Library

Operational Excellence:
How to Make It Stick

A compendium of
Continuous Improvement
from IndustryWeek
Copyright © 2018 by Informa
All rights reserved.
IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
How to Make It Stick

Table of Contents:
Introduction............................................................................................ 02

Operational Excellence: How to Make It Stick.................................... 03

Finding Improvement in the Margins.................................................. 06

Why It Makes Sense (Sometimes) to Start With Hoshin Kanri........... 07

When You Can’t Count On Numbers.................................................. 09

Reliability Approach to Asset Uptime.................................................. 11

So What is “Lean” Anyway?................................................................. 14

Ask the Expert: How Many Kaizen Events

Should We Do Each Year?.................................................................... 16

Achieving Perfect Delivery with a Lean Supply Chain........................ 18

Think Lean to Make Safety Simpler...................................................... 21

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How to Make It Stick

introduction
Lean and continuous improvement have been core pillars of IndustryWeek’s manufacturing
coverage for decades. The stories and best practices our network of experts and contributors
produce have become required reading for any leaders who are serious about growth and
efficiency, who value their teams and engagement, and who strive to drive value and eliminate
waste through their organizations.

So it is especially gratifying to wrap up some of our most potent and insightful CI pieces
for you here. This e-book packages together a full range of industry stories, detailing best
practices all the way from OEE and uptime to kaizen and hoshin kanri, from executive buy-in
to targeted improvements, and from production all the way through delivery.

These articles are all themed around one central topic: making it stick. These aren’t short-
term solutions, they aren’t get lean quick schemes—these articles lay out the strategies and
philosophies required to keep CI and the pursuit for operational excellence alive and active
for decades to come.

Travis Hessman
IndustryWeek

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 IndustryWeek Library
Jill Jusko Operational Excellence:
Senior Editor, IndustryWeek How to Make It Stick

Operational Excellence:
How to Make It Stick
Two manufacturers share tactics for keeping lean and continuous improvement fresh, growing and
top of mind among the workforce.

W
hile age 25 is considered young in human terms, that it has completed more than 94,000 lean and Six Sigma
among successful continuous improvement pro- projects in the past 25 years, representing savings of $414
grams within manufacturing companies, that age is million, and it has trained more than 130 certified Lean Sys-
almost unheard of for its longevity. Even a decade of success tem and Six Sigma black belts. Further, Growtth “remains
can be difficult to find. at the very heart of our organizational culture,” says Vicky
Yet such examples are out there. Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Jandreau, director of Growtth in North America. “It’s become
Technologies is this year celebrating a quarter-century of a way of doing business for us, a way of solving problems
“Growtth,” an acronym for its lean implementation program and building team cohesion.”
Getting Rid of Waste Through Team Harmony. And manu- So perhaps the first lesson from Freudenberg-NOK: Make
facturer Belden Inc. has 10 years of lean experience under its sure the program is important to the company—and its lead-
belt with every sign of continued program growth. ership. Growtth is both.
Both manufacturers actively manage their lean programs “There are only three directions you can go in business,”
to keep their workforces engaged, their programs growing says Matthew Portu, president of Freudenberg-NOK Sealing
and their businesses reaping the rewards. They share some Technologies. “You can go backwards and lose momentum,
of their insights with IndustryWeek. you can stay the course and hope that’s enough, or you can
improve, get better at what you do, and grab new opportu-
Freudenberg-NOK Reaches a Milestone nities. Growtth defines our company and has enabled us to
By many measures, Growtth has been a winning formula focus directly on option three for 25 years. It is as important
for Freudenberg-NOK in the Americas. The company reports as anything we do.”

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Operational Excellence: How to Make It Stick How to Make It Stick

Lesson No. 2: Don’t stand still. The Growtth program On a related note are several new twists to Freuden-
of today is not the Growtth of yesterday, and definitely it berg-NOK’s training efforts, which include black belt training
is not the Growtth of a quarter-century ago. For example, on lean systems, Six Sigma and a recently introduced lean
the program introduced just three lean tools and the kaizen administration. Approximately 10 to 20 people are certified
methodology when it launched in 1992. Today the number each year.
of tools is around 14. And the company’s early focus on con- Several years ago the company launched what it calls the
verting batch production to lean processes has given way in “marketplace.” As part of the black belt training, certification
many instances to working more toward process refinements. candidates are asked to present their work at the company’s
Rapid plant assessments remain a staple at Freuden- headquarters in Plymouth, Mich. The candidates set up
berg-NOK, but even they come under regular scrutiny. The stations and both explain their projects and field questions
company has long used the assessment to measure its man- from leadership in that location.
ufacturing plants’ level of lean implementation. The plants “It was pretty successful, with a lot of participation from
also are rated against one another, with titles bestowed on the Plymouth site, and I thought it was extremely exciting
the “best” and “most improved” plant. for the certification candidates because it allowed them the
“A little competition is good. It keeps it fresh,” Jandreau says. opportunity to speak to folks they wouldn’t normally speak
The assessment itself is regularly freshened, too. “Each year to,” Jandreau says. “It was a very interactive time for them.”
our corporate team gets together and we tweak the questions Which leads to a fourth and final lesson: Use it or lose it.
to drive people even higher, so that we always push toward “You can’t keep a culture alive unless you’re training your
that true north objective,” she says. people and you empower them to use it,” Jandreau says.

A Focus on Learning Belden’s Lean World Cup

As Growtth expands in scope, it is developing into a learn- Looking for a clever way to keep your workforce engaged
ing organization. “It’s being an organization where we just in executing big improvements? Consider the example of St.
automatically share best practices. We all strive to help one Louis-based Belden Inc., a global manufacturer of connectiv-
another become the best we can possibly be. We have a lot ity and networking products. Belden has been practicing lean
of programs in place right now focused on that particular manufacturing for a decade now, introduced to the system
topic,” Jandreau says. by CEO John Stroup—alumnus of Danaher, where lean has
Which emphasizes Lesson No. 3: Always be learning. a history that stretches back more than a quarter century.
One example is what the manufacturer calls structured best Belden holds an annual Lean World Cup competition.
practice exchange days, which were introduced within the “We get lots and lots and lots of participation because it’s
past three years. They support the rapid plant assessments. a really big deal to be recognized,” says Jerry Rose, Belden
Mainly lean-tool focused, these exchange days are held at vice president of lean enterprise. “It is recognized as a big
manufacturing sites that demonstrate some of the leading best accomplishment inside Belden.”
practices in the company, with attendees given an opportunity The competition operates somewhat as you might imagine.
to see a real-life implementation of that tool or practice. So, Teams from across the company are invited to submit break-
for example, plant personnel from a site that scored poorly through processes they achieved using lean methodologies
on kanban would attend an exchange day held at the plant and typically as a result of kaizen event activities. Judges
that scored very well on kanban. winnow the entries, received as three-page applications, to
“The hope and the expectation is that this plant would five or six finalist teams who are then invited to Las Vegas
take the [best practice] back to their facility and, as much as for the finals. There, the finalist teams present their improve-
possible, do a copy and paste,” explains the Growtth director. ments over two days to several sets of judges and via multiple
The company has averaged approximately 20 of these ex- presentation methods. The event concludes with a banquet,
change days annually during the past three years. With a modified where all the participants are recognized, the winning team
approach for 2018, that number is likely to reach 28 next year. is announced and trophies are handed out.

