So enlightened is the mood at Newsprinters Eurocentral plant that you half expect to find operators adopting the lotus position. The site just outside of Glasgow is where spirituality meets 5S. Adopting a Ten Commandments-style set of aspirational principles including honesty, dynamism and respect has freed the plant to transcend onto a higher plane, becoming the first ever UK winner of the Shingo Prize – a global award for manufacturing excellence.
"A tool doesn't change mindsets; principles do," says George Donaldson, continuous improvement manager at Newsprinters. "That's what consultants don't bring. From Dan Jones to Womack, they've created the tools. Every consultant can come in and do a 5S programme. But what they're now realising is that what they didn't see at companies like Toyota was the culture – the willingness to engage."
The 'C' word, it seems, remains beyond the pale as manufacturing chiefs look for the fastest route to becoming world-class. "It's easier to focus on tools," reflects Ross McCombe, senior site manager at Eurocentral, one of three Newsprinters' sites. "It's difficult to change behaviour and people: it's a long term thing to do.
"People won't admit it: they'll say 'I just don't think those principles are right for us'. But I would have an argument with anyone that they aren't correct and you can't apply them to your business."
Those rolling up their sleeves right now and bemoaning all things soft and fluffy might want to take a closer look. Besides becoming Britain's only winner of the overall Shingo Prize in 27 years, Newsprinters credits more than £2.5 million in savings to employee engagement. Waste bills at the site have dropped from 7% to under 3% since 2007 – a £4m saving – and manufacturing efficiency, the printing world's answer to OEE, has soared from 65% to 85% in the same period. All achieved against the constant threat of redundancy as Newsprinters feels the pinch of 7% annual declines in newspaper sales.
Cicero meets Deming: the seven principles
The feats stem from the Socrates and Plato of manufacturing management in Donaldson and McCombe. The duo cite W Edwards Deming [lean manufacturing guru], Stephen Covey [US business author] and Roman orator Cicero as key influences in the Newsprinters Way; a set of seven principles (honesty, dynamism, respect, commitment, motivation, responsibility, and flexibility).
Encouragement and empowerment run deep at the plant. Management by the KPI is abandoned in favour of tapping into people's primordial desire to see a job well done. "I'm a great believer in respecting history and people who've done it right before you," says McCombe. "The right things are the right things – you just have to find your own way of saying it."
For Newsprinters that begins, quite naturally, in print. Corridors are decked with posters of employees holding up cards emblazoned with the seven principles and personal achievements logs, which display employees' (including managers) training records and professional or personal achievements. A drab corridor is transformed into a tapestry of togetherness.
Actions speak louder than words
However, the principles amount to more than just pretty wallpaper, stresses McCombe. "You have to live them day-to-day," he explains, with an emphasis on managers. "What happens a lot in business is that managers and leaders think, somehow, they've been promoted beyond having to behave the right way, and have a different set of rules." The mirror is a vastly underrated management accessory agrees Donaldson: "Attitudes are just a reflection. If you give off a good vibe then you'll get one back."
Alongside a management team prepared to walk the talk there's one final ingredient for anyone contemplating the path to enlightenment: patience. "It's almost blind faith," accepts Donaldson. "Our MD has never once put a timeframe on it because it's hard. As Covey says: 'slow is fast with people and fast is slow'. The businesses that throw this in today and want it done by the end of the week will take longer. If you just do the right things and listen to people you'll get the buy in. If you govern by the watch, you'll fail; if you govern by the compass – be governed by what's the right thing to do – then you'll succeed."
Times were not always so illuminated. Newsprinters, one of three UK printing sites owned by News International, moved to its £56m greenfield home at Eurocentral in 2007. The plant was part of Rupert Murdoch's bid to bring higher quality newspapers more quickly to Scottish readers.
The kit might have been state-of-the-art but the attitudes at the time weren't, recalls McCombe. "We were the same people who worked at Kinning Park (former site), which was always a bit messy. The behaviours were always going to transfer across... We were given this vision of being recognised as the best newspaper manufacturer in the world. But we really didn't know how we went about it?"
Donaldson aimed to provide some answers and instigated the site's first 5S campaign. The former Lothian-trained electrical apprentice who had joined Newsprinters from a CI role on The Toronto Star was quickly reacquainted with some familiar local vernacular. "The immediate reaction was that it wasn't going to work. Stick it up your arse," he recalls. Unperturbed, he pulled together key shopfloor personnel and pushed on with implementation.
"One night we couldn't find any shop vacuums," he recalls. "So the guy in charge said: 'order two' because that was the old way, if we could solve a problem with money, then we did. When we completed the 5S, we'd found 13 shop vacs – we were only looking for one." The maths provided a powerful wakeup call even for traditionally change resistant engineers recalls Donaldson. "They bought-in pretty much straight away after that."
With 5S flourishing, Donaldson teamed up with McCombe and successfully implemented the ISO 9001 quality management standard and SMED. In 2010, the duo turned their attention to a sort of own brand Total Productive Maintenance, which extended beyond maintenance to all aspects of operations, especially people.
