All
the training is useless. All the efforts get lost. Improvements do not stay in
place. People get discouraged. The morale is diminished. Progress does not
consolidate.
All
these and more calamities as a result of – Not Following Up!
Why
do we not follow up? We simply do not seem to have that habit! That is
perhaps one of the most important aspects that we will have to incorporate
in the new culture. As I have said many times and will keep saying; TPM
and all the other Lean Practices are cultural, more than technical.
Acquiring
the habit of following up on our projects, whatever the size of them, will
create permanent results. If we do it on purpose for a few weeks, we
will form the habit. Then it will be a part of our new way of
conducting business.
When
we finish a Kaizen, the real improvement has just begun. It is like a
newborn, a little defenseless creature. If we just take it for granted
that the creature is alive and abandon it, what will happen to it? You
know the answer. You will have wasted an opportunity for real progress.
A
few months ago I had the privilege of working with a company that has a
perfect structure to this regard. We had a very successful Kaizen event
with multi-million potential results, and it is still alive! It is not by chance that it is succeeding and
spreading success to other areas in the plant. They are aware of the
tremendous power of Following Up!
This
company has an excellent full time Continuous
Improvement Manager. She has maintained the high level of involvement with
the team and the team has bonded in such a way that they are really
enjoying each step of the success. Not only that, they are already
enthusiastically helping
other areas to become involved in setup improvements. The results
in the long run will be exponential.
The secret
is Not To put someone in charge of the Follow-Up action, but have the
whole team involved in a project, "own it" and "be proud of
it." They will self-audit, and make sure improvements not only stay,
but keep improving. That is what Kaizen is All about!
That is the kind of structure that we
all have to procure and facilitate in our businesses. Whatever you are
doing, have the right people be in charge of the follow up; make sure
their ideas take the right shape and become
reality. This is particularly important when we are bringing into play
revolutionary ideas such as TPM or Lean Manufacturing.
Follow
Up, and enjoy the results!
Please also read: Sustainability
Again! That 5th "S"
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