By: Ryan Power
In the constant flux of today’s manufacturing all corporate leaders work diligently to balance the ever so sensitive nature of what it takes to produce tangible goods in today’s market. One area that commonly is overlooked is the complex nature of corporate synergy. Simply stated synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The complexity arrives when it is time to implement that simple nature into your manufacturing mentality.
At its basis the social structure of a manufacturing facility is driven by a multitude of constantly changing daily activities that center on a company’s core pillar’s to success. The issue you see that will arise is the individuality of the social factor will not always support these core pillars. This is never done maliciously but is inherent to the nature of the individual in any given situation.
At EMM we strive to provide all our workers the opportunity to succeed. We do this through a constant continuous improvement mentality. All employees are given the tools needed to overcome any obstacle through good manufacturing practices and our strengthened procedures. So how does synergy play a part in this? We have given our employee’s the training, procedures, and resources to succeed; it is now time to give them a reason to do so.
They key to corporate synergy is giving your employee’s motivation to believe in the company’s core pillars and to provide them a system that directly correlates their daily activity to one or more of these pillars. Throughout my time in China, through countless production, quality, purchasing, and general management meetings the response that is repeated most frequently when a situation goes astray is the passing of responsibility, or the “That’s not my job” statement.
So how to implement a system that aligns individual and corporate goals? The key is simplification, identify key elements of each individual’s daily tasks that directly impact the pillars. Once that is done motivation is needed, through a variety of methods multiple of which needs to be implemented depending upon the individuals job tasks. A simply and effective method is performance based compensational rewards programs that are designed around key elements of the individuals job duties that directly impact the companies goals.
The most successful synergy based manufacturing is done by keeping the system simple and goal orientated. The benefit of such a system is now an entire manufacturing environment that is focused and driven to achieve success for one self, which is now creating the success of the company. It blurs the lines of responsibility thus creating a workforce going beyond their own job tasks creating the foundation that now sits upon the company’s pillars to ensure success.
