leadership and process productivity enhancement

The process of production involves

Material

Machine

Men Methods

4M:

The Process Productivity Enhancement


The productivity enhancement can be achieved only if there is optimisation achieved in all the four processes.

In this discussion we will focus only on MEN and METHODS and see how these two factors of production can be optimised to achieve the highest productivity.

Here we use the term MEN to describe all human power – male and female, managers, workers and so forth.To achieve optimization in manpower utilization we need to keep the team motivated. We can motivate a person only if we address the “ need “ of a person. In other words, we should identify and understand the need of the person and address that particular need, only then that person gets motivated.

Dr. Abraham Maslow’s in his theory of “need hierarchy”, mentioned various needs of the people and how to motivate the people based on their specific need(s).



Basic Need

sSecurity

NeedsSocial Needs

Esteem

NeedsSelf ActualisationNeed

According to Maslow :

Some people are motivated by “Basic needs” like food, clothes etc. In other words, to motivate this segment of people to achieve the maximum productivity, we need to provide them the basic things like food, clothing etc.


Some people are motivated by “Security needs” like shelter, old-age pension, sickness benefits etc., for these people we need to give them security feeling like “long term employment” in order to motivate and get maximum productivity out of them.

Some people are motivated by “Social needs” like belonging to a group of people, who speak same language, who come from same place or caste, religion etc., for this segment of people, where they work and to whom they report to is more important. If we change their group or their boss, their productivity may suffer.

Some people are motivated by “Esteem needs” like respect, respectable job title, recognition and awards etc., for this segment of the people, how they are treated at the work place both by the colleagues and the superiors are more important. A good job title, separate cabin, recognition in a peer group meetings etc will motivate them and increase their productivity.


Some people are motivated by “Self Actualisation need” like doing highly creative, challenging jobs, solving very complex issues, negotiating a big deal, establishing a new unit etc. In order to get the maximum productivity out of this segment of people the manager has to give them lot of freedom and independence, allow them to learn on the job, give them clear cut target in terms of time, money and mission.

In short, to get maximum out of the team members, the manager should tailor his approach to each and every member of the team. The manager should not go “ this is my style” .He has to change his approach suiting to individual needs in order to get the maximum productivity out of each of the team members.

The manager should focus on the strengthening the team. It is said that the strength moves from bottom to top like in pyramid. For instance, the manger would be strong as long as his team member is strong. In order to get maximum productivity of the team, individuals in the teams should be made to be strong and highly motivated.


“Work is logical but worker is a psychological”. Here “worker” refer to all human capital. In order to get maximum productivity from the human capital we need to approach them in a “psychological way” only.

Dr. David Rock has given some more “techniques” to enhance the productivity of the people further, apart from motivation; he calls it “SCARF (F)”.

“S” stands for “Status”. Team members do their best, when their “status” is respected. If they feel their status is challenged they feel like victim and quit the team. The status could have been gained from their achievements in the past, their qualifications, their special skills etc.

“C” stands for “Certainty”. Team members want to be certain about their work; about their position; responsibility; reporting relationships etc... If there is lot of change and if it is too often, the team members lose their morale and motivation.


“R” stands for “Relatedness”. The team members should feel that they “have a part” in teams performance; this will increase their motivation and productivity. Thus, daily meetings, weekly meetings have very important role to play to increase productivity.

“F” stands for “Fair”. The teams members should feel that all of them are treated equally well without any bias or partiality. This will increase their sense of belonging and improve their output.

“(F)” the additional “F” stands for “Feedback”. The teams members should feel that they are on the right track and their progress contributes to the overall goal of the company. Timely feedback to the members on their performance or lack of it, will tune them more towards achieving productivity and excellence.

“A” stands for “Autonomy”. Team members perform well, if they are given autonomy to decide their priorities and operations. If the boss has an attitude and forces them to do things as per his wish and priorities, the team members may lose their drive to achieve better. They always wait for the boss’s instructions to do even a mundane routine function.


METHODS of optimization to enhance productivity :

In simple terms the productivity is higher, when higher output is achieved with lesser input. The productivity is higher when the quantity and the quality are higher. There are certain process approaches which are followed in many industries all over the world to increase the quantity and quality of the output.

3D approach: The workers have to be goaded “not to produce Defects; not to accept Defects; not to pass Defects”. This calls for empowerment of the line operators so that they feel responsible to stop the defects at their work station, instead of allowing to go through the entire production process and get rejected finally. This will save lot of material and man power.

(1)

(2)Autonomation: Toyota has brought this system, in which the process is designed as “mistake-proof” . The operator “ can not” do the mistake at all. Efforts to design the process in such a way that there is no scope for error, will certainly increase the productivity.


PDCA it stands for Plan, Do, Check and Action (again). The productivity improves when the process is first Planned very thoroughly and then carried out (Do) as per the process plan. Check the outcome periodically and take corrective Actions immediately. Resume the Action again, once the root cause of the deviations identified and addressed.

(3)

Removing the Slack: The process which has slack, like lot of internal transportation, storage of WIP, product correction etc. reduces the productivity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rva3wRvpS_4See the above video link, where by reducing the distance between two operators, process cycle has been reduced from 35 seconds to less than 1 second.

(4)

Shitsuke - this is the 4th “S” of “5 S”. It means correct process. The team should follow the correct process in order to increase the productivity. This takes lot of discipline from the top to enforce the process at all levels.

(5)

Kaizen – the excellence is achieved only if there is continuous improvement in all process involved . This calls for commitment from top to bottom of the organisation .

(6)

leadership and process productivity enhancement

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