Eurocentral was sub-divided into 12 quality processes (QP) under the Total Productive Manufacturing model, with each QP team empowered to drive improvements. There, amid the flipcharts and Post It notes, Donaldson and McCombe had their epiphany. "People were being engaged and listened to for the first time," recalls Donaldson. "We brought them into a group and said: 'what do we need to look at today?' They were telling us: 'look at this process: we run over here or under there'. We found so many improvements, almost £1.5m in the first 18 months."
The momentum fast tracked employee engagement as the site's secret weapon in delivering the ultimate goal of becoming world number one. McCombe was promoted to site leader in 2011 and accelerated the focus by targeting the Shingo Prize, which advocates 10 guiding principles including humility and mutual respect as core to achieving ops excellence.
It would be neat to end the story there: the site sails serenely on to the Shingo Prize and everyone lives happily after. Yet, fairytales aren't too familiar in a factory about to make six staff – equivalent to 25% of its print team – redundant. "Of course, there's still scepticism," says McCombe. "We haven't got 110 people who are completely brainwashed. A lot of the guys still believe there's a Machiavellian reason for doing it."
The cynics will soon convert
Yet, turn the other cheek and practice what you preach and you'll be amazed how soon the cynics convert. "People want to be part of it," says McCombe. "I was out on the press room this morning and a guy called Stephen Gallacher came up to me and started telling me about the 5S he was doing. The days of Stephen speaking to the manager in the past never happened. But we've created an atmosphere where he wants to come and tell us about the good things he's doing."
There'll be plenty more opportunities for Stephen and his kin to wax lyrical as the Newsprinters team board a flight for the US to pick up the Shingo Prize later this year. "We'll be taking staff to Utah. It's been their achievement – over 80% of the assessment was with the staff – we've just been part of their journey," says Donaldson. Manager and employee in a state of Zen in the heavens. An example to all manufacturers of the huge rewards that come with getting your head out of the sand and into the clouds once in a while.
Deep and meaningful: the performance-enhancing powers of finding a philosophy
Dig out the polo neck sweater and work that Gallic shrug – finding a philosophy has been critical to Newsprinters' road to manufacturing excellence.
But how do you go about instigating a code of ethics at your site? Does it pay the bills? Or will you end up like a hopeless flock of seagulls following the trawler?
WM meditates on the five big questions about the path to enlightenment
1 What is a philosophy? This is the set of beliefs governing the way your site operates. There is a close correlation with culture, or, in manufacturing parlance: 'the way we do things around here'. Think of a philosophy as your factory's tribal code. The rules are typically covert, but anyone who breaks them can expect the same browbeating as a bolshie young chimp who
dares to break troop etiquette. The trick, according to Donaldson, is to shape a philosophy that reinforces useful behaviours. "Employees start challenging each other: 'hey, that doesn't belong there', or 'clean up your mess'. There's no better police force than the workers, if they're properly engaged."
2 Does a philosophy make you more profitable? Doing it for the money is a bit like stuffing a platinum Visa in the church alms purely to skip the queue at the pearly gates. Principles should be driven by a deeper sense of purpose, according to Donaldson. Rewards can follow. A successful philosophy is a stepping stone to boosting employee engagement, which has proven benefits on performance. But, be warned, says Donaldson, a philosophy is not a goal. "We've got someone in our company who thinks it's a project – just write a line in there and we'll achieve that by the end of the month. It's not a project, it's a constancy of purpose."
3 What is Newsprinters' philosophy? The Newsprinters Way is a code of conduct based on seven key principles (honesty, dynamism, respect, commitment, motivation, responsibility and flexibility). All employees, including managers, are expected to apply the principles in daily working life. The philosophy follows the teachings of Deming who prescribed a more compassionate attitude from managers towards their workforce. Deming called for the rejection of management by incentive and to create an environment of trust, interdependence and pride in workmanship. Deming also called for a unifying purpose for all, which, in Newsprinters' case, was to become the best manufacturer in the world.
4 How do you translate the theory into practice? It starts with you. Nothing destroys a code of conduct faster than a hypocritical leader. Signs and posters are an excellent way to reinforce and promote target behaviours, but calling for respect on the whiteboard while balling out an operator in front of it is counterproductive. Leaders ensured the principles became a central discussion point on site and raising the topic at training, management meetings and out on the shopfloor. They also showed an interest in their employees beyond the factory gate, in line with Deming's theory that managers must better understand what makes their employees tick to get the best out of them.
"We asked what don't we know about you?" says Donaldson. "It's amazing what we have found out: we have former professional footballers, a former storesman of the year, a policewoman – the knowledge and backgrounds people bring is phenomenal." Uncovering previously hidden talents has seen staff create a mural on the company's history, a factory tour video and backing music. There's also a general boost in morale through site leaders showing an interest says Donaldson. "People are proud. They just want an opportunity to raise their voice."
5 Where do I buy the guide book?
It's not available at all good book stores, stresses Donaldson. "There is no model, no road map. You have to apply the principles in the way that's right for your business." Try learning from other enlightened manufacturers, he advises. Newsprinters took a factory tour of former Best Factory Award winner, Uktraframe, at the beginning of its journey. The site has also benchmarked against multiple Shingo Prize winners and applied learning's from The Shingo Institute in the US via The Manufacturing Institute in the UK. The Shingo model recognises culture and guiding principles as two of five components in ops excellence alongside results, systems and tools like 5S or Six Sigma.
