Flexibility at all levels
In an ever-changing market, flexibility is the answer. However, in that flexibility we do not sufficiently enable the shop floor to move along.
Improvement programs
Various improvement programs are often developed at senior management and board level. From there agility teams are set up, lean programs are drawn up and rolled out. All for good reasons within the current market. But the one who can respond the fastest is the shop floor itself.
Currently, companies are also undergoing a major change in terms of employee type. The baby boomers are retiring and the millennials are entering the companies with a completely different mindset. Where 40 years of employment used to be common practice, today retaining knowledge and experience is the biggest challenge for companies.
Millennials have a completely different view of the market, but also of the traditional hierarchy of companies. Often well informed and trained, they are perfectly capable of executing your agility programs. But why not let the workplace develop the programs yourself?
Responsibility
Isn’t it time for the managers to transfer the responsibility and authority of improvement programs to the workplace? The shop floor is the first layer that is confronted daily with the latest challenges and the constantly changing customer demand. It is therefore time that you invest in the knowledge of the workplace when it comes to improvement programs such as lean and agility.
This means a different organizational structure that is completely open and connects your top talent to the shop floor one-on-one. Are the permanent department structures still suitable for tomorrow’s organization? Often those traditional departmental structures are the cause of slow decision-making and ‘hassle’ over powers. Demolish the walls in your organization by simply lifting the departments as such and reorganizing them in a completely horizontal structure.
This will undoubtedly be a huge challenge for everyone in the organization. You will hit your head several times but keep your eye on the ball. Organize your company as society develops: open, horizontal and very fast moving. Your organization’s traditional rake no longer fits.
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