Wire & Cable Technology International - January/February 2008 - (Page 37)

The LEAN Side by: Roy St. Andre Executive VP & GM EIS Wire & Cable Co. 775 New Ludlow Road South Hadley, MA 01075 USA www.eiswire.com Change is Tough! to re-evaluate everything that seems to have worked in the past. When it comes to evaluating the current state of a process (how things are done now) and asking your setting their opinions aside and making sure they understand that questioning their perceptions is simply a quest for knowledge, not the Spanish Inquisition. change would be easy if not for the people. In fact, one of my employees once said: Is it me, or do some people just like to complain? You know the ones—they have a problem with the way things are, they can’t understand why the company does the things it does and they don’t think the company ever listens to them. But, just try to change things by making improvements and those people are turn on you. You see, you can’t have it both ways. It’s much easier to complain about what’s not working, than to make the investment in change. So if you’re thinking about embarking on the LEAN Manufacturing journey of continuous improvement, then you’ll need to assess your company’s tolerance for change. If you want to succeed in LEAN Manufacturing, then your managers must embrace the concept of change. In fact, LEAN Manufacturing requires so much change that the person heading up the impletinuous Improvement is the fact that it’s continuous. It never ends because there’s always a better way. And there lays the rub, the psychological effects of change. for managers and for just about anyone. Hey, nobody was more set in their ways than I was. I didn’t like it when people didn’t do things the right way and since I was the boss, I always assumed that my way was the right way. So if I can change, anyone can. the unknown and that makes people uncomfortable. When people are involved, their feelings, opinions and to get defensive. Do yourself a favor and learn by my mistakes, and make sure you include some training on managing change before you ask your employees of manufacturing experience. But the truth of the matter is that change would be ize that people are an asset, not a necessary evil or a cost of doing business. If a company believes that employees should check their brain at the door and simply do what they’re told, then employees will only learn enough to just get by and in turn the company will just get by. My plant manager often says: , where Bill Murray is trapped in time and wakes up every morning to relive the same day over and over crazy. People’s resistance to change drives me crazy. When people resist change it limits their chances of being creative and suggesting improvements. If a company doesn’t encourage and reward change, then neither the company nor the employee will ever realize their true potential and that is a loss that neither should tolerate. and the pessimist fears that this is true. Hey, I’ve often said LEAN is simple, I never said it WCTI was easy. , Roy St. Andre, Executive Vice President / General Manager of EIS Wire & Cable Co. EIS Wire & Cable, based in South Hadley, MA, USA, is a niche manufacturer of custom cables specializing in Military, Audio Broadcast and OEM markets. www.eiswire.com 37 http://www.eiswire.com http://www.eiswire.com

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Wire & Cable Technology International - January/February 2008 Editorial Wire & Cable Events Industry News Global Economy Drives Specialty Cable Demand Corporate News Change is Tough! Top Products of 2007 New Magnesium Hydroxides Enabling Low-Smoke Cable Compounds Straight From the Show - IWCS Conference™ A History of Long-Term Thinking Ensures a Pioneering Spirit Expediency of Roller Dies Application in Wire Drawing - Part 1 WireDrawing 101 Strain Rate Transforming Our Ideas Into Your Success Straight From The Show - Wire Southeast ASIA 2007 Capstans, Dancers, Accumulators Roundup Spotlight On Quality Control Pioneering Virtual Technology for Extrusion Electrically Heated Furnace Cuts Energy Costs/Reduces Carbon Footprint Machinery Accessories Materials Polymer Developments in the Cables Industry Wire & Connector Top Products of 2007 Just Load, Click and Print Superior Flame Resistance for Minimal Smoke, CO & Acid Gas High-Flex Round Cable Added to On-Line Design Tools Failed Bridge Cables Replaced With Smaller, Stronger Ones Advertisers Index Classified Advertising Internet Spotlight Editorial Index

Wire & Cable Technology International - January/February 2008

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