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October 2006
This Issue:
Lean Defined... if Lean isn't just Lean Manufacturing, what is the definition of Lean?
NeON... learn about the Northeast Ohio Network for Labor Management Cooperation.
Excellence in Non-Profit Community Service... what do organizations like WINOC have to do to achieve excellence?
Northeast Ohio Manufacturing Summit... mark November 17th on your calendar.
Texas Reaches out to WINOC... WINOC's education resources are out there for all to use at www.sir.winoc.org.
Coming Events... see right panel.
Lean Manufacturing is all about getting the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity while minimizing waste and being flexible and open to change. But lean is much more than just Lean Manufacturing. Though usually thought of in terms of manufacturing, Lean principles, philosophy and tools are also applicable to design and other "white collar" processes.
The seminal book "Lean Thinking" by Womack and Jones, introduced five core Lean concepts:
1. Specify value in the eyes of the customer.
2. Identify the value stream and eliminate waste.
3. Make value flow at the pull of the customer.
4. Involve and empower employees.
5. Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.
Such "Lean Thinking" portrays Lean as a holistic, comprehensive, enterprise-wide program designed to be integrated into the organization's core strategy. Thus the most effective way to launch and sustain lean activities requires recognition of Lean as a leadership led change process. The so called "Toyota Way," popularized by Dr. Jeffrey Liker's book of the same name, emphasizes the creation of the right kind of environment in which to grow and support Lean Thinking.
Lean Manufacturing typically focuses on reduction of the seven wastes of over-production, waiting time, transportation, processing, inventory, motion and scrap. Lean Design recognizes that most costs are assigned when a product or service is designed. Lean methods have also been successfully applied in other areas as well, including software engineering, healthcare, sales and accounting.
Tools such as constant process analysis and improvement (kiazen), mistake proofing (poka-yoke), cycle-time reduction, etc. are generally applicable to all areas where Lean concepts are applied.
Additionally, Toyoto found that implementing a mentoring process was an effective way to foster Lean Thinking up and down the organization. This is like the concept of Lean Sensei, which encourages companies, organizations, and teams to seek out outside, third-party "Sensei" that can provide unbiased advice and coaching.
If you would like to learn more about Lean please contact us.
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The Northeast Ohio Network for Labor and Management Cooperation... by Bob Meyer, Executive Director, Northeast Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation (NEOCLMC)
The
Northeast Ohio Network for Labor and Manag
ement Cooperation (NeON) in
the workplace is a group of non-profit service providers from Canton,
Kent, Elyria, Mansfield and Medina that cover 20 counties in northeast
Ohio. They provide customized training and consulting to unionized
organizations, especially manufacturing. Their specialties include: change-management, culture-change,
small group/interest-based problem solving and facilitation of employee
involvement and team building. They help enhance the effectiveness of Lean
and Six Sigma productivity and quality change processes by facilitating
communications and trust-building between union and management leadership.
The partners in this mission are:
Northeast Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation (NEOCLMC) at WINOC, Medina, Ohio. [www.neoclmc.winoc.org ]
Great
Lakes Organized Labor Management Council (GLOLMC) at Lorain County
Community College, Elyria, Ohio. [www.GreatLakesOLMC.org]
Ohio
Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. [http://dept.kent.edu/oeoc]
Northeast
Ohio Labor Management Council, Canton, Ohio. [www.wei-ssc.com]
Employee
Participation Council of North Central Ohio, Mansfield, Ohio.
To learn more please contact us in Canton, in Elyria, in Kent, in Mansfield or in Medina.
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Excellence in Non-Profit Community Service... by Dr. Hira L. Fotedar, Chairman - WINOC and President - Fotedar Associates LLC
These days non-profit service organizations face significant challenges to meet their members' and constituents' growing needs and expectations. But through the active participation of elected officers, staff, members and volunteers, non-profits can be excellent, enduring and growing organizations.
As Peter Drucker, the renowned management guru notes in Managing the Non-profit Organization: Principles and Practices, "Today, we know that the non-profit institutions are central to American society… We know the ability of government to perform social tasks is very limited indeed. But we also know that the non-profits discharge a much bigger job than taking care of specific needs….They also exemplify and fulfill the fundamental American commitment to responsible citizenship in the community." Continued below.]
