Can you say that you eliminate some form of waste every single day?
As many of you already know, the Jenco team is on a LEAN journey and we recently took things one step further. Everyone in the office, our prefabrication team and a few of our Foremen read the book 2 Second Lean by Paul Akers. For five weeks we worked together to learn more about the different forms of waste, how to improve our processes and how to work together as a team to improve. Since completing the book we’ve all committed to each make one, 2 second improvement every day and the results are evident – our offices are cleaned up and organized, the prefab shop has eliminated excess inventory and organized in ways that make sense and improve process time, our virtual world is becoming more efficient, our meetings are getting shorter and the overall morale has improved greatly.
The book gave us another great idea – a morning team meeting and an improvement walk. Every morning the entire office and prefab team join in our training room. There is a new leader each day that first leads us in a quick “Stretch and Flex” session. We then have six people share their 2 second improvements from the day prior, and an additional six people share something they are grateful for. We also go over the 20 Jenco Principles, learn the Word of the Day and challenge someone to recite the eight deadly wastes. As a group, we then go and visit someone’s workstation to visually see their 2 second improvement. Lastly, we join in the board room for a five minute video on things like American history, technology improvements, world affairs, etc.
This entire morning Team Huddle lasts 15-20 minutes, and the outcome of these meetings is well worth the time investment. We have seen a real reduction in waste, and we have all begun to get to know each other and learn from one another in ways we couldn’t have possibly done before. We are learning that as a group, we are much more productive and resourceful than a bunch of individuals working alone. The Team Huddle gives us a chance to share ideas, see new innovations and waste elimination every day in a multitude of processes and functions.
Interested in seeing our Team Huddle up close and personal? Let me know, we’d love to have you visit one morning!