Technician's Corner
Increase Your Profits by Talking
By Greg Mattson, RTPO
Streamlining the production process by getting organized seems simple enough, right? Organize one area of the shop, apply some rules to keep it clean and functioning and your job is done.
Actually, it’s not so simple. Since changes made to organize the fabrication job flow process can hinder employees not associated with fabrication, even small changes in the lab can affect the whole company.
So put down that broom. Cleaning up is not the first place to start in the organization process; communication is. Let’s talk about ways you can improve company communication.
Get everyone in the loop
Step back and look at the business we’re in. There are three distinct groups: front office, patient care and fabrication. All three groups need to communicate so all affected employees understand where, when, why and how organizational changes will be implemented. Each change, no matter how small, affects every employee to some degree. This is why communication between all groups is so important.
Standardizing and organizing the process of communication between groups is a good place to start. I recommend that each group meet once a week, at the same time and for the same scheduled amount of time. If meetings are not structured this way, they are a waste of time and your employees won’t take them seriously.
To help you, here is an example of a fabrication meeting structure. Keep in mind, however, that you should develop your own meeting structure to meet the needs of your company.
At my company, meetings are held every Friday morning for one hour. All fabrication employees are expected to meet on time in the designated meeting area. The first 15 minutes are spent going over old business, and the second 15 minutes are spent on new business. The last half-hour is spent on organizational issues and developing quick solutions to those problems.
Finally, all meeting minutes are recorded in a notebook. This is crucial to lab organizational success. The notebook is the company’s tracking device for answering the where, why, how and when questions. It also provides a reference for the start of the organizational plan and the plan’s objectives.
Ten simple rules
When we are solving organizational problems, each employee is expected to voice an opinion. If issues get heated and the meeting starts to lose focus, we stick to this important rule: Attack the problem, not the person. This simple edict saves valuable time and keeps the meeting on track.
My group also follows ten strict guidelines:
1. Abandon fixed ideas. Get creative. Don’t be afraid to change the way you think about a particular problem or way of doing something.
2. Think of ways to make your changes possible. If change seems impossible, abandon the roadblock and find a way.
3. No excuses needed. Be accountable and make it happen.
4. Go for the simple solution, not the perfect one. Don’t waste time on the perfect solution, it doesn’t exist. Let the simple solutions evolve.
5. Correct mistakes right away. Do it now, not later. If you wait, chances are it will never get done.
6. Use your wits, not your wallet. The best solutions are simple and don’t require money.
7. Problems are opportunities. Once you see the value in trying to solve problems you won’t look at them the same way ever again.
8. Ask “Why?” five times. Asking why will help when breaking a problem down.
9. Seek ideas from many people. No one person has all the solutions.
10. There is no end to improvement. One thing in life you can count on is that there will always be problems that need improvement.
See the results
Our meetings are fast. We solve problems and get to the point. At the end of each meeting, any organizational change that needs to be implemented gets written on a work order and scheduled. This particularly enforces rule number five, encouraging employees to correct mistakes right away.
Total company communication is where the organizational culture will start to grow. When people understand why things are being changed, they get involved in the process.
Good communication is the hardest part of the organizational process, so take your time, learn from your mistakes and you’ll begin to see the benefits.
Greg Mattson, RTPO, is the owner of Fabtech Systems, LLC in Mukilteo, Wash. He is a member of OPTA. For more information about OPTA, call (866) 736-2637 or visit www.oandp.com/opta. He will be presenting on lean manufacturing at the 2006 AOPA National Assembly.
