At MPS Fort Mill, SC, the customer service team joined the MPS York, SC team while they conducted their daily Gemba Walks within the plant.
Gemba, a Japanese term which means “real thing,” is used to describe personal observation of work… “where the work is happening.” Gemba Walks allow for observation, engagement, and improvement of areas that may not be working at their best capabilities.
While the York team performs these daily walks, they see firsthand what is really happening, rather than assuming what is happening. This exercise allows a team to instill discipline of standard work practices, talk with employees to hear what problems need resolution, and emphasize quality.
The Fort Mill customer service team has taken the York team’s example and will be implementing a similar program based on these plant walks.
As part of their daily management routine, customer service supervisors touch base with their teams each morning to ensure that things are operating properly from the previous day’s work, and highlight any areas that need additional attention. This provides a daily pulse check on internal operations on the customer service floor, ultimately working towards managing workload, identifying training opportunities, while improving response time to customers.
What better way to connect team goals with the organization’s strategy?