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Stephanie Tooke
Stephanie Tooke holds a Bachelors Degree in Electronic Engineering and an MBA in Business. She is currently pursuing her PhD. in Organizational Management with a focus on Leadership. Stephanie spent 18 years of her professional career with AlliedSignal Aerospace in the United States and Canada where she held several positions including Project Engineer, Quality Engineer and IPDS Team Leader. In 1997 Stephanie earned her Six Sigma Green Belt certification and trained 1500 employees in Total Quality Management. She is currently the Director of the ACT Centers in Hutchinson and Wichita and has expanded the Wichita site into a center for business consulting, problem solving and customized training. You may contact her by phone at (316) 978-8230.
Business Consulting
2003-02-01 14:16:00
Is it their listening or your instructions at fault?
ANSWER:  The type of business you are in can be very hectic. As a result of the high level of activity it can be challenging for workers to remember changes talked about in meetings even when they do write things down. I would recommend you do several things to improve the situation.First your employees need to know where in the process the mistakes are occurring. Keep a record of the errors and if possible do a simple Pareto chart of the types of errors you are seeing. Make sure the analysis has no names attached to it so that your employees do not feel that you are trying to assign blame. In other words, focus on the problem, not the person. This quick analysis will clearly show which of the process steps are resulting in the most errors. If you focus your improvements on the top 3 problem areas as shown in your analysis, you will be able to have the biggest impact in the shortest time.At those areas where there are problems, post any changes at the work stations where the work is actually performed. For example, when there are changes in packing requirements, post each customer's packing requirements directly above the work station. This way the packer can see the up-to-date requirements instead of having to consult the ‘blue book’. While keeping a record of the changes required in the ‘blue book’ is a good practice, if those changes are not directly in front of the person doing the work it can lead to errors no matter how hard the workers try to remember. It also has another benefit. If a person is out sick and someone else has to fill in, the work requirements are right in front of them. It is important to make sure these work instructions are updated regularly each time there is a change.Additionally you might want to consider assigning each of your employees the responsibility for a certain group of customers. That employee can be responsible to be the "expert" on that group of companies and their requirements. They would be responsible for knowing all the ins and outs of those customers. In this way you can instill a sense of ownership in your employees. You might even want to consider involving that employee in interactions with the customer. This approach can empower your people and can go a long way towards eliminating process errors. As you proceed with your improvements, don't forget to monitor how successful you are in reducing your error rate. As you reduce the errors, make sure you show your employees how this change is impacting them (improved customer relations, less process time, less labor to rework errors). Reward your employees for their success as the error rates decline. This will help motivate them to continue on the process improvement path.
 
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