"Lean at Wiremold: Beyond Manufacturing, Putting People Front and Center"
Journal of Organizational Excellence
Summer 2004, pp. 23-32
Wiremold has been one of the most successful implementers of Lean Manufacturing. Wiremold realized early in its transition to Lean that the mechanics of Lean (such as TPM, 5S, cellular manufacturing, etc.) were not enough to truly transform an organization. In this article, one of Wiremold's senior managers shares how Wiremold leveraged its people in its Lean implementation.
The article discusses four particular areas where CEO action counts the most in making Lean work for the company:
- Implement Lean as a strategy, not a tactic
- Lead the culture change
- Mandate Lean as a way of operating
- Set stretch goals and create an environment that supports their achievement
For organization structure changes, Wiremold:
- Reorganized into product families, or teams, which reflected value streams
- Organized support activities that had to service more than one value stream into support teams
- Flattened the organizational structure into just three layers: the management layer (CEO and VP's), product and support team leaders, and workers
In order to make the Lean transformation into a win-win situation for both the company and the workers, Wiremold introduced:
- Qualified employment guarantee—Employees were guaranteed that they would not lose their jobs due to the improvements made with Lean. Their jobs might change, however, and poor performers were not guaranteed to keep their jobs.
- Profit sharing and other compensation plans—All compensation plans were examined to assure that they supported the cooperation needed to support the Lean strategy.
- Education and training—All Wiremold employees initially received some education in Lean concepts, but most of the training was given just-in-time, as needed.
- Advance the best, improve the worst—The top 10 percent of employees were placed on a list with a written plan of long-term development. The bottom 10 percent were also on a list for performance improvement.
- New career paths—People were given long (2-3 year) rotation assignments.
- Restructured wage and salary grades—Salaried jobs were put into four wide, broad bands
- Giving employees a voice—A thorough survey feedback approach was implemented.
- Code of conduct—Everyone is expected to respect others, tell the truth, be fair, try new ideas, ask why, keep your promises, and do your share.
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