Team of Solvers Post 5 - Return of the Jedis…

...the last chapter in the Factory turnaround trilogy.

We’d steadily improved our performance both internally and externally and by the end of year 2 had been recognized externally through benchmarking awards.?

By year 3 we had freed up enough capacity and were able to start to move our best problem solvers up and down our value stream, to work with our most constrained suppliers and the customers to lower our cost and improve our services levels and quality.?

There were multiple highs and lows, but my personal high was witnessing Dave Lowe and John Straw two of our best operators and champions of the journey, share their story on behalf of all their 100+ teammates to a Lord and multiple captains of industry at the IMechE, meters away from Westminster and Buckingham Palace.???

That year we won 2 out of 3 Factory of the Year awards and more importantly created a whole cast of Jedi Masters who have gone on to solve an untold number of problems and inspire others to do the same.

My top lessons learned from the entire journey

1. ?? Absolute leadership commitment not just involvement, “be the pig not the chicken in the english breakfast” - Richard McEvoy came every month to review progress and give feedback?
2. ?? Identify your starfish throwers early and invest heavily in them
3. ???? Learn from the best, steal with pride and then share generously?
4. ?? Develop leaders and decision making linked to key metrics at the lowest level in the organization
5. ?Know your constraints, know they will move as you improve
6. ??Remove defect/rework waste first for exponential release of time in order to improve daily work faster
7. ??????????Never give up and remember continuous improvement is about problem solving and problem solving is ultimately about helping teams and individuals improve?

This story was the ultimate team effort and one that has shaped the rest of my life in so many amazing ways - thank you to the Cotes Park crew!!!

It would be great to hear any other reflections and words of wisdom from the team?

Ian O’Connor, Munish Bhalla , Heather Barnes , David White , Tracey White , Neil Goddard , John Straw , Terry Johnson , Ashlie McKenzie, Annette Slater, David Lowe, John Russell, Graham Musgrave, Graham Massey, Barb Matthews, Andy Pike, Farah Baksh ?