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(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) S.M.I.L.E(sm)
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Setup Minimization Improves Line Efficiency
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) The Lean Changeover e-letter
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Published monthly by Changeover.com
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Written by John R Henry, CPP
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### JULY 2007
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SOME THOUGHTS ON...
CHANGEOVER CHAMPION

I have written here about the need for everyone, from all departments, to be involved in changeover. Today I want to write about what I think is the key person in any lean changeover project.

I call this person the “Champion”. These days we think of this word as signifying “the best” at something competitive, usually a sport. We have tennis champions, football champions and so on.

Another meaning of the word is “to advocate” (as a verb) or a person who advocates (as a noun). It is in this sense that I use “Champion” in changeover.

An orchestra, without a conductor, is a chaos of sound and accomplishes little. A changeover project needs a conductor as well. It needs someone who will take the project in hand and run with it. It needs someone who can assign tasks to the best qualified person, do followups to make sure they get done, request and obtain resources and issue reports on goals and accomplishments. In other words, the champion is the person who will have day to day charge of the lean changeover program.

So what qualifications should the champion have? Where should he or sh come from?

The most important qualification, in my opinion, is enthusiasm. They must believe in lean changeover down to their toes. Actually, I think enthusiasm is a good pre-requisite for any position. That is probably another essay. I have mixed feelings about whether specialized expertise in any particular is a good or a bad thing. The drawback to specialization is that the specialist may tend to focus on their particular area of expertise at the expense of others. As the saying goes “When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I think it is better to have a champion who has broad general knowledge of the manufacturing process. That broad knowledge needs to be combined with the willingness and ability to seek out and use specialized knowledge from others.

The champion must have a curious mind. They must have the type of mind that asks “Why...” and then finds the answer. They must be willing to look for solutions from a diverse variety of sources. In my workshops and consulting practice I have found that many people have rather industry specific knowledge. The person working in the pharmaceutical industry will tend to work for other pharmaceutical companies, go to pharmaceutical conferences and trade shows, visit other pharmaceutical plants, speak with colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry. They are unlikely to know much abotu what is going on in the food industry, the household products industry or other industries.

This is a natural tendency but is still limiting. In my Achieving Lean Changeover workshops I do not try to focus on the client’s industry. I show everybody everything. I almost always run across something that nobody is familiar with but is common in other industries.

The champion needs to be curious about what other companies, within and without their industry are doing. They need to be thinking “Would that idea be useful in our plant? How can I adapt it?”

Along with the above, the champion needs to be immune to the “not invented here” disease. There needs to be a willingness to accept other ideas.

The champion needs to have confidence in themselves. It is possible to reinforce confidence but it must be there to start with. Nobody can be a competent advocate for anything without confidence. In addition to confidence in themselves, the champion must have the confidence of others in the organization.

Choosing and announcing the champion is not enough. They need to be supported. This may take the form of training. The person with all of the above qualities still needs to know something about how to analyze changeover and find cost effective ways to improve it. This may mean training, either on or off site, by company or outside trainers. It can mean visiting other plants to see best practices. It can mean attendance at conferences and trade shows. It is unfair to the champion to expect them to be able to discover opportunities without giving them the opportunity to lean how.

The champion must be supported. They must be able to call on resources from other departments. As an example, in order to determine cost effectiveness of improvements it is essential to know the cost of downtime. This cost has to be provided by the accounting or finance department. The champion must be able to have the management support to get them to provide this info.

You may notice that I have said nothing about where the champion should come from and there is a reason for that: I don’t know!

Seriously, the champion can come from anywhere. It can be a person hired for this purpose, it can be an engineer assigned to the job. It could be a manager or supervisor or it could be a person from the floor. I think that if they have qualities mentioned above, plus some other qualities which will vary from plant to plant, they can come from anywhere.

The key is, if you do not already have a changeover team and a champion, you are behind. You need to do it today.

<Shameless plug: If you are interested in reducing changeover times in your plant, call me at 787-550-9650. I have a whole toolbox of ways I can help you. I assure you that I have more than a hammer.>


TIP OF THE MONTH...
WALL WASHING

Last year I had discussed the Tucker USA Company at www.tuckerusa.com They make a line of washing equipment for billboards and other vertical surfaces that I think would be very helpful in cleaning manufacturing areas.

I stand by that recommendation but I have since found something will be better for some applications. It is the Core2Clean system from Veltek Associates http://www.sterile.com/pages/products/products_core_2_clean_system.htm


The concepts are similar but with some important differences. The Tucker system uses a pressure hose with a siphon to the detergent/sanitizer. In some applications where the precise amount of detergent is critical this might not be accurate enough. The Core2Clean system uses a pressurized tank to supply the washing wand. This allows for precise premixing and dilution of the washing solution in the tank.

The system is also specifically designed for pharmaceutical and clean room applications.

The system is somewhat more expensive so my recommendation would be to look at both them and the Tucker system. Then decide which is more appropriate for a particular application.

Best,

John R Henry CPP

www.changeover.com
787-550-9650