Shop Floor Phobia

“Go to Gemba” is a frequent refrain in Lean. It has two basic meanings. The first is that leaders should get down to the shop floor regularly to see what is happening.

The second is meaning is to keep people from debating provable facts. When a discussion starts about something observable, a good facilitator will send the debaters down to the shop floor to see things first hand.

That is where this Lean affliction, Shop Floor Phobia, fits in. Some people are simply terrified of the shop floor. It could be the loud noise. It could be the proximity to hard work. It could be having to stand. Or, in cases where 5S is not up to speed, it could be the dirt. Perhaps they are scared of getting creamed by a forklift.

Regardless of the reason, it can take herculean effort to overcome the resistance some people have to going into a factory.

In a traditional company, some people never have a reason to venture out into the shop floor. There is little cross-communication, and few projects.

In a Lean company, though, the organization around product lines makes it more likely that people will feel connected to other functional groups. You might even have a cross-training plan that has people all over the company head down to the factory to help when demand spikes.

In a continuous improvement-oriented company, you will also likely see a lot more project teams that draw people from all departments. On those teams, people will need to get down to gemba, or the real place where the work is being done.

So, Lean companies unmask those people who suffer from Shop Floor Phobia in ways that other companies don’t.

Fortunately, unlike some other afflictions, this one is easy to overcome. Most people want to do a good job for their team and will participate with them even if it means being on the shop floor. It doesn’t take many trips down there to overcome the fear.

Overcoming Shop Floor Phobia on your team is not technically challenging, but it requires two things. The first is that you have to overcome your own fear if you are afflicted with this ailment. That means things like programming times in your phone to go down to the shop floor to observe. The frequency depends on your role. If you are a manufacturing manager, there is no excuse not to be on the shop floor several times a day. In fact, you should have your desk down there instead of in an office.

If you are, say, an accounting manager or in marketing, you might try to get down there once a week, or even every other week. Just don’t let too much time pass between visits to where the money is made.

The second thing is to listen for situations that require visits. This is most common on project teams. When a team starts debating numbers, it is time for a visit. When they are trying to piece together a process map from memory, it is time for a visit. When they are arguing about how many of something there is, or where something is located, or any other physical characteristic, send them out to the shop floor.

The key is to ingrain “go to gemba” in their brains so they eventually start doing it on their own.