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IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
Operational Excellence: How to Make It Stick How to Make It Stick

“[The teams] are excited about the opportunity to be seen Leaders Commit, Benefits Accrue
as leaders, to be exposed as good lean practitioners—and To be sure, the Lean World Cup is not without significant
honestly, going to Las Vegas and being treated as kings and costs, both in time and money. Sending 100 to 120 people to
queens for four or five days is a pretty good incentive as Las Vegas for a week, or nearly that, is not cheap. Further,
well,” Rose says. many of those people are Belden group presidents, vice pres-
The competition also lays waste to the Las Vegas catch- idents and other leadership team members, many of whom
phrase, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Throughout are judges in the Lean World Cup.
the event, the corporate communications staff write and post “It’s a significant investment in terms of time and money,”
articles about goings-on on the intranet. Belden also captures admits Rose, “because we think we get that much out of it.”
the Lean World Cup via photography and videography, which Indeed, the vice president of lean enterprise says among
is provided to group presidents and other leaders who then the biggest benefits of this annual competition is that it brings
can broadly share it. And in 2018, adds Rose, “We’re going a wide variety of teams and functions globally together “to
to socialize it to a much larger degree.” share stories and experiences around their lean activities,
The winning team in 2017 (for activities conducted in 2016) their lean journeys.”
implemented a comprehensive value stream transformation, Even more, he says, it provides the different businesses with
one whose elements included a set-up time reduction effort the chance to physically see opportunities they may “never
on a machining center that delivered dramatic improvements, have dreamed about doing because they hadn’t been exposed
and the combination of several operations and introduction to it,” Rose says. “There are always significant takeaways
of a clever poka yoke in an assembly area. that can be used to in other businesses to improve their own
The competition is not limited to manufacturing operations, internal processes.”
however. Past teams have included finance, for example. That
team submitted an improvement that significantly shortened
the time it took to close the end of each month. And a customer ☞ To view this article online, click here
service team was among the finalists this year. ☞ Back to table of contents
The common thread among Lean World Cup entries—from
wherever they emerge—is that they represent breakthroughs,
Rose says, meaning they can be broadly used across Belden
and represent Belden values, strongly improve customer
satisfaction and engagement, are repeatable, or demonstrate
strong impacts in other ways.

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Jamie Flinchbaugh Operational Excellence:
Lean Advisor, Speaker and Author How to Make It Stick

Finding Improvement in the Margins

Look outside your core activities and you may find a wealth of opportunities for improvement.

C
ontinuous improvement means that new product introduction that could have
we look for problems and waste been solved before the process began.How
under every rock. We spend most clean are the handoffs, meaning are there
of our time, however, looking at the core rework loops? And how quickly are prob-
activities. We look at core process efficien- lems found and owned, which can be a
cy because if I can get just a little more problem when two different organizations
out of my core activities, then there is begin to overlap?
great scale in those improvements. Often, New employee orientation can be anoth-
however, we neglect all the stuff on the er underappreciated waste. I don’t mean
margins around the core activities. the event of orientation but the process
Yet there are often greater gains to be involving everything until the person be-
found in the marginal activities, because they have received comes as proficient at their job as their predecessor. For some
less attention than core activities. Just by focusing on them simple math, imagine you have 5% turnover and it takes you
a bit, they can improve. eight months until someone is proficient. What is it worth to
Shift start is a great example. There are many things that the organization to get that down to four months? Yet once
we cram into this period: stopping things, starting things, the person is hired and in a job, we tend to consider the prob-
communicating things, organizing things. We tend to have lem solved. This involves methodologies such as Training
more meetings right around shift start than at any other time Within Industry, coaching and mentoring for the employee,
of the day. And yet we either haven’t started production or and clear ownership between HR and functional managers
haven’t gotten up to full speed yet. Do you measure the time on the related tasks.
from shift start until you reach full production? If you examine these opportunities, there is a pattern in
In examining one operation, we found that it wasn’t just them. They are all connections, or handoffs. We tend to spend
shift start but the start of the week that had the most to gain. more time optimizing our activities (how we do something)
We lost an average of half a shift not being up to speed. and less time on improving the connections. There are two
Equipment needed to warm up; the line needed to fill. Simply primary reasons for this. First, they are less visible. We might
by bringing in six people four hours earlier, we were able measure our activities down to the finest level of detail, but
to gain more production than with any other improvement. the connections usually require more observation to truly
Meeting starts follow a similar pattern. We might build an understand them. Second, they aren’t owned. Activity A is
agenda and be thoughtful about who to include in the meeting, owned by one resource, and Activity B is owned by another.
but then we miss the 10 people sitting around for six minutes But who owns the connection? Perhaps both, or neither. Lack
(equaling a total of an hour’s capacity) waiting for the meeting of clarity in owning the connections means they receive less
to start. Analyze the reasons a particular meeting starts late attention. The connections in your organization are often
(not all meetings as the causes are too generic). It could be missed opportunities for improvement. Every handoff is an
the location, the time, other meetings or other reasons. I’ve opportunity for a delay or an error. Eliminate handoffs where
found that once meeting owners actually focus on this, if you can, and structure and improve them where you can’t.
they honestly face the reasons, they can make solid gains.
New product introduction is one of the more massive hand-
offs we have, from a range of development activities and ☞ To view this article online, click here
resources to a range of production activities and resources. ☞ Back to table of contents
Start by looking at how many problems are solved during

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 IndustryWeek Library
Dan Markovitz Operational Excellence:
President, Markovitz Consulting How to Make It Stick

Why It Makes Sense (Sometimes)

to Start With Hoshin Kanri
Strategy deployment is a powerful way to get the leadership team involved in the lean journey.

