WMMC stresses the value of empowerment
1 min read
Empowerment was identified as an important link to continuous improvement at this year's Works Management Manufacturing Conference (WMMC) held at Cranage Hall hotel in Cheshire last week.
More than 120 delegates benefited from a flood of continuous improvement advice designed to turbo-charge their profits over the course of the two-day conference.
Daren Patterson, business improvement director at BAE Systems, said change programmes led by management were only 50% effective so it paid to get every employee to drive change.
Managers must be encouraging rather than judgemental, honest, true ("walking the talk") and reliable, according to Parker Hannifin Manufacturing's Lesley Dixon and Fiona Henderson, shift leader and value stream manager respectively. Speaking for shopfloor employees, Dixon emphasised the influence that managers' behaviour had on their employees and said: "Remember the shadow you cast."
The importance of teamwork and shopfloor-led change was stressed by Ken Jones, lean learning academy manager at JLR, Halewood. He said every team member from the plant director to group leaders needed to support individual shopfloor employees, turning the 'hierarchy triangle' on its head.
The value of linking strategy down through the organisation so that the shopfloor was fully engaged in it was emphasised by Jason Speedy, head of manufacturing at Siemens Congleton.
WMMC attendees also had the opportunity to tour world-leading manufacturing sites including Airbus Broughton (which makes wings for the new A380 superliner), Jaguar Land Rover Halewood (home of the Range Rover Evoque), Siemens, Quinn Glass or Vauxhall Motors.
