Development Employee Engagement How to Implement a Work Team Leader Development Program Thomson-Shore s home-grown work team leaders help keep the presses running and sustain continuous improvement. Karen Wilhelm At book manufacturer Thomson- Shore in Dexter, MI speciallytrained line workers lead work cell teams, make operational decisions, help their teams measure their own performance, develop standardized processes, and conduct cell-level improvement activities. With these goto leaders in the work teams, supervisors and managers have stopped firefighting and are freed up to be coaches and mentors and see to larger-scale planning and improvement. Human Resources (HR) Manager Lori Minnick said, People on the line have the In Brief knowledge to make the decisions. It s a matter of empowering them, developing their abilities, and giving them the right tools to do it. Work teams fully participate in the company s hoshin planning process. Hoshin planning is a topdown, bottom-up, cross-functional process of developing strategic plans at all levels and areas of the company, with buy-in, practicality, and alignment; it creates the conditions necessary to accomplish the company s goals. Hoshin planning helps us create Attempts to empower employees can be disappointing even disastrous if the approach is haphazard. One company s deliberate, cross-functional development program has prepared front-line employees to effectively lead teams that understand and continuously improve the processes they are responsible for. alignment of goals and objectives at all levels of the organization, said Minnick. It answers the questions of who we serve, what are the priorities, who is responsible for what, and how do we measure success. The strategic plan for the company is established at the senior level. The departments then create their own hoshin plans aligned with the strategic plan. Next, the work team leaders create their hoshin plans to assist in meeting the department objectives. When groups are working toward aligned goals, the momentum of the entire company moves in that direction. As an example of the linking of goals, part of the company s overall hoshin plan may call for reducing spoilage by ten percent. The supporting hoshin plan in the press department might be five percent spoilage reduction. Within the department, a team leader could develop a visual hoshin plan for his or her cell that 4 Target Fifth Issue 2009 Target.ame.org
About Thomson-Shore Defying the norm in southeast Michigan, book manufacturer Thomson-Shore grew eight percent in 2007, with annual revenues in the range of $30 million per year. The company specializes in press runs of 1000 to 20,000 copies. Customers include university presses, religious and professional publishers, and publishers of fewer than five titles per year. Thomson-Shore sees growth potential in mid-sized publishers of five to 50 titles a year. Because the publishing industry tends to be seasonal, the company is working to level demand with work such as printing and binding blank books for Borders. Thomson-Shore was the first book manufacturer to join the Green Press Initiative, which addresses printing industry environmental issues. would contribute a two percent reduction. Since these employees are also owners of Thomson-Shore, successfully implementing plans that achieve the company s goals is especially important to them. There were no work team leaders when Myron Marsh arrived in 2000 as the new president of Thomson- Shore. One of the first things he did was to bring managers together to learn how to develop hoshin plans. After a few annual cycles of planning and implementation, managers reached the point where they needed more buy-in and participation from front-line employees. They decided that work teams needed their own leaders. Unlike many companies, Thomson- Shore committed to a multi-year plan for finding the right leaders and equipping them for the job. In 2005, Minnick assembled a work team leader development team (WTLD team) that included managers from the press department, bindery, maintenance department, and shipping and receiving. She said that such a team does not need to be composed solely of managers theirs just worked out that way. The WTLD team began to develop the program together immediately. By April they had designated a couple of pilot work team leaders to test training and provide immediate feedback. This continued through 2005 with implementation of the program in January 2006. It took a year, said Minnick. We wanted to identify what to look for in a work team leader. We decided that we wanted people who were natural leaders, and we would give them the tools to help them be real leaders. We wanted them to teach their teams what they learned, so work teams would be able to make more decisions. Then we had to decide how we were going to select the work team leaders, continued Minnick. How were we going to assess them? Do we interview everybody? Does anybody get screened out of the interview process before we start? So we put the selection process in place. The WTLD team added a few new members as time went on. When Jack Anderson, a 26-year veteran of the printing industry, was named manufacturing manager, he joined. Anderson wholeheartedly supports the program. He said, The majority of the work team leaders are in manufacturing, so I m probably the largest beneficiary of the program. Two years ago, the customer service manager joined when she decided that she wanted some work team leaders. The company s process improvement coordinators are also part of the team. The Selection Process and Curriculum Plan The work team leader selection process starts with an internal job posting that includes a job description, describes the desired skills and abilities, and outlines the training individuals will receive. Once the candidates apply, their supervisors complete a skills assessment that rates Establishing the Program Figure 1. Bill Dulisch, cover press operator and work team leader, at a production board. Dulisch said, Our goal on production is 47,000 sheets per day and spoilage is 3000 sheets per day. We keep track of how much rework we have to do in a month. The red means we re behind and green shows we re ahead. Target.ame.org Target Fifth Issue 2009 5
