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16 February, 2017

National Australia Bank

i2e Christmas Newsletter 2016 ...

LEAN - JUST PART OF THE FURNITURE @ SEBEL By Jim Glover, Lead Facilitator

It is rare that one gets blown away by a Lean story but when its application is championed by a young man with passion and with wisdom way beyond his years, it’s worth shouting about.

Michael Huang - Manufacturing Manager of Sebel Furniture in Sydney, was born in Taiwan to a factory owning family and lived above the shop floor; actually on the premises. One of his enduring memories of a childhood in which he regularly conducted his own “gemba walks” with curiosity (even as young as 4 years old), was him witnessing his own father openly berating his workforce, shouting at them publicly when he believed they had displeased him or made a mistake. Although this was normal practice at the time, this disturbed Michael profoundly as he could see the humiliation and fear it produced as an act of command, control and ultimately degradation. Something inside a young Michael told him that this was wrong.

Later in life, (as if it was in his genes) Michael was drawn back towards manufacturing as a vocation and was lucky enough to visit Toyota in Nagoya on a field trip and the contrast of smiling and engaged workers, locked in a clockwork dance of effortless efficiency that more resembled Art than Science to him was equally as profound. Something was different and it wasn’t just the tools they used. It got Michael to thinking…

Years later, now working at Sebel Furniture as a young product engineer, Michael again recognized something was wrong as he saw defensiveness, lack of engagement and frustrations on the shop-floor. This time though Michael saw his opportunity to make a difference and was soon recognized for his enthusiasm and passion for improvement, which presented him his calling to make change for the better.

Walking with Michael and his team across the shop floor at Sebel this month was an honour, not in small part by the way they talked with warmth about the growth in individuals that their recent people-centred Lean transformation had developed. They talked with passion about how listening to the team with empathy and humility had been a critical step to gain trust and permission to help them in partnership with leadership (not as adversaries). They also shared that many of the shop-floor guys had arrived as refugees to Australia and had qualifications that were not recognised here. Thus, treating team

members as equals intellectually and not introducing lean tools and systems until they understood how and, more importantly, why to use them had also been pivotal.

Michael now quotes his greatest achievement as his ability now to walk the floor freely and have conversations based on honesty, respect and trust whilst quoting his greatest challenge as aligning the rest of his leadership to be able extend this authenticity and be equally true to the principles whilst “keeping up” with the tremendous momentum they have achieved thus far.

We wish Michael and the team at Sebel well.