F
or a long time, I’ve been dismissive of organizations but with the special pain in the ass factor of having to crane
that want to start their lean journeys with hoshin kanri, their heads around like a stork to read it from start to finish,
(also known as strategy deployment). When you’ve while using a ruler to make sure that they match the right
got a company where people are not engaged (at best) or metric to the each initiative. And finally there’s the process
suspicious of management (at worst), it seems to me that of “catchball,” which for some reason the lean community
getting people involved in everyday improvement to make actually thinks is English. It’s not. (Seriously. Did your father
their jobs easier is a better place to start. And when the ever ask you to play “catchball” with him? I doubt it.) It’s
leadership team sequesters itself in yet another offsite, after Japanese English, and it’s not at all clear to the uninitiated
which the CEO portentously announces the latest strategic what it is. Between the special language and the special tool,
plan (but this time using the Japanese term hoshin kanri to I haven’t been a big fan of starting with hoshin.
ensure heightened confusion), you’ve got a foolproof way to Until now.
foster employee cynicism. Recently, my colleague and friend Katie Anderson pointed
The dreaded X-matrix makes matters even worse. It’s out something I’ve completely missed: that strategy deploy-
bestowed upon workers like the tablets of the Ten Com- ment is a powerful way to get the leadership team involved
mandments, divinely inspired guidance for the next year. in the lean journey.
Employees, of course, see it as just another damned chart, If you’re lucky, you have a CEO like Art Byrne, who relishes

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IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
Why It Makes Sense (Sometimes) to Start With Hoshin Kanri How to Make It Stick

the chance to swing a sledgehammer, move machines and do By contrast, one of my current clients has started with
work at the front lines. But most CEOs, and other denizens of hoshin kanri, and not surprisingly, the leadership team is fully
the C-suite, aren’t like Art Byrne. Getting them to embrace engaged and committed. They haven’t yet gotten involved in
daily improvement is a struggle, because they want to focus the daily work of lean, but as the improvement projects have
on bigger issues. But because strategy deployment starts out been getting fleshed out, they’re seeing where and how they
with very high-level thinking—what does the organization need to participate in order to reach their strategic objectives.
stand for, and where do we want to go over the next three Strategy deployment isn’t the easiest tool in the lean tool-
years—it’s comparatively easy to get leadership to participate. box. In fact, I think you can make a good argument that it’s
After all, no one in top management wants to miss the big not the best place to start if you want to drive cultural change
strategic planning session. Miss a kaizen event or a gemba throughout the organization. But increasingly, I’m seeing that
walk, sure. Miss a leadership offsite? Never. strategy deployment may just be the spoonful of sugar that
Lean thinkers can use that intellectual (and emotional) helps the lean medicine go down with leadership, particularly
foot in the door to gain leadership support for continuous in large institutions. And that might be the best reason of all
improvement. Eventually, of course, the leadership team will to start with it.
need to embrace daily improvement. But that’s a heavy lift Dan Markovitz is president of Markovitz Consulting, a firm
for many of them at the start. that helps organizations become faster, stronger and more
I’m seeing this dynamic play out in my own consulting. agile through the application of lean principles to knowledge
Last year I struggled terribly—and quite honestly, failed—to work. He is a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute
get the leadership team at one of my clients to engage. Lean and teaches at the Stanford University Continuing Studies
was something for the shop floor and middle management Program. His book “Building the Fit Organization,” just
to do. The C-suite felt they were too busy to muck around received the Shingo Research Award.
with daily kaizen. They didn’t make lean a priority, and it
was business as usual. It wasn’t until the CEO of the parent
company demanded that they get involved with the lean ☞ To view this article online, click here
efforts that they began participating—and then, they started ☞ Back to table of contents
with strategy deployment.

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Bob Argyle Operational Excellence:
Chief Customer Officer, Leading2Lean How to Make It Stick

When You Can’t

Count On Numbers
How can 70% (OEE) be superior to a “world-class” rating of 90%?

G rade school math teachers are fond of saying that num-

bers can’t lie. Maybe so, but they can be misleading.
In the case of manufacturing, it is a common standard to
or board members are counting on a high number, and plant
management careers depend on it. The result is an infusion
of stress and worry among workers and managers, which
measure plant productivity by looking at Overall Equipment increases and compounds the stress.
Effectiveness or OEE. It is measured by looking at how effec- The 90% Plant B should have seen the problem. Further
tive a plant is running in the areas of availability, performance analysis revealed that the site spent countless hours analyzing
and quality. However, holding OEE as the primary metric of and justifying what things should impact their OEE calcula-
success for a plant can be problematic and even short sighted. tion. In order to keep the percentage high, Plant management
Here is a case in point. On one plant’s floor we have a 70% decided that meetings, changeovers, manpower shortages
OEE number. On another plant floor we have a “world-class” and total productive maintenance (TPM) activities should
rating of 90%. It would seem to be an open and shut case that all be treated as non-production time. At the same time,
the 90% plant floor is more effective. A closer look shows they decided to use demonstrated cycle times to calculate
that just isn’t always the case. Let me explain further. OEE instead of using optimal cycle times. This artificially
inflated OEE even further.
Aiming for a Target You can see the trap. They justified the high number by
Pressure is strong from Plant B management to hit a world- ignoring vital plant processes and activities. And instead of
class target of 85% or 90% OEE. Achieving that high number solving problems along the way, they ignored them in the
is the one, key goal for that plant. Bonuses and incentives name of better final numbers. The problems were allowed
have been tied to hitting or surpassing that target, investors to fester and grow.

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When You Can’t Count On Numbers How to Make It Stick

Measured Improvement Instead, manufacturers need to shift focus to finding problems

