15 qualities of a continuous improvement leader

1. Explain why Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) is important
2. Empower team members, but be a facilitator to plan their macro activities
3. Demonstrate himself in Kaizen event as active participant
4. Ask for Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) ideas and opportunities
5. Emphasize small but creative ideas
6. Ask for more than just cost savings like people engagement, value enhancement, customer satisfaction, etc.
7. Look at the improvement in process or system instead of blaming people
8. Don’t hide ideas (be transparent) with team
9. Quickly respond to every idea
10. Turn “bad ideas” into better ideas. Even turn complaints into ideas
11. Coach, but don’t find fault. Help people see the bigger picture
12. Create time for people who have to take action
13. Don’t forget the sustainment at the end of improvement cycle
14. Give people recognition for ideas (effort, not just results)
15. Compile the results and celebrate them

5 Things zapping your Diamond planners’ productivity

5 Things zapping your Diamond planners’ productivity

It is always been tough to establish a workplace that encourages creativity to think out of box, generate synergy and yet also promotes productivity. But it is always important to put our head to ask for “How exactly do you determine what's helping and hurting my most important persons’ productivity?”

If you're struggling to maintain a productive diamond planning function, here are five things that may be working against you:

1. Your unique company culture

It is seen over a period of time in diamond industry that, a person finds it difficult at most of the diamond processing departments to have place to work alone where no-one is accompanied with him. This is considered necessary to achieve peak productivity irrespective of financial rewards & recognition. Our constant interaction with diamond processing department heads and key value generators / enhancers has given an insight that 80 percent of respondents preferred to work alone when they need to get a lot done. Make sure your entire team has access to quiet areas for their time to focus.

2. The office layout

If your team is experiencing low productivity and struggling to deliver what has been always asked by management, it may be signal / trigger to switch up your office layout. According to our diagnostic study in most of the diamond manufacturing companies, younger adults are more likely to prefer to work in a newsroom set-up than their older counterparts. Also, men are much more likely intended to work in a cubicle with co-workers compared to women. Depending on product type and estimated time to complete the rough article, you may find that large, open rooms are best for creating collaborative spaces. Don't be afraid to poll your workers on how they would like to switch it up. Always observe that the product is being transported within minimum hands offs safely all the time.

3. Noisy neighbors

Our one to one interaction, interviews and meetings with the diamond planners and checkers have put on light like 70percent of respondents said most of their distractions come from noisy colleagues. To evaluate &judge the stone to derive optimum value needs high level of concentration to observe minute impurities / inclusions inside thestone. This is serious because everyone knows that once stone gets processed and then realizing its optimum value is a biggest mistake we do in planning

To avoid such instances, cut the noise level at the working area by setting up an internal instant messaging system for employee communication like skype, online messenger, etc, or simply asking them to ping each other on Gtalk when they need to get in touch.

4.  Management

That's right! You could be the one impeding office productivity. The boss not sitting with his most valuable group sometimes hampers the productivity. Eyes on desks always get rid of unproductive stuff. More than a third of those who have a boss said they have little desire to work alongside them means thirty percent of workers would opt for more work over a desk next to their boss. If your workers are getting tense from too much micromanaging, it may be time for you to relocate.

5.  Communication Gap

Since the planning is the most important element of diamond processing, a minor communication gape can hamper the effectiveness of whole process. It is vital to effectively communicate about the parameters & price-list to be considered while planning the stone. This occupies more importance considering the fact that planner department operates round the clock in 3 different shifts.During survey, almost 40% raised the concern about effective mode of communication between the management & planners. Communication gape can be overcome with the help of written instructions/SOP/guidelines in local language pasted/displayed across the workplace with the latest version number and date.

Consider ways to avoid these potential distractions, and you'll kick your company's productivity to a new height.

Lean Success Story - K. Girdharlal International Ltd., Surat

K. Girdharlal International Ltd., India a DTC Sightholder and a leading diamond Company is transforming itself by adopting lean manufacturing, the Japanese technique for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing practices and operation. The group employs more than 2000 people at its factory in Surat, India. Over the period of last 2 decades, the group has been consistently innovating processes to manufacture high quality diamonds. As part of that, the Group has initiated to develop the culture of continual improvement across the organization through implementation of lean tools commensurate with TPS (Toyota Production System) philosophy. This has been pursued through participation in Government of India (GOI) sponsored scheme under the guidance of RSM Astute Consulting (Astute) being an empaneled Lean Manufacturing Consultant as per the scheme.

Project started with definition of milestones to derive tangible results in terms of productivity improvement, reduction in production cycle time, increase in process wise throughput through elimination of 7 types of wastes namely Transportation, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Inventory, Defects and Unused Creativity of People. During the first phase of the project, considerable benefits have been derived in terms of reduction in process cycle time, increase in productivity of machine/ people, increase in throughput of process/department, better workplace management and effective communication across the production shop floor. This has been pursued with the help of lean tools viz. 5S, Visual Controls, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, Standardized Work Practices and Mistake Proofing. The process of lean implementation also encompasses culture of continuous improvement, awareness amongst the people to seek for the root cause of the problem areas with the help of problem solving tools and improved motivation and morale amongst team. The journey of lean transformation is still being pursued through active involvement.    

“It’s our privileged to be on path of transforming organization to lean for sustainable growth and increase in bottom line. We are keen to take the process forward as part of continual improvement” - Mr. Yogesh Shah – Director

Lean Success Story - Ankit Gems Transferming to Lean Organization

Ankit Gems Pvt. Ltd. India, a DTC Sightholder and a leading diamond Company is transforming itself into a lean organization. Ankit Gems (www.ankitgems.com) employs more than 600 people at its state of the art modern diamond manufacturing factories in India and Namibia. Having established as a strong and recognized manufacturer, Ankit Gems wanted to challenge its existing processes and bring further improvement in smooth flow of production, maintenance of WIP inventory, production load balancing across some process departments, inventory turnaround time and also explore the scope for standardize action of process definitions/work practice guidelines. To improve the processes further and move towards a high performance business, Ankit Gems turned to RSM Astute Consulting (www.astuteconsulting.com) through participation in government sponsored lean manufacturing programme.

As part of implementation, a team was formed comprising of representatives from various process departments. Training was imparted to the team about lean tools including site tour of different industries having implemented lean tools successfully. As part of 5S implementation, work area was re-organized so as to facilitate the efficient working and reduction in motion and waiting time waste. With the help of Pareto analysis and studying of past trends, reasons contributing to high proportion of damage/breakage were ascertained and corrective actions taken to overcome the same. Process flow was re-engineered for certain processes to eliminate the unwanted activities through Kaizen. The journey of success started with a significant cost saving during the first phase.

 

“We are pleased to be on this journey of process improvement through lean tools. We could achieve substantial benefits with an instinct to change for better. The entire process triggered a cultural change across the Company. For us it is to cross new and exciting milestones in the journey to high performance. We would be glad to continue this journey & seek more improvements” - Mr. Pravin Shah – Director