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Creating the Right Conversations at S&C Electric Franklin

August 24, 2021
S&C Electric Franklin (Wisconsin) make industrial transformers. A group of middle managers undertook our ‘Getting Started With Work Standards’ 2x2Hr live online program back in April this year. Alex, Manufacturing Manager, immediately recognised opportunity through the Mark Rosenthal quote – “If you don’t have a clear expectation of what ‘good’ looks like then your definition of ‘not good’ is subjective and varies depending on who, what and when things are being looked at.

If you DO HAVE a clear expectation of what ‘good’ (‘normal’) looks like then your definitiion of ‘not good’ (‘abnormal’) is OBJECTIVE AND THE SAME no matter who, what and when things are being looked at.

Derived from ‘Lean Thinker’ Oscar Roche 2020

S&C Electric Franklin (Wisconsin) make industrial transformers. A group of middle managers undertook our ‘Getting Started With Work Standards’ 2x2Hr live online program back in April this year. Alex, Manufacturing Manager, immediately recognised opportunity through the Mark Rosenthal quote – “If you don’t have a clear expectation of what ‘good’ looks like then your definition of ‘not good’ is subjective and varies depending on who, what and when things are being looked at.” In the 2nd session Alex brought an example to the group (task video clip) and the principle of ‘define normal’ was applied – a very fruitful conversation. Following the workshop, within a period of two weeks an associated small but critical part of the assembly process was adjusted reducing the risk of rework to virtually zero.

Alex was impressed – he requested we deliver the same 2x2Hrs program to his Team Leads. We suggested an add on of 2 x 1Hr follow up sessions to further encourage ‘learn by doing’.

Ten Team Leads attended the 2 sessions mid July. We then split them into 2 groups for the two mentoring sessions. Each was charged with selecting a focus task where they knew there was opportunity through our Mark Rosenthal quote “If you don’t have …”.

The most significant learning came from the Team Lead Carlos who identified a ‘subjective statement’ in their reference documentation, one that was causing rework. It related to the movement of a lever after assembly on a transformer. The stated standard was ‘moves freely’. Carlos quickly recognised the subjective nature of the wording as a root cause of rework. There’s no value in standardising ambiguity! Carlos set to work with one of the site Process Engineers in order to set an objective and measurable ‘normal’ statement – another very fruitful series of conversations.

Contact us please if you’d like to learn more about our ‘Getting Started With Work Standards’ program.

At a connected but higher level, here’s a new and excellent standardised work overview article on the TWI Institute website