by Lee Fried, on 10 Jan 2007 06:30 am
The Journey
Small Improvements Every Day
Over the next five months we will take the first step in reorganizing our Model Line processes around product lines (value streams). This means breaking down the current department centric structure and transitioning it instead into fully resourced, fully functional work cells. This includes not just production departments, but also supporting services like training and IT. I am very excited to begin implementation. For the last four months we have worked hard in developing a “master plan” that details each of the product lines from a process, people, technology and work environment perspective. We have developed our ideal system and will now work backwards to achieve it.
Through this planning it has exciting to identify just how much opportunity there is in making improvement in cost, quality and delivery. Yet, I am a little nervous that the larger organization may not completely understand what we are trying to accomplish and will get stuck in judging the work in through current paradigms. Being the Model Line we have had the benefit of a significant amount of resources being invested into this effort. With these resources comes a lot of exposure, high expectations and lots of noise. There is no doubt in my mind that we will be successful, but success needs to be measured over the appropriate amount of time. Additionally, success needs to be measured not through “big bangs” and “silver bullets”, but instead through small improvements made every day by every team that add up to huge improvements over time.
In fact, this is why the Model Line is different from the organization is used to sponsoring. We are not a project or an initiative with a specific end date. Instead, we are primarily focused on changing the way people think. We are reorganizing processes and creating a new system that will clearly allow staff to see cause and effect relationships and then have the authority to act on them. We are trying to create 700 improvement agents that will deliver results, not just a handleful of project managers and consultants.