#WhatWouldYouDo #Lean #OperationalExcellence #Leadership
Aroop Bhattacharjee
Retrenching? Wait - there are better ways. With 25 years of global experience in product design, manufacturing operations, and cost engineering, I can help your organization become more profitable. Curious?
In this warehouse, there were 2 types of workers, one was monthly rated, who had a fixed job, and regular working hours. The other was flex, and hired only when for the hours needed. On a daily basis, these hourly rated workers would be texted the night before, on what time to turn up, and expected end of shift.
And almost every time, they come to work, to see a tsunami of work. And everything is “urgent”, and all they would hear would be “faster faster faster”. The work would be clocked and rated. It would be a frenzy to meet the quota, if they wished to be invited back again the next time. And when the work started easing to almost manageable levels, they would be asked to leave, sometimes even before the end of the promised shift. Yes these were people on minimum wage, and earn “exactly for the hours they worked”.
Apparently, everything was “optimized” on cost, or so the managers had thought. Apparently, they were Lean and super-efficient, so the managers had thought. But they were wrong, and we will come to that ..
Yes, of course, there were times, when orders were completely messed up or even delayed by hours. As they would say casually, “shit happens”. But now, guess what the managers do with the hourly-paid workers? Because they did not wish for the workers to go home, just in case everything gets sorted out .. which usually takes several hours. And they did not wish to pay workers (minimum wage) to do nothing ?
So they were told to make empty boxes of the various sizes (there were about 4 sizes), in anticipation of forthcoming orders. Yes these boxes would be used up eventually, but now starts the new frenzy .. everyone was busy making boxes, and again “faster faster faster”. Or some would be asked to sweep the Production Floor, “yes also under watchful eyes.”
Within hours, there were mountains of empty boxes stacked all over the place. There was no room to walk, no room to work. The pathway was just enough for the forklifts, and stacks of empty boxes would fall and get damaged. Yes, eventually the orders came (or not) and the boxes were used up over the coming days.
How is it #Lean to make mountains of boxes, hoping for work to arrive? How is it #OperationalExcellence to use Minimum Wage people as/when only needed, and to sweep the floor?
So let’s take a step back, see the bigger picture, ask the right questions .. and challenge ourselves ? If you were the Production Manager, #WhatWouldYouDo ?
Sincerely,
Aroop
Retrenching? Wait - there are better ways. With 25 years of global experience in product design, manufacturing operations, and cost engineering, I can help your organization become more profitable. Curious?
4 年Dear Jan-Hein Tempelman, May I ask you for your thoughts on this post made a few months ago, please? As there was no incoming work in the logistics centre, they told all workers to make boxes. The thought was "since the workers were getting paid, so use them to do something. And later when the work arrives (next day), then they would not need to make these boxes anymore." Ok but within a few hours, there were mountains of boxes piled up, falling down everywhere and no space to walk, Many boxes were damaged. Then the next day, it was also a drama to unstack the boxes to be used. Following your Lean class, I thought NOT to make buffer of boxes .. but this also means the people would need to go home with no salary. Can you share your thoughts please, if possible? Sincerely, Aroop
Project Purchasing | Supply chain | Car and Mobility enthusiast
4 年To be precise here, What i have seen that words like lean and industry 4.0 are more theoretic and less on reality. Many are micro managed by their manager and btw who are managers they are the same one who did this and got promoted so they will implement what they have gone through and in these one has to teach them about morality and Lean with good good examples so that next manager on foot step will do more lean and use tools to help people and that way cost and sustainability will be captured but the main question is who really wants to invest to make the situations and tools to make it right.
Retrenching? Wait - there are better ways. With 25 years of global experience in product design, manufacturing operations, and cost engineering, I can help your organization become more profitable. Curious?
4 年Dear friends at #linkedinfamily , Many are writing to me personally with solutions .. great to see but may I ask to write to THIS POST instead ? so others can read and also join the discussion. As I am trying to open up LinkedIn into a place where we discuss + share thoughts + experience for everyone to learn from. Yes as mentioned, I received quite some solutions, thank you. But nobody did #AskWhy it happened and how to prevent it from happening again and again and again. Did you know that planning people never saw a problem ? as they simply went home at 4:30pm .. thinking "shit happens". But upon closer discussions, they understood that once orders were straightened out ,.. there were double the work to be done in half the time ! working in 3 shifts with over time ? So once they understood, they shared some planning insights, that about 40% of the planning is predictable and repeated, so there was very limited risk to release this to Production, to gain some time before the other work arrives ??. Yes please do write and reply here, for everyone to relate. Thank you and sincerely, Aroop
Product Manager at Avular
4 年Relatable in all manufacturing environments. Planning work for people and managing good results need experience. In many cases the shift leaders are just self-taught amateurs without understanding they are dealing with people. Also the lean aspect gets thrown out of the window as first.