The power of command in companies change over the years. Leadership and its meaning also evolve in tandem. Now, the leaders of the organizations have the opportunity – and more crucially, the authority – to be able to direct the administrative process to an operative efficiency, that is to say, the slender thinking.
It must be remembered that a big part of lean manufacturing «phylosophy» is focused on maximizing performance, that is, avoiding the excessive use of resources using only those essential to carry out the company’s objectives, promoting high productivity and increasing the value. In addition, lean thinking tries to avoid errors in the communication channels, (with the client, the provider or the employee) to define the appropriate way to empower employees, to perfect the processes and reimagine the value chain.
Normally, any improvement methodology that can be applied to any business is based on repetitiveness, and, therefore, standardization, especially in human resources. Regularly employees usually acquire experience and individual knowledge about the work they perform, they focus on a methodology based on the company and also on their own, there is no space for the decentralization of work and shared knowledge. This is a waste of talent. If we talk about the slender thinking in the work force of any company, if employees do not feel creativity (as the vehicle to communicate and create) or the passion to share their experiences with other employees, then there is a lack of human capital development.
Some might believe that creativity and the standardization are two different concepts that are not related, much less in the manufacturing industry; we don’t believe that, actually, their coexistence is quite common, even among authors of works of art or professionals in advertising and design, which usually follow structures to carry out their projects, going through a research / inspiration phase previously. Standardization is important for everyone, no matter how creative the occupation is.
Is creativity important for manufacturing workers?
The answer is yes, a company that does not innovate in all its stages is destined for death in this globalized world. The most appropriate way to innovate is to create a link with the core of a company: employees; since a motivated employee means efficiency and productivity. A company must get its workers involved with it and cooperate with its development, providing ideas to improve activities, products and services that allow them to reinvent themselves continuously. I refer to the article «The labor force of the XXI century» where we talk about the development of the labor force in recent years.
For some companies, it is difficult to stimulate creativity and to create an organizatinal culture that is competitive and structurally strong. Companies must build aptitudes and attitudes, offering training for the development of positive skills, grant real growth opportunities in the short term, provide tools that help create, discover and invent products or services that meet business and market needs, give importance and recognition of those committed employees and, above all, to standardize their motivation mechanism so that growth can be achieved in the short and long term. Thus, innovative companies are characterized by their ability to channel the creative contributions of their employees to turn them into useful results for the market, quality and cost of the product, thus improving internal productivity, increasing the utility of the product or service.
Soñador y constructor de mundos.