JANUARY 2018
Easy Ways to Improve Productivity
Khaled Mabrouk, founder of Sustainable Productivity Solutions, discussed the evolution of industrial engineering and gave listeners four tools they could take home and easily apply in their businesses to improve productivity.
His company does a lot of consulting in the produce industry, working with growers, harvesters, and shippers. It’s primary focus is increasing productivity in operations, although the company also provides services to facilitate improvement projects.
...when employees are involved, they will take ownership of the solution, and it will stick
“Our approach is somewhat unique,” said Khaled, because it includes quite a bit of focus on the people in a business, particularly the rank-and-file employees who do the work. “You really have to include people, not just processes, when you’re trying to improve productivity,” he said. By contrast, many managers in the business world simply focus on a particular process or processes in order to improve productivity.
Another reason that engaging people is important in developing solutions is that when employees are involved, they will take ownership of the solution, and it will “stick.” Solutions from a top-down-driven approach will not last, he suggested.
The four principles he shares were:
--see the process
--determine the root cause
--engage employees in solving a
problem
--be lean and focus on zero waste
When industrial engineering principles were introduced in the early 1900s, the focus was on scientific management, time studies of jobs and tasks, breaking jobs down into steps, and figuring out how work could be done more efficiently. However, people were essentially treated like equipment, observed Khaled. It wasn’t until the 1950s that industrial engineering began to focus more on workers and understanding factors that impacted their performance and productivity.
As the profession advanced, the next phase was the study and development of production systems. Khaled singled out Japanese manufacturers. Products from Japan used to be derided as junk, he noted. “But these people made a commitment that they wanted to own manufacturing going forward after World War II,” and they set about to develop more efficient manufacturing methods.
As a result, they overtook the U.S. first in the production of televisions and other electronics, and eventually the automotive industry. The latter was such a cosmic shift that U.S. automakers tried to emulate Japanese methods.
The next development was Six Sigma, a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by an engineer at Motorola in the mid-1980s. As Khaled noted, “Today Motorola is gone.” The company lost billions of dollars from 2007-2009 and was split into two independent public companies.