Development Two Crucial Leadership Takeaways What advice did Human Resources Manager Lori Minnick have for other companies wanting to develop their own work team leader program? Buy-in from the top is critical to ensuring that the necessary time and resources are available. Second, she said, Before they start on a work team leadership development program, companies need to decide what s important to them. Their work team leader program might not look like ours. Whatever the organization s culture is, they need to understand it and work with it. They will need to commit to their program for the long haul, and make sure that they re willing to put the time and the effort into it. them on self-awareness and their abilities to develop rapport with people, clarify expectations, demonstrate leadership skills, and create a motivating environment. The development team discusses each candidate and determines if they will be interviewed. The interview team consists of the development team and at least two current work team leaders. The next question was how to begin developing the work team leaders, Minnick said. We decided to start by building their leadership skills: Can they hold meetings? Can they communicate with everybody on their teams? We also wanted to give them tools of lean manufacturing. Reinforcing everyone s understanding of Scanlon principles (described in the Target, Volume 23, Sixth Issue, 2007, pp. 25-31 in the article, Scanlon Principles Lay the Groundwork for Lean ) was also important. They underlie the ideal culture Thomson- Shore wants to develop. The team next created a detailed curriculum plan, with related followup assignments for team members. Minnick said, The team did a lot of research to come up with what the training was going to look like and Figure 2. Tod Baker, customer service representative, scans a scheduling board. Baker explained how the visual scheduling board keeps jobs on track as they move through different stages and departments. how to present it. We wanted it to be very interactive. Pre-tests and posttests for some of the training sessions, developed by the team, identified the knowledge level of the participants before the training and provided feedback on how well the training was understood. If the work team leaders do not understand what is being taught, said Minnick, we need to modify our delivery. This feedback and testing helped the WTLD team fine-tune the resulting three-module curriculum/development plan. With two exceptions an inhouse session on behavioral styles and an outside seminar on leadership and coaching skills the WTLD team members developed and delivered all of the training. Minnick said, I m not a guru in process improvement or lean manufacturing, but I can teach standardization or other lean concepts. You can have a maintenance manager teaching Scanlon or meeting etiquette things you would not typically think that he could. Module One Leadership New work team leader candidates started with lessons on accountability, and moved quickly to Scanlon 101 about the basics of the Scanlon philosophy. The Scanlon Leadership Network holds an annual conference where leaders and employees from other network companies meet each other and take part in further learning experiences. Taking shop-floor employees to a multi-day conference in another city is not standard practice in most firms, but Scanlon companies do that frequently. Upon their return, the work team leaders collaborated on an initiative to bring back what they learned to the rest of the Thomson-Shore employees. To better understand themselves as leaders, the future leaders received a behavioral style assessment. Based on their answers to 25 questions, they received a personal profile they used to refine the way they communicate 6 Target Fifth Issue 2009 Target.ame.org
Figure 3. A workstation; after 5S, everything is in its place. with co-workers. Minnick said, A facilitator came on-site for a four-hour session that included an overview of different behavioral styles, what it meant to each person, what their natural behavioral styles were, and how they needed to adapt them in the work setting. Next, work team leaders learned about leading meetings, giving feedback, coaching, and safety. The capstone for Module One was Lean Sim, a Scanlon training exercise. Six members of the WTLD team learned how to conduct the program, which uses wood models of production machines in a simulated factory to give participants the opportunity to compare traditional manufacturing process layouts with processes incorporating lean principles. Lean Sim is a beautiful kickoff to process improvement in Module Two, said Minnick. Module Two Process Improvement In Module Two, work team leaders tackled meatier process