Allan Kempert Discovers That Truly All You Gotta Do Is Ask
A year or so ago, I met Allan Kempert. Allan was the Quality Assurance Supervisor for a metal stamping company in Ontario, and just completed Norman Bodek's book, The Idea Generator, Quick and Easy Kaizen. As Allan explains, he couldn't put the book down because it was such a simple approach and he knew that it was going to empower the employees at his place of employment. In fact, Allan had tears in his eyes a few times while reading the book because he realized that he had come across a jewel. He spoke to the people in his department and explained how the program worked. He convinced them that it would be beneficial to the company to start a pilot program within their department.
Upon completion of the book, Allan set up an appointment with me and proceeded to convince the President and Vice-President of his company that they needed to accompany him to see how another company had implemented the process. Allan's theory is, "learn from the mistakes of others because we don't have all the time in the world to make them ourselves."
Each department in the company had a leader in the program; a team of 12 people was assembled to look at problems with traditional suggestion programs, causes and solutions. The solutions were based on Quick & Easy Kaizen and conversations between Allan and me. Allan would implement an idea system, where people implement their own ideas. This is a distinction he makes from a suggestion system, where ideas are usually submitted to a committee who either transfers it to a department to review or kills the idea. Everyone in the company was trained to the new IDEAS program. In fact, the training involved encouraging people to put forward IDEAS during the training session. This resulted in over 100 Ideas from 104 employees by the end of training.
The team conducted an effectiveness review. They developed questions and asked participants in the program as well as non-participants questions pertaining to the program. This helped to improve the program. What really stood out to the team is that by asking people to make their jobs easier, which was the main focus at the onset of the program, people commented that they felt empowered, listened to, like someone cared, happy about coming to work etc. The team also noted that the IDEAS coming in were related to not only making people's jobs easier but were also related to safety, set-up, 5S and cost savings. Allan likes to point to a statement that explains this. Mahatma Gandhi stated, "take care of the MEANS and the ENDS will take care of themselves".
While writing All You Gotta Do Is Ask, I would share thoughts and ideas with Allen. Following is one of the implemented ideas that Allan recently shared with me:
BEFORE IMPROVEMENT
Cotton rags are used to clean lubricant off machines, parts and operators hands. Employees collect rags in a fireproof can and periodically during the week, will come to a central location in the plant to count out their rags, one by one. One operator submitted and had approved an IDEA to put a small counter on his fireproof can. As he was putting rags into the can, he simply toggled off how many rags went into the can. When he went to drop off the rags at the central location, all he had to do was dump the rags.
Allan was reading the Quick & Easy Kaizen board, where IDEAS are posted for sharing, and read about the counter idea. He then encouraged an employee to speak to the person in charge of the recycling program for the rags and investigate why there was a need to count the rags at all. It turns out that approximately 15 years prior, the supplier of the rags was the only one keeping track of the rag counts and there were discrepancies. Part of the solution was to have both parties count the rags for a short period of time to determine what was happening. However, the counting continued from then on.
AFTER IMPROVEMENT
All operators in the plant have been asked to discontinue counting rags.
EFFECT
Operator's jobs are easier and from one IDEA to make an operator's job easier by adding a counter to his can, the company has uncovered over 150 hours per year to be more productive. Some people may be embarrassed that such a miscommunication would happen and feel uncomfortable sharing it. However, Allan says, "lets expose the waste without pointing fingers, reap the reward and learn from our mistakes as the only true mistakes are those which we don't learn from".
Allen continues to lead his people to find small improvements to make their job better, large improvements will also be uncovered. He was recently promoted to Assistant Production Supervisor.
Chuck Yorke is an organizational development and performance improvement specialist, trainer, consultant and speaker. He is co-author of "All You Gotta Do Is Ask," a book which explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from employees. Chuck may be reached at ChuckYorke@yahoo.com
 Google News Updated : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:51:44 GMT Pittsburgh Cancer Center Warns of Cell Phone Risks - ABC News
ABC News - By JENNIFER C. YATES and SETH BORENSTEIN AP Writers AP The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer. Red alert! The cellphone warning has been issued Pittsburgh cancer center warns of cell phone risks Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:01:03 GMT "X-Files" movie both satisfies and disappoints - Seattle Times Seattle Times - Mulder and Scully are together again in "X-Files: I Want to Believe." The story may be silly, but the agents' romance is compelling as ever. The X-Files: I Want to Believe AU Review Scully have I loved Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:01:06 GMT Dynamo top United at soggy RFK - MLS - Major League Soccer
MLS - Major League Soccer - By Charles Boehm / MLSnet.com Staff WASHINGTON -- After two aborted tries on previous dates, DCUnited and the Houston Dynamo finally completed the first of their two league meetings on Wednesday night -- and some of Thursday morning, ... Mullan, Ching power Dynamo over DC United 2-0 Dynamo outlasts United despite lengthy delay Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT Bashir Visits Darfur, Pledges Sudan Will Protect Relief Workers - Bloomberg
Bloomberg - By Paul Tighe July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Sudan's President Umar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the Darfur conflict, visited the region yesterday and pledged to provide security for international relief ... Bashir returns to Darfur How Sudan Was Brought to Court Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:39:29 GMT Obama lavished with airtime -- and criticism - Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times - As the media moves to correct itself for glowing coverage of the Democrat, it's entering a period of shallow analysis. By ON THE MEDIA, JAMES RAINEY It seems like just about everybody has spent the last week beating up on the media for showering too ... Veterans group hits McCain on troop pullout 'Generation Gap' Widens in the 2008 Electorate Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:43:11 GMT Powerful quake injures 92 in Japan - CNN
