Latest / Force Tech Talks / Force Tech Talks - Episode 18: Continuous Improvement Efforts and Different Types Of Waste
Transcript
- 00:00:15:18 - 00:00:29:00 Charlotte Hi, I'm Charlotte from First Technologies. Today I am super excited because I'm joined by Edgar, a lean, mean quality machine. Here at force and of what we're talking about today. 00:00:29:03 - 00:00:56:01 Eder So last time on our last episode with Karen, we were covering the eight type of types of waste milling waste. But because I can't talk a lot about this and we could not cover the most important type which is under utilized people's skills. So and I'm glad we have a whole website just to talk about this, just because I think it's the most important. 00:00:56:02 - 00:01:30:18 Eder So for us, if people do not use their brains, we do not use people brains as a tool to develop the company to work on continuous improvement. We cannot fight the other seven types of waste. Yeah. So that's that's really important. And that matters a lot. Why does it matter? Because when we use our brains, when we bring people together to discuss about this, you can make the search. 00:01:30:25 - 00:01:51:23 Eder Some much power will bring so much power for developing skills. Choo choo choo. Find processes where they are not going. They could be improved. And, And then you use. Because in the end of the day, you have the user, people who are working on the process every day. They know that process more than anybody. 00:01:51:24 - 00:01:52:19 Charlotte They are the experts. 00:01:52:19 - 00:02:18:15 Eder And they are the experts on that one. But it's really hard. It's really hard to change a coach. I think for you as a, manager, a leader, it's it's really how to deal with people because, they are different or so different. Yes. Yeah. So the culture aspect is the most important thing. And how do we change the culture in the end of the day? 00:02:18:18 - 00:02:41:15 Eder It's not going to be easy. And I and I say that because I've been working with so many different companies over the last few years, and I've seen different type of leadership coaches, different type of people on the shop floor working. And, there always will be friction in between these two levels, which we could call or the place where things happen. 00:02:41:16 - 00:02:43:29 Eder Yeah. So, yes, it's difficult. 00:02:44:04 - 00:03:06:20 Charlotte Yeah. I think, like, touching on the culture and, like, you know, I have before I was in sales, I, you know, I was working as a behavior analysts, and I think culture is, you know, we we're working in companies. These companies do very specific things. But you forget the, the the people behind the companies. The people are what make the companies work the way they do. 00:03:06:22 - 00:03:31:06 Charlotte And it's a very bad culture can affect the company. A very good culture can affect the company. Yeah. And I think you touched on it, no matter how small or big the team is, everyone is different on the team. Yeah, every it's just human nature. Everyone is different. And I think part of culture and part of what we're trying to do with the force technologies culture is recognizing, okay, we have all these amazing individuals. 00:03:31:06 - 00:03:49:23 Charlotte They all bring something so great to the plate. Let's get everyone involved. If we're trying to tackle an issue or we're thinking of a new, new initiative, get everyone as you know, as many people as possible involved. And that is where the the best kind of idea flows and problem solving and culture comes from. Yeah. 00:03:49:25 - 00:04:13:17 Eder Definitely. And I think one of the challenges for me, I would say, especially because where you see, where is your, job title? You have to drive sometimes people are not because the culture is changing. Is the company. You have to motivate people to, to use their brains to change, which is choo choo choo choo. 00:04:13:22 - 00:04:35:20 Eder Suggest changes. Yeah. For improvement. For me, it's quite easy. I just come to you and I suggest things, and that's it. But where I stand, I cannot just go there and start asking people to. To change the way they put their tools or or how they do their processes during the day, because they will just tell me off. 00:04:35:22 - 00:04:42:03 Eder But when the the changes or the not the, the enforcement for change, but the. 00:04:42:06 - 00:04:42:25 Charlotte Motivating. 00:04:42:25 - 00:05:10:10 Eder Motivation for change is can come from the top people embrace a lot easier. Yeah. And I think we we're doing great. It's going to be about a year since I joined the company, and I can see so many changes happens. And if you are, if you are not for leadership, if we're not for you, your your you're buying your own car and buying the ideas, we would not get any close to where we are now. 00:05:10:13 - 00:05:25:21 Eder So many changes. So it's it's made a lot of difference. Yes. With the leadership I would be just a silly guy trying to preach about lean and changes, but it would not get anywhere. Yeah. Leadership is what makes the changes. 00:05:25:21 - 00:05:57:04 Charlotte That drives the change right. Yeah I think yeah. Part of the the leadership aspect of it is, you know, explaining if if we're trying to change the culture, which, you know, we all currently trying to do, I think it's explaining why is it important, why are we making these changes. Why are we, you know, having a meeting now that involves so many people where previously maybe it was only 1 or 2 people, I think is explaining to, you know, our amazing staff why we're trying to do that, what the objective is, why we think that's a good idea. 00:05:57:07 - 00:06:04:09 Charlotte And sometimes it's an aspect of, hey, guys, you know, let's just try this. You know, it might work. It might not. Let's try it. 00:06:04:12 - 00:06:07:10 Eder Yeah. Nothing wrong about failing. Yeah, because we failed. 00:06:07:11 - 00:06:10:06 Charlotte Failing is not a damn well yeah. 00:06:10:06 - 00:06:41:27 Eder It's how we learn from it. Yes, definitely. I think the other thing is, I love to call every individual. Don't matter their job title. I love to call them, process engineers. Okay. Why? Because in the end of the day, if we can change the process in a way that it's going to improve it, we just making a lot of changes for for the company or for the whole system in a way that, we're going to serve our customers. 00:06:41:27 - 00:07:03:25 Eder Because at the end of the day, we are the most important, focus for, for for technology is our customers. If we can improve lead time, if we can improve the quality of our services or our products, we will end up making more money for the company, which is is important as well. Yeah, but the main focus is customer and how we serve our customers. 00:07:03:25 - 00:07:04:07 Eder Yeah. 00:07:04:07 - 00:07:28:20 Charlotte So yeah. Yeah, they are the heartbeat of what we do. We we are very customer facing and what we do, you know, we're providing maybe one little chip, but the importance of that one product is so important to our customers. So I think is, yeah, if we if we are always seeking to improve what we're offering them in the service and the value and the quality, then you know, certain things will follow on the back end. 00:07:28:23 - 00:07:52:06 Charlotte And I think sometimes culture and continuous improvement is sometimes not addressing something that should be addressed and kind of letting something slide where it should be addressed. And I think we if you don't mind us talking about the other day, we had a, we have kind of a big team meeting and we were talking about one issue in particular, problem solving as a team. 00:07:52:06 - 00:08:09:16 Charlotte And it ended up because we were had, you know, the users, kind of the experts within the team talking about it. Other things came up and we were like, okay, you know that, yes, that issue. But let's let's talk about them now. Let's tackle them now. Don't wait till they become actual issues. And they thought that was great. 00:08:09:16 - 00:08:38:01 Eder You know, we were able to identify another 2 or 3 different issues that we were not even investigating it. Yeah, but we were able to solve more problems than we were actually therefore. And that was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think the other other very good too. We, we implemented a few months ago was the company boards where we bring people together and they can be actually at the game. 00:08:38:01 - 00:08:53:20 Eder But where were our normal day walks. Yeah. And we have that thing to actually, see our tasks or daily tasks, but actually as well for, chasing the tasks. Not the people. 00:08:53:21 - 00:08:54:16 Charlotte Not the people. 00:08:54:16 - 00:09:12:24 Eder Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, we commit to the task, especially because we are meant to go there and write the tasks ourselves and with our own hands. So once you write it, it's something that happens inside your mind and says, yeah, I'm commit to it and I'm going to complete this task as soon as I can. And that was an amazing change. 00:09:12:27 - 00:09:26:12 Eder And we can see, I love to see when my, my colleagues, they go there and change the, the tasks from doing to done. And then in the end of the week we have loads of don't only don't call and yeah, so it's an amazing, amazing thing. 00:09:26:14 - 00:09:44:07 Charlotte Yeah. And it's kind of that that board sometimes is a representation of the culture, the progress kind of how our week has been and what we've done in that week to see things migrate for from to do on a Monday morning, the end of Friday is done. Or if it's not done, you know, there's probably a reason for it. 00:09:44:07 - 00:09:56:17 Charlotte You know, maybe it requires a bit more collaboration, maybe it requires cross department collaboration. And and that's great because we've identified that and then we move forward in that way. Yeah. But yeah I love the board. 00:09:56:17 - 00:10:22:29 Eder Yeah I love it. The other benefit of, considering people and trying to eliminate the waste of not utilizing people's brains and people's skills is the fact that what and I say that personally I love to go to back to your comment is I love Mondays just because I feel that I am being used. Yeah. The way I, I think would be, you know, so yeah. 00:10:22:29 - 00:10:53:29 Eder So so that gives you motivation, gives you a happy environment at work. Yeah. Because I feel like, yes, if my boss considers me as a an important asset for the company, certainly the should happen to everyone which happens. And that changes your perspective. So we are making sure we cover customer. We focus in focusing on our customers. Yeah, we are making sure we make money with the process. 00:10:53:29 - 00:11:00:11 Eder But more importantly than anything, we are keeping our staff happy. The workplace in place is happier. 00:11:00:11 - 00:11:16:28 Charlotte So yeah, yeah, it's nice. Kind of the buzz, the energy, the culture. It's you can always feel it week by week, changing in the it's not say there was a bad culture before you know it was a good culture before. But now it's just different. You know, we're we're doing different things. Yeah. We're kind of having heavier demands from our customer. 00:11:16:28 - 00:11:20:09 Charlotte And we have to evolve. We have to always keep evolving, keep improving. 00:11:20:09 - 00:11:22:04 Eder Otherwise collaboration. 00:11:22:04 - 00:11:23:24 Charlotte Collaboration. Yeah. Yeah. 00:11:23:26 - 00:11:45:09 Eder Yeah. So yes, definitely I'm proud to say we have a great, good culture inside force technology. I can talk forever about the continuous improvement in my my lean way to think. Yeah, but yes, it was really important to talk today about people's skills and underutilized people's skills. 00:11:45:12 - 00:11:58:26 Charlotte Yeah. Yeah. It has been transformational. And I think yeah, we will definitely tackle this topic again at some points. I feel like, yeah, every kind of week to month things are changing within for. So I think for now we'll yeah we'll finish it off then. 00:11:58:26 - 00:12:02:26 Eder Yeah definitely. You very much keep working on people's skills. Thank you. 00:12:02:29 - 00:12:08:19 Charlotte So yeah that's all from our night today. Join us for another tech talk another time. And yeah thanks everyone.