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Northeast Ohio Manufacturing Summit... by Bob Verhoff, Executive Director, Great Lakes Organized Labor Management Council (GLOLMC)
The North East Ohio Network for Labor and Management Cooperation (NeON), the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (WAI), Lorain County Community College (LCCC), and MAGNET are excited to announce its collaboration to provide a no-charge North East Ohio Manufacturing Summit on November 17, 2006 at the Lorain County Community College Spitzer Conference Center. Unionized manufacturing companies, their management and their union leaders should attend this important event. [Full story below]
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Texas Reaches Out for WINOC's School Improvement Rubric (SIR)
The Texas High School Project plans to use the WINOC-developed School Improvement Rubric (SIR) as a means of assessment and planning to be shared with the staff and advisors of the Texas High School Project. The SIR was developed by WINOC for the East Regional School Improvement Team (ERSIT). The ERSIT serves the counties of Ashland, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit and Wayne.
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Events
November 2nd 2006
November 13th 2006
Best Practices Plant Tour of MTD and Shiloh, sponsored by MAGNET
November 17th 2006
Northeast Ohio Manufacturing Summit,
[See the article about the Summit to the left.]
December 7th 2006
Learn the power of Lean hands on!
December 7th 2006
Value Engineer your product design process!
January 26th 2007
WINOC Manufacturing Forum - Once scheduled, information on the next Manufacturing Forum will be posted at www.winoc.org/programs.html and notice will be sent to COMMUNICATOR Subscribers.
For other programs and events of potential interest to WINOC COMMUNICATOR Subscribers, such as those sponsored by MAGNET or WINOC Partners, go to our Public Programs Calendar and/or to our Partner News and Events page.
For further information on Programs and Events contact us at Programs@winoc.org.
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Contact WINOC WINOC 445 West Liberty Street, Suite 225 Medina, Ohio 44256 Tel. 330.725.4885 Fax. 330.721.2933
Or email our staff at AdvServ@winoc.org Dee Holody for Sales and Marketing Bob Meyer for Labor Management and Programs Don Plante for Advisory Services and operations Maty Jo Lupica for financial matters
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continued Excellence in Non-Profit Community Service... by Dr. Hira L. Fotedar
Although each non-profit organization has its own unique issues and challenges, there are some basic best practices that all non-profit organizations can adopt in their pursuit of excellence.
1. Learn from others: Non-profits can learn a lot by benchmarking each other and benchmarking business organizations such as Toyota, United Way etc. that are driving performance excellence in order to satisfy their stakeholders' needs. In these organizations excellence begins with the mindset starting at the top leadership and shared by all. These organizations embrace change and imagine a different future that sets them apart from their competitors or rivals in the world. These organizations develop and implement strategies, processes, systems and best practices that create a culture of excellence that keeps all people in the organization involved, informed and enthused to be the best in their business, industries and communities.
2. Assess yourself against a best-in-class standard: The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence is such a standard. It is well proven that organizations that score well against the Baldrige Criteria outperform organizations that do not. The Baldrige Criteria promotes the development of high performing, high integrity and ethical organizations in business, education, health care, government and non-profit. The National Baldrige Award Program is operated out of the US Department of Commerce (see www.quality.nist.gov). The State of Ohio Baldrige award program, called the Ohio Award for Excellence is operated by the Ohio Partnership for Excellence (see www.oae.org).
By assessing actual performance with respect to the Criteria, organizations can get good feedback regarding their strengths and areas for improvement. By working on areas of improvement, organizations can drive excellence in their core competencies to satisfy their stakeholders' needs and expectations.
3. Engage all staff and volunteers: One of the defining features of excellent organizations is their ability to engage, empower, enable and involve their people through TEAMWORK. Toyota has developed a culture that is non-blaming and non-judgmental. Decisions are based on facts and consensus. Employees are trained in problem solving and decision making tools and are expected to drive continuous improvement in every thing they do. Google involves its engineers in brainstorming sessions to come up with innovative ideas for new products making it one of the most innovative companies in the world. There is a grocery store called Whole Food Market that uses its people in small teams to manage all aspects of its business. This approach has been so successful that Whole Food Market has grown for the last 25 years into a highly profitable 181 store chain with more than $3.8 billion annual sales.
