Wednesday's Words of Quality,
Lesson #7: Role of the Team Leader for Quality
Lesson #7 of 13
As in biologic systems, structure (organizational) begets function. If the desired outcome is individuals charged with accountability for the quality of their own work, then this requires us as leaders to redefine that expectation of workers themselves.
"It’s the work, not the man that manages." -Henry Ford
Just saying that work is to be delivered in continuous flow, according to next customer
specification, without defects, in a timely, accurate, cost-effectively and safe manner, won’t make it so. This Lean expectation must be structured to occur consistently. Here we discuss the all-important role of the team leader for quality in work areas or workstations.
It is extremely important when training in Lean tools and principles of work improvement to train teams and their leaders along the path of workflow not just individuals to work effectively together.
Team Leader for Process Improvement
The concept of the workstation team leader for process improvement is a novel adaption to the work of healthcare that we borrowed from the Toyota Production System in creating the sustaining work structure of the Henry Ford Production System. This team leader for process improvement is the equivalent of the quarterback in football and is responsible for the functional health of the team toward continuous improvement. This individual is responsible for encouraging team members to identify workplace non-value added work or waste, for instance
using whiteboards, to mine the type and nature of in-process defects that plague us every day, so that teams can generate and test solutions leading to new work design.
Worker Empowerment & Structure
This structure of teams with their designated team leaders for process improvement requires identification of workstations along the path of workflow in order to foster individual worker and team empowerment and accountability for continuous improvement.
Juran's definition of empowerment is pertinent here as one who “has knowledge, skills, authority & desire to decide and act within prescribed limits and takes responsibility for the consequences of their actions and for contribution to the success of the enterprise.”
To obtain the consistently engaged worker requires us to transform our approach to work from just showing up for work on time and doing as directed, to workers invited to think about and learn from doing their work and to contribute thoughtfully and creatively to doing the work better. In this manner we cultivate empowered workers who now see their daily work in the context of continually learning, constantly communicating with their team members and team leaders in a structured approach to making effective process improvements that are designed and tested by scientific method (PDCA).
We should think of work as something that is supplied to or done or created for someone else's use (the customer). To ensure that the work of the workstation is defect free, continually improving for its customer and aligned with the work received from the supplier, requires designation of workstation team leaders to assist the team members with their newly expected focus on continual improvement.
This is the effective structure that allows teams to consistently understand improvement opportunities presented by the work itself, for instance from white boards or deviation management, and to employ the tools of improvement in a sustained fashion. If you have multiple shifts, consider appointing a team leader for process improvement on the workstation of each shift so that they can coordinate quality initiatives from workers on all shifts as the in-process defects are encountered. This structures communication between shifts and with the next level leader, the supervisor or manager.
The Workstations
Our definition of workstations are semi-autonomous and multi-skilled work teams along the path of workflow that contribute to a task, service or product that is used by or serves another group in the workplace. You may ask yourself several questions to identify what constitutes a workstation:
Who does what for whom? (Customer-Supplier)
Who passes you your work? (Supplier)
Who requests work from you? (Customer)
Are they inside or outside your department? (Internal or External Suppliers and Customers)
Work may be seen as accomplished in stages.
-----> Stage 1 -----> Stage 2 -----> Stage 3 ----->
According to Deming- " Work comes into any stage, changes state, and moves on into the next stage. Any stage has a customer, the next stage. The final stage will send product or service to the ultimate customer, he that buys the product or the service."
What are the stages of your work?
Do you have someone who is specifically designated as a team leader for process improvement in that stage? How have you structured oversight for quality in that stage so that we can achieve Deming's vision that-
"Each stage works with the next stage and with the preceding stage toward
optimum accommodation, all stages working together toward quality that the
ultimate customer will boast about."
Role of the Team Leader for Process Improvement
We all have job descriptions sanctioned by leaders, managers and job descriptions. But in a Lean culture where we continually seek work improvements, the most important job expectation of the often ill-defined "OTHER duties as defined" option.
In a Lean managed culture this "OTHER duties" option becomes larger as we ask employees to act creatively within the prescribed limits of the Lean culture and structure to contribute to continual work improvement.
Recognition of team leaders for process improvement along interconnected workstations in the path of workflow to foster this transformed approach to work is an opportunity gifted to leaders and managers that should not be squandered.
But how do we identify one of the team to serve in the important role of team
leader?
We have numerous options and we should chose very well as this individual's passion and commitment to continual improvement and change are key to success of the Lean culture. Typically, this individual is already defined by an existing leadership or workstation role. If no workstation leader exists then you can appoint by ability, by passion or by vote of the workstation members. Of course, as leaders we may occasionally need to side-step an existing but dysfunctional leader by appointing a co-leader to ensure success. This has many advantages over removing a leader who, despite coaching, for some reason is not capable of leading in this fashion or is not supportive of the changed manner of working with empowered, communicating workers.
The team leader choice is critical as this individual must never be complacent with the status quo but rather must continually and proactively push for continual improvement. The advantage of these workstation leaders is that they are located closest to the level of the work where the defects are apparent often only to the workers who do the actual work.
Quality Related Expectations of the Team Leader for Process Improvement
The work-related expectations of the team leader for quality include the following:
• Project identification, selection, and prioritization
• Focus on problems and process, not personalities (neutralize the personality blame game)
• Knowledge of and adherence to the Lean work rules and principles, and use of appropriate tools
• Team member selection
• Project definition, study, and identification of sound measures for PDCA based improvements
• Customer-supplier connections
• Reality test proposed interventions
• Project tracking
• Assure effective Daily Management Board of metrics and interventions
• Push for continual problem identification through Deviation Management
• Seek ideas for change from the team members
• Communication and recognition
• Coach, develop and encourage team members
• Deal with failures
• Celebrate the team’s success
This team leader role is a growth and development opportunity that leverages workplace learnings to continually develop people to solve problems in a defined manner. This will come to define your new work culture. You will find soon enough after months of team successes that the Lean culture provides fertile ground for self-growth and breeds our next generation of leaders.
Did someone just say Employee Engagement scores?
Next WWQ: Lesson #8 – Role of the Team Member
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