Does Standard Work stifle Innovation?

Alarm Bells were sounded, highlighting a critical concern that Standardized Work was eliminating Innovation within the workplace. Without Innovation the workplace would not be able to stay ahead of the competition.

Standard Work when managed properly actually promotes and stimulates innovation. Let us examine the power of Standard Work. I typically promote two levels of Standard Work within any organization.

At a high level I encourage the organization to partition the work day into three distinct segments. As the organization embraces the partitions we now have the teams aligned and moving in similar directions We suggest as you start embracing standard work get the organization to respect the following partitions.;

SUGGESTED STRUCTURE OF YOUR DAY

• Start of Shift to 11AM = Focus on Disturbances to Flow and elimination or resolution

• 11AM to 2PM = Shift and department update meetings

• 2PM to End of Shift = Focus on Capital Projects or Continuous Improvement

Will the organization be able to respect the partitions precisely and every day? No, there are going to be days where the Disturbances to Flow are overwhelming and can spill into the other partitions. This is fully acceptable unless it is happening every day, then you have a different problem.

Most important is the mind-set that has been created. Hopefully, people will stop scheduling a quote review for first thing in the morning.

LEADER STANDARD WORK is the next level of Standard Work to employ. This is going to take some time to implement before you and the Leader applying Standard Work will realize the full benefit.

To keep it simple, the percentage of an employee’s day dedicated to standard work increases the closer the employee is to the line where repetitive tasks are being performed.

For Example based on an 8 hour work day

• Team Member = 7 to 7.5 hours

• Team Lead =5 hours

• Supervisor = 3 hours

• Manager = 2 hours

• Director =1 hour

The non-standardized time can now be allocated to other projects and initiatives. This should include:

• Mentoring

• Coaching

• Problem Solving

• Strategic Initiatives

• Product + Process development and innovation

As you develop Leader Standard Work it is important to keep the daily standardized work portion balanced. Avoid having 5 hours of Standardized Work on Thursday followed by only 1 hour on Friday, balance between the two days to achieve 3 hours daily.

As you add more people to Leader Standard Work you will find that it becomes fairly easy to synchronize tasks between Leaders. This then improves not only efficiency but also productivity.

Do not make the mistake of attempting to fill a Leader's day with Standardized Work. We need our Leader's Strategic capabilities to fuel innovation within the organization and by actually building time into the schedule for innovation just becomes a huge plus.