Have you ever driven by an old building with numerous broken windows? Broken window theory suggests if you do not repair a single broken pane that many others will end up with a similar fate. This psychology and it’s impact on other things was indirectly touched on by Julien Verhille, an Operations/Lean Manufacturing manager in France in a recent LinkedIn post:
Not everybody is lucky enough to work with brand new machines. If you are doing a 5S or machine refurbish inside a TPM activity, I would definitively recommend painting them in white if they are steel-made painted. White machine looks clean. User will see any minor failure like dirt or oil leakage before having downtime. If you can, don’t subcontract painting and let the regular users of the machine do it. They will then be very proud of their work environment, and will take a great care of their machines. And don’t pay too much attention to those who are telling you they will get dirty quickly due to the product manufactured. In previous jobs I had very good results with machines producing drawing pastels or teak oil for example. Years after, machines are still looking great and clean lean leanmanufacturing TPM 5S
Could you imagine the psychological affect of not just having a clean environment but also having the individual pride of helping to create it? Here are the before and after pictures:
Before…
After…
Before…
After…
Julien presented an excellent case here to both improve efficiency due to employee involvement but also to reduce downtime as many issues will be easier to detect before they get out of hand. Some solid advice!
