Lean - What has it done for you?

[Goaty]

I've posted this on the plummers site and thought i'd see the reaction too it here as well....

I ask this question as Marham was in the process when I left. Odiham has just been leaned with the following impact.
18 & 27 Sqn groundcrews have been merged into one big uber engineering Sqn. This has had 3 major concequences:
1) 18 has had to move lock stock and barrell from one side of the airfield to the other.
2)The vast majority of the groundcrew feel they have had their Sqn identity taken from them and the opinion is that they now belong to nobody. Lets face it, if you can't hate another Sqn then it's the OSW's who'll get the brunt of it.
3)The Armourers on 1st line feel they've been **** on worse than the rest. Not only have they been booted of the Sqn's with the rest of the engineers but they've been leaned of the uber engineering Sqn into a massive centralised armoury which doesn't have the capacity to take 50 people.
The general feeling is that we've been abandoned. This is due to the fact that 7 Sqn (who seem to think they're special) have dug their heels in in an attempt to keep their plummers where as 18 and 27 have done nothing in the way of putting a fight up.
All this leaning bollox in general seems to stem from one Sqn (7) stamping it's feet when it was told to bugger off when it couldn't have 18's hanger on the far side of the airfield...

It would be interesting to hear other peoples experience of the 'Lean' process and see how you've been affected by it......

 

[Rigga]

I Blame the Staish for not putting the boot in hard enough!

If they all move it would be the better for all - however, I'm against the centralisation thing overall.

..and 7 are a bit special because of some of their special customers.

However (again) Do 7 really need to keep their own engineers? - The lack of control of "Squadron" Engineers would highlight the reason for having them in the first place.

 

[A CLING NERD SHRON]

Try here

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=156424

Gone down like a lead balloon at Lye but at least someone got a promotion out of it.

 

[Bluntend]

There is an interesting (well, I think its interesting although I must confess, I haven't read it all) article in the latest Time Magazine. It seems that General Motors, that flagship shining example of how great LEAN is and how it can improve productivity, reduce costs etc is in difficulty. Their market share in the US has dropped from around 31% to 26% and there are plans for factory closures and layoffs across the country. Now, its highly likely that GM are suffering due to increased and agressive competition from Japanese car manufacturers (who presumably also use lean methodologies) however, GM's decline is a warning to all that LEAN alone is not enough to safeguard your business. And lets face it, in the car manufacturing industry the number of variables are minimal and your list of available suppliers virtually endless. In the aircraft repair business, the number of variables is stagering (as you never know what or how many snags an aircraft will have when it lands) and we have very few suppliers approved (technically and pollitically) to support us. I know I could be accused of being anti-lean from the outset and there are pros and cons to every idea, however, it just seems that our lords and masters were blinded by the benefits of Lean without considering the negatives. If GM, one time world leader in car manufacture cannot operate under LEAN, what hope is there for us?

And, whilst I'm on a role, it seems that at the very same time that we are getting rid of our 'old, out-dated and inefficient' Eng Ops Sqns, industry is creating the very same organisations themselves (operations rooms or similar). Evidently, they now realise the benefits of having a centralised cell capable of co-ordinating all business before farming out work to '2nd line' and beyond. Maybe, and I know this is a radical thought, we had it right in the first place and Industry is now learning from us. It just seems that because too many officers are sceptical of the 'we've always done it like that' arguement, change is brought in without proper consideration. Occasionally, however, the reason why 'we've always done it like that' is because it bloody well works.

Also, please don't feel that its just the 'workers' who see the problems that LEAN is causing. A growing number of senior officers are beigining to realise that LEAN is not delivering that which it promissed. When you combine lean induced manpower cuts with multi-skilling and Q-Ops initiatives (to name a few) the result is an overstretched work force with little motivation to take on any more responsibility. When you compond this with the amount of experience we've lost at SNCO level during the last two rounds of redundancies the future looks particularly bleak. Exactly how bad its going to have to get before someone decides to restore the old proven methods remains to be seen.

 

[manwithaplan]

i know someone who got promotion out of it , wasnt confident enough to work on aircraft , yet hes a techie , got put on lean team , promoted on doing lean duties and has now been posted to cosford as an instructor !

