Are you re-skilling?
BY BOB KILL
Commercial fishermen, I’m told, spend time during stormy weather repairing their nets. Sometimes they build better nets or boats. Others head to the bar and bemoan their bum luck.
Most Minnesota manufacturers resist the temptation to hunker down during a recession. Instead, they focus on process improvements, leaning up operations and identifying opportunities to grow. But sometimes even they could use a little prodding.
Top tier companies are using this time to improve their processes, but also are refocusing their cultures to sustain those improvements. They know they must instill a sense of leadership, purpose and growth throughout the organization. Many are turning to a process called Training Within Industry (TWI). Made up of four programs—Job Methods, Job Instruction, Job Relations and Job Safety—TWI helps companies adapt to and sustain positive, company- wide changes resulting in bottom line operational excellence.
Sam Gould, a business consultant and process engineering specialist, put it this way: “The standard four-step methods contained in the TWI Process Modules provide the cultural transformation glue required to sustain the valuable gains captured through the Lean Manufacturing suite by providing the production supervisors and line leads the tools necessary to sustain the lean journey. Manufacturing culture is transformed through the standard tools, methods and processes that are routinely used to produce value throughout the organization.”
In fact, out of more than 600 companies that have completed TWI nationally, 55 percent reduced scrap by 25 percent, 86 percent increased production by 30 percent, and 100 percent reduced grievances by 30 percent. These statistics match the results of the 75 Minnesota companies that have implemented TWI.
Whether through TWI or another method, steps you take now to strengthen your company’s culture and sustain positive change will make you nimble and more responsive as the market recovers. As Ed Polin, lean enterprise manager at Central Container, says, “The last thing you want to do in these times is let go of your workers. Now is the time to train them, creating a work force that is skilled and poised to be even more competitive when the market turns around.”
The question is, when the market does recover, will you be scrambling to get your production up and running again? Or, will you emerge with confidence, productivity and a solid edge over the competition?