Plant A reporting 70% OEE, on the other hand, has a dif- quickly and solving them. By focusing on improvement, you
ferent outlook. This company’s executives understand the key are empowering workers to look for inefficiencies in produc-
to true success is surfacing and focusing on the problems as tion and make corrections, instead of asking them to ignore
they arise in real time. They set goals based on improvement problems in the name of a false narrative about high OEE.
and the number of problems solved. In their example, an Given a mindset of constantly seeking to improve, plant
improvement of 10 percentage points in OEE was realized management can maintain a focus on accuracy and trans-
over the past year, moving up their OEE from 60% to 70%. parency, which leads to more reliable data. That improved
Incentives at Plant A are based on the number of problems data allows managers to truly solve problems by reducing
solved and improvement percentage points, period. The final downtime, scheduling preventative maintenance, and justi-
number isn’t the final goal; improvement is. fying needed capital expenditures.
Unlike at Plant B, Plant A is taking an aggressive approach It’s counterintuitive, but true. Focusing on fixing processes,
in how they achieve improvement. They look at every second not just posting numbers, creates a culture of continuous
of time that the line or process is not running as a lost oppor- improvement that brings lasting change to the manufacturing
tunity. This includes meetings, training, setups, changeover, floor. When management can see the difference and com-
preventative maintenance, etc. Plant A understands that stop- municate that difference to its employees, a plant floor can
ping the line for a team meeting or preventative maintenance celebrate a culture in which accuracy and truth in their data
is lost time for production. Workers focus on improvements to is encouraged and expected. Instead of a vicious circle of
help decrease the time required to perform preventive main- trimming data to meet a pre-determined metric, plants have
tenance. They conduct efficient and effective team meetings a virtuous circle where accuracy and truth lead to constant
in a timely manner. refinement where both the plant and its employees achieve
By structuring bonuses and incentives more appropriately to accelerated improvement, more efficiency and, ultimately,
surfacing and solving problems, Plant A workers are always greater success.
seeking to expose weaknesses in the system or suggesting Bob Argyle is Leading2Lean’s Chief Customer Officer
ways to improve the system. (CCO), and builds partnerships with manufacturers where
best practices can be leveraged to help them achieve great-
Shifting the Focus to Fixing Problems er and greater success. Bob brings twenty-four years of
Over many years, OEE has become a key metric for measur- manufacturing experience in the automotive industry, and
ing productivity improvement for manufacturers. By setting was trained in the U.S. and Japan on the philosophies and
OEE as the one success metric, OEE numbers are elevated to implementation of the Toyota Production System (TPS). www.
unreasonable and artificial heights. Manufacturers are trying leading2lean.com
to hit “world-class” percentage numbers at the expense of
overall plant efficiency. In trying to look perfect, they’re
focused only on what is working, and often ignoring areas ☞ To view this article online, click here
that need improvement. ☞ Back to table of contents
This leads to a circle of inefficiencies. The pressure to reach
high, ever-improving OEE numbers motivates plant managers
and workers to over-inflate efficiency results or report only
positive data. However, when workers are motivated only to
reach high OEE percentages, they are not necessarily im-
proving operations. They might tend to justify not properly
reporting all production stoppages, or discount line downtime.
There’s no accountability for solving problems.

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Jill Jusko Operational Excellence:
Senior Editor, IndustryWeek How to Make It Stick

Reliability Approach to Asset Uptime

Sometimes unplanned downtime is unavoidable. Many times it is not. Hear what several
manufacturers and reliability experts advise to keep your machinery operating optimally.

R
obots at work are a good thing. Robots at rest when year, the company acknowledged in its earnings report that
they are supposed to be working are a bad thing. The the numbers could have been better were it not for, in part,
latter is what General Motors Corp. is getting the unplanned downtime at its Oakdale, Wis., facility. And earlier
hang of preventing, according to the automaker’s director this year, ARC Advisory Group reported its belief that the
of global automation. impact of unplanned downtime on revenue and profitability
Speaking at an April automation conference in Chicago, in the process industries has been “vastly underestimated.”
Mark Franks told the audience that GM had avoided 100 “ARC estimates that downtime costs the process industries
potential failures of robots by analyzing data they send to an somewhere in the area of a trillion dollars a year, “ wrote
external server in the cloud, Bloomberg reported. “If we can ARC’s Larry O’Brien in a blog post.
avoid a disruption in our manufacturing, we can save ourselves Sometimes unplanned downtime is unavoidable. For in-
a significant amount of money,” Franks said. stance, when hurricanes like Harvey, Irma and Maria sweep
It’s a comment every manufacturer can agree with. Assets through an area, manufacturers have limited actions they can
that are unavailable when they are needed, or equipment that take to keep operations up and going. But in many instances,
performs poorly when it is available has lost dollars attached manufacturers can and likely should do more to keep their
to it. For example, even as Smart Sand Inc., a producer of raw assets operating in optimal condition. Several manufacturers
frac sand, reported improved second-quarter net income this and reliability experts share their ideas.

Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors

As of April, General Motors had about 25% of its 30,000 factory robots connected to the cloud, boosting the
automaker’s ability to detect and prevent downtime before it occurs.

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Reliability Approach to Asset Uptime How to Make It Stick

More Than Maintenance expectation, I’m sure, is that they are highly qualified and
If your company or facility points to the maintenance func- really understand the health of your vehicle, and are able to
tion as the keeper of all reliability-related duties, it is making translate that into a language that you understand, and help
a mistake. Research shows that just 17% of unscheduled you make the right decision as to what you are going to do,”
downtime can be attributed to the maintenance function, says he continues. “The one thing they will never be ahead of
Life Cycle Engineering’s Brad Cunic, senior vice president you on is what you expect out of that vehicle, what is your
of its reliability consulting group. operating context of that vehicle. And that’s why production
Given that data point, manufacturers should take note of needs to be the one that owns the assets. There’s absolutely
where downtime opportunities occur. “Defects or downtime no difference with physical assets in our facilities.”
are interjected throughout the equipment lifecycle,” from the Such collaboration isn’t easy, which is why Baldridge also
initial equipment design to procurement functions focused stresses the importance of communication. “We have a very
on lowest cost versus total cost of ownership, to equipment comprehensive integrated approach to reliability, and not
operators who may be mishandling the assets they run. any single thing is going to get us to our overall objectives.
“[Reliability is] really a shared function that must be driven However, if there was a shiny bullet... it would be change
from the top of the organization, and that starts with the align- communication.”
ment of key executives,” he says. “Most successful companies
we see have reliability built into the culture, not just as a main- Create a Solid Foundation
tenance activity. That’s where you see sustained performance.” “The more you can minimize downtime, the more you can
Such is the case at Cargill Inc., a privately held manufacturer improve throughput and quality,” said the operations manager
whose breadth of products includes animal nutrition, food of Intertape Polymer Group’s Danville, Va., facility during an
ingredients, salt and beef products. The manufacturer em- IndustryWeek visit to the 2016 IW Best Plants Award winner.
braces the philosophy of reliability as a shared responsibility, It’s a sentiment echoed by Ron Englehart, continuous im-
says Rick Baldridge, corporate reliability excellence process provement practitioner for Intertape’s operational excellence
leader as well as a Society of Maintenance and Reliability program, the Intertape Performance System. The implementa-
Professionals board member. tion of IPS revolves around model machines, those identified
“We strongly believe that production owns the assets, while as the most critical to the business, and begins with machine
maintenance owns the capability of the assets. That takes a lot of cleans to improve performance and reliability.
collaboration,” including from such domains as safety, customer “Foundationally we are looking to engage our workforce,
quality and process safety risk management, Baldridge says. and we do that through the model machine cleans. The model
“Really, the word is holistic. The best analogy is ... your machine clean is a means of getting cross-functional teams
own personal vehicle. If you see a need to take your vehicle in together and improving our associates’ training and knowl-
for anything that it may need, you are the one that ultimately edge about how that equipment operates day in and day out,”
makes the decision of all of the things that they find. And your Englehart says.

