Organized for Productivity
Workplace organization is the foundation stone for improvement and the first pillar in a Kaizen” change. It is also the pillar that supports and strengthens all that will follow. The premise is both simple and logical: You cannot be productive in an unproductive environment. As Henry Ford once wrote, “Good work requires good tools in a good organized environment.”
Many companies tend to focus more on the efficiency of their workers than on their workers productivity. There is a distinct difference. Efficiency focuses on how quickly we perform a task - how many parts per hour or day is being produced. Productivity on the other hand focuses on meeting customer requirements. As an example, the introduction of piecework in many factories aims to improve the efficiency of each worker through the provision of monetary rewards. Each unit of production is carefully and accurately timed and costed so as to provide an achievable level of income for the operative and a profit for the company. In my experience however, the piecework system does not take into account an individuals productivity. In fact it forces the operative to concentrate purely on the quantity he or she is producing, with little thought given to the quality of work. Quality is seen as a hindrance to earning a decent pay.
Worker A versus Worker B
To illustrate this important point, imagine there are two workers, each performing the same task. Worker A produces fifty units per hour whilst worker B can only manage forty-five. Who is of most value to the company? Usually it would be worker A who receives the most praise and admiration from management as he or she appears to be the hardest and most efficient of the two. However, if only forty units of worker A’s hourly output met the required quality standard, whilst all of worker B’s passed inspection, who [Read more →]
