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The Emperor’s New Huddle Boards

Top managers must clothe themselves in honesty

Bruce Hamilton

Published: 03/30/2015

After a one-day observation at a local company, I participated in a wrap-up meeting with the generalmanager and his team.

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“We’ve been at this for five years,” the general manager said to me, proudly referring to his division’slean implementation. “Our 5S rating is over 85 percent, and every department spends one hour per weekon problem solving.” He continued on for several more minutes, extolling the vibrancy of theirtransformation, citing numbers of A3s, kaizen events, and gemba walks. “I visit team huddle boards everymonth to monitor adherence. And our corporate maturity score is 3.5 out of 4!” Finally, in an attempt athumility, he glanced over at the other managers in the room and concluded, “Of course, there’s alwaysroom for improvement. What did you see when you visited our site today?”

I took a long pause before answering his question. My tour of the facility had come at his request toprovide a rough idea of how the site would fare in a Shingo Prize challenge. I had spent a half-day in thefactory with the factory manager and several hours in support departments trying to understand thecurrent condition of their improvement process. My observation bore out the appearance of variousactivities he described, but there seemed to be no associated outcomes. Employees were going through themotions, but not creating change. A3s posted on the factory wall had grown stale. Huddle boards, notablefor their abundance, were updated inconsistently.

“Where’s the problem solving?” I asked a supervisor at one of the factory huddle boards.

“We get to it when we can, but it’s been pretty busy lately,” she said, in a tone that sounded like anapology.

I continued, “How often do you get a visit from management?”

“Once in a while,” she chuckled, “but that’s OK. We have enough problems as it is.”

The factory manager standing next to me looked on disapprovingly at his supervisor’s quip. Later in thetour, he said to me, “We need to change our culture. They are not on board.”

“Who are they?” I asked.

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“The front line,” he responded.

As we continued into the office spaces, I commented, “It looks like you have a lot of lean props, like A3s,huddle boards, and color-coding, but I don’t see much happening.”

“That’s why you’re here,” he replied. “We made some big changes—cut costs and reduced lead times—atthe start of our lean journey, but we have had difficulty getting employees engaged.”

“What have you done previously to promote lean?” I asked.

The factory manager responded, “We had consultants swarming the place for a couple years, and spent asmall fortune on huddle boards. We provided lean training for everyone. Our first wave of improvementsseemed to go well, but then we stalled.”

I agreed. “Yes, the process appears to have stagnated. Why are you interested in challenging for theShingo Prize?”

After a moment, the factory manager replied, “Our GM has an interest.”

Back at the boardroom debrief, I responded to the general manager’s question. “You have a verysuccessful, traditionally managed business,” I began, tempering my comments. “But I don’t sense anenvironment that supports improvement and problem solving.” The president frowned a bit. I continued,“Use of lean tools like visual boards and problem solving are inconsistent and not purposeful. From adistance, it looks like something’s happening, but closer inspection suggests that problems are not beingaddressed, and resources for improvement are scarce. Most of the activity is being generated by a fewsupervisors.” I continued a bit longer, amplifying my observations with specific details from the floor.

As I spoke, I noted that several of the president’s staff glancing to him for a response. I concluded,“Several times today I heard that employees don’t have the right culture. The responsibility for changingthat culture resides in this room. My recommendation is that your management team reevaluate your rolesand participation to create a culture that’s more favorable to improvement.”

After a short, deafening silence, a manager responded nervously, addressing the president as much as me.“I don’t agree that our process is broken as Mr. Hamilton suggests. We’ve made a lot of progress.” Othermanagers nodded in agreement.

“Bobbleheads,” I thought to myself.

Bolstered by this support, the president addressed me. “Well, everyone iswelcome to their opinions. We’d like to thank you for coming in today.”The meeting was over.

Call me a bad salesman, but the emperor had no lean.

About The Author

Bruce Hamilton

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Bruce Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP), brings hands-onexperience as a manager, teacher, and change agent. Prior to GBMP, Hamilton led efforts to transformUnited Electric Controls Co.’s production from a traditional batch factory to a single-piece-flowenvironment that has become an international showcase. Hamilton has spoken internationally on leanmanufacturing, employee involvement, continuous improvement, and implementing change; and he hascontributed to numerous texts ranging from visual control to variety reduction. Hamilton’s blog, Old LeanDude, is an on-going reflection on lean philosophy and practices with an emphasis on keeping good jobsclose to home.

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