CNN - (CNN) -- A strong earthquake injured 92 people and destroyed 31 buildings in northern Japan on Thursday, authorities said. People at an auto dealership in Karumai, Japan, clean up glass shards after a strong earthquake Thursday. Japan's North Hit by Magnitude-6.8 Quake; 95 Injured (Update3) Powerful earthquake hits Japan, dozens injured Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:51:37 GMT Oklahoma determined to have a strong finish - Fort Worth Star Telegram
Fort Worth Star Telegram - By MIKE JONES "Our whole mentality now is WTLG [win the last game]," Harris said Wednesday. "Come out and finish. Itās national championship or bust. Sooner, the better Players put success on Stoops Publ.Date : Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:03:29 GMT RSS For Web Pages |
PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts,
Websites, and more... The Number One problem in business is poor communication: between... Read More What is the principal thing you need to succeed in... Read More You've seen it happen many times. An organization that provides... Read More I have been very fortunate to travel to several countries... Read More Have you unintentionally set your business up for failure?No one... Read More COMPANY/ORGANIZATIONA South Florida hospital. The CEO of the hospital saw... Read More Escalating gas prices...tensions and turmoil in the Middle East...a struggling... Read More Over the past few weeks I've been developing plans for... Read More Nearly all leaders I've encountered are underachievers. They're getting a... Read More "When you hire the best, the rest is easy!" We... Read More The day job as a manager is all about managing... Read More It is when the going gets better, that the going... Read More The title implies that some people are and others not.This... Read More Driving down the road our eyes frequently scan the vital... Read More Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today's contact... Read More Hiring the first personal business assistant is an exciting time... Read More Like many, I watched the 134th Belmont Stakes hoping to... Read More Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More You know, this would be a great business if it... Read More In a management role procrastination can seriously hold back progress... Read More A recent report from the American Hospital Association's Commission on... Read More A long time ago, I learned something about being a... Read More I've met and worked with many people in all sectors... Read More Organizations live and die by results. Yet most organizations get... Read More Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesWhat if your sales... Read More
Adsense
websites
Conquering the Number One Problem in Business--Poor Communication
What Is Business Sense?
Increasing Employee Retention Through Employee Engagement
Travel the World - for Free!
Why Businesses Fail - And What You Can Do About It!
Improving Patient Sensitivity in Doctors and Hospital Staff
Change Management: Avoid Havoc In Very Uncertain Times
Strategic Clarity for Communication Management
The Leadership Imperative: Making Your Leadership Your Life
The Four Key Steps In Hiring And Keeping Top People
Manage Your Business from the Rockies, not the Prairies
Dividing The Loot
Creative People, Innovative People
Create Your Dashboard for Success
Training and ROI (Return On Investment)
Hiring Your First Business Personal Assistant: Some Guidelines for Successful Hiring
5 Management Decision Making Lessons from a Long Shot. A Heartening Belmont Victory
Innovation Management ? how will we make the go or kill decisions?
Dealing with Difficult People
Procrastination and JDI!
Keep Your Good Workers by Building Good Leaders
Catch Your Staff Doing Something Right
Downsizing in Organisations - The Real Truth
Status Quo Pep Talks That Can Threaten Your Leadership
5 Steps to Continuous Process Improvement
Affordable and Reliable Web Hosting Starting at $4.49/Month
Problem-Solving Success Tip: Use Your Project Management Skills
Solving a big problem is a project: you're far more... Read More
Dont Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line
A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of... Read More
The Truth?
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never... Read More
The Power of ?Ask?
For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream... Read More
The Truth About Performance Reviews
Now that it is January, many of you are putting... Read More
Procrastination and JDI!
In a management role procrastination can seriously hold back progress... Read More
Quick Tip - Effective Meetings Have a Complete Agenda
Most agendas for a meeting look like this.* Budget* Payroll*... Read More
On The Job Training is Something You Canā??t Afford to Skip
Trained employees are more productive employees; thereā??s no doubt about... Read More
Performance Appraisal - Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw It Up
Performance appraisals aren't fun. But a lot of the time... Read More
Morale Boosters: Feed the Troops First
When economic conditions turn tough or when the heavy work... Read More
Avoid Outsourcing Pitfalls in the Injection Molds and Stamping Dies Markets
When looking to outsource overseas for Plastic Injection Molds or... Read More
The Communications Myth
Living in the 21st Century is truly marvelous, isn't it?... Read More
Delegation for Business Leaders - How Letting Go Works
A leader's role is to focus on those areas of... Read More
Hire The Person, Not The Resume
"? [get] the right people on the bus, the right... Read More
Organizational Structure, Creativity, Innovation
Organizational structure can inhibit or foster creativity and innovation. The... Read More
The Ivory Tower Syndrome
"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows... Read More
How to Manage Your People Well: Tips for Managers of Training
As a training manager, there are two important aspects to... Read More
Let the Professionals Help You Out - Outsource
As your website grows in terms of attracting more footfalls,... Read More
Four Employee Behaviors That Can Kill Your Business
I found it important to clarify for employees what "deal-breaker"... Read More
Profound Knowledge
We all are on a quest for knowledge. Whether its... Read More
My Companys Leadership Sucks!
Maybe it's the season or just a more buoyant job... Read More
The Inferno of the Finance Director
Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial... Read More
Preparation: Your Companys Best Defense in Case of Catastrophe
You've hung out your shingle and are ready for business.... Read More
Examining the Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction
Researchers have undertaken numerous studies to look at the connection... Read More
Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp
Service Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms... Read More
Business Management |