Role clarification

An Important Missing Piece In
Lean Manufacturing Success 

The four critical roles affecting the front line of team concept implementation are (1) team members, (2) team leaders, (3) group leaders, and (4) area managers. In nearly every plant, the changes in the team member role were relatively clear: they needed to learn about 6 jobs and begin to rotate in a team.

 The new role of the team leader starts out relatively clear: team leaders were hourly employees who work to coordinate support for the operators. We have found that this role is still evolving. 

For group leaders and area managers, however, the changes in the roles were not as clear. Group leaders perceived their new role descriptions as incomplete or irrelevant. A disconnect exists between the experts that wrote the role description and the group leaders who actually have to perform the roles. 

Most plants that have figured out how to engage the group
leaders to clarify their new roles are seeing far
greater results than those that have not. 

Lean role clarification is a process that convenes group leaders with some other key parties involved, such as team leaders, committeepersons and area managers. 

Here are the steps that can happen in as little as a half-day workshop: 

Step 1:             Group leaders work together to create a detailed
                        description of their current role.

Step 2:             Area managers next present the non-negotiable parts of the future role.

Step 3:             Group leaders work to blend the most important tasks of their current role with the nonnegotiable tasks of the future role.

Step 4:             Area managers and team leaders participate to help group leaders create their roles.

Step 5:             Top leaders sanction the final role description.

The group creates a daily performance checklist
job aid as an outcome of the session 

About Fenwick Koller Associates

Rick Fenwick (rick@fenwickkoller.com), PhD, pioneered this approach more than 15 years ago. He built the approach on his 30 years of experience as a represented worker and UAW member. Ron Koller (ron@fenwickkoller.com) has worked with Chrysler for 10 years and trained over 4,000 executives/employees, including lead facilitator for Manufacturing Academy & Foundations of Leadership.

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