improvement challenges. They started by reading Masaaki Imai s Gemba Kaizen and moved on to a four-hour 5S workplace organization session. The entire class went to one area in the plant that needed to be cleaned up and organized and, along with the team in that cell, went through the whole 5S process. After that, the work team leaders taught 5S to their teams, reporting results at the next training meeting. Next, the work team leaders learned how their work fit into Thomson-Shore s overall strategy, from company objectives through team initiatives. They discussed the key performance indicators (KPIs) such as spoilage and rework used at the company. Team leaders learned how to create their first cell-level hoshin plans, developed KPIs to track them, and presented them to management. Then they posted their KPIs on their production boards where all team members could track and post them. Tracking KPIs should not depend on the team leaders alone, counseled trainers. The production boards create accountability, but also allow anyone to walk into an area and see what a team is working on. Another session covered problemsolving and brainstorming methods like cause-and-effect (fishbone) and affinity diagrams. After their training, work team leaders chose a problem and a brainstorming method, and then taught that method to their teams as they tried to solve the problem. Then they reported out to their fellow work team leaders. They talked about how they came up with their problem statement, how they brainstormed, and how they used the tool they chose. Some reported that nobody wanted to speak at first, and told how they finally got everybody to chime in. They also learned about PDCA (Plan/Do/Check/Act) and root cause analysis. Module Two wrapped up with standardization, which encompasses standard work, standardized training, and the standard forms used at Thomson-Shore. Work team leaders went back to their teams, taught what they learned, and engaged their teams in developing standard operating procedures. Adherence to the standards is audited in the cells, and quality decisions are made there. The training has given the work team Target.ame.org Target Fifth Issue 2009 7
Development What About Compensation? Thomson-Shore s compensation plan for work team leaders is a separate premium. When future leaders enter the program, they sign an agreement stating what responsibilities they will take on in their new roles, and 25 cents is added to their hourly rate. When they complete each module, they receive another 50 cents. By the time they have graduated from the program, $1.75 has been added to their base rate. The team designing the plan wanted something simple, so if someone were to drop out, for example, they just wouldn t receive the extra pay. leaders the necessary tools to identify opportunities for process improvements. When improvements are implemented, new standards are created or updated, all within the cell. The emphasis on standardization had far-reaching benefits. Minnick said, I may know nothing about a line, but I can use a work instruction sheet to audit somebody doing a task. I can see what they are doing and compare it to what they should be doing. Module Three Team Development Work team leaders started Module Three by examining their work teams skills and gaps and the benefits of cross training. They each constructed a skills matrix that showed the level of skill within the team who can operate what piece of equipment, for instance and gaps where training was needed. The work team leader was then expected to determine what training was needed and establish a training schedule. For the capstone of Module Three, work team leaders engaged their teams in kaizen events, giving the teams the responsibility to determine when an event is required and the tools needed to take action on their own. Team leaders also established audits of position duties, training, 5S, and maintenance activities. The Scanlon philosophy is that you are always in a state of becoming, said Minnick. You don t know if you re becoming better or worse unless you have something to measure yourself against. This attitude toward evaluation is not limited to what goes on in the cells. The WTLD team monitored its results as well. The audit system looks at how well work team leaders sustain their new behaviors and process improvements, provide feedback to work team members, communicate, and conduct their meetings. Myron Marsh said, We want to assume that it s good training and people fully understand what we re teaching, but we do audits to see how they are doing. That also tells us how we re doing. We can see on the floor whether we relay what we think we do. The Program Evolves The first eight team leaders have now completed Module Three and additional groups have entered the program. The WTLD team made some adjustments along the way. Even in the first year, they realized that team leaders were surpassing the abilities of some supervisors. If the supervisors were going to monitor and coach the work team leaders, they needed to increase their skill levels; they were invited to join that first team going through Module One. The entry of six more people in the program during the second year presented new challenges. Minnick said, With the first group, we had the strong natural leaders, so they grasped the training quickly. When we took more people who were not natural leaders, we found that they were not as comfortable in a leadership role. They needed more mentoring and coaching. The