In an increasingly fast-changing market, flexibility is the answer. In that flexibility, however, we do not sufficiently empower the shop floor.
Developing various improvement programmes is mostly done at senior management and board level. From there, agility teams are set up, lean programmes established and rolled out. All for good reasons within the current market. But the one who can respond the fastest is the shop floor itself.
Currently, companies are also undergoing a sharp change in terms of employee types. Baby boomers are retiring and millenials are entering companies with a completely different mindset. Where 40 years of service used to be common, today retaining knowledge and experience is the biggest challenge for companies.
Millenials look at the market completely differently but also at the traditional hierarchy of companies. Often well-informed and educated, they are perfectly capable of implementing your agility programmes. But why not let the shop floor develop the programmes themselves?
Isn't it time for managers to transfer the responsibility and authority of improvement programmes to the shop floor. The shop floor is the first layer confronted daily with the latest challenges and constantly changing customer demand. So it is time to invest in the knowledge of the shop floor when it comes to improvement programmes like lean and agility.
This means a different organisational structure that is completely open and links your top talent to the shop floor on a one-to-one basis. Are fixed departmental structures still appropriate in tomorrow's organisation? Often those traditional departmental structures are the cause of slow decision-making and 'hassles' about authority. Demolish the walls in your organisation by simply dissolving the departments as such and reorganising them in a completely horizontal structure.
This will undoubtedly be a huge challenge for everyone in the organisation. You will bump your head several times but keep your eye on the ball. Organise your business as society is evolving: open, horizontal and hugely fast-moving. The traditional rake of your organisation no longer fits.