4. Attract and motivate staff and volunteers: Many non-profit organizations are staffed by volunteers who unlike for-profit businesses donate their time free. They are motivated by a different set of criteria rather than making money. These people are highly confident, successful people who trust each other. They are courteous, kind and honest in dealing with each other. These volunteers are passionate about the mission of their organization. They enjoy the camaraderie and teamwork associated with working with people who share in the same mission. They have a dream and they want to make a difference. In order for these volunteers to excel in community service they need an organization that respects them, recognizes their time and efforts and shares in their vision and has a structure of governance that is ethical, fair and transparent.
The first step in attracting and motivating volunteers in any organization is to have a clear vision and mission and governance system to execute the mission. This includes an effective board, strategic planning, risk management, forging partnerships with other organizations, fund raising as well as attracting and motivating volunteers through reward, recognition and growth.
To accomplish excellence in community service the highly effective volunteers nurture win/win relationships, practice principles of communication that are empathic and courteous. They practice creative cooperation and are willing to go the distance in achieving goals and objectives by blocking, tackling and running interference for each other.
5. Develop interpersonal and teamwork skills: Non-profits especially rely on networking and effective networking relies on good interpersonal relationships and teamwork.
For volunteers to be effective and achieve excellence in their community service they will need strong interpersonal skills and competencies in areas such as trusting relationships, listening, open communication, ability to work in teams, empowerment, consistent reward and recognition, training and education, ethical behavior, embracing diversity and risk taking. They need to role model their organization's values…walk the talk.
Regardless of individual beliefs, these soft skills instill passionate, positive and productive behaviors that are essential ingredients to drive excellence in our private or public life and make a difference through TEAMWORK. Everybody according to Tolstoy wants to change humanity-but nobody wants to change himself or herself. We should look for ways to compliment and recognize each others achievements and support each other. It serves no purpose to blame each other for our difficulties.
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A Definition of Excellence
Top performance distinction, superiority; feature of an organizational entity that manifests how incomparably excellent it is when assessed adhering to success criteria; excellence refers always to excellent performance concerning something, e.g. in relation to one’s own goals, competitor’s performance, or best in the world.
EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, and NOBODY had an important job to do.
EVERYBODY knew that SOMEBODY would do it. ANYBODY could have done it but NOBODY did. SOMEBODY got angry when s/he found out about it, because it should have been done by EVERYBODY. The result was that EVERYBODY thought that ANYBODY would do it and NOBODY realized that SOMEBODY could NOT do it.
In the end, SOMEBODY reproached EVERYBODY because NOBODY did what could have been done by ANYBODY.
continued Manufacturing Summit.. by Bob Verhoff
The Summit will introduce attendees to the skill standards, assessment, and training established by the Manufacturing Skill Standard Council (MSSC). The opportunity to utilize these standards at the workplace is beneficial to union and management. The identified skill areas are Safety, Manufacturing Processes and Production, Quality Practices and Continuous Improvement, and Maintenance. The manufacturing skills that are important to employers are also very beneficial to employees because they are portable through the MSSC certification process.
The Summit will also give a perspective on Lean Manufacturing and touch on other tools that can improve the competitive advantage to unionized manufacturers. In addition, a panel will discuss accessing the public system for financial support for training needs. Important resources to the manufacturing base in Northeast Ohio will give overviews of their ability to assist companies and unions working closely together towards high performance work systems.
The Summit is intended to be informative to leadership from union and management. It is the hope of all the partners that it initiates important dialogue at every unionized manufacturing facility to search for creative solutions to compete in the marketplace. Union leaders are encouraged to invite their management team and vice versa to attend this free Summit - lunch will be provided.
The manufacturing industry is a key component to the economic viability of North East Ohio. Join other leaders in the industry to explore new avenues of success.
For agenda details and a registration form please click here. For more information or inquiries contact Bob Verhoff at rverhoff@lorainccc.edu or 440-366-4003.
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WINOC activities are partially subsidized through a grant from the Ohio Labor Management Cooperation Program (OLMCP) of the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) to operate the Northeast Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation (NEOCLMC).
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