Process Stewardship: Let’s Finish This Project, Please!

The dictionary defines stewardship as “the job of supervising or taking care of something”. Process Stewardship is a key and vital ingredient in the creation of robust and highly profitable manufacturing processes. Process Stewardship ensures that the equipment serves the process needs and that the process consistently and reliably satisfies the customer requirements. Explicit “ownership” of the process by an individual (or team) is the foundation that Process Stewardship is built on.

Many times, Process Stewardship is not glamorous, it is simply “sticking up” for the process. I’d like to share an example of this from earlier in my career.

We were working on a yield-improvement project in a busy manufacturing facility that had plenty of demands placed on its limited resources. The yield improvement project was geared towards making the forming operation more “net shape” or closer to the final desired dimensions. This improvement in forming dimensional control saved money by reducing the finishing required in the next process step. My yield-improvement project was well underway and making solid progress.

Then a “bump in the road” developed. The sales and profitability of the manufacturing facility were below target. Plant expenses had to be reduced because of this. A meeting was called with all the project leaders working on various projects in the plant.

I was one of about a dozen project leaders in the room. The plant management informed us that expenses to fund these projects would be severely affected by the downturn in the business. They asked us what we thought it meant to our projects.

The room was quiet. So, I spoke up and gave them an honest assessment of the impact of not fully funding my project to completion. I told them I needed $60,000 to finish the yield-improvement project, this was the number we had agreed on. Good progress was being made, and I was determined to finish what I started, whatever was required. My passion and commitment to the project was clear as I asked them for their help in finishing this effort. I also made it clear that if we didn’t finish, the cost savings we were after was in real jeopardy.

After I spoke, none of the other project leaders in the room spoke up, to my surprise. I waited for them to do so, but they didn’t. Shortly thereafter, the management team made a decision. My project received the $60,000 in funding I asked for. Funding of the other projects was stopped. This approach worked to sufficiently reduce the overall plant expenses.

My yield-improvement project was completed successfully with very real and significant benefits. The finishing needed was reduced by 50%. Annual cost savings were in excess of $2 million.

I learned the value of defending my efforts in speaking up and sticking-up for improving the process. At the time, I didn’t think of my efforts as being Process Stewardship, but in hindsight, they certainly were.

---

YOUR CHALLENGE THIS WEEK

Please consider one or two of your key process innovations over the last 5 years…

• How did you ensure that the process ran smoothly and profitably in manufacturing? Was Process Stewardship used to help focus and drive the project?

• What have your results been on projects with significantly different levels of Process Stewardship?

I’d enjoy hearing about your “Process Stewardship” stories and learnings! As always, you can just email me and I’ll get back to you promptly.

All the Best, Marty

---