Competing Money, where you make itThe operational side of income and loss is the subject of this podcast, not the accounting side.
Manufacturers make or lose money on the shop floor. The shop floor is where you can see problems (not having what we need when we need it, the wrong thing, quality, people, information and machinery issues). These issues become obvious when we directly observe conditions.
Distribution centers are frequently focusing on reducing travel distance per transaction. Too much travel, too much time, too many touches, and too much cost. You can notice these by directly observing.
Healthcare issues can be associated with poor handoffs. Progressive movement through the value stream can be directly observed.
Food service issues relate to varying levels of demand, adjusting capacity, good handoffs, clear instructions and meal quality. All of these can be noticed by directly observing.
Most of us are very well connected to the outer world……smart phones, ipads, laptops. We get emails every minute and maybe texts just a frequently. It is quite easy to get sucked in to this physically isolated, Ethernet world as we are constantly bombarded by non-important information, most of which we cannot possible assimilate. Too much information sometimes leads to feeling of overwhelmed…….not something that will benefit your or your business objectives in any way.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could break our addition from the “Ethernet world” at least partially? Then we would have more time to spend at gemba, helping your team create value easier.
How can we lead when we don’t fully understand, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, what is going on at “gemba”? (the actual place where value is being added).
Benefits from spending more time at gemba include:
Up to the minute understand of the challenges confronting your team.
A clearer, faster understanding of the root cause of problems, as you arrive at a problem shortly after it occurred.
Making decision based on facts not data (how accurate is your data anyway?)
As the manager/supervisor you are “in the fight” with your team. Your team will notice and appreciate your efforts. A future podcast will speak to issues created by “command and control” managing, but fact finding, assisting, coaching and mentoring are keys to creating a more interactive and effective culture. As leader, manager, supervisor or lead person culture is your responsibility, not your teams.
