I was standing in a workshop a few weeks ago, discussing how we could improve the flow of materials and increase the productivity of the workshop.
It gets the mind whirring, coming up with ideas. Put a few of those ideas into action and you suddenly have a different mindset for making change happen.
About the author:
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.
Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.
It was a tough crowd. They seemed to think how they were working was fine, just the way it is.
It isn't fine. Over half of their time was spent material handling, in a manner that was unsafe.
We knew what we were going to do to resolve the material handing issue. The conversation in question was around the workstation design and setup. They didn't seem keen to engage.
Then I ask them a question, after I had set the scene:
Imagine that we are standing with a customer, we've just entered the workshop, and they say 'wow!'.
They don't see the mess and dis-organisation that we have today. They say 'wow!'.
What would they see in order to say 'wow!'?
That's the question. What would make your customer say 'wow!'?
The team came up with a plan in just a few minutes. To put this into context, apparently they have been resisting change for the past three years.
Have a play with this question and see if you can come up with a version that works for you.
Enjoy,
Giles
About the author:
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.
Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.