Engaging Employees Is Key to Continuous Improvement in Your Ball and Roller Bearing Manufacturing Operation
December 30, 2016 / 
best practices, continuous improvement, Employee Morale, LIT, maintaining talent, operator training, strategic planning
There is no question continuous improvement is critical to succeeding in today’s market. Case in point: two of the three industrial metal-cutting companies featured here in a case study on top performers listed continuous improvement as an imperative operational strategy and best practice that sets their operations above the rest.
It’s also widely accepted that continuous improvement efforts require “buy-in” from the top-down to truly be successful. This isn’t always an easy task. Articles like this one from IndustryWeek discuss the challenges improvement teams face in getting upper management on board. Perhaps the larger challenge, however, is getting operators and other employees committed to improvement efforts. While upper management support is needed to secure resources, employees are the ones carrying out the efforts, making them absolutely critical to success.
The key, one expert states, is to intentionally engage employees. “For any effort directed towards continuous improvement or innovation to succeed, your employees must feel that their suggestions…are genuinely wanted and in fact encouraged,” Chris Ruisi, leadership expert, writes here in a blog published by the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). “They must willingly take ownership in the future of their organization—continuous improvement is everyone’s responsibility.”
To facilitate this, Ruisi offers the following strategies:
- Review Outcomes. Ruisi suggests that managers adopt his “study your game films” approach. At the end of every important project, regardless of the outcome, teams should meet and ask questions that encourage improvement: If we had to do this again, what would we start doing; stop doing; do more of or do less of? This simple process ensures that you learn something from every event to make you better the next time.
- Explain the Big Picture. Most employees know what they must do, when to do it, and how to do it. Many do not know why they do it, who they do it for, and where it fits in to the total picture. Armed with the “why, who, and where,” they are better able to identify and suggest ways they can improve and contribute to the company’s larger goals.
- Gather Feedback Regularly. Start meeting with small groups of your team members on a regular basis to actively solicit their feedback on how their work is produced. Start with only one question: What’s one thing we can do today to produce a better result tomorrow? Take the same approach with your better customers. They have a lot to offer as long as you ask and show them that you sincerely want their feedback.
- Encourage Ownership. At the end of every staff meeting, ask “what’s one thing we could do better?” Once an idea is identified, ask the person who suggested it to “own” that project. This encourages feedback and empowers your team members to take ownership in the continuous improvement effort.
If your ball and roller bearing operation is dedicated to continuous improvement, it may be worthwhile to consider some of Ruisi’s suggestions. In addition to helping continuous improvement efforts stick, taking the time to engage employees often builds new levels of trust among employees and management—trust that can provide invaluable benefits like improved morale and employee loyalty.
Does your current continuous improvement plan actively engage employees?
