Manufacturers shift focus to improving organisational practices

As Nigeria’s economic frontier becomes more difficult for the productive sector, local manufacturers are shifting attention to improving organisational habits to ensure survival and longevity.

In line with this, senior managers of various manufacturing companies assembled in Lagos to learn key principles with which to achieve maximum output/results with minimum resources.

Representatives of Dangote Group, exporters, textile and plastics manufacturers, among others, participated in the learning session, which was organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in collaboration with Kaizen Institute, a consulting firm.

Representing Kaizem was Jayanth Murthy, director of the institute, who was the lecturer.

According to Murthy, traditional thinking, which governs many companies, bothers on employing maximum results for minimum output, but lean thinking stresses minimum resources for maximum output.

To Murthy, companies fail because their orientation is still traditional as they focus on shareholder value rather than customer satisfaction recommended by the lean school of thought. Traditional thinking dwells on the financials (profits) while lean emphasises operational efficiency, he said, adding the former also focuses on short-term plans while the latter pays more attention to steps that will lead to good long-term results.

“Traditional companies cut costs but lean firms cut wastes,” Murthy said.

According to him, company managers who wish to improve the performances of their firms must learn ‘Gemba.’ ‘Gem’ means ‘real’ while ‘Ba’ stands for ‘place.’

Gemba is a Japanese word meaning ‘at the site.’ Hence, it refers to the act of making observations of the process in action, research has shown.

“Gemba says that you should leave your office and go to the real place. Leave your office and meet the real people, situation and solutions,” Murthy said.

“Managers and CEOs must observe, not just see. Observation is the starting point of improvement. If Nigerian manufacturers must adopt global practices, they must go to Gemba,” he further said.

Addition and deletion are two key ways of improving performances in firms, but cautioned managers of playing a blame game at every slightest chance, he said.

“Managers must delete obstruction to flow. You must eliminate wastes in the flow and reduce lead time to get higher flexibility, less stocks, better service and less complexity,” he said.

Managers must ask ‘why’ questions rather than ‘who’ questions, as the latter implies apportioning blame while the former indicates finding a root cause with an intention to solve a problem, he said.

“If you want to improve your internal performance, then plan, do, check and act,” he said.

Remi Ogunmefun, director-general, MAN, said the programme was part of activities aimed at improving manufacturing operations in the country, as “we need to build capacity within our sector because that is the only way out now.”

According to him, the manufacturing sector is going through a lot of challenges, but this is the right time to uphold best practices and bring revolutionary attitude internally.

ODINAKA ANUDU