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Reliability Approach to Asset Uptime How to Make It Stick

“As most people know, when you are dealing with incon- Such advances are likely just the beginning. GE sees the
sistency and instability in your equipment, it’s just the tip future and it is digital. “When we think about the industrial
of the iceberg of the true cost to the operation, so you have company of the future, it is still going to build machines, but
a lot of hidden things beneath the surface, whether it be these machines are going to have the capacity to respond with
safety, quality, delivery, or morale as a result of inconsistent greater speed and insights than anyone ever imagined,” GE
uptime,” he continues. CEO John Flannery said during the company’s recent Minds
Of course, Intertape augments the people side of reliability + Machines event.
with technology. For example, at its greenfield sites and for And Andy Kopp, technical director at Myrtle Consulting
other critical applications and support equipment, the company Group, outlines what he says will be the exciting story in
has implemented SCADA systems and plant apps that look at asset uptime—the transition from predictive maintenance to
downtime tracking. These allow the manufacturer to set trigger prescriptive. What that means is not only will digital tools
events and generate reports to indicate where downtime events gather and analyze data, but they will also suggest the best
occur or where there could be reoccurring events. Intertape also course of action to take based on the analysis and automati-
employs artificial intelligence software both as a predictive cally set that action in motion. Heady stuff.
analytics tool and to fine-tune process parameters. It could be easy to get caught up in all the excitement of
Such technologies at the company’s facility in Blythewood, new technologies to boost your equipment reliability efforts.
S.C., have helped boost uptime there from 92% to 98%. Life Cycle Engineering suggests a measured approach.
“I need stable equipment in order to produce consistent “Our philosophy is start with the end in mind — the business
product on time. If you are not monitoring your equipment results that you need and work backward. First, determine
for predictive failure, then you are going to be doing it on an what assets have the biggest impact to your value stream and
unplanned basis, so what we are trying to be able to do is give then what failures are most likely to occur in those assets and
ourselves planned outages to control uptime,” Englehart says. what is the most effective mitigation method used to eliminate,
“In the end the technology that we are putting in place detect, or remediate those failures. Then, what are the early
allows us to plan the downtime on our terms instead of the signs of failures in those assets?” Cunic said. “What critical
equipment’s terms.” control points should be monitored and what are the set points
or the alarm, and who should receive those alarms? And how
Testing New Technology do you ensure that the right people, materials, and procedures
Using technology to aid asset uptime is nothing new. Com- are in place to respond? Then you determine what data needs
puterized maintenance management systems, vibration anal- to be collected and analyzed and by whom to promote this
ysis, ultrasonic monitoring and other predictive maintenance continuous improvement of the entire process.”
technologies have had a place at the reliability table for some
time. What has changed is the amount of data that can be
collected (it has skyrocketed), the price of sensors (a down- ☞ To view this article online, click here
ward trajectory), the introduction of artificial intelligence and ☞ Back to table of contents
machine learning—the sheer promise presented by big data,
the IIoT and other transformative technologies.
Cargill has dipped its toes in the IIoT water with its con-
dition-based maintenance. Land O’Lakes Inc. is piloting
enterprise manufacturing intelligence in its feed business.
General Motors has more than tried on technology. Accord-
ing to Bloomberg, about a quarter of the automaker’s 30,000
factory robots are connected to the cloud. That connectivity
enables GM to reduce its spare-parts inventory, thus tying
up fewer dollars, by detecting when parts are going to wear
out, according to the automation chief.

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Bill Baker Operational Excellence:
President/Owner, Speed to Excellence How to Make It Stick

So What is “Lean” Anyway?

I
Ask these four questions ’ve been involved in manufacturing since 1967, initially as a manufacturing
engineer in a precision machine shop and later managing multimillion
to determine if your dollar programs. Not to brag on myself, but I’ve met many smart people!
Initially our goal was limited to meeting quality requirements, by getting
company is on a Lean through quality inspections and testing in order to deliver on time that month.
It was a pretty simple life then, but we didn’t know it.
Transformation or just A little later, I managed the manufacturing services department of a geo-
physical exploration company, and my boss asked me to analyze the flow of
doing a Lean project.
our hydrophones and ocean-going seismic cables. Not knowing what he meant
by flow, I went to our final assembly area to look around. This was way before
Gemba was a word we had heard.
I found that, yes; we were building in batches because of the large setup
times—and my boss knew that.
So began my career of looking for continuous improvements.
Now, quite a few years later, we have all used the broad words for change
such as Lean, continuous improvement, Toyota Production System, and before
that Total Quality. Still, despite the widespread use of the terms, I’m concerned
that perhaps they are being used without a full understanding.

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IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
Reliability Approach to Asset Uptime How to Make It Stick

Toyota has been given a lot of press and acknowledgement It’s a big step to adopt a Lean strategy as the Lean Man-
for their approach to creating TPS, and rightly so. But in to- agement System for the entire company, but it’s important
day’s implementation of Lean, how many organizations buy that everyone has the same goals and expectations, i.e., one
into the total culture change that TPS and Lean really require? language. For example, management should be teaching the
It seems to me that, too often, companies run a pilot in their Lean classes and frequently inspecting for both continuous
assembly or machine shops to see if it works. If they get good improvement and respect for people every day! Then everyone
results, they train a few manufacturing employees on 5S, 3P, knows it’s important.
Poke Yoke, the seven wastes and all the other tools we know.
Usually if done well, there are immediate cost savings Some enlightening questions
from reducing waste, so Lean tools are expanded across about a Lean Transformation
the manufacturing department. Cost savings become the 1. Does everyone in the company understand that this is
key metric looked at by management. But after a few years, a long-term commitment?
the low hanging fruit has been diminished and cost savings 2. Does the company have a Lean Management System
plateau or recede. Then management asks, “Ok, we’ve done in place that defines these expectations and live by it
Lean, what’s next?” daily? Research identifies this as a best practice for
This is what I call a “manufacturing lean project,” which companies that have been on the Lean journey for 20
can lead to short term gains, but no transformation. to 30 years.
Let’s look at what a Lean Transformation entails. By look- 3. Does management have standard work? Yes, this
ing at TPS, the two pillars it is built on are easy to identify: includes top management, marketing, engineering,
purchasing, quality and everyone else.
Continuous Improvement 4. Is the company continually looking at the customer’s
• Part of the culture and expectations needs today and tomorrow? For example, is the
• By everyone, every day company willing to change what works today for
• In every department, from the top down what will work tomorrow?
• Management goes to the Gemba to view the
work being done Ask yourself these four questions to see if your company
is on a Lean Transformation or just doing a Lean manufac-
Respect for People turing project.
• Management asks questions as a form of mentoring, so
that workers decide for themselves what is best.
• Each worker is unique and should be treated with ☞ To view this article online, click here
respect and helped by management to fulfill their
☞ Back to table of contents
capabilities and dreams.
• Communication to all about the companys’ goals,
plans and results assures that everyone is on the
same page.

