At 10:23 PM 7/7/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Now, to my questions. I'd like to see the wisdom of this group applied
>to what happens at 7, 3, and 11, when the shifts change on the factory
>floor.
>Have any of you been involved in a team learning/systems thinking
>initiative with the workers who do assembly line work?
This has been my main focus as a consultant and for years before as QC,
IE, Dir Marketing and CEO of manufacturing companies.
>I link the two disciplines because they are both directly relevant to a
>team working an assembly line. I propose two "mental models" (to bring
>in a third discipline) at work in the minds of the members and their
>managers and engineers: a station mentality, where "I am responsible for
>the work at this station, I do what I'm told, and when the line stops I
>stand here waiting"; and a team/system mentality, where "We as a team are
>responsible for making this system (the assembly line) function to its
>full potential", and members are allowed and encouraged to move up and
>down the line, ask for help, identify bottlenecks, admit ignorance,
>challenge (or at least question) engineers, etc.
>
>How difficult is it to move from the station mentality to the team
>mentality?
Teamwork is key teams is a nice supplement. There are many successful
plans to change culture. One is summarized in my web page. Manager
priorities must change and the actions taken by higher managers drive the
priorities. Read about Bob Galvin at Motorola or the transition at Oregon
Chain Saw.
Bob Galvin did a great job of leading a change. To dive [drive?] mangers
to think across department and shift lines.
>Any unintended consequences that any of you have experienced?
We always lose a few who can not adjust to the new priorities. One
shipping supervisor left because he for years had been measured on
trucking efficiency, i.e. full trucks. In the new system he had to ship
every day with partial loads because the customer wanted daily receipts.
He could not accepted less that 100% for his part of the system and could
not relate to the whole system.
>Does management still believe that a station mentality, with its rigid
>work lists and inspection rules, produces higher quality?
Often they do. It is necessary to think about the whole system and for
them to believe that best quality and least cost occur at the same time
when the selected system works exactly right.
Another paradigm that must be changed is that long runs are efficient and
adopt new indicators of performance. Historically we have used worker or
machine efficiency. Two better measures of system performance are tow
process results quality or elapsed time in process.
>Does promoting greater interaction and teamwork produce the potential for
>greater conflict between workers, and therefore lower levels of
>performance?
If that is all you do it may.
>How great are the rewards in increased job satisfaction and increased
>output and quality by initiating a team learning/systems thinking
>initiative?
Team work alone does not assure increase productivity. Improving quality
changing the organization and management priorities cause team work and
permit teams.
>Have any of you experienced resistance from either the engineering
>profession or the "quality professionals" to a team/systems approach?
Yes it requires them to change their priorities. I have also seen the joy
of those who changed and found they were no longer the enemy.
The points you make describe the problem very well.
To make the transition one must address
Management self expectations
Management expectations and beliefs.
What they believe caused the station mentality you describe.
The measuring system
The communication system
The purpose A common, accepted, agreed upon purpose is necessary
to cross shift or department lines
Worker and supervisor training
The problem is not usually in the workers but in the historical leadership
priorities and expectations workers faced. Change those and you will
change the way workers view their work.
Apply Deming's philosophy and you can change the attitudes.
Eugene Taurman
interLinx Consulting
414-242-3345 e-mail ilx@execpc.com
fax 781-459-825
http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
IF YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE NOT PULLING TOGETHER
FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T MOTIVATE THEM.
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>