How Joe achieved higher engagement, more efficiency, and increased on-time deliveries
Joe Campbell is Design Engineering Manager at InterTrade Industries, the world class full service custom thermoformer based in Westminster. He applied principles from the session "How to Increase Workplace Performance" to raise engagement and reduce delays within his team.
Whiteboards improve communication
ITI employs CNC programmers who program the machines that make the mold tooling used to thermoform plastic parts for the medical device, aerospace and other plastic forming industries. Joe decided to incorporate the programmers into the morning routine for white board briefings - giving them added visibility for the overall schedule and an opportunity to interact to help them remain engaged with the department's goals.
Before introducing the white boards to the shop, jobs were scheduled and tracked with the usual Job Packet/Work Order paradigm. This was ok for tracking progress on each job but lacked focus on the larger picture for moving all the varied projects in-house through the shop on a daily basis. Setting up the boards provides the ability for two-way communication and updates in real time. It also allows team members to post ideas and feedback that isn't usually captured on a Work Order.
Everything from meetings, special events, new software updates and service requests to the shop are now posted for all the team members in the shop to see and track progress for. The addition of the repeater board for the team members in the program shack has helped them to budget their time spent programming and setting up the machines on a daily basis.
Results
Joe found that not only are the programmers more engaged, there has been a decrease in delays as they gain a greater understanding as what is expected and have an opportunity to contribute feedback at the planning stage. He reports increased innovation resulting from their feedback as an additional benefit.
Net result: higher engagement, higher on-time delivery and efficiencies from innovation. Win, Win, WIN!