News | Afrilean Consulting

17 Nov

Create Enquiring Minds

The tools for developing the thinking skills of your employees will be under your nose, at your fingertips, or even hanging on your wall. You can begin to build or improve employee thinking skills and job performance with little or no cost to your business. Generally factories have a wealth of charts, pictures, graphs, processes etc. on the walls but most employees mumble when asked what these visuals are. Employees have little say on what information is displayed so no feeling of ownership and little interest. Here a team is busy creating a map to help them visually display the process they follow during a product change on their line. They used it to come up with ideas to improve a changeover process resulting in a reduced in time (56%) and reduction of start-up waste of 73%.

A number of people responded to our last newsletter asking for more information about using the brainpower of your teams to solve problems. It’s easy to talk about getting teams to think but how is it done in practice. First you must realise that you are trying to change a culture and that is going to take time. There is no quick fix. Some hints on how to simplify the process are…

Make thinking visible.
- Encourage team members to write down or draw their improvement ideas or problems. It may help to have a standard idea form and problem form.
- Use photo’s – remember a picture says a thousand words. Use arrows and captions to explain the photo.
- Use notice boards to display the ideas and problems. The more people who see the notice board the better.
- Allow everyone to write their comments on the ideas displayed this way you can brainstorm over shifts.
- Reward or recognise ideas that deliver sustainable results or financial benefits.
Challenge the team. Get them to solve specific problems starting with relatively simple ones progressing in difficulty.
Teach teams simple problem solving tools
- Make a habit of asking questions. (5 Why analysis)
- Use a Matrix – not only is it good for gathering and sorting information but it also inspires creative thinking and problem solving.
Involve the team in practically testing and communicating their ideas.

Given the chance people naturally try to improve their lives and make their work easier. All your teams need are the tools to help them improve and lots of support. The results will be amazing and sustainable.

17 Nov

Pit Stop – 1950 vs 2012

20 Oct

THINK before you speak!

You often hear people talk about ‘thinking before you speak’…specially related to thoughtless comments, incorrect assumptions or not thinking through things before commenting. In fact one of my favourite sayings is “Put your brain in gear before you open your mouth”.

Customer facing staff are particularly vulnerable. A while ago I found a notice posted on the communication board in an administration office spelling out the value of ‘Thinking before you speak’.

T – Is it True? Always be certain that product or service information given out is correct. In your customers eyes you are the expert. Make sure what you are about to say is true and not market gossip. Many business and personal relationships are damaged, some irreparably, by untrue comments. If the information is found to be incorrect or untrue then you will lose face in your customers eyes and be considered unreliable.
H – Is it Helpful? If the information you pass on is helpful to your customer it will hold their attention and build trust. It will also increase your expert power with your customer, making you a person they want to talk to.
I – Is it Inspiring? We always want to spend time with people that inspire us. Your customers are no different. Look for ways to inspire them to improve their business.
N – Is it Necessary? Your customers are always busy so don’t waste their time with unnecessary or irrelevant information. They will quickly get distracted and move on to the next issue or sales person. If you do this regularly customers will start avoiding you.
K – Is it Kind? Never say bad things about your opposition. There is a real danger that the negativity will rub off on you or your product.

08 Oct

To TAG or not to TAG

Tagging News Flash! Following one of my presentations, I recently received a slide show on the ‘Red Tag’ system put together by one of the shop floor team members. He presented his slide show to all the teams in the department and with their help is now rolling the system out onto the floor. The production staff is working together with the engineering and electrical departments. Their target is to reduce the faults on the equipment by 60% within 3 months. This will obviously depend on available spares and time. Their aim is to reduce breakdowns and in doing so make everyone’s jobs easier. The bonus will be an increase in production time and reduced waste.

Comment! Faulty equipment is often a huge irritation to the production and maintenance team’s. It often leads to the team’s having to work harder as well as losing production time. There is a very simple way to rectify this situation and that is by using the Red Tag System. The advantages are numerous:

Anyone can place a tag, which means that fault finding becomes everybody’s responsibility.
Tagging can be done at a pace and time that does not impact on production.
When people start to look for faults / improvements it results in a better understanding of the equipment.
Equipment is kept cleaner.
Non-technical staff attends to minor faults such as loose cables and loose/missing nuts.
Action lists help team members to take responsibility and to work to specific time lines.
Teams feel empowered and as a result take ownership of the equipment.
Teams are also more accountable.
The process builds good working habits and improves inter departmental communication.
The equipment becomes more reliable and as a result operation and life cycle cost will be reduced.

Remember you are changing a way of thinking. It takes some time so persevere.