Is there a S.W.I. for that, or do you just wing it ?
Do you think that maybe if terminals would enforce putting thing back when done, o maye hiding responsible employees everything would be in order. Or how about this, bring back building maintainance, because really that is all it boils down to. And as far as drivers embracing lean, at our barn it just feeds them unlimited o.t.
I re-read my post and I found that I forgot an important word. Where it says I think Lean can work here like at Toyota, I meant to say do not, I do not think it will work here like at Toyota. I do think LEAN goes beyond building maintainance and just putting things back in there place.
Where do I put the broom and shovel? I need signage , please help......
Song, with all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about.
Well, speaking from my own experience as a lean process owner and from observing what other process owners are doing, I'd have to say we've made some big improvements at our facility. We've organized our OS&D area to where it's uses less dock space while at the same time giving us the ability to process more freight, efficiency. We've organized our placard storage areas to where all standard placards are readily available at each sector stand and every sector stand is identical to the other as to placard organization. We've also made it easy to quickly identify required placards so as to save time searching. Engagement and efficiency. We've organized our dock so that all assets such as rug poles, drum pickers and such are at the same place near each sector desk, making them easy to find as well. I could go on, but there is too much to say. We had our skeptics, like you, when we first started the lean journey, but now some of those skeptics are coming to those of us on the lean team and expressing their satisfaction with how our processes have smoothed out and they are participating in offering and engaging in future projects. We have before and after pictures of everything we've done and when I look at those, I can see the positive difference our hard work has produced. I suppose there will always be doubters and that's ok, they can't avoid benefitting from the improvements we've made. I'm proud of our team, our process owners, 5S checkers, and everyone else involved, we truly have made our terminal better than it was before we started.
It's all good, I'm not trying to make you a believer, I was just citing the positive changes that have happened in my workplace over the course of the last year. All I can really say to address your post is that LEAN is only going to work as well as the people who participate in it, we just happen to be fortunate enough to have exceptionally good people where I work.
IMO, lean will not work as they want it to. I feel it should be used in stable, static processes that don't change from day to day. It will never work for freight, and it was a complete waste of money to try. You want to standardize the office, filing system, parts sheds, maintence system? Great! Those should be all the same. I have lost count of how many times I have fought with dock workers and supervisors over lean loading practices ....
