While you are watching - work is underway
"As long as I am in production, work continues, as soon as I leave - everything stops, no one works or works slowly" - these are the complaints heard by more than one manager. Is this situation familiar to you too?"
Practice shows that it is enough to just observe the process, be present, and its result improves by at least 10% without taking corrective actions. However, this is not always useful or even deceptive.
We, people, adapt very quickly to situations and one can say that the rule "as You measure, so I work" always applies. When the manager is present, a better performance result is practically always shown (where it directly depends on the employee), but usually not because he is more motivated, but because the fear factor and the desire to show that I am working are triggered. And this creates the illusion that only when the manager is present, work is carried out. However, the results based on this are not long-term and constant, and when the manager is not present, there is a transition to a "natural work mode", which does not always correspond to the observed situation.
Lean2S MS - production eyes
"I always want to see who is working and how (by equipment, work centers), review the history of the activity of a specific workplace so that I can discuss it with employees. Especially when questions arise regarding work results and remuneration. Employees also need to know that all their work activities are always visible even when the manager is not around." - this is how the client's request is formulated, which is not surprising, because it 100% corresponds to the functions and purpose of the Lean2S equipment monitoring system. And since equipment operation data is collected automatically and employees cannot distort it (accidentally or intentionally, which is typical, for example, when manually recording working hours or specific jobs), this helps managers see the real situation and respond to it accordingly.
Another aspect - attention is often focused only on equipment downtime, i.e. cases when the process is obviously stopped, especially for a longer period of time. However, no less important are micro-downtimes (stops up to 1 minute in duration) and momentary disruptions, which do not even stop the line, but the work pace decreases. Such cases are difficult to capture with the naked eye and although at first glance everything seems to be working, the result is somehow not as expected and planned. Using the Lean2S equipment monitoring system, even such minor process disruptions are immediately noticeable. It immediately becomes obvious how different employees work at the same workplace - you can compare the stability of their processes and use such data to communicate constructively with employees.
Valdas Bindokaitis,
Change moderator