Your frontline managers are the folks that have their hands on the day-to-day levers and switches. It goes without saying that their effectiveness is the key to your business performance. Do they have the right information and tools to be effective? Together, with your managers, we develop an enhanced management methodology to allow them to succeed for you.
Brief Case Study
There is a company that had been suffering terribly from the inertia of an entrenched culture. At one time, they were not profitable, their facilities were antiquated, and leadership was frustrated that they had been unable to make significant change. Indeed, they were fighting for the organization’s life. The Board decided it was due time to bring in a new CEO, with fresh and innovative ideas.
The new CEO believed that the best strategy to turn this “old battleship” was through investment in and education of its frontline management. The tactics would be based on Lean Management and Continuous Improvement Techniques – shifting the cultural command-and-control power away from senior management, and putting more decision-making responsibility in the hands of those closest to the day-to-day work.
Waypoint was brought in to help facilitate this shift. Focus groups of managers were held which introduced new Problem-Solving methods, ideas for Visual Management (more transparency), and frequent measurement of Key Performance Indicators.
The results of this work speaks for for itself. Just walking into a department, one would see charts and graphs on the walls around workstations, managers taking more ownership of their performance (less victimization), fewer process errors, and all of this lead to a healthier operation.
