From good intention to lifestyle change: working lean at Synerlogic
We often start the new year with good intentions. To actually keep them, you actually want it to become part of your regular rhythm. A lifestyle adjustment, in other words. At Synerlogic, the intention arose years ago to continuously improve together, avoid waste and promote cooperation. So that we can work smarter together and help our customers better. In Lean, we found an appropriate methodology. But how do you ensure that this good intention becomes the new rhythm? And that it becomes everyone’s business?
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Why actually work Lean?
For us, working lean not only means continuously improving our business processes and delivering the right solutions for our customers. Lean working also contributes to the commitment of our colleagues. And that leads to better cooperation with our customers. For the Lean expert, you can immediately see the Golden Triangle of results, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
Colleagues take the lead in Lean themselves
The key to ensuring that Lean does not remain a good intention is to let colleagues take the lead themselves. Our colleagues got Lean Belts themselves, started training our colleagues in Lean themselves and optimise our processes themselves. In addition, improvements during daily and weekly kick-offs are standard on the Lean board with every team. Thus, the Lean idea is becoming an ever-growing asset in our organisation and the proverbial oil stain is growing.
The introduction of chain thinking
To ensure that we achieve Lean gains structurally and across departments, ‘chain thinking’ takes centre stage. A process is a chain: it touches several departments within Synerlogic and therefore involves several colleagues. By clarifying the process – and thus the entire chain – together and identifying the bottlenecks, concrete improvements can be implemented. In doing so, it is important to always check our customers’ needs as well. What does it deliver for our customer?
Lean practical example: improving customer value
Every quarter, we analyse a new chain with a group of colleagues. For example, we have already achieved faster delivery of our bulk flow of goods. Another successful example are the improvements to the process ‘customer request of a new or modified product’. Implementing a product modification requires a lot of customer and internal coordination. By mapping the steps in this process, we gained a better understanding of our customer’s questions and expectations. As a result, we can now answer all our customer’s questions at once. This leads to a shorter lead time from request to production and clarity for our customer on planning and expectations. Here again, the Golden Triangle returns; where we gain a lot in customer satisfaction.
From intention to a Lean lifestyle
With our teams and colleagues, we discuss the challenges we are facing and what we need from colleagues in order to implement improvements successfully and permanently. The successes we achieve give us an energy boost and ensure that the next time we work together on the basis of the Lean methodology.
Solving work problems together also increases job satisfaction and cohesion between colleagues. We share what we have learned and achieved with all colleagues. This provides inspiration for new Lean chain improvement projects as well as small improvements in daily and weekly operations. In the process, we also invest in training colleagues in Lean methodologies and attitude and behaviour. We help each other when we are in danger of falling into old patterns, because together we achieve more than alone. That remains very important; we are jointly responsible for success and sustainable continuous improvement. That way, we create even more added value for our customers.
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