How do you involve and empower your production team in lean decision making and problem solving?

1 Build a culture of continuous improvement

The first step is to create a culture of continuous improvement in your production team. This means that you encourage them to always look for ways to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and enhance quality. You also provide them with the necessary training, resources, and feedback to support their improvement efforts. You can use tools like 5S, Kaizen, and Gemba to help them organize, standardize, and optimize their work areas and processes.

2 Involve them in value stream mapping

The second step is to involve your production team in value stream mapping, which is a technique that helps you visualize and analyze the flow of materials, information, and activities from the customer's perspective. You can use value stream mapping to identify the value-added and non-value-added steps in your production process, and to find the sources of waste, variation, and inefficiency. By involving your production team in this process, you can gain their insights, feedback, and buy-in for the improvement opportunities.

3 Empower them to implement lean solutions

The third step is to empower your production team to implement lean solutions, which are the actions and changes that you make to eliminate waste, improve quality, and increase customer satisfaction. You can use tools like PDCA, A3, and DMAIC to help them plan, execute, monitor, and evaluate their improvement projects. You can also use tools like Kanban, Poka-Yoke, and Andon to help them control, prevent, and communicate the problems and issues that arise during the production process.

4 Recognize and reward their contributions

The fourth step is to recognize and reward your production team's contributions to lean production. This means that you appreciate, acknowledge, and celebrate their achievements, efforts, and ideas. You can use tools like visual management, performance indicators, and recognition programs to help them track, measure, and share their results and impacts. You can also use tools like suggestion systems, feedback sessions, and team meetings to help them voice their opinions, concerns, and suggestions.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?