The change agent

Bruce Silberman tells Martin Ashcroft about the distinctive features of the Haldex Way, and how lean and six sigma complement each other. One thing I find fascinating when talking to people about their lean journeys is that every one of them is unique. They all start at a different time from a different place, of course, but although they tend to pass the same signposts and landmarks (5s, value stream mapping, kaizen, etc) they are not always in the same order, and are viewed from different perspectives.  Every lean program I have come across has its own distinctive features, and its own way of traveling, shaped by the nature of the company and the people leading the program.ÔÇ£We started dabbling in approximately 2000,ÔÇØ says Bruce Silberman, change agent at Haldex, a global manufacturer of hydraulic and other vehicle components headquartered in Sweden. Haldex published a booklet called The Haldex Way, and distributed it to all employees. It was like giving them a map of the Promised Land without telling anybody why they should go there. There was no training to accompany it, and no follow up, so no-one went. ÔÇ£It took a couple of years before the company realized that publishing a booklet and expecting people to move forwards on their own was not going to be enough to make it happen,ÔÇØ says Silberman. ÔÇ£So in January of 2003 the change agent team met for the first time. That first meeting was in Stockholm, Sweden, with a very senior executive. The five of us met and determined how to move forward with the lean process.ÔÇØ The choice of terminology says a lot about Haldex. In the UK, there is a brand of varnish (Ronseal, owned by US coatings producer Sherwin-Williams Company) that once conjured an advertising campaign with the immortal slogan ÔÇÿit does what it says on the tinÔÇÖ. Change agent does the same thing. It doesnÔÇÖt need a convoluted title. There are currently three change agents with responsibility for HaldexÔÇÖ entire global operations. Two are based in the US, and one in France. Another one is set to join the team in September, who will be based in Sweden. For a job with a simple title, it carries a huge responsibility. ÔÇ£I have two different roles,ÔÇØ says Silberman. ÔÇ£One is strategic, which is a global role, then I have a mentoring role for six sites in the Americas. In addition to those roles I am also a six sigma black belt, so IÔÇÖm often in other facilities working with them on six sigma. That is my specialty.ÔÇØSilberman has been with Haldex since 1993, starting in a hydraulics plant in Rockford, Illinois as an engineering intern. After several shop floor positions and a spell in manufacturing engineering in the quality department, prototype department and then design engineering, he came to the hydraulics plant in Statesville, North Carolina in 2000 as design engineering manager. A number of arrows aligned to open up the change agent role for him, he says.Haldex has four divisions (Commercial Vehicle Systems, Hydraulic Systems, Garphyttan Wire and Traction Systems) but historically, they had had little to do with each other. ÔÇ£In many cases, within a division, some of the facilities had had nothing to do with each other,ÔÇØ says Silberman. One of the first steps the change agent team took was to develop a tool called a gap analysis which they took to every Haldex facility in the world. The team produced a comprehensive document with 80 or so questions about the use of lean principles. Are you using 5S? Are you using process mapping, value stream mapping, six sigma, kanban?It was an important exercise, not only for what the team learned about the facilities, but what the facilities learned about Haldex. ÔÇ£It showed leadership by the company,ÔÇØ says Silberman, ÔÇ£by sending a senior executive out with us; it also made the four of us into a team. We were introduced to all the facilitiesÔÇÖ management, and the processes on the shop floor. It kicked off lean and it showed the facilities that Haldex was serious because they hired four people to do nothing but this.ÔÇØThe improvement program started with 5S, which, says Silberman, is the easiest way to start, and any other tools each facility felt would be most beneficial to them. ÔÇ£The four of us then started mentoring sites, trying to bring them forward in their use of the tools. We used a train the trainer program with ourselves as the experts.ÔÇØ As they visited more sites, the team noticed that people were interested in meeting colleagues from different facilities, so twice-yearly meetings were set up for the lean leader from each site, alternating between Europe and the US. ÔÇ£We have train the trainer sessions, share best practice sessions, and in the next meeting in the fall weÔÇÖre going to take them on a tour of a Toyota facility near Toronto, Canada,ÔÇØ says Silberman. ÔÇ£People who go into the same building every day donÔÇÖt always see where they need to go, so weÔÇÖre trying to help them with the vision.