Samco Roll Forming Blog

Successful communication makes for a successful organization.  Keeping everyone involved with changes in the organization encourages a positive and stable work environment.  Here are a few more points to keep in mind when incorporating lean principles in the work place:

Establishing a Functional Team Work Environment

Every team member should value themselves as a key player within the group.  In turn, they should also feel accountable for their own actions if things go wrong.  Establishing trust among co-workers is critical to the success of the department or team. If one person drops the ball, team players need to ‘fess up and make things right again or quickly identify what went wrong in the process and move on.

On-Going Staff Training

Knowledge is everything.  Empowering employees with knowledge and keeping them in the loop will help them to visualize the end result. Employee training encourages loyalty between management and staff which ultimately results in reduction employee turnovers, layoffs etc.

The success of lean manufacturing emanates from all of the critical components listed above.  Lean manufacturing implementations takes time.  It is an evolutionary process that is never finished and will always have room for improvement.  Communications is an integral part of implementing your company’s visions and goals and will help to influence the idea that change is good for everyone.  Tell us your thoughts on lean manufacturing and learn more about Samco’s Lean Enterprise at www.samco-machinery.com
 

This down economy has everyone thinking about tightening up procedures and implementing or reinforcing their lean business practices.  But how is this communicated?  Is everyone on board with the changes made and do they understand it? While this may be the case for many manufacturing environments, this issue is a critical component especially for us in the roll forming business.  Often processes break down due to the lack of follow-up and knowledge given to employees resulting in productivity decline adding unnecessary impact to the bottom line.

So we’ve implemented the lean principles and now what? Survival of the fittest as they say… However, let’s not put the horse before the cart and realize this does not happen overnight.  Strategic communication methods need to take place to ensure viability of this process. 

Here are a few principles to consider when implementing lean strategies with your team that every roll former should know about it:

Change to Employee Culture

This by far, is the most challenging component, especially with tenured, long-time staff who are used to doing things the way they have been for years.  Everyone should understand the bigger picture and what steps are necessary to get there. Organizing information employee sessions like town hall meetings encourages positive change amongst staff and shows how change is good and necessary for the company to move forward. Establishing Relationships And Trust Between Management and Employees

Company leaders should look to their employees for ideas on efficiency, productivity and  profitability. Management should encourage staff to be key contributors within their team and foster an environment where everyone has the opportunity to shine and be recognized.  By showing employees how they can positively impact the bottom line, this will help create employee understanding and ownership.  By engaging team members to attend regular workshops or specialty training ie industrial machinery course,  this helps to invest in your employee and help them shine and instill the sense of self-worth and value for everyone on the team.

Stay tuned for Part II…

We’d like to hear from you.  For more information visit www.samco-machinery.com.