program was designed for flexibility from the start, Manufacturing Manager Anderson added. As we ve gone through it, we realized that we needed to add this, get rid of that, or this needed to happen sooner. With some groups we could move quickly. With others, we d slow down, change things. Every time is a learning opportunity for us. Sustaining the Program Each module takes a minimum of six months, Minnick said. By the time the work team leader audits are done, it is close to a year before they move to the next module. As our first The emphasis on standardization had far-reaching benefits. group graduates from Module Three, we need to keep learning. How are we going to make sure our work team leaders are still developing? What are they going to do to further develop their capabilities? What sort of recertification process do we need? Our development team has been at work since day one trying to answer these questions. Thomson-Shore expects the work team leaders to report out to supervi- 8 Target Fifth Issue 2009 Target.ame.org
The program was designed for flexibility from the start. Manufacturing Manager Jack Anderson sors and managers after they no longer meet with their training groups. This process is expected to work well for the work team leaders who report directly to managers, since most of them are on the development team and have absorbed the leadership development ideas all along. Because they taught almost all of the material, they had to learn it, expanding their knowledge and skills. The people on the development team have grown by leaps and bounds, Minnick said. Through teaching, I have become better at being able to identify waste. I can participate with some understanding of lean manufacturing. Supervisors have not had the same opportunity, however. If they are to be coaches and mentors, to keep work team leaders motivated, and to hold them accountable, their development is more important than ever. Minnick said this was one of the things the WTLD team must work on. Thomson-Shore still needs more work team leaders. If we compare a cell that has a work team leader to a cell that doesn t, there are obvious differences in the knowledge that those employees have, Minnick said. We ve identified all the cells where we want work team leaders, but now we just don t have enough work team leaders coming up saying they want to take on those additional responsibilities. One solution has been to grow team members to the point where they are candidates for leadership. From the beginning, work team leaders were asked to share knowledge with their teams, in part so that team members would be able to step up and take on leadership responsibilities themselves. Then the stronger work team leaders could move on to develop new teams. We took one of the work team leaders from our very first group, and moved him from the cover-press cell over to our small-press cell, Anderson said. A beginning work team leader has stepped up in the cover-press cell, and because of the whole team s development, the cell hasn t missed a beat. The boards are the same, they are kept up, and the team is still working on process improvements. All their goals are being met. The knowledge was shared. It wasn t owned solely by one individual. When all the groups have gone through the program, the WTLD team needs a plan for developing new leaders to take the places of those who move on or are promoted. Right now, Minnick said, the program is designed for teams of work team leaders to go through this together and learn from one another. It s going to be different when we only have one team leader at a time to develop. Change at the Top The company faced a serious challenge when Myron Marsh announced he was retiring. The search for his replacement was careful and thorough, with one of the requirements being a commitment to active support of the work team leadership program. Employee-owners, including some of the work team leaders, participated in team interviews of the candidates. Kevin Spall, a book manufacturing industry veteran, was named president at the end of September 2008. Marsh stayed on for another three months to mentor Spall in the Scanlon philosophy, employee ownership, and in work team leadership, among other things. Kevin has just grabbed on to everything and wants to be a part of the goings-on of the company, Minnick said. He s very supportive of the work team leader program and has attended our kickoff and graduation celebrations. He sees what some of the work team leaders are doing, but he wants to know more, so he is coming to some of our planning meeting to better understand what we re doing. He sees that strategic planning depends on the work team leaders to carry out policies and actions. Spall is already contributing to the future of the WTLD program by developing an outline for certification of the work team leaders who complete all the training modules. Minnick said, This is the closure that had not been developed yet. This is the sustainability piece that was missing. Four years into the program, developing the work team leaders has been the key to implementing 5S, standardization, cross training, and other continuous improvement practices. Through the work team leaders teaching and coaching, all employees have been learning lean thinking, solving problems, and understanding how they fit into the success of the company as a whole. Karen Wilhelm is Target contributing editor and publisher of the blog Lean Reflections. Target.ame.org Target Fifth Issue 2009 9