Burt - 40 years
experience in
manufacturing
Scenario: Treeforestal
This is a fabricated scenario of a manufacturing organisation (excuse the pun! it was
purely intentional); the scenario is not factual and any similarity to real people or
organisations is entirely coincidental.
About the business
Treeforestal is an established business providing high tech machining, welding and fabrication in aluminium. The company has a
number of established products which are used in the marine industry and also fabricates bespoke aluminium items singly or in
small production runs. There are a number of departments in Treeforestal but the main ones are: an in-house design team,
stores/logistics, bespoke fabrication, small boat line, and medium boat line. They have the usual range of supporting services in
their headquarters and have recently closed down their transport department in favour of contracting out to specialist haulage
companies.
After an initial surge in popularity the company has recently experienced a downturn in small boat orders, probably as a result of
sports fishing hobbyists not replacing their existing boats in favour of the lighter aluminium models that Treeforestal produce.
They are also aware of the larger traditional orders from environmental and local authorities have been scaled back this year as
government bodies and charitable organisations tighten their belts.
‘Burt’ the, managing director, has been through tough times before; and with 40 years experience in
manufacturing behind him he knows that he can turn this little bit of slack in the system to good advantage
in preparation for the recovery. The down side of less orders, compared with the heady days of 2007, is
that his workforce are getting less overtime; but the up side is that he now has the ability to make some
changes and retool for more efficient production... or more importantly that is what he would like to do!
Having seen staff moral plummet during the downturn in the nineties he is determined, now that he is in a
senior position, not to let it happen again!
Communication, staff engagement, morale, training, all go towards keeping the team
together; keeping his expertise, protecting the company’s investment in workforce
development. But Burt is a practical Cornishman and he isn’t going to start any of these
false staff engagement schemes or training for training’s sake!
Burt doesn’t need to restructure but he could do with looking at the efficiency of existing production, finding better ways to do
things, and smoothing the company’s manufacturing processes. Burt says “it’s always the way; we bring in a new process with all
the thought that goes into it – but later his managers never seem to be able to find the time to revisit the processes often enough
to keep it lean”.
And then there is the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’; it’s almost guaranteed that on the shop floor his experienced operatives will have some
ideas for immediate gains that will help balance the books and boost morale all round.
What Burt needs is a way of getting the production team and managers talking? Something that will bring in a number of layers
of improvement; quick gains (always good), small to medium sized improvements to existing process and practice, and will get
people into the change mode and maybe pop up a really big ‘good idea’.
Business Improvement: c4mbd making it happen
After meeting with Burt, and agreeing some ground rules that we would both stick to, Burt set his
managers to identifying five people who would have the experience and enthusiasm to make
improvements to the business. Phil and Dave are top guys; good managers and loyal members of his
management team - they would be the reporting and management chain. Phil would pick up the
project role of Improvement Manager and Dave would expand his Health and Safety Manager portfolio
to include supporting the new Business Improvement Team. Both would have daily contact with the
team and a direct line to report to the Board. Burt wanted to keep the Improvement Champion role for
himself but realistically it had to be delegated; that would go Mike the Finance Director; Mike doesn’t
play golf so he would have plenty of time!
After putting the management structure in place Treeforestal and c4mbd selected and formed the
Business Improvement Team. The four team members were selected for their breadth of knowledge
across the processes, and with their managers’ assurance that they would have the enthusiasm to
push for success. The team leader, a new supervisor from the Bespoke Manufacturing area, was
getting his first taste of project work and couldn’t wait to get stuck in with his own team.
To help them settle-in as a team the first task in the Preparation Phase was to qualify them in the
specific health and safety requirements relevant to the organisation; this got the statutory safety out
of the way before they started working on problems. By the way they were really chuffed when
they were each presented with their certificates for a nationally recognised Health & Safety
qualification!
As well as ticking other boxes for Treeforestal, getting their certificates helped the team identity; and
they could now safely go to work looking for improvements. The programme they were now
embarked on had a further four phases: Discovery, Solving, Delivery, and Measuring; by measuring
we of course mean Measuring the Success!
