TEAM DEVELOPMENT

 

Here’s where many working teams often jump to apply Lean tools before the problems & potential solutions are well understood. While the tools are useful, like any good tool, they’re best applied with context & understanding of both our business objectives & the narrowed problems to be solved.

Sousa Consulting strives to both teach Lean concepts & promote action where the work is done. Problem solving is often inseparable from, “learning by doing”:

  1. Break problems down, from the complex or vague, into smaller, better defined problem definitions
  2. Gather data, since no matter how much experience we have, we want evidence over guesses to best understand problems
  3. Build consensus on the problem definitions with those doing the work
When it’s time to act, our approach seeks a practical tension between thoughtful planning & taking action. Put simply, we seek to guide the team to identify, “How can we make the work easier & more repeatable?”
With PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) as our guide:
  1. Make work easier & more repeatable → Find & reduce the waste!
  2. Set standards & apply them
  3. Identify measures of success →  What gets measured gets done!
  4. Learn by doing → Get on with it!
With action on the above, we’re on our way to applying PDCA for team development, effective problem solving & improved business performance.

JEAN-MICHEL LOGAN

Vice President of Customer Service
Novarc Technologies

 

“Sousa provided expert guidance to Novarc during the transition from a modest manufacturing facility to a more expansive one with the capacity to enhance production by over fivefold. This comprehensive involvement encompassed refining production methodologies, optimizing the layout of the manufacturing floor, & facilitating team daily management alongside Lean skills training. Consequently, Novarc is now well-positioned for sustained growth & ongoing team advancement.”