ÔÇØAnnual meetings for plant managers were also introduced, when it became apparent that the lean leaders needed more support from their managers. At one such meeting, they visited the Toyota facility in Georgetown, Kentucky. The meetings help people get to know each other, share best practice, and in some cases realize for the first time where their product goes. There are a number of things happening that arenÔÇÖt necessarily on the lean agenda, Silberman points out, but bringing people together improves understanding and helps iron out potential problems between one facility and another. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre also trying to develop our people by getting them in more classes,ÔÇØ says Silberman, ÔÇ£training them in lean principles and tools, problem solving and conflict resolution, and if theyÔÇÖre interested in going to a community college to develop themselves we have programs to help them from a financial point of view and sometimes even a time point of view, depending on their function. We also bring videos in of what our product does and where it goes. We make components that go into vehicles, and it can be obscure unless they start looking under the hood. It helps them take ownership and feel connected to the customer.ÔÇØAlthough the Haldex lean program is global in scope, itÔÇÖs not a rigid global plan. ÔÇ£We asked each plant to create its own plan to become lean,ÔÇØ says Silberman, ÔÇ£and the change agents mentor them in that plan. ItÔÇÖs site specific, itÔÇÖs not a generic plan. Some sites will go with six sigma earlier than others, because they have a need to use a powerful problem solving tool. Others are focused on supply chain for their own reasons. We tailor the plan for each site to make it work for them.ÔÇØ Another distinguishing feature is the tier system that Haldex has created to recognize and monitor a siteÔÇÖs progress. It starts with copper and progresses through bronze, silver, and gold, to platinum (world class). Copper is the entry level, but it means the facility is actually doing something. ÔÇ£It has some KPI requirements for inventory, delivery and quality performance, so beyond just using the tools you have to have some level of success.ÔÇØ Moreover, copper is not awarded unless 100 percent of the siteÔÇÖs employees have been trained in the Haldex Way. Cell teams must also be in place, preventative maintenance and environmental management must be practiced, as well as value stream mapping.ÔÇ£Gold is an enterprise level lean measure,ÔÇØ says Silberman. ÔÇ£We no longer ask the plant how they are doing as a silo, we ask how they are doing with their suppliers, and we add focus to administration. They have already done the product stuff. Now weÔÇÖre asking if product design is part of the lean structure? How about human resources, global purchasing and finance?ÔÇØ Finance people are tough to engage, says Silberman, ÔÇ£but they still need to be using the 5S tools and they still need to be process mapping. They still need to be aware who their customers are, so weÔÇÖre getting them involved. We havenÔÇÖt really developed platinum yet,ÔÇØ he adds, ÔÇ£because if we get everybody to gold weÔÇÖll be a world class company, and the leading sites will be platinum.ÔÇØ The lean strategy is also as flexible within a facility as it is between facilities. Each cell team has targets and goals that are relevant to them, but they are linked to the siteÔÇÖs KPIs. One area may have a quality target of 300ppm, for instance, while another may have 100ppm target, depending on the process, the level of automation, and the complexity. ÔÇ£We donÔÇÖt tell each function what its KPIs must be; we tell them they must have them, they must be relevant to the site and the process and they need to be working on improving them. All these are visualized with charts and graphs, using red, yellow and green, so anybody walking by can see whether they are meeting their goals.ÔÇØAnother significant aspect of the Haldex improvement program is that it employs both lean and six sigma. Some scholars recommend choosing one or the other, but Silberman is in no doubt they work well together. ÔÇ£I think lean and six sigma fit perfectly,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£Cell teams cannot solve all their problems. Eventually they come to a problem that is above their ability to solve. Even if they pull in some cross functional individuals it may still involve more time than they can spend to solve it. You ask a cell team to continually improve their quality, their throughput, etc, through small daily incremental changes. You send in a six sigma team to make a big step improvement.ÔÇØ