Synopsis: Communication For Productivity
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
12 Dec 1984
Dear
Colleague :
The enclosed
article was distributed at a recent seminar on “Japanese Management” which I
attended.
One session
was devoted to “small Group Activities” It was conducted by Mr. Sekijima who
has been with Hitachi Ltd. For last 17 years and currently designated ‘Manager –
International personal Relations Section’.
The article
describes the small group activity at just one of the factories of
Hitachi Ltd. But Hitachi has 26 factories in all. And Mr. Sekijima gave the
following statistics for the entire Hitachi organisation.
__________________________________________________
HITACHI – 26
FACTORIES
1983 DATA
__________________________________________________
1.
Total no. of
suggestions 58,77,000
(58.77 lakhs)
__________________________________________________
2.
No. of
employees who sent suggestions 57,617
(62,000 employees
have joined SGA)*
__________________________________________________
3.
Average no.
of suggestions per person 102.6/year
(All-Japan
average is 70/year)
__________________________________________________
4.
Average
saving per suggestion $ 31
__________________________________________________
5.
Average
saving per each suggester $ 3145
__________________________________________________
6.
Total saving
during the year $ 182
million
(Rs. 218 crores)
__________________________________________________
7.
Hitachi’s
sales turnover $
19.4 Billion
__________________________________________________
8.
6/7 = Saving
/Sales Turnover 1%
(approx)
__________________________________________________
9.
Best
suggestion saved $ 4000 per month
Approx
__________________________________________________
Other things
which Mr. Sekijima told me are :
1.
Hitachi have
a total of 6205 small-groups (of 8-10 employees each) of which half are of “blue-collar”
workers and half belong to “white-collar” worker.
2.
In many Japanese
companies, the small group activity is know as “Quality-circles”.
3.
Suggestions must
relate to the “Goal/Objective” set by the Section/Unit/Department for the
itself and must be job-related.
4.
The
suggestions are distributed amongst various ‘topics as follows:
________________________________________________
HITACHI JAPAN
__________________________________________________
1) Improvement of Quality 36% 31%
__________________________________________________
2) Improvement of Mgt. 7% 5%
or Control
__________________________________________________
3) Cost – Reduction 36% 42%
__________________________________________________
4) Safety 11% 3%
__________________________________________________
5) Improvement of Equipment 10% 6%
__________________________________________________
6) Miscellaneous - 13%
__________________________________________________
5.
“Meeting –time”
for the small-group meetings is as follows :
_________________________________________________
Meeting –Time % of meeting held
In Hitachi In
Japan
_________________________________________________
During
Rest-time
During Morning or Evening 54% 80%
working During Idel-time
Hours Actual working –time
_________________________________________________
Outside After
Shift-end
Working 46% 20%
Hours Before Shift-start
__________________________________________________
TOTAL 100% 100%
==========================================
6.
There are no
monetary rewards for the suggestions given! The foreman or manager gives to the
suggestors small token gifts such as a ball-pen or a diary – never exceeding
Rs. 400/- in value.
I could not
quite appreciate why each Hitachi employee sent in, over a hundred suggestions
every year, when there was no monetary reward! So I posed this problem to Mr.
Sekijima.
Here is his answer
:-
a. The single biggest factor motivating a Japanese
employee to send in a suggestion for improvement is the RECOGNITION he receives through acceptance and
implementation of HIS suggestion. Nearly 70% of all suggestions are
accepted and implemented.
b. Then there are other ways of recognition such as
-
Publishing photograph in factory or company
newsletter.
-
Requesting the
worker (or the group) to make a presentation before colleagues & managers.
-
Accepting a
particular suggestion for inter-dept, inter-unit or inter-factory competition.
-
Organising a
lunch with the General Manager of the plant.
7.
Introduction
of “small group” activities is a pain-staking process. In Hitachi, it took nearly 8 years as follows
:-
1968-1971
-
Improvement
of relations between the employees and the Managers.
-
Orientation
& Training of Managers.
1972-1976
-
Training of
worker-leaders
-
Introduction
of program at worker-level.
1977-
-
Small-group
activity becomes an ordinary event for employees.
8.
Every 6
months, there is an intensive training program for “worker-leaders”. The program
is conducted by engineers from quality-control, production and industrial
engineering functions. The curriculum includes, Methods-study and time
standards, Preventive Maintenance, Quality-control techniques and Industrial
Engineering techniques.
In
conclusion Mr. Sekijima added,
“If you wish
to introduce such an activity in your company, everybody, starting at
the top, must transplantable in your country than other Japanese techniques,
because it was born in the West”.
The only way
we can find out if Mr. Sekijima is right or wrong, is by trying!
H.C. PAREKH
