Owning Their Solution in the Weld Shop

I have conducted many workplace organization Kaizens (5S) over the years. The results have always been dramatic. All of the teams were made up of production operators or office workers, with some mechanics assisting the team. The production operators or office workers owned the areas needing organization and the mechanics were able to do some of the more complex tasks needed during the Kaizen. All of the teams, that is, until I met my Weld Shop team. Five mechanics and an engineer, who underestimated what we could accomplish.

Let me tell you about a typical mechanic on a Kaizen team. He or she is there to support the team, but not usually vested in the improvement process. Most of the time, they participate in the Kaizen and do great work, but sometimes they aren’t interested in being there, and would rather be doing their “normal” job. Facilitating a Kaizen with a team where some of the members were this way was not new for me, but having the entire team this way was. The good news was the area we were going to be working on would directly impact their safety and productivity. The better news was they had a supervisor, acting as the team leader, who was extremely excited about the possibility of improving the weld shop. And the best news was I could leverage their pride and competitive nature to turn their existing Weld Shop into a show place for all the world to see. Only if I could get them to own the improvements, of course.

When I run a 5S Kaizen, I do it step by step. On the first day of the Kaizen, after training the team in all of the S’s, we took a walk in the space we were going to organize. I asked the team to identify things we could remove first – the clutter. This is the first S.  I asked many questions and they identified the items to be removed while I took photos. Then, after removing all of the clutter, we decided on the best locations for anything remaining in the space. We did this in an organized fashion and I had team members demonstrate how each new location would be safer and more productive than the old location. This is the second S – Set in Order. Following this, we made sure that everything left in the shop was in the best possible shape. We did this by cleaning and inspecting all tools, equipment, materials, and storage spaces. If we found something in disrepair, we either fixed it or replaced it. We relied on everything in the area to work, so we took great care. This is the third S – Shine.

The first three S’s, Sort, Set in Order, and Shine, are the most physical, dramatic, and fun parts of the Kaizen. By the time we got to the fourth and fifth S, the team was extremely energized and the area looked dramatically different from where we started. Here’s an example: Before we started the Kaizen, you had to enter the Weld Shop and walk about 30 feet to turn on the lights. To get to the light switch, you had to navigate in the dark through all of the clutter in the hopes of finding the switch without running into something. In some of the initial “before” photos, you couldn’t tell there was a light switch on the wall at all. During the evening of the second day of the Kaizen, we relocated the light switch to the entrance of the Weld Shop, on an outside wall. Lights could now be turned on before entering the shop, eliminating the safety risk of navigating in the dark to the switch.

The fourth S is Standardize. For this step, the team was tasked to create a managing system to ensure the improvements they made would continue to live on, be supported and requirements followed by everyone using Weld Shop in the future. This was not a physical exercise. It was a mental and paper exercise. Teams typically create checklists, sign-off sheets, signs, and audits that must be followed by anyone using the area. To mechanics, this is “paperwork”, and although it has more than four letters, it might as well be a four-letter word. This is the last thing they wanted to work on, and I knew that. I also knew that this was the most important step, as their improvements would deteriorate back to the “before” condition if not done properly and completely. The real trick would be for the team to own their solution and not just go through the motions. I had a plan, but it was risky. I needed to facilitate an emotional event, so the team would create and own their managing system.

On the morning of the third day of the Kaizen, after congratulating the team on the improvements of the first two days, I explained this would be “Standardize and Sustain Day”. They looked at me with grumpy faces as I showed them examples of checklists and audits other teams had developed. They were not impressed, to say the least. In fact, they didn’t believe simple pieces of paper would keep people from messing up all of their good work. I showed them examples of how teams made these documents visible and established responsibility all the way up to plant leadership. They were still not buying it. I needed to push them further.

I showed a slide of a checklist, going line by line over each requirement. I could see the discomfort and frustration in their faces. I was on line eight of the checklist when one of the mechanics, whose face was beet red said, “Adam, we’ve had enough of your paperwork. We’re going to the smoke shack. You can’t come with us. We’ll figure it out and then we’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” All of the team members stormed off and left me in the meeting room by myself. I had facilitated the significant emotional event. I didn’t really know if they would ever come back, and if they did, what would they come back with?

It felt like two hours, but it was only twenty minutes when all of the team members returned to the meeting room. They looked pretty proud of themselves as one of them declared, “Adam, we’re going to tell you what we’re going to do. We’ll talk and you type.” They listed eleven things they wanted on “their” checklist. They were similar to what I had presented, but it was in their words and it was their ideas, and that’s all that mattered. I thanked them for coming up with such a well-thought out checklist and then challenged them to develop the system to ensure everyone would use it properly and not “pencil-whip” it. This is the fifth S, Sustain. Enthusiastic and full of pride, the team developed a visual Area Owner board, with all of the required documents easy to find and to use. Then they set up daily and weekly requirements for the area users, the Area Owner, and members of the plant leadership team.

On the final day of the Kaizen, the team shared their results with the plant leadership team and some executives visiting from their corporate office. It’s not unusual for mechanics to shy away from presenting in front of an audience. In this case, all team members spoke from their hearts and explained how important it would be to support and sustain all of their good work, which was improving safety and productivity for them and the rest of the plant. They even asked the executives to hold the team and plant leadership accountable to keep this good thing going and spread this effort to other areas of the plant.

After the presentation was over, I spent a few minutes with the team, getting their final thoughts about the Kaizen. Happy with the results and most aspects of the Kaizen, they told me they wished I had been more assertive with them during the week. We laughed as I told them I wasn’t sure they were coming back to the meeting room after storming out on Standardize and Sustain Day. They told me it was just the motivation they needed to get to their solution.