These two pillars are true to Lean as well. Many lean practi-
tioners may not understand that the “Respect for People” pillar
is the basis for everything else—trust, motivation, continuous
improvement and outstanding performance.

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Larry Fast Operational Excellence:
Founder & President, Pathways to Manufacturing Excellence How to Make It Stick

Ask the Expert

How Many Kaizen Events
Should We Do Each Year?

I don’t like the Question: How many kaizen events should we do each year?
Answer: It depends. It depends on how many improvement events you need to
arbitrary assignment meet your performance improvement commitments for the year. It depends on how
by management that many you can properly resource. It depends on how many of your projects require
scarce resources, e.g., process engineers, maintenance techs vs. what lower impact
each department projects can be done principally with hourly associates.
Rather than set goals based on the number of kaizen events being done, I much
or value stream will prefer the goals be set in the language of business—cost improvements, inventory
conduct X number (working capital) reduction, etc. For example, value stream managers might set a
goal for supervisor and hourly led kaizen events at $50,000 cost and inventory im-
of kaizen events per provement for the year. When one project is complete, then start a running record of
month/year. the results, tee up the next priority and keep going with additional events until you
exceed at least $50,000.
Interestingly, in the same batch of new questions received from IW, there was this
question: Are there any popular measures that you dislike? If yes, then why?

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IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
Ask the Expert: How Many Kaizen Events Should We Do Each Year? How to Make It Stick

And here’s my answer to that one: I don’t like the arbitrary where they didn’t even know there was such a process. This
assignment by management that each department or value is a supervisory issue. If the process has been changed in any
stream will conduct X number of kaizen events per month/ way during the event, the loop must be closed. For example:
year. I’ve been in operations where the shop floor was com- • Ensure that any process changes have been updated into
mitted by personal objectives to conduct 20 kaizens a month. the authorized, formal system, e.g. bills of material, routers,
Too many events going on in a compressed timeframe can job instructions. What’s your standard work for this?
have negative effects on service and cost, not to mention the • A review of the changes must be made right away with
fact that there may not even be a measurable outcome that everyone who is affected by the changes, e.g., all operators
positively affects the business. involved with the same processes must receive a report on the
outcome of the project and be retrained as appropriate on all
Here’s a summary of my typical experience shifts. What’s your standard work to do this?
with this topic in factories I visit. • Accounting must be in the formal sign-off loop on the ECN
• Quick changeover events that require at least a 50% im- to be sure costs have been updated right away in the system
provement lead the way in terms of effectiveness. An excellent for productivity tracking and accurate reporting.
payback, e.g., less than one year, almost always results due • And don’t forget this: If you have sister plants that use
to reduced cycle times, reduced waste, reduced inventory, the same processes, be sure to share your documentation on
improved flow, improved service. the successful project with them. Invite them to your plant to
• On the other hand, I too often see teams giving the same see the work you’ve done and to do a deep dive before taking
vigor to saving $1 bills as that required for saving $thousands. the process to their own plant for implementation. This kind
These are typically motivated by the arbitrary “gotta do X num- of global thinking will help the whole company get better,
ber of kaizens this month” mentality. The $1 team gets stuck not just your shop. Ask your visitors to reciprocate and share
and before you know it, scarce resources such as engineering, their successes with you as well.
maintenance, etc., are pulled in ad hoc if they weren’t already In summary, kaizen events can play an important role in
assigned to the team. Too often these projects, even if done making changes on the shop floor on a controlled scale that can
successfully, don’t move the needle on factory performance be accomplished by the hourly workforce. However, be sure
or are simply scoped to be beyond the capability of the team. that these events don’t take the place of a robust productivity
• My thinking on small projects as noted above is this: If you improvement process that yields needle-moving results found
have an hourly workforce who has been properly educated, on the income statement and balance sheet. And please, no arbi-
trained and mentored through a pilot project, then inspire them trary goals on the number of events. Commit to doing however
to pursue projects on a scale they can manage to deliver the many events it takes to make the numbers you’ve committed
smaller but still important improvements being sought. Kaizen to. Simply collect the ideas, prioritize them based on business
events are a great way to help hourly people learn to work in impact, scope them to be managed by hourly employees and
teams, communicate more effectively, make a difference in their a mentor on the smaller ones with the manufacturing/quality
value streams and learn to think, work and behave differently. engineers leading the major projects. Finally, always complete
Over time and repetition, they become the culture change the system documentation, training, etc., within one week of
that we all seek. Just don’t mistake what you’re doing for the the kaizen, and sooner is better. Every day matters.
robust productivity projects that are necessary to “make the “Your lean process should be a lean process.”
numbers.” They typically require a much more sophisticated — Author Unknown
problem-solving process with higher skilled (scarce) resources.
• In all cases, after a small kaizen event or a major pro- “……Little is done to track performance,
ductivity project, make certain that you close the loop on the being busy is often mistaken for being strategic
process changes. This is the second biggest issue I often see, and a lot gets done with little accomplished.”
i.e., that “the paperwork” isn’t done in a timely way--if at ­— Ernie Spence
all. For example, a formal engineering change notice (ECN)
process either isn’t in place or else the hourly folks and others ☞ To view this article online, click here
who need to be using it don’t know how. Sometimes I’ve found
☞ Back to table of contents

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Tim McLean Operational Excellence:
Managing Director, TXM Lean Solutions Pty. Ltd. How to Make It Stick

Achieving Perfect Delivery

with a Lean Supply Chain
Identify and address these underlying drivers of poor delivery performance: long lead times,
poor forecasting, and ineffective product management.

