Waste Observation

Waste Observation and PDCA thinking cycle (Plan. Do. Check. Adjust.)

Submitted by Pam Volner.

Hello Gang,

Last week it was my pleasure to be nominated as the official photographer for the production office's weekly team building games.  This particular week's game was a cotton ball drop.  Each person applied Vaseline to the end of their nose, then proceeded to a bowl containing cotton balls where they dove face first trying to collect as many cotton balls as possible on the sticky Vaseline.  The next step was to run to the opposite end of the room and deposit the cotton balls into a different bowl.  Object of the game, team with the most cotton balls deposited in the bowl in 2 minutes wins.

As I watched each team take their turn, I began noticing the different thinking processes each team displayed.  The First team started out with one person taking their turn and then the next person would go when that person was done and so on.  There was a pause between each team member (waiting waste).  While the first team was performing their task, you could tell the second team was already thinking of what they could do to speed up the process to pick up more cotton balls.  The first team planned and executed, but lacked the benefit gained by subsequent teams who had the advantage of observation.  They could see the waste in the current team's process and could adjust their plan to eliminate that waste.  By the time the 3rd team was up it was like a BLUUUR!  Through observation and the power of PDCA thinking, they figured out how to improve efficiency which helped them win the game.

Not only was I entertained, but inspired seeing these principles executed in a quick real life example.  Imagine what we can see and improve if we all perform some Ohno Circles in all areas of Paramount.  

Your partner in observing and improving,

Pam

Celebrating Success

6/25/15

CELEBRATING SUCCESS

There are MANY great things going on at Paramount including examples both big and small of waste elimination, process improvements, and increased efficiency.  The problem is, not many people know about it.  Whether that's a result of our humble personalities, our busy schedules, or we just feel like these improvements are supposed to be part of our jobs, the effect is the same, our achievements and innovation happen with little knowledge or fanfare. 

Why celebrate?  Let me throw some science at you to explain.

"Small victories build new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for reward and motivation. The increase in androgen receptors increases the influence of testosterone, which further increases confidence and eagerness to tackle future challenges. When you achieve a series of small victories, the boost in your confidence can last for months." - Dr. Travis Bradberry (Coauthor of Emotional Intelligence)

In normal person speak, "When you do good, you feel good and want to keep it up."  In addition, sharing our achievements will help fuel innovation or give an idea that may be a useful fit for another department.  So go ahead, tell us what you're doing that's making you a better department.  Encourage your employees to take pride in their achievements.  Let's brag a bit about our great team at Paramount Apparel.

Stay Great,

Cory

Soft Skills???

6/18/15

Happy Thursday All,

A little late today....but better late than never.

Are we helping our teams grow their soft skills?  Are you growing your soft skills?

What are soft skills you ask?  Well, to explain easier let's define hard skills.  Hard skills are the technical skills you need to do your job.  A plumber's hard skills would be the ability to hook up a toilet.  A screen printers hard skills would be the ability to set up the press and actually print a shirt.  Soft skill then has to do with a persons ability to communicate, their personal habits, leadership skills, personality traits and how relationships are handled.

Developing soft skills can be very empowering.  The more we can learn to communicate effectively, be confident, manage upwards, play politics, influence others, the more we will feel in control and inspired about our jobs and careers.

The working world is not always fair, we cannot change other's behavior or circumstances.  However, we can use our soft skills to control how we respond to adverse situations and take proactive action in our best interest. 

Hard work alone does not guarantee success.  Developing yours and your team's soft skills can be one of the most valuable investments we can make.  There is no other investment that creates a greater return.

How do we help our teams develop soft skills?  What kind of training are you giving?  What kind of training is available?  Good questions to ponder.

Have a great Thursday!

Chris

Empowering People

Happy Thursday All,

Toni has been doing an awesome job empowering her people (see picture of how Kris is empowered) in the warehouse, and even though it is tough, results can be seen.  Here is what Toni has to say about empowering people....

Empowering  people is tough.  Maybe because they want to do and think differently than you. When you look back to when you got started, can you count how many times you stumbled, and occasionally still do?  PAI has awesome resources, but with me being a bit of a "control freak" it makes it a struggle, yet I am determined to encourage, support and be available to help.

The warehouse crew has been brainstorming to begin the lean journey. Trying out ideas, implementing some, rejecting others and seem very positive about creating a place for everything and getting everything in it's place. We have a few areas we have started on, and all are welcome to come check out the progress. 

