Are Priorities at Your Organization Confused?

Being Safety Conscious in a Difficult Economy

by Sharon Hilts

Don't Miss Sharon Hilts 2010 DiVal Safety Summit May 11, 2010 Adams Mark Hotel Buffalo, NY

"Toyota's priorities have been first safety, second quality and third volume. These priorities became confused," said Akio Toyoda, Toyota's President, when he testified in front of the US Congress in February regarding the safety problems which led to a worldwide recall of 8.5 million vehicles. With the challenges our businesses face in difficult economic times, it becomes very easy to confuse priorities. We have fewer people in our organizations and, consequently, more work for those who remain. How can we hope to get it all done without sacrificing important priorities like safety?

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Albert Einstein

The solution to the problem is NOT to take shortcuts. The solution is to simplify the processes that govern our work lives. The result is reduced variation in our surroundings and a much safer workplace.

So where do you start? Begin with the most nagging problem in your organization. When considering safety, it may be the falls in the parking lot, hand injuries, back problems, or ergonomic issues. Whatever the reoccurring difficulty, use a process perspective so that the fall, injury, or pain is considered an outcome of a process. Six Sigma's DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) approach will enable you to identify which process inputs are critical to the outcome of that process. By narrowing the focus to the vital few inputs, improvement activities to reduce the variation in only these inputs is more manageable. When pressed for time, this is a very practical approach.

“Today's standardization…is the necessary foundation on which tomorrow's improvement will be based."

Henry Ford

Once analysis of the process is complete in the DMAIC methodology, it's time to implement improvements. Look for solutions that are both effective in having a positive influence on the outcome and those which are the easiest to implement. Again, we're trying to be practical given resource constraints. One improvement activity that frequently meets these qualifiers is Standardized Work. Standardized Work, as we (members of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership) define it, is an agreed upon and documented set of work procedures that establishes the best and most reliable methods and sequence for each process and worker.

“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen."

Lee Iacocca

Standardized work requires you to look at each element of a process to determine the sequence of steps, how work will be performed, and the length of time required. If a task must be performed in a specific way in order to be done safely, it's included in the procedure, often with pictures. For example, if hand injuries are prevalent in your organization, jobs such as the receiving of incoming goods would be among the first documented. It would show that you must use a safety knife, where the location of the non-cutting hand is on the box being opened, and place an emphasis on cutting away from yourself. It may even describe the placement of the cutting hand on the safety knife. By standardizing how receivers open boxes and including safety specifics, you are reducing the variability in that process thereby greatly reducing the likelihood of a hand injury.

Part of Standardized Work is determining the amount of time it takes to execute each step in a process. This may seem like overkill but it serves an important purpose. It allows you to balance the work tasks amongst employees. So what? How many times have you identified the cause of an accident as 'the employee was rushing?’ Why might they be rushing? The time to perform their tasks might be greater than the task time required by their co-workers in adjacent processes. Standardized work will allow you to balance the workload. Overall pacing becomes more achievable by employees so less rushing is required. Less rushing can lead to less variability and fewer accidents.

“I would like to reaffirm our values of placing safety and quality the highest on our list of priorities."

Akio Toyoda

Make safety top on your list of priorities by reducing the variation in your processes through standardized work.  Not only will employees be safer but you'll also find that your second (quality) and third (productivity) priorities benefit as well.

If you need assistance applying Six Sigma or Standard Work to your safety systems, contact Sharon Hilts by phoning 716.636.3626 or by emailing shilts@insyte-consulting.com

Sharon Hilts is an Insyte consultant. Her leadership focus on safety improvement has resulted in significantly fewer recordable incidents and corporate awards in OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP).