Many companies are trying lean manufacturing to reduce change overtime. Lean manufacturing is where everyone is engaged to eliminate waste. And waste are those activities or processes that don’t add any value to the end user.
A lean changeover requires empowerment of your people to make changes. Many managers resist change and they resist empowering their people. One manager told me that yes we empower our people, but they have to ask permission first before they can make any changes. Folks, that’s not empowerment.
Allow your people to make changes if they follow for rules:
1. The change needs to be simple
2. Safe
3. Low-cost and
4. Reversible – That means if a change doesn’t work, you can put it back to where it was.
Your change over operators are your experts. Empower them. Trust them to do the right thing.