How a repaired vacuum cleaner was one of my Operational Excellence “Ah-Ha!” Moments…
Operational Excellence to me is about a vacuum cleaner moment at work, earlier in my career.
You are now thinking…. WHAT??!!
Please stay with me for a moment……….
There are a lot of good books and references out there on Operational Excellence to guide you in the Shingo Method, which are 10 foundational steps that are critical to build that foundation for your organization. There are also a lot of experts out there that are well versed in the methodology. So why another expert in the field?
I want to provide a practical and heartfelt approach to how I’ve tried to incorporate this into my teams over my 30+ years of experience in the chemical and renewable energy sectors. At the end of the day, it was all about getting the organization to hum to the same tune and work together as one high performance work team. Each person that worked for me has a special place in my heart.
One of the best memories of my career was when our plant was facing a major issue at work, and we were all working long and hard days at the plant and were prepared to stay on site. We shared meals together and had the common goal at hand and found out that we had moments of fun in the process working long hard days. At 9 pm, I remember coming out of a room to hear my young engineer say to the shift leader, “Holy crap, we fixed the vacuum cleaner!!” and they both proceeded to crack up uncontrollably with each other. This wasn’t a task on their list, but they both saw it was broken and just went right into ‘get it done mode’. The camaraderie and joy of working with each other was incredibly visible, and I paused to think ‘Wow… we have something really good here…’
This was my ‘vacuum cleaner moment’ when I realized what an incredible high performance work team we had, and I took a moment to take it all in and enjoy their incredible teamwork.
I can help you develop your moment as well…. Contact me for further information.