If I Had A
Hammer...
By Mike Brown
Does anybody remember that
song?
I was recently speaking with a client about a plant relocation project
they were considering. We were discussing the many facets of the project and some of the opportunities for change that can be gained during
this process. Company leaders rarely have an opportunity to completely re-layout their facility and make significant process changes like
you can accomplish during a relocation. But the client said something to me that I found very simple but profound. He said: “I wish we
could not only change the place where we are running our business, but also how we are running our business.” In other words,
change not only the physical location of where and how work takes place but also the mental aspects of how we do our work.
Two thoughts
After a little thought, I
realized how much easier it is to change the physical aspects of a manufacturing facility than it is the mental aspects. I also realized two
things: 1) If we worked as hard at changing the way we do work as we do at making a relocation successful, we would probably increase our success
significantly; and, 2) in many cases, if we were even moderately successful at changing the way we do our work, we might not have to worry
about some of the situations that require us to relocate our facilities.
Why Not Here? Why Not Now?
The bottom line: the time and
effort spent in focusing on how you do the work in your facility is critically important. If you would spend months in planning and
millions of dollars in relocation costs to successfully move a plant to a “better” location, why would you not spend a million dollars
per year to ensure you are continually improving the physical and mental capabilities of your current organizations/facilities - making your current
location a “better” location. Is it because it is not visual – we cannot see the change as readily? Is it because it
is harder to ‘account’ for people/mental investment than it is for physical assets? Why is this so hard for us?
The Learning Organization
One of the key aspects of the
“Toyota Production System” is their approach to developing a “Learning Organization”. This whole attitude is a
tremendous contributor to the successful use of the lean manufacturing tools that we all emulate. We Americans are always concerned about which
tools we have in our tool box and which one do we use next. The Japanese spend a lot of time focusing on the “Carpenter” –
the user of lean tools. We want a “Continuous Improvement Program” as a tool to help us implement change. Toyota wants a
“Continuously Thinking and Growing Workforce” who implements change as a way of doing business.
What Will You Choose?
So, back to the
client’s comment – when you are relocating a facility, it is a great time to implement significant mental and business changes just as
it is for making physical changes of the facility. However, we must realize that the physical change is the easy part. It will take more
reflection, time, effort, work, and money to develop the mental/cultural changes to ‘how we do our work’,
than it will to 'where we do our work'. When TAG talks about it being hard to ‘change your business while you run your
business’, the habits and culture are significantly harder to change than the physical location. Unfortunately, an even bigger problem
can result when we drag our old culture and habits into a new location. It all gets back to value – is the value in the hammer or the
“hammerer”, the tool shed or the cabinet maker, the plant and process or the people? Where are you making your
investments?
