It is all about the people. You can have all the tools, principles and practices of lean and lean manufacturing down pat, but you are finding success elusive! Your most valuable asset is the people of your organization and they have to be placed as your first priority. Lean and lean manufacturing principles are truly about the people.

Take the time and watch this engaged video by Norman Bodek on respect.

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Lean manufacturing and principles have been around for years, so the ideas are not really new. However, the scope of lean and lean manufacturing principles have significantly shifted. Now, it is widely accepted beyond the factory floor and is expanding into hospitals, government agencies and service sectors. These trends are expected to continue as lean and lean manufacturing principles are put into places across a wide variety of businesses on a global scale. The problem becomes the long lasting success of new programs. Some experts estimate that the failure rate of lean implementations could be as high as 80%. Change is a difficult thing for organizations and sustaining that change can be problematic for most. For those enjoying the most success with lean and lean manufacturing principles, they have found that the main benefits are the effects it has on the people. Great people are the lifeblood of a successful lean organization because it is about keeping people first!

Keeping people first is all about changing the culture and that change starts with respect. Leaders have to be on board from the start. They have to actively engage in a way that demonstrates clearly they are engaged. Spending time with people is the best way to connect with each and every person in the organization. Listening is the key to this engagement. Manage by walking around, get to know the people and let them get to know you. Lean is about respect, and the best way to show it is by spending time together. You will find that the vast amount of people want to come to work and know they have some ownership and control over what they do. As these changes start to take hold in the organization, you will find that customer service reps take fewer angry calls, sales reps are having to explain problems less and less, and your shipping department is not rushing to complete their work at the end of the day. Simply, problems start working out over time and success becomes a real reward. We just have to keep in mind that lean and lean manufacturing principles take time. Leaders must have the focus, patience and determination to make changes over the long term. They must have a firm commitment to making sure people come first.

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Working towards a mutual goal and obtaining it will contribute to your overall work satisfaction, and ultimately happiness.

Employers Take Heed: Your Employee’s Happiness Is Your Business

A happy work environment:

• Has fewer absentees
• Less employee turnover
• Establishes company loyalty
• Increases productivity up to 31% higher

We speak about happiness and we know when we feel it, yet we can’t define happiness. We can use the metaphor of a cat’s purr — we know when it happens, but we don’t know what exactly makes a cat purr or what causes it. But at best we can all agree, different things can bring on the feeling of what we call happiness.

Even with all of the technological advances we have made, we aren’t any closer to predicting a person’s mindset, which would tell us a person’s happiness level. Ultimately all human beings like being affirmed at a job that they will have worked approximately 100,000 hours of their lifetime.

As many of you know, in Six Sigma every role and the deployment of those roles are important in their own right. So, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of said business is the overall reason for implementing Six Sigma.

Every team member (employee) is uniquely responsible for the success of the company. Information is shared with other team members so everyone is part of the ongoing communications and are on the same page. This standard of communication is kept up throughout the entire company.

As a result, if every company that existed held Six Sigma standards and kept this united front, company loyalty would be at an all time high. In addition, stress levels would be at an all time low!

Learn about our Six Sigma training courses. Learn about our Green Belt courses coming up this spring!

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You have all met those employees who procrastinate and wait until the last minute to get something done. They rush through to meet a deadline or task in hopes to outsmart those who are the powers that be.

In business, this can be a warning sign of either boredom or the employee feeling dismissed. In reality, if the company has team leaders and everyone is a specialist in their specific part of the process, boredom or laziness would never happen among employees.

There Are No Small Players in Your Business  

If you don’t believe the idea that there are no small players in your business, let’s take the example of putting together a tricycle for a child. You lay out all the nuts, bolts and screws included in the kit to put the bike together. As you build the bike, you notice that you are missing a tiny little screw. It is tiny, so you think, how important could it be…so you continue to put it together.

Well, the tricycle is now finished and looks perfect. So your child gets on it to peddle away, but wait…it won’t move! Your child cannot peddle because something is preventing them from peddling. So the entire tricycle is stopped from its function because of one tiny little screw.

So every single employee is extremely important to your business’s process, and should be held accountable for being that critical to the process. All of your employees are there because what they do is part of the collaborative effort of the success of your business.

Learn how to optimize your organization’s processes and employee productivity through Six Sigma training.

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Keeping Morale Up

Here are a few tips to maintaining employee satisfaction and keeping your employees happy:

• Have everyone on the same page: Keep communication going by including everyone on company emails, meetings, and updates. A staff member will get stressed out and frustrated when they feel like they have been left out of the loop.

• Encourage employee innovation. Even if the ideas won’t become part of the business reality, make a note, and take the time to acknowledge him/her. After all, he or she demonstrated initiative just by thinking of ways to improve your company.

• Implement a physical wellness and mental health program. Depending on the industry, having a mental healthcare professional to talk to can do a world of good. Yoga and gym memberships, as well as guided meditation, are excellent ways to keep morale up.

• Straight from Six Sigma: Survey your employees on what their needs are. Never assume that you know what is best for your employees. Offer them ongoing training and growth programs. Always show your appreciation to every employee; don’t assume employee X doesn’t need kudos because of his age or life’s experience — everyone needs to feel appreciated.

• At the end of the day, we all know that employee turnover leads to lost productivity, which is a big waste. Waste is the number one reason companies lose revenue. Investing in the health and welfare of your employees is a worthwhile cause, and you will definitely reap the benefits twofold.

 
If you would like more information on our courses or services, please visit our Six Sigma course schedule. We are still enrolling our Green Belt courses in Washington D.C., St. Louis, and Pittsburgh.

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