Leader Standard Work is a comprehensive initiative designed to equip supervisors in Shaw Industries Group, Inc’s production facilities with the skills, knowledge, and tools necessary to effectively manage shifts of associates, optimize production processes, and foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
More than 1,000 associates participated in the training, which aimed to help increase the monthly output of pounds of twisted yarn in the floor covering provider and carpet manufacturer’s four yarn twisting facilities.
Program Details
This program is tailored to address both the technical aspects of managing production and crucial managerial skills, ensuring that supervisors can drive operational excellence while nurturing a motivated and engaged workforce. Certified Continuous Improvement Champions (CIs) partner with supervisors at each facility and help them gain knowledge and skills in:
- Manufacturing Essentials
- Shift Management Framework and Metrics
- Demand Planning and Allocation
- Managerial Skill Development
These CI champions learned skills necessary for a leader to know in order to run a successful and productive manufacturing department with minimal off-quality. The CI champions were associates who had lived Shaw’s business and had the credibility necessary to effect real change in the plants they were assigned. Additionally, the CI champion role acted as a stretch assignment for these associates and allowed them opportunities to practice leadership, strategy, and driving results.
Over the course of the six-month Leader Standard Work Program, the CI champions conduct five training sessions with leadership. The multiple-session format allows supervisors time to put some key improvements in place and measure the effectiveness of their own actions before the champions return a few weeks later to implement the next piece of the standard work process. Additionally, the CI champions engaged in train-the-trainer sessions with the facility supervisors. The fifth learning session at each site is taught and conducted by the supervisors at that site to ensure real knowledge transfer has happened and the supervisors have the skills necessary to effectively lead the shift.
Results
Over the course of 16 months, Shaw certified 32 Continuous Improvement champions. While not an intended goal of the program, three of the eight shift supervisors who were certified as CI champions were promoted to department managers at their own facilities and now lead other supervisors full-time.
All four facilities that engaged in the Leader Standard Work training averaged an additional 14 pounds an hour of twisted yarn production. The monthly output of twisted yarn at one plant where all supervisors were trained on best practices of running a shift, coaching others, production demand planning, and associate resource management increased 7.5 percent in the six months after the training. On average, each pound of production generated by a twisting facility equates to 90 cents of revenue.
