December 16, 2019 Articles Do you ever feel like you could achieve more, if you had the right leadership skills? According to renowned management expert John Maxell, “The single biggest way to impact an organisation is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organisation that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.” Industry Forum knows that effective leadership is crucial to achieving your business goals. Our Leadership Development Programme (LDP) is a carefully tailored training package designed to unleash the potential of managers at all levels to tackle problems and improve results. The LDP is designed to help you identify and nurture the future leaders in your organisation, then empower them to significantly and continuously improve manufacturing operations, customer satisfaction, employee retention and your bottom line. Uniquely effective, blended approach Based around the specific challenges you want to tackle in your company right now, the Industry Forum Leadership Development Programme uses a powerful, immersive, blended curriculum to embed and practice learning. It is a deliberately intense training experience, incorporating a structured system of individual study, group workshops, one-to-one coaching, practical implementation and timely feedback. Participants are supported to apply their new skills straight away to solve identified business issues. This proven approach brings tangible, measurable and sustained improvements to working practices, resulting in a rapid and demonstrable return on your investment. Three tiers The LDP is structured to meet the training needs of leaders at every level of manufacturing organisations: Team Leader Essentials (TLE) cements the bedrock of effective leadership behaviours for supervisors, including daily management practices, lean foundation principles and interpersonal skills. This seven-day course consists of: online learning modules; a three-day workshop including classroom study, team activities and practical shop-floor exercises; a day to plan and agree improvement projects; and three follow-up days spread over several weeks to monitor progress and provide feedback. Manufacturing Manager Training (MMT) is aimed at those with responsibility for creating and leading operational plans and managing and supporting team leaders. It helps them to make effective use of the lean toolbox, blend great leadership with financial acumen, establish sustainability, ensure adherence to processes and policies and create a culture for change and continuous improvement. Over four days of teaching and three of mentoring and feedback, participants complete a suite of in-depth teaching modules including an audit of current processes, interactive discussions, shop-floor activities, role plays and situational coaching. Senior Leadership Training (SLT) looks at developing and enhancing the skills, knowledge and attitude needed to cascade business strategy throughout an organisation, deal constructively with different types of conflict, rapidly build high-performance teams and deliver sustainable change. The programme is designed to be 8 days (based on 6 delegates). This highly tailored programme combines a mix of activities; including psychometric assessments, ,classroom interactive learning and discussions to build on individuals’ strengths and address areas for development. Leadership Development Programme success stories Seven-figure savings at automotive manufacturer A leading manufacturer of high-quality trims for the automotive sector found that quality issues and long cycle times were affecting its internal and external customer relationships. Problems were going unresolved and staff felt they were not listened to when they proposed solutions. Furthermore, there were significant differences in output across shifts and roles and responsibilities were poorly defined and understood. 42 line leads and supervisors took part in Industry Forum’s Team Leader Essentials course. The delegates were split into six groups and the three workshop days were separated out to ensure each group progressed through the programme at the same rate. Each participant reported back on the application of their learning before progressing to the next instalment. This provided an impartial perspective on the level of their engagement and interest, helping senior managers to identify emerging leaders who had the potential to become future departmental managers. At the end of the three workshop days, each team leader pinpointed improvement projects within their own area of responsibility that would measurably impact quality, cost, delivery or safety. Where no monitoring and evaluation systems were in place, new ones were established to assess progress. During the six-month TLE programme, delegates identified over 50 projects that impacted quality, cost, delivery or safety. Numerous projects were completed by the end of the course, resulting in savings of over £20,000. Many others were in progress, promising to generate further savings of £1.2 million through changes such as: better inventory control; streamlining of ergonomics and reduction in distances employees needed to walk to complete tasks; cutting reworking by 20%; and improving health and safety, resulting in less time lost due to illness or injury. Supervisors were far more confident and effective at managing teams, resolving conflict, capturing and analysing performance data and solving problems at their roots. Customers that visited the site began to comment on how much progress had been made with 5S, Visual Management and the general morale of the entire organisation. The company now has a continuous improvement culture that is sustainable and supported by line leads, department managers and senior management. Standardising excellence in plastics Food and chemical sector customers of AST Plastic Containers UK appreciate the company’s high standards of quality and technical expertise gleaned over several decades of producing state-of-the-art plastics. The organisation wanted to develop the skills of the supervisors at its Wrexham site in order to instil and embed standardised shift management processes, ensuring the same level of excellence across every shift. It also wanted to enhance general leadership and management skills, improve safety and reduce costs. It was important that the skills learnt on the training translated into immediate, tangible impacts in shift output. Over the course of seven days of training and coaching, team leaders developed and implemented individual action plans, as well as working with an Industry Forum consultant to create and embed a standardised approach to shift management. The new technique involves a proactive approach to problem solving as well as visual management boards with daily and weekly targets. In parallel to the Team Leaders Essentials course, senior managers and departmental leaders took part in a Manufacturing Manager Training course. This enabled them to contextualise the importance of shift leaders managing teams effectively and support them to achieve business goals. Departmental leaders defined short-, medium- and long-term actions that encapsulated team leaders’ training objectives and aligned them with the organisation’s strategic vision. As a result of the training, team leaders and managers are equipped with in-depth knowledge of key lean manufacturing concepts such as 5S, Visual Management, Standard Work, Line Balancing and Problem Solving. Shift leaders no longer have to ‘jump on the line’ to reactively firefight problems, and departmental managers now play an active role in ensuring that the newly developed systems and culture are successful. Production output and staff retention have improved and the Wrexam plant has become a flagship for the rest of the company, leading the way in lean manufacture. Could you benefit from the Leadership Development Programme? Not sure where to start? Why not take our Talent Management & Skills Self-Assessment, aimed at Operational and HR professionals and receive a written feedback and the option of free Facetime feedback session with an Industry Forum expert to get recommendations that will help you to realise your leadership potential