 

[Goaty]

It's going down like a lead balloon at Odiham as well but they're still going ahead with it.....

 

[The Helpful Stacker]

It's going down like a lead balloon at Odiham....

Not in every section.

Some have just got on with it and accepted that the RAF these days can't seem to stick with one idea for more than two minutes (old is bad in the eyes of the government after all) and that rather than bleat about something we have no control over it'd be better to make the best of a bad situation.

Of course the introduction of JPA soon means it'll be even easier to PVR if the way the RAF is heading doesn't suit you and you fancy some of that much greener looking grass in civvy street.

PS, There's always the B-Line if you want a more easy to notice forum to air your grievances to the Staish. I mentioned this site to him yesterday when he was on his rounds and he'd never heard of it, perhaps he'll look in in the future.

 

[Stax]

Leeeeeean!

Leeeeeean!

The problem with LEAN is, whilst in principal, the idea of using your resources a better way to make the job easier and more efficient, is really good, the practice isn't. I have been leaned on 2 units now and on both occasions senior management have used it to make cuts. Lean teams cannot disestablish people, but any recommendations they make tend to be cut, ending with yet another empty chair at the table. My favourite LEAN stores have been:

The cutting off of doors to lockers as opening them was a no essential task (as was opening drawers so everything went on the desk in dayglo shadows )

The offloading of one item at a time from the "earlybird" wagon and processing through before you offloaded the next one. (They also didn't understand the concept of priorities first and multi packs!)

They were soon put straight on the first one when F664B's were raised for damage to public property and the second one when the wagon started to drive off after a few minutes of sitting there.

Al I say is don't embrace it just because change can be good, it isn't always, look at the uproar caused by my "Get rid of MT" thread!

 

[Goaty]

Not in every section.

I take it from that coment that you're in a section that hasn't had to move lock stock and barrell then.
From an engineering point of view the way supply now works is crap. What was wrong with having a Sqn supplier rather than waiting for Forward Delivery to do its 'rounds' to drop equipment off.

Stick lean up your hoop and put it back to the system that worked.....

 

[The Helpful Stacker]

What was wrong with having a Sqn supplier rather than waiting for Forward Delivery to do its 'rounds' to drop equipment off.

Because as any Stacker who has been in a few years will tell you sqn stackers have a habit of hoarding spares for their Sqn to the determent of other sqn's (because after all its non-specialist folk on the sqn that do your assessment, not main Supply). When you get the farcical situation were a squadron on one side of Odiham's runway has U/S aircraft waiting on an off-base solution because a sqn stacker s on the other side has an item in stock but not 'visible' the system is obviously not working (from a Supply POV).

Anyway, centralised Supply is re-inventing the wheel. It worked well before but somewhere in the mists of time it was changed to 'stackers, stackers everywhere' (probably with a promotion for the genius) and now its going back the way it was.

 

[Goaty]

"..and 7 are a bit special because of some of their special customers. "

The Green suited master race on 7 might be a bit special but the engineers are no different from the ones on 18 & 27 (or whatever they'll be called on Dec 12th).

The majority of people on 7 who think that they're special are the ENGINEERS. It's not like they've done selection is it (although an SAC Rigger from 27 was the first RAF Techie to pass it). They've done the same training as any other 1st line engineer......

 

[Line35]

Lean is Great (Official)

Lean is Great (Official)

Heard from that non-airfield near Walters Ash - HQSTC is to be 'Leaned'.

Apparently 2* was giving brief on this "....fantastic Leaning process.." when some wag asked innocently, "Is this the same lean process that was used so successfully at Lyneham???.

Said 2* jumped up spitting feathers berated said bounder and threatened to "..tell the CinC what you said".

Touch a nerve or something did he?

Lean at Strike? oh thats all right then. That'll make some cuts so they can employ more air-ranks then.


Laugh? I nearly signed a job-card.

 

[Rigga]

Goaty,
I didn't say that 7 crews were special. Crews are just crews. They can all be replaced, just like you and I.
However, some of their Customers/Tasks are special! As were some of 33's customers/tasks!