Clean Floors and Thread ends

“I just want to see the floor!” These were the first words out of the General Manager’s mouth.

In his mind, he was looking for a structured way to organize his warehouse and put his boxes away in a different systemized way so the warehouse would look cleaner. However, upon evaluation we noticed that the problem had nothing to do with the boxes on the floor, rather it came from an over abundance of inventory coming into the warehouse. If he would be focused on cleaning up and putting things away, he would never have noticed the real problem. Within a couple of months we reduced his inventory by about 50%, and his manpower by 60% leading to a drastic increase in his bottom line. This is due to understanding the principle of Root Cause Problem Solving.

People don’t necessarily know what’s causing a problem. They see a problem and they think the solution is to get rid of that particular problem. In most cases that is not the way to go. We have a concept of “5 why’s”, which means keep asking “why” until you feel you’ve gone to the root of a problem.

Here’s another example; we when we went into a manufacturing facility with a production line with some 30-odd people constructing garments. At the end of the line, five people were cutting the thread ends off each garment. By understanding the principal of Root Cause Problem Solving, we changed the setup. Now the person who sews the thread cuts the thread. Meaning, instead of having someone at the end of the line searching for thread and then cutting the ends, the person sewing it now takes an extra second and just snips the end off. The difference is that previously, the person at the end of the line needed to search for the thread and that was time-consuming. However, the person who sews the thread knows exactly where the ends are. By having the person who sews the thread cut the threat, we eliminated five people off of each line. There were 28 lines! Think about the cost savings and think of the additional increase in the speed at which they were producing.

It’s very important to focus on what the problem is, and where the actual problem comes from. Not just what it looks like.

Morty Silber, CEO - Mad Strategies Inc.

________

Mad Strategies Inc. stimulates miraculous growth in businesses through innovative process. Our monthly compensation from these business's are adjusted annually according to their growth. If business is up 21 percent this year, MAD Strategies gets a 21 percent increase. If business declines for any reason at all, we take a cut in pay.

So we start with a low fee and grow only if your business grows. Does this sound interesting?

Call us to discuss 1.888.874.7770 x222 or contact@madstrategies.ca