It is unlikely that businesses will initially be able to pull in fully trained people to a Business Improvement Team; so by
incorporating training in techniques, and practical application on the shop floor, we developed the knowledge and skills of the
team members at a manageable pace. This gave them the self-assurance to tackle each task with confidence before moving onto
the next stage of business improvement. The c4mbd managers, always with an eye on the whole process, made sure that the
planned work went in the right direction. Almost magically lining up the decisions with what the team needed to do next. Not
magic of course, just a knowledge and understanding of where the team needed to be at the end of each stage. The learning
process for the new team was to focus on one or two things at a time. This process allowed the team to gather data and facts
today, and to be shown tomorrow how to analyse that data to be used in future decision making. The magic is in not letting the
team get ahead of itself; and in helping them move forward with confidence, one step at a time. c4mbd’s aim is to maintain
enthusiasm in the team so that they don’t become overwhelmed with the whole process.
A well formed team will contain the knowledge and skills already inside the business, and
Burt’s team had this expertise which helped give them confidence for the initial activity of
identifying problems.
The team’s first brainstorming session went well and turned up some likely areas for improvement;
mostly in changing the ways things are done at the moment. This is normal, but we know that this is
only the foundation – it’s all about getting started! We all know that when we are in a new team no
one wants to be too ‘off the wall’ or suggest something a bit radical and risk getting laughed at! So
after learning some basic questioning and recording techniques the team set off to the shop floor to
research the processes they had identified for their initial research.
I am sure this is all very interesting but you probably want to know how it went?
As predicted, after the initial research the team came back with some completely different ideas on where they should focus their
improvement efforts.
We divided this research into three areas:
1.
Immediate gains: but not suitable for an improvement programme – this is the ‘low hanging
fruit’ that Burt spoke about. The team wrote a report listing these and handed it to the
Improvement Manager for action by others in Treeforestal.
2.
Problems to solve (PS): PS is a problem something like: “since we changed suppliers that tool breaks more frequently
and causes delays which are expensive; we need better tools to keep the work flow moving”. Again these problems were
written up in a report and passed to the Improvement Manager. These were not such quick fixes as the ‘low hanging fruit’
but with a little work they saved the business money and improved the manufacturing process leading to other, as yet un-
quantified gains.
3.
Finally the team identified the Problems to Find (PF): These are suitable for an
improvement programme – they represent the amount of work required to understand the
process and lead to substantial gains for the business.
These problems were first mind mapped as the team followed the process of defining the
shape and size of the issue. Now with a complete and detailed picture of the problem
various solutions were investigated and initial costs and benefits identified.
Timely Management Information
Once solutions were identified as ‘favourites’ more time was allocated to them until each solution was evaluated and resourced.
The resource plan for improvement was written and the team prepared for the next Challenging milestone... presenting their
findings to the board!
This was the first time some of the team had done any public speaking. For most it was also the first time they had spoken with
knowledge and authority to a senior manager of the company. Authority they definitely had because no one knew more about
resolving the problems and making the improvements than they did!
But it went well; they got the credit they deserved for their hard work and the board
decided to progress two of the suggestions immediately.
The third was a very well structured proposal which involved some risk to the business if it
failed; so this was given to a senior manager to deliver over the following twelve months.
It may sound as though it was a pleasant surprise to the Treeforestal managers when they attended their Improvement Team
briefing, but that was not the case; the management team had been involved throughout. The Business Improvement Team had
done the work, as they should, of providing management information: of the correct type, at the correct time, to the correct
people, and getting their feedback.
Implementation went smoothly in the hands of experienced managers, with the Business Improvement Team taking a back seat
and supporting with knowledge and information about the planned improvement. c4mbd worked with the team throughout this
phase ensuring that the Deming cycle was followed which in turn ensured that the team could collect the evidence needed for the
Business Improvement Techniques (B-IT) qualification.
Returning once more as a team the success was measured after implementation and compared with the original data to confirm
the success of the project.
(B-IT) certification followed and Treeforestal had its own qualified Business Improvement Team; a team who all know what
success looks and feels like...
A team ready to do it again, and again!
In conclusion - these are the programme phases used with Treeforestal:
1.
Mission Prep
The team formed, completed a project; “Complying with Statutory Regulations and Organisational Safety Requirements”
which resulted in a H&S Qualification for each team member
2.
Discovery
The improvement team went about discovering problems, defining them, and came up with options for solving them
3.
Solving
The improvement team evaluated solutions, resourced the chosen solutions and reported to Burt
4.
Delivery
The team went about actually delivering the Improvements decided upon
5.
Measuring
The improvement team measured and reported on the success. Each team member was recognised for their contribution
and were awarded a qualification based on their new found performance and knowledge
