Conference puts leadership in the spotlight

A PICME product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 16, 2005

The PICME Annual Conference at the Telford International Centre on Tuesday 27th September will, as ever, put particular emphasis on the people skills needed for sustainable manufacturing improvement.

The PICME Annual Conference at the Telford International Centre on Tuesday 27th September will, as ever, put particular emphasis on the people skills needed for sustainable manufacturing improvement.

The key player in driving such success is the team leader.

Examples of real team leaders in manufacturing action - the results they can bring and how they and their teams can be trained - will be explored on 27th September by PICME's Simon Danks PICME, the Process Industries Centre for Manufacturing Excellence, has spent the past 18 months working on manufacturing team leadership through a mixture of client work and analysis and is shortly set to recommend a resulting skill set for the UK's process industries at NVQ Level 3 for the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) syllabus.

Danks notes: "The popular perception is that supervisors are mainly there to manage the inputs to the manufacturing process; to ensure that manpower, materials and machines are all doing their job together and correctly".

"In fact, this is but part of the picture: their role actually needs to start at the other end of production, supervisors need to ensure that quality, cost and delivery (QCD) are all that they need to be - otherwise the manufacturing input is simply wasted".

Danks adds: "Team leaders - and all involved in manufacturing - need to maintain the manufacturing process and resolve abnormal conditions".

"In a good company - one committed to continuous improvement - team leaders and others need also to be constantly monitoring processes and seeking opportunities to improve them".

PICME has identified that successful team leaders are strong in three main skills areas; people, processes and with personal style.

"Manufacturing is by and large a measurable science", says Danks, "and therefore a good proficiency in the so-called 'hard' skills of the manufacturing process - ie performance measurement, workplace organisation, data analysis and problem solving - is required and is looked for in a good team leader".

However, work and change typically only ever happen through the intervention of people.

"Team leaders must be able to motivate and achieve results through their people or they will fail", says Danks.

Key to the people element is the skill of recognising and handling conflict.

Understanding team roles and behaviour is also of high importance, according to the PICME work.

In terms of functions and task-based activities, today's manufacturing team leaders may take on a wide spread of jobs, including: ensuring health and safety standards are met and improved; applying tools such as workplace organisation, visual management and standardised work as well as applying recognised improvement methods to solve problems and eliminate waste.

"It can be a long list", says Danks, "particularly when the core process has been made to run well through manufacturing improvement".

"And that is part of the issue: at that point the creativity and talent of team leaders and operatives can be freed up to make the core process run even better; produce more value and benefit for the business and its customers".

Simon Danks of PICME and others will present at the PICME Annual Conference at the Telford International Centre on Tuesday 27th September.

Booking and full details are available from the PICME website.