Integration + Empowerment + Ergonomics = Economics: It's All In How You Look at It
Written by: James K. Allred

Among the many sinkholes to avoid as you go about re-engineering your work flow, none is deeper or wider than this one: becoming fixated on "islands" of machinery and forgetting about the overall logistics system and the people who will control it. No matter how you slice it, your work flow and logistics system must interact with and be managed by people. If you don't make the effort to integrate your system with the people who must run it, your shiny new tools will be of little use and your wealth of real-time information generally wasted.

As we pointed out here previously, the road to success in the modern global marketplace lies in the direction of changing completely the ways we think about work flow. We must move outside of the old paradigm, with its high inventory levels and gorged work-in-process (WIP)--a model which has by now been thoroughly discredited as too costly, too slow, and non-responsive to customers. Instead, we must look at work flow in a radically new way, as a continuous and controlled process. And one of the key elements in that paradigm shift is how we design the interaction between material, machines, and human beings.

It's all in how you look at it. The Japanese for example, in spite of their recent problems with the Yen, still hold a decided productivity edge in manufacturing over other industrialized countries. Why? It may become clearer if we examine a critical workplace and work flow design issue that bears directly on the subject at hand.

Unlike most American designers, the Japanese not only see the equipment that will be used to produce a product, they "see" the spaces in between the equipment as being just as important. While many Americans focus on "automation centers," their Japanese counterparts work hard to design work flow systems that minimize the distances and maximize the efficiencies of material travel in between one value-adding activity and another. They carefully analyze the actions that workers must perform upon the material and then make certain that it is delivered to the worker at the optimum time, place, and condition to ensure the most efficient performance of those activities. Any time spent searching for material, retrieving material, "expediting" material, or generally shuffling material around only extends cycle time and is therefore rightly considered time wasted. They understand that, at least in production and distribution operations, time truly is money.

And, as more and more American engineers are coming to realize, the Japanese designers discovered that the best way to achieve their goal was to empower the worker to control the flow of materials. It meant developing systems that allowed workers to "pull" material through the facility rather than imposing centralized planning systems that "pushed" it. It required the placement of strategic and dynamic material buffers that could cushion the ebb and flow of material without surrendering control of it and thereby losing the race against time.

It also required a no-nonsense focus on ergonomics. The most optimal work flow system, even one fully integrated with the latest automated equipment, wasn't enough. It wasn't enough just to deliver the material to the workers. It had to be delivered at the right height, in the best position, and to a workstation that permitted safe, efficient operation on the material while minimizing fatigue and the possibility of errors. In short, a work flow design that addressed the entire operation in a holistic way, not as a series of activities that had been "strung together."

Our examination of this Japanese approach is by no means academic. American industry as a whole has made great strides in quality through total quality management initiatives and employee teams. But in fact, those companies that have made the greatest progress have also implemented many of the design ideas we have been discussing into their material and work flow logistics systems. As a result, they have exploded the myth that faster means poorer quality and instead have seen their integrated approach to cycle time reduction not only boost their profitability, but significantly enhance their quality record. They have stood the old paradigm on its head.

Some of these industry leaders are familiar to you. Names like Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, and Fidelity Investments are widely recognized and admired for their advanced approach to doing business. But before you decide that only the "big guns" can benefit from the new paradigm, let me introduce you to Von Duprin.

Although Von Duprin is both a market leader and a major supplier of door parts and thumb latches for emergency exit doors, it is probably not among the companies that come up in your daily discussions (unless you happen to work there or live in Indianapolis). But it should. Faced with the same challenges as any business--too much WIP, too much inventory, and a production cycle that was far too long--the people at Von Duprin decided the old way simply wasn't working. Using their own people and a "strategic partner," they took out a clean sheet of paper and tackled the problem. They didn't only look at automating their old processes, they thought about how the processes could be changed for the better. They shortened the distance material had to travel and they designed buffers to stage it and deliver it right to the workers. Then, they developed a truly ergonomic workstation that placed every tool at the workers' fingertips. Not stopping halfway, they topped off their new logistics model with an information system that would let (in fact, forced) their workers to "pull" the parts they needed, when they needed them. The kind of worker empowerment that can move mountains (and door assemblies) in a hurry.

Did it work? The results were truly amazing. One assembler, for example, increased her productivity and that of her support team, by five times! Moreover, she attributes that success not only to the design of the work flow, but to her ability to take control of her production.

Just as significantly, Von Duprin didn't have to build a new building or throw out everything they had. The new system integrates with their established planning and control systems and gives them the kind of competitive advantage everyone talks about but few ever achieve.

What about you and your company? Will you break out of the old paradigm and take a fresh look at your material and work flow? Or will you keep trying to tinker with your current system, hoping that you can somehow "make it work"? Add it up and decide for yourself if empowerment plus ergonomics can equal good economic sense. I think you'll find that it does.

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