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."  George Bernard Shaw

Thanks,

Toni

The Greatest Customer Service Strategy

Happy Thursday Everyone,

What a great article!  This was shared with me by Steve Wands and we should all read this and really understand what it is saying. 

Here you go....

The Greatest Customer Service Strategy

Smiling is important. Eye contact matters. Patience is essential. Being warm and friendly is a must. And providing a positive emotional experience for your customers is a priority.

But these are not the greatest of customer service strategies. Ironically the greatest of all strategies has nothing to do with customers and everything to do with employees.

The Greatest Strategy is this: Great customer service beings with being employee focused first and customer focused second. If you treat your employees well, they will treat their customers well.

Too often businesses, hospitals, restaurants and organizations focus all their energy on the customer while ignoring the very employees that serve their customers. This may work in the short run but eventually employees become tired, burned out, negative and resentful.

Just the other day I was speaking at a hospital and was told that they were doing patient satisfaction surveys as a way to improve nurse performance. “What about nurse satisfaction surveys,” I asked. “No we’re not doing that,” they said. The problem was clear. Measuring patient satisfaction will not make nurses more energized, positive and attentive.

Patient satisfaction will go up when nurse satisfaction goes up.

I have found that organizations who deliver the best service also have the best culture where employees are valued, listened to and cared for and in turn these employees value, care for and serve their customers.

Best Buy, for example, started to measure the engagement of their employees and in the process saw service and profits improve. T-Mobile dramatically improved and transformed their customer service when they improved the culture in their call centers by listening to their employees. Southwest Airlines has built their success on the foundation of an employee-first culture.

Of course we need to train our employees to do all the things that make for a great customer experience.

There are great books on the essentials of creating a great customer experience.

But most of all remember if you model great service, your people will share it.

So, if you want your team to serve, serve them.

If you want your people to care, care about them.

If you want your team to love their work, love them.

If you want your employees to be their best, give them your best.

If you take care of your people they will take care of your customers.

From the desk of Tiffany Shaw.....

A couple of weeks ago while I was reading a Thursday Think Tank email about "total ownership" I was thinking, "I really need to send this to my whole team", and so I did. I then decided I really need to be sharing all of the Thursday Think Tank emails with those in my team, because I realized that these do not just apply to our work environments but at home as well. I truly felt that each person in my department could benefit from these in some way or another. I also encourage them to share any thoughts or ideas that they might have with me, so I can share with all of you fine people :)

After sending my first couple of Thursday Think Tank emails I got an email back from Cari White, a Customer Service Representative in the Promotional Products Division. She had a situation in dealing with someone internally and was met with a bit of a "don't know, don't care" attitude. This got her thinking and she shared the following with me, that I would like to share with each of you.

Cari wrote the email below and included the images to me as well.

Do we realize how great an impact our attitudes have on those around us? 

Attitudes are contagious. It's hard to have a good attitude when you feel like everyone else you are dealing with is rude.

It's also hard to be in a bad mood when everyone else around you is happy.

If we treated our customers with a reply of "don't care" or an attitude of "just tell me what to do" How many customer's would we have left?

Something as simple as asking someone's advise on their area of expertise should be a compliment, not an inconvenience.

We should treat each other with the same respect we treat customers.

Peoples attitude can definitely be misconstrued in an e-mail.

We need to be mindful of what we type and how we type it.

Is this going to come across as short, snippy, or inconsiderate?

We can make or break each other's days with our attitudes, that's a big responsibility, not one that should be taken lightly.

Enjoy your Thursday!!

Backwards Brain Bicycle

Happy Thursday Everyone,

Can you get your mind to think differently?  I'm not saying changing your opinion, just seeing the other side of things.  Look at it from a different perspective. 

Have you ever tried to throw a ball with your non-dominant hand?  How about tried to write your name with your non-dominant hand?  The thought process you go through trying to do this is tough.

Knowledge of how to do something is important but knowledge is not understanding.  Do you seek to truly understand?

Here is a link to an 8 minute video my daughter shared with me talking about making your brain think differently....the Backwards Brain Bicycle.  Could you make your brain work differently and be able to ride this bike?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

Don't forget to exercise your brain and think differently today.

Chris

** to see all Thursday Think Tank articles in one place, go to paithursdaythinktank.blogspot.com  **

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Preview YouTube video The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133

The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133