CAPITAL: The Voice of Business Issue 1, 2015 | Page 26

GEMBA
But it’s more complex than it looks on
the face of it and the rest of the day will be
spent with Ballé trying to get the execs to
understand how exactly Lean thinking is
best implemented, first at Somta and then
at Pfisterer, whose management have also
offered themselves up for his criticism.
Essentially, Lean is understood by most
to be a way of improving efficiencies,
and hence profits, by eliminating waste
in a company’s processes. Ballé is trying,
however, to get across the fact that this
can only work by focusing on the people
in the organisation.
“Standardised work is something that
we build together,” he says simply.
And standardisation is the ultimate
goal, it seems. Just as therobotic arm in
Wolhuter’s pressure-casting factory makes
movements choreographed to create
the most effective workflow, and must
have the part perfectly in place when the
die presses down, so must a company’s
systems be designed if they are to be Lean.
A company’s dispatch department must
be that relentless press that drives the
robotic arm of the factory, is what Ballé
wants to get across.
“A factory is not there to produce, but to
ship.”
Control tightly the point at which
products are dispatched to the customer
and you have no choice but to bring the rest
of the elements — inventory, production,
management, operators — into line.
But people aren’t robots. They won’t
follow a set of instructions blindly and
perfectly. And that turns out to be a good
thing.
“Employees need to be autonomous,”
says Ballé.
This is how insights are stimulated and
how a business can organically react to the
fast-paced change of today’s world.
The way to do this is through “visual control” and training, he says. Visual controls
are the visible cues that help standardise
work: the square painted on the floor that
delineates the place where the box of fin26

| Issue 1 | Capital

Dr Michael Ballé (end of table, far left) discusses
Pfisterer with representatives from various
ished products goes; the photograph that
shows operators what the finished parts
they are making should look like; the board
that updates workers on how many parts
they still have to make to meet their quota
today. These are the controls that are essential to regulate individual staff members, but they also make it clear to everyone else what should be happening. When
something is not right, it is obvious to all.
This way, says Ballé, when the CEO — who
must be the driver of the Lean thinking
process — goes to the gemba, he or she
knows how each facet of the operation
is meant to be working and can interact
meaningfully with staff members.
Once this visual control is in place, proper
training of staff empowers them with the
confidence to make better decisions and
to offer their insights on how the company
can be more effective.
But, insists Ballé, it is critical that the
process is inclusive and that the visual
control is done right.
“Don’t try to bring a machine operator
into your space by displaying management
charts and spreadsheets,” he says.
Inflicting that kind of visual control