At Staff Management | SMX, we’re driven by a strong desire to produce ROI for our clients, and we’ve systematized the process by which we do this.
We’re inspired by the principles that were famously pioneered by the Toyota production system, which have come to be known simply as “lean.” In the most basic sense, being lean means using a standardized, cyclical process to accomplish the twin goals of eliminating waste and creating value.
We undertake a lean assessment process to achieve those goals with our clients. In our five-step system, we make sure that we learn about the client’s goals, research their marketplace and engineer an action plan tailored to their needs. With this plan, we implement and improve solutions that add value for the client, and we follow through by documenting that value.
Our process includes a plan for continuous improvement that delivers a strong return on investment. We come out of the box with a system that is progressive, dynamic and responsive.
Here are the five steps of our lean assessment process.
1) Understand the Project
The first part of our assessment process is to listen. Our operations team will work with you to find out what your current needs are. Have you taken on a new process or production line? Have you experienced a shift in demand? Do you now have a need for additional manufacturing, distribution or fulfillment staff due to an alteration in your supply chain?
We want to know where your need stems from and to work with your operations team to establish actionable goals and ambitious, but attainable, timelines for implementation.
We’ll synthesize input from the project’s various stakeholders to come up with an industrial staffing blueprint that meets your needs.
2) Conduct a Current State Analysis
Once we know the scope of your project, we’ll deploy a site assessment team to identify cost reduction recommendations and potential process improvements. We’ll conduct a current state analysis of your marketplace and assess the delivery models available to you. We’ll also troubleshoot any gaps in coverage and figure out how to improve your program’s performance within the context of current marketplace trends.
Taking into account best practices and industry trends, we’ll then create clear and thorough documentation that quantifies all relevant program data as well as all opportunities for improvement and the options for moving forward.
3) Apply the Principles of Lean Program Design
After a deep dive that explores your needs and the state of your industry, we’ll tap into our expertise with lean principles and Six Sigma strategy to develop a solution that drives efficiency.
In pursuit of a lean industrial staffing program, Staff Management | SMX will assess several components of your program to identify elements that are potentially wasteful and areas in which we may add value. This includes appraisals of your facility layout and design as well as evaluations of time-and-motion studies, and reviews of the training and labor standards for your associates.
We’ll also incorporate strategies from the Six Sigma approach pioneered by Motorola in the 1980s. This tactic emphasizes an increase in productivity and a decrease in defects throughout entire organizations and systems.
One element of our Six Sigma approach is the implementation of a methodology known as 5S. This methodology is a blueprint for continuous improvement of the physical work environment; it encourages practitioners to remove unnecessary objects from their workspace, organize the necessary objects within it, clean the entire space, systematize the whole process and sustain that process over the long haul.
By applying lean principles as well as the related concepts of Six Sigma and 5S, our onsite team will develop a strategy that drives value by eliminating waste and increasing efficiency in a systematic way. Our ultimate goals are to increase predictability of workforce performance and to limit the amount of rework that needs to be done. With less waste and higher productivity, you receive maximum ROI.
4) Deliver Information About Proposed Program Savings
The next step in our process is to translate our assessment of your goals and your marketplace, as well as our plan to add value to your program, into a coherent and measurable business case. This business case is built on a foundation of real data. Our recommendations are backed by metrics that have been measured and quantified. We will present you with this data to empower your team to make informed strategic decisions.
When you work with Staff Management | SMX as an industrial staffing partner, you can rest assured that we’ll work diligently to add value to your manufacturing, distribution or fulfillment operations. We’ll provide you with the information that you need for a successful industrial staffing program.
5) Track the Results of Our Improvements
The final step in our lean assessment process is to provide you with a plan for tracking results. We know that not all clients have the same reporting needs for their industrial staffing programs. What our clients need to know varies based on the individual company, its specific projects and the unique marketplace in which it operates.
So whether you need extremely precise data about the staffing program at your site, a broad overview of the program status at several sites, or some combination of those two options, we’ll develop a plan to report the results that you need to see. We want you to have the data you require so you can make further decisions and hold us accountable for meeting the goals we’ve established with you.
A Roadmap for Industrial Staffing ROI and Continuous Improvement
The five-step lean assessment process that we undertake is a way to combine our data-backed analysis with our deep experience in results-oriented business practices like lean assessment, Six Sigma tactics and 5S methodology. This process is a road map to hear your needs, understand your environment, develop and document a continuous improvement plan, and track the results. We want to drive improvement every step of the way, add value wherever we can and hold ourselves accountable for your results.
Are you interested in finding out how the five-step lean assessment process can provide you with an industrial staffing plan that’s optimized for excellent ROI?