W
hat does it take to deliver what your customer Most companies I see fall
needs, in the quantity he needs, on time, every in to one of three categories:
time? It should simple. It really is the most fun- 1. Achieving poor delivery performance.
damental requirement of any manufacturing or distribution 2. Customers are dissatisfied with your delivery
business. So why do so many businesses find on time, in full performance, even when your own metrics show
delivery so hard to achieve? you are performing well.
Even if you think you are doing well, you might be kid- 3. You achieve good delivery performance at an
ding yourself. On time in full delivery (some companies unacceptably high cost to your business or by
call it DIFOT—delivery in full and on time) is perhaps the imposing long lead times, penalties for poor
most abused metric in business (next to profit of course!). forecasting or other restrictions on customers.
Due dates get shifted, tolerances get allowed and lead times So how do you improve on time in full performance, with-
get imposed on customers. If you want to know how good out sending your business bankrupt? This is a big topic, that
your business’ delivery performance is, there is only one I address in my latest book, “On Time In Full: Achieving
person to ask—your customer. Chances are, you may get an Perfect Delivery with a Lean Supply Chain” (Productivity
unpleasant surprise when the customer’s perception of your Press, 2017). However, in this article I am going to address
service does not accord with you own. Meeting the customer’s what I think are some of the underlying drivers of poor
expectations—the exact expectations, not what you think they delivery performance so that you can identify these in your
should be, then becomes the starting point of improvement. own business.

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Achieving Perfect Delivery with a Lean Supply Chain How to Make It Stick

Long Lead Times

Lead time is the enemy of good delivery performance.
This includes the lead time to process an order, the lead
time to replenish goods from your suppliers, the lead times
to manufacture and distribute your goods, and the lead time
to pick and pack an order. Every day that you add to lead
time will add inventory and will increase the risk of failing
to deliver on time.
So how do you reduce lead time? The key to reducing lead
time is to really understand it. You do this using a value stream
map. You will develop a future state map that will highlight
the practical steps you can take to reduce lead time in across
your whole supply chain. These might include creating con-
tinuous flow in your manufacturing operations using lean
techniques, addressing the root causes of supplier lead times,
eliminating waiting time at ports and cross docks, and taking
links out of your distribution chain. This kind of forecast allows you to plan your capacity and
labor. It also enables you to engage your supplier in long-
Understanding Demand and Supply term discussions about how much they will need to supply.
at the Right Level What I am talking about here is a sales and operations
Achieving on time in full delivery is as simple as getting an planning process, or S&OP for short. Many supply chain
accurate forecast, isn’t it? It would be, if such a thing as an experts present S&OP as a “high level” tool, something you
accurate forecast actually existed. We have as much chance might think about once the basics are in place. I disagree. I
of forecasting the demand for our products as we have of see S&OP as one of the fundamental building blocks of an
forecasting the weather. Many businesses try to have an ac- effective supply chain. S&OP is often made very complex
curate forecast down to the level of individual SKUs out to with dozens of meetings and huge decks of metrics. However,
the full replenishment lead time of the business (often three at its most fundamental it involves three key steps that any
to six months). I would argue that you will never ever get a business can do:
forecast that is accurate to this level, this far out. Therefore 1. A Demand Review: This is a meeting between sales
you make do with an inaccurate forecast and paper over the and supply chain about what are the expected changes
errors with inventory. I spent fruitless years trying to make in demand over the next 12 months compared to the
this work with a series of ERP systems, and I have also heard previous month’s forecast. The output of this review is
many a committed but frustrated supply chain manager cry an agreed high-level monthly forecast and a list of the
“If only sales could give us an accurate forecast.” assumptions behind that forecast.
You do need a forecast; it’s just that you need to be realistic 2. A Supply Review: This is a meeting between
about at what level you can forecast and what you can do with operations and supply chain to discuss the ability of
a forecast. When you think about the weather, it is useful to the business to meet the forecast that sales has agreed
know that January will be colder than September and that to. This will highlight the need for increases in
July will usually be hot and dry. This information allows you production capacity and labor required to meet the
to make long-range plans about travel, clothing, gardening forecast demand. It should also highlight the ability
and any number of things. Likewise, a high-level monthly of key suppliers to meet this demand. The output of
forecast of your demand at the level of value streams or (at this review is a set of recommendations for investments,
most) key product families is extremely useful in helping hiring (or downsizing) and supplier actions to meet the
your business achieve on time delivery. forecast demand.

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IndustryWeek Library Operational Excellence:
Achieving Perfect Delivery with a Lean Supply Chain How to Make It Stick

3. The S&OP Meeting: This should be a final review and Summary

sign off of the forecast and supply recommendations This is only a brief introduction to the factors that drive
involving the key leaders in the business. It needs to on time in full delivery. However, hopefully it provides you
look out over the whole 12 month forecast horizon, with a bit of inspiration to start looking at your own business.
with a focus on the next six months, rather than focus Remember, there are no perfect answers for your supply chain.
on the next month. It is good to review past month’s There will always be a compromise between inventory, cost
performance, but make sure the main focus of the and delivery. Supply chain is a highly contested area, with
meeting is on the future and not the past. experts zealously promoting one solution or another as “the
A simple S&OP is quite easy to set up and will really answer.” My suggestion is start with the problem – on time
transform how you plan for your business. in full delivery – and then pragmatically select the tools and
techniques that give your business the best outcome. Whether
Effective Product Management you have a “Class A” supply chain or are truly “lean” is less
It is easier to ensure on time in full delivery of 100 products important than whether your customers get what they want,
than it is 10,000. Many businesses I see show poor discipline when they want it in the quantity they want every time.
in product management allowing for a proliferation of prod- Tim McLean is a lean consultant, author and presenter.
uct lines and a “long tail” of slow-moving items with erratic Tim’s two books, Grow Your Factory, Grow Your Profits: Lean
demand. The fewer products you have, the easier they will for Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Enterprises and
be to manage and the better on time delivery you have. Of On Time In Full: Achieving Perfect Delivery with Lean Think-
course, if you NEED 10,000 line items to service your market, ing in Purchasing, Supply Chain and Production Planning
that is just a reality you must cope with; however you should have both been published by Productivity Press. Tim will
always challenge the “tail.” To improve product management be in the U.S. from October 9-12, so if you are interested in
there are some simple steps you can follow: learning more please go to txm.com/contact-us.
• Every product or group of products in your business
must have someone responsible for product
management. This person should be responsible for ☞ To view this article online, click here
deciding which products get introduced and which are
☞ Back to table of contents
deleted and when.
• You should always analyze your sales and inventory
to know which products are contributing to revenue
and profits and which are not. Those that aren’t should
always be challenged as to whether they should remain
or be deleted.
• Before any new product is introduced, a business case
should be prepared outlining what this new product
will deliver to the business and including what products
might be replaced by the new product.
• Your business needs a robust process for the ramp up
of new products and the run out of old products to
minimize obsolete stock when products are upgraded.

