The last couple of years we have tried to do this with just myself and my shop foreman and to be honest, we didn't do well with it, as we kept forgetting to do this or could not get the uninterrupted time to do it right. This year I have taken a different approach and it is providing real value for the effort.
I recruited 5 key people from the shop office and production floor to be the observers and left myself out of that role (having the boss watch seems to make people nervous anyway). I shared with them what the goal was of this exercise and my counterpart from last year supported the idea, but reinforced how poorly he and I had done in the past. We then decided on our format and set up our process. I gave them some chalk (got it from you a few years ago) and we set up two circles on the fabrication floor. One in our Square production area and one in our round production area. Each team member was to spend 1/2 hour in each circle once a week. They were coached using your guidelines and asked to just write down what they observed. They could make a suggestion on their notes about a better way or a fix, but not to stop the observation until the 1/2 hour was up.
After two weeks it was voted on by the team to move the circle in the square production area, which we did last Friday. So now we will get a new perspective for that area, which is exactly what we need.
My thoughts when I set this up was to find a way to get the observations done with the least impact to daily activity. Also, since my foreman and I did not seem able to make the time last year, I needed people that we could just make it a part of their job for the week, no excuses. The real benefit I knew I would get (which is proving to be true) was the different perspectives by each of the people. Each of the team members is being given the weekly information that you send, we do a brief meeting on Friday to gather the notes for the week and you would enjoy the enthusiasm as we discuss the next weeks goal.
My plan is to compile all of the observations/notes, looking for the common ones first. Then I will meet with the team to see if these are items that need addressed or not, look at any suggestions, then decide if they are simple adjustments/fixes or long term tasks. We will then put them on our agenda for our normal weekly shop lean meeting. The team has agreed that we should carry this activity on after this month is over, so we are trying to determine the format, but agree we will continue to do this.
It has proven to be a real benefit having the people that are so busy that they do not get to just watch what is going on around them, observe. They really do see, understand the movements and are providing very good comments. Also, a couple of minor adjustments to a process or tool location were done already, by the lead person that observed the need. My only regret is that I didn't do it this way last year. Thanks
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