________________________________________________________________________________________________ Main
Interview understands to maximize productivity, it must ensure the right internal processes and the right people systems are in place, too.
“ We can make all the investments and do all the preparation but without the people, none of it will happen,” Magnus emphasizes.“ When we started this journey, we decided to embed some Kaizen principles around continuous improvement. But we recognized that for this to succeed, everyone must work to standard instructions, and this requires a new training plan. We had three shifts in place, and each shift almost had its own culture. A unified culture was needed, so we took staff from each shift, and trained them in the standard principles of Kaizen for four weeks. They then train their own team members.”
Volvo quickly saw positive results.“ It’ s seldom that I can see improvements in delivery, safety and quality of up to 30 percent – if we reach that number, we call it a‘ breakthrough’. The Kaizen training has resulted in breakthroughs every week, with improvements in all those segments.
“ We accept that the true knowledge of the process is with the operators, so we are enabling them to be part of the pilot plant build, making sure that they are driving the efficiency improvements we need.” Further positives include the breakdown of some of the traditional barriers between desk- and deskless workers with design engineers visiting the production line and seeing their parts produced. It has also helped with the costs of additional staffing for the new facilities
manufacturing-today. com 17