by Nigel Holmes

Created on: December 04, 2009

The team leader is the focal point of the lean manufacturing philosophy. It is through him or her that lean disciplines are maintained, continuous improvement activity gets done and conflicts or disputes are resolved. It's also important to recognize that "team leader" is not a new name for "supervisor."

In traditional manufacturing, the supervisor hovers over the production workers' shoulder, checking that the pace of work is being maintained and no time is being wasted. In contrast, "lean" with its emphasis on people, strives for an environment of autonomy where workers are treated like adults, and expected to act the same way.

However, this doesn't mean that things can't go wrong. In fact they often do. Quality problems crop up, machines breakdown, tools get mislaid and people seem to forget their lean training. Fixing these problems is what the team leader is there for. This means the leader has to:

Handle conflict and disputes between team members. These are often related to quality - deciding if the product conforms to the standards - and working practices - just what does the Work Instruction mean when it says "push the part into the fixture"? Make sure appropriate statistics on output and quality are collected and communicated effectively. (Visual display boards are usually a good way to do this.) Make sure that Continuous Improvement activity happens, usually by arranging time and facilitating the meetings.

Examples of this kind of work would be finding the root cause of a quality problem, agreeing what changes to make to reduce scrap, reviewing the impact of earlier changes, and working on ways to improve machine reliability or reduce changeover time. Monitor workplace organization, making sure that "5S" disciplines are maintained, and that all necessary tools and equipment are available. Maintaining the flow of work through the cell or department, ensuring that kanban rules are followed and addressing any problems that prevent the team from meeting the "takt time" (takt can be thought of as the rate at which each operation is carried out).

If first line maintenance is a team responsibility, make sure it happens as scheduled. Recognize when specialists, particularly manufacturing and quality engineers, can help and pull them in when needed. Hold team members accountable for their actions, but note that in most organizations hiring, disciplinary matters and firing are usually the realm of HR.

As this list shows, the team leader is at the heart of the lean manufacturing philosophy. It can be a demanding job, but also a very satisfying one, thanks to the variety of duties a lean organization expects its team leaders to perform.

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