The Secret to Process Improvement? Empowered Employees

In 1995, I was hired as a Final Packaging Supervisor at a medical device company that was struggling to meet its monthly shipping targets. The quick fix? Open a second shift. My job? Make it happen.

But as I trained on the first shift, I noticed something odd: it wasn’t the workers or the schedule holding us back—it was the inventory. Parts were missing, the system data was off, and the Master Production Schedule was unreliable. It turns out that a backlog in data entry had thrown off the raw material count. So we weren’t ordering what we actually needed.

The entry work was being done by three part-timers who were doing their best, but it wasn’t enough. I sat down with them, and that’s when the magic happened.

They proposed two smart ideas:

1. Let experienced first-shift workers pitch in with data entry for a few hours.

2. Train the part-timers in packaging so they could rotate between roles as needed.

We ran with both suggestions, and they worked. Fast.

Data entry caught up in record time. Throughput improved. The packaging floor ran like a dream. And we never had to open that second shift.

The women in the photo? They're the real heroes. They spotted the problem and came up with the fix that saved the company time, money, and a lot of unnecessary hiring.

The takeaway? Don’t default to standard solutions. Dig into the root cause. And always listen to the people doing the work. They often hold the key to real improvement.

Collaborate. Listen. Trust your team. It works.