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Peter Susca Operational Excellence:
Principal/Owner, OpX Safety How to Make It Stick

Think Lean
to Make Safety Simpler

These three practices

H
aving spent most of my career in safety and operations leadership po-
sitions, it’s clear to me that many organizations make safety more of a
will improve the burden than necessary.
No leader wants employees to get injured at work, but sadly and quite often, the
effectiveness and cost of safety (e.g., additional time and capital spent for material and equipment)
efficiency of your gets in the way of making good decisions. When the cost of safety becomes a
burden to the organization, the safety approach begins to suffer.
safety approach. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way to reduce this “cost,” add more value
and achieve the level of safety required? Well, there is a way…the answer is by
making your safety approach more efficient.
Recently a company that we work with asked us to assess the effectiveness of
its safety approach. To gather the data, we traveled to many of its sites around the
world and interviewed about 800 employees and 100 first-line supervisors. One
of our supervisor questions was, “How much time do you spend on safety?” Most
of the supervisors interviewed agreed that they spent at least 60% of their day
on safety-specific activities such as safety observations, incident investigations,
training, completing forms, making presentations and data entry.

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Think Lean to Make Safety Simpler How to Make It Stick

For example, the first of the three elements in a JHA is the

task list. This should be part of the work instruction, job plan
or defined in a pre-job meeting. Having to determine how
the work will be performed by requiring the completion of a
JHA is evidence that the overall job planning process is weak.
Whenever possible integrate safety training into work pro-
cess training. For example, if your organization conducts job/
task-specific training (and refresher training), then include
the required Hazard Communication elements in that train-
ing rather than making everyone attend a “generic” hazard
communication training session. The hazard communication
When we presented this information to the management elements such as job-specific chemical hazards and protective
team, the safety professionals were happy while the operations measures will be more germane and seen as part of the task,
folks were not as pleased. If your company is in the business and the knowledge will be transferred in a more sustainable
of making things or providing a service, then spending 60% and cost effective manner.
of your time doing something else is not going please your
operations management, customers or investors. 2. Make “safe” more apparent and visual.
Having lived in both the safety and operations leadership Though it may require a safety professional to determine
worlds, I understand both perspectives. The solution, of how to make the process safe (e.g., compliant with require-
course, lies somewhere in the middle. That middle ground ments, low risk), it shouldn’t take a safety professional to keep
is achieved through a common understanding of how to be it safe. If you make correct safety (e.g., expected workplace
both effective and efficient at safety. conditions, body positions and activities) visually apparent,
then it will be easy for anyone to identify non-conformities.
Here are some practices to improve the effectiveness When you make correct safety visually apparent, everyone
and efficiency of your safety approach: becomes a safety leader. Here are the steps:
• Define the right way (condition, body position, etc.).
1. Integrate safety into operational and For example, what should the pressure gauge read when
support processes. the process is healthy?
If safety is “bolted on” to your organization and the way • Recruit those in your organization with process
you operate, realize that everyone has a wrench. To foster knowledge and creative energy (See No. 3 below) to
integration, operational leaders may need to help their safety design the visual cues.
professionals become more operationally savvy. Specific • Create visual cues that make it easy (for anyone) to see
examples of safety integration can include: what right looks like. Provide examples such as color
Include the hazardous energy control (lockout/tagout) pro- coding and photos/diagrams of the right condition,
cess in the work order and/or work instruction. This creates a position, etc. Remember, the goal is that anyone
more efficient and integrated work process where maintenance walking by can determine if it’s right or wrong.
staff are less likely to forget the requisite safety measures. • Use people with no process and technical knowledge to
Therefore, doing the job well means doing the job safely. check your work.
How many of your folks hate to conduct a job hazard/safety
analysis (JHA or JSA)? Part of the reason is that it’s perceived 3. Make the process the shortcut. Use your
as “extra.” Perceptions of extra work, time, paperwork, etc., expert “hackers” to design the process.
contribute to poor decision-making. Integrating the JHA It is human nature to shortcut. We’ve all on occasion cut
expectations into operational standard work will make safety diagonally across the grass instead of following the longer
and the work process more effective and efficient. route defined by the sidewalk. When safety measures become

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Think Lean to Make Safety Simpler How to Make It Stick

impediments to production or are perceived as extra and To give one of these principles a try in your organization,
employees decide to omit a step or create a work-around, the create a small working team, provide guidance and support,
results can be tragic. Short-cutting, such as skipping safety build consensus on a pilot project (a simple one), generate
steps or using the wrong tool for the job is often found in the some success and momentum, and then stand back.
chain of causes for injuries and fatalities. Peter T. Susca is the principal/owner of OpX Safety, a firm
If you have discovered “custom” job aids in your workplace that helps companies improve operational excellence by using
(e.g., tools made by employees and markings on operational safety as an organizational health bellwether. Peter has 35
controls) it’s an indication that short-cutting is present. When years of experience in environment, health and safety (EHS)
these shortcuts are discovered, it’s imperative that operational and operations leadership positions in large multinational and
leaders ensure that the root reasons are identified and included midsized manufacturing, service and construction organiza-
the process design and redesign initiatives. tions. Peter is regularly engaged in coaching leadership teams,
To get ahead of floor-level process hacking, have the hack- building effective processes and presenting at professional
ers help design the process. That’s right, make the process and industry conferences. He can be reached at opxsafety@
the shortcut, by design. One of the principles that I learned cox.net or www.opxsafety.com.
early in my leadership career is that you can’t put energy
into people. Unfortunately, for various reasons, some of the
most energetic and purposeful people will be found working ☞ To view this article online, click here
against the system. Law enforcement agencies have been able
☞ Back to table of contents
to find value in savvy lawbreakers for years, taking the best
computer hackers and putting them to work in cyber security
and investigations.
To move people from the “dark side,” start by acknowl-
edging their energy, capacity, savvy and ingenuity. Include
these folks in process design/re-design teams and give them
a stake in making the process the shortcut and shortcut-proof.
Provide the team with your organization’s quality, opera-
tional excellence, safety, etc., performance expectations and
challenge them to make the process both safer and more effec-
tive/efficient. Validate the new approach with inexperienced
employees during the most challenging operational periods.
For example, if safety seems to take a back seat at the end
of the month when your product gets shipped, this is a good
time to test the shortcut-proofing of the process.

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