implements corporate policy but does not make it. If top management has adopted Lean, the plant managers can make it succeed or fail.

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By • Press clippings, Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: ,

Jul 13 2016

Overlapping Shifts Versus Gaps Between Shifts

The following question arrived this morning about 3-shift operations in a factory: “Is it a good idea to have both the ‘leaving’ and the ‘upcoming team’ together having the shift handover and line meeting all at once?”

In principle, having a handover in person at each work station would be valuable, but is often impractical. If, for example, a shift is behind schedule, a gap between shifts gives it an opportunity to catch up but a shift overlap doesn’t. And when the shift is on schedule, the gap can be used for maintenance. There are also logistical issues with overlapping shifts: during the overlap, your facility must accommodate the populations of both shifts at the same time. This means an oversize parking lot, crowded hallways, and a crowded shop floor.

A shift overlap for line management, on the other hand, is easier to arrange, starting as the production supervisor level, even with a gap between shifts.

By • Answers to reader questions • 7 • Tags: , ,

Jul 9 2016

The Value Of Surveys: A Debate With Joseph Paris

Joseph Paris and I debated this issue in the Operational Excellence group on LinkedIn, where he started a discussion by posting the following:

“Riddle me this…

If the Japanese way of management and their engagement with employees is supposedly the best, yielding the best result, why is there such a lack of trust among employment across the spectrum; employers, bosses, teams/colleagues. From Bloomberg and EY.

Japanese Workers Really Distrust Their Employers preview image

Japanese Workers Really Distrust Their Employers

Lifetime employment sounds like a great thing, but not if you hate where you work. That seems to be the plight of Japanese “salarymen” and “office ladies.” Only 22 percent of Japanese workers have “a great deal of trust” in their employers, which is way below the average of eight countries surveyed, according to a new report by EY, the global accounting and consulting firm formerly known as Ernst & Young. And it’s not just the companies: Those employees are no more trusting of their bosses or colleagues, the study found.

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By • Data science • 2 • Tags: , , , ,

Jul 6 2016

The 5-Day Kaizen | Bob Emiliani

Bob Emiliani
Bob Emiliani

“The classic 5-day kaizen was likely created in the late 1980s by Shingijutsu kaizen consultants from Japan as they established their practice in the United States and beyond. Traveling the long distance from Japan to the east coast of the U.S. meant that kaizen consultants should obviously spend more than a day or two at their client’s location before they then return home to Japan. It made sense to stay for a period of time in which many abnormalities could be corrected by facilitating several kaizen teams at one time. Five days seemed about right…”

Sourced from: BobEmiliani.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

So the Kaizen Event craze started when the convenience of a Japanese consulting firm met American managers’ quest for instant gratification…

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By • Blog clippings, History • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Jun 30 2016

Hardship Accounting Of Jobs

France is implementing a new law requiring “hardship accounting,” for the purpose of giving special pension benefits to employees whose jobs impose physical, environmental and rhythm constraints beyond a given threshold in 10 categories. This is causing a dispute between employers, who balk at the detailed record keeping required, and the government, which insists that a duly voted law must be obeyed. What I find disturbing in this tug-of-war is that I hear no voice saying that the existence of hardship jobs is abnormal and that they should be eliminated. Giving special treatment to the holders of these jobs is better than nothing, but it is an immediate countermeasure, not a long-term solution.

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By • Management • 3 • Tags: , , , ,

meeting-of-colonists-protesting-british-treatment-before-the-american-revolution

Jun 28 2016

Google’s Rules For Effective Meetings | Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg

In How Google Works, on pp. 163-165, executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg give rules for running meetings, that are worth pondering, because they clearly know the topic. They rules are for a software organization, but it doesn’t mean they are not relevant in Manufacturing.

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By • Management • 0 • Tags: ,

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