Quality Circles and Kaizen are teams working on a problem that needs to eliminated or fixed. The difference is Quality Circles are teams that are usually a work team wanting to learn and work as a unit to make progress on an issue that is in their own area over time. Kaizen teams are usually a team that is assigned a project to work full time and fix a problem fast.

The power of Quality Circles and Kaizen teams

Empowering a team to use each member’s synergy to build a better solution to an issue is to have them play meaningful roles in their organizations, hence improving the quality of their work.

How Leadership Initiatives implements Quality Circles and Kaizen training

1. Either group leaders or entire teams are brought together for training
2. They are trained on a step by step process that will drive them to their solution
3. Step one is understanding what the actual focused issue they working on.
4. Determine what is causing the issue, and proving the cause
5. Look for possible solutions to eliminate the problem
6. Select the best solution
7. Present the findings and solution(s) to management for approval.
8. If approval is given, the team participates in the labor to implement the solution
9. Solution is live tested to complete the project.

5S stands for: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain. It is a system for organizing spaces into efficient, effective and safe environments. The methodology promotes keeping everything clean and in its place, resulting in less time wasted, less injuries, reduction in overstock of materials and improved worker morale.

3 steps of 5S

1. Work teams go through a one hour training class
2. Each worker is tasked with a area or office to complete a 5s improvement
3. Workers report to supervisors what their 5s project was and how they will sustain the implementation

5S and Suggestion Systems

Suggestion Systems are a way for workers to share the ideas that they have for the company. There are great Suggestion Systems if done well, but many Suggestion Systems fail if improperly managed. 

We believe that every worker, no matter what their daily job is, has at least a million dollars of ideas that could save the company money.

Implementing Suggestion Systems

1. A discussion is held with company executives and HR to talk about the feasibility of the Suggestion Systems and what motivational ideas can be used.
2. Implementation of some sort of form or electronic way for workers to present their ideas for approval.
3. Management approval is sought/given.
4. Workers must participate with the implementation of the project. If others are needed, managers need to find time to get everyone together to complete the project.

Visual Plant refers to the visual cues utilized in a Lean environment to quickly and accurately share production, quality and safety numbers that are useful to plant floor or office workers.

This empowers workers with the performance knowledge within their work area. Workers can help improve work areas when they know what areas are suffering.

Implementing Visual Plant

1. Discussions are held with Management to decide what information would be relevant to the workers and how is the best way to share it visually with them (Electronically, Paper, boards, Etc)
2. Forms of visual sharing is purchased or acquired.
3. Discussions are held with teams on WHAT-WHY-HOW of the boards. If workers think other numbers or charts would be helpful, those ideas are also discussed and implemented.
4. Owners of the numbers must update the visual boards daily
5. The board is audited once a month for completeness.

Operation Standards is a formal written step-by-step description of each process of either production or office process. Most customers usually require these while doing PPAP or FMEAs. And this is not something that is already built.

Operation Standards are only useful if the workers agree on the steps and are used to keep the process in check. If something in the process changes, the changes are noted and workers sign off that they know of the change.

Implementing Operation Standards

1. Using the actual workers to develop the steps of the process including the quality standards – they are written and placed in some form of file to be retrieved or reviewed.
2. Process standards are then put into electronic format and stored for future use.
3. When changes occur to a process, a change form is filled out and the process steps are changed electronically.
4. An audit should be performed once a month to confirm correctness.

Team Building / Communication exercises are a group of fun participative exercises that a team does to learn trust and work together.

Whether it is a new work team, a project team or any other group of people that have to work together to attain a goal, these exercises are  to learn about each other and grow trust levels in a fun setting. Teams that have good trust and communication skills achieve 3 times the normal work if done in a group setting.

Implementing Team Building / Communication exercises

1. Call for a free consultation
2. Arrange a time and place for the exercise to commence.
3. Team members go through the exercises
4. Each team will give feedback of their learning after each exercise.

Leadership Skills is specialized training for those who have people for which they are responsible for their safety and productivity. These are short segments for learning impactful methods of increasing motivation, morale and productivity.

New and even seasoned managers or supervisors are always looking for skills and techniques they can use to motivate their work teams. But, don’t underestimate the change an individual experiences when being promoted to a managing role for the first time – having a good leadership skillset goes a long way to keeping themselves out of trouble.

Levels of leadership training vary greatly with each individual

The competency level of your management’s leadership skills is directly reflected in your morale and profitability.  We offer leadership training classes via zoom, existing online webinars and we also provide ongoing coaching packages as needed. Our subject matter includes:

1. Communicating in todays electronic world
2. Leading others
3. Meetings that make sense
4. How to delegate without pulling rank
5. Priority and Managing your time
6. Resolving conflicts
7. Making rational decisions
8. Stopping potential problems
9. Others

Every company has issues that are unique to their own situation

Companies are made up of various people utilizing emerging technologies in an ever-changing economic landscape. It’s likely you have some unique problems and circumstances.

Steve specializes in designing and delivering company-specific skill building sessions for the situations you wish to address. Please contact us for a discussion how to best solve your issue.