What should a people-centric culture look like? George Saiz, current president and CEO of AME, shares insights on how you can approach that and gives examples of how employees have responded, including the development of a six pillar process to encompass the creation and sustaining of a people-centric culture. Hear how to equip your engaged employees with the tools of lean to achieve outstanding business results with examples of building A3 thinking into the DNA of the organization.

1. Love & Lean
George Saiz
President & CEO
Association for Manufacturing Excellence

2. Early Years
• First Job – General Helper @ $2.00/hr.
• Early management thoughts
– “Create an environment where they don’t want to miss
what’s going on”
• Education at night (BSBA, MBA)
• General Helper to General Management
– (9 promotions in 17 years)
$2.25/hr.!

3. Introduction to Lean
• 1992:
• Lot size of 1…Bottlenecks (Herbie)
• Lego Simulation

4. Love & Lean - Overview
• Journey towards developing a People-Centric
Culture
• Connecting the heart of engaged employees
with the tools of Lean
• Results you can see
• Summarize what has been learned

5. Purpose
To be a TEAM
Dedicated
Innovative Solutions
Improve Customer Outcomes

6. June 2013
1st AME CEO Summit on People-Centric Leadership
A culture where every day everyone goes home
fulfilled by pursuing excellence and where everybody
flourishes.

7. People-Centric Leadership
3 key takeaways + 1:
1. Very intentional efforts towards employees
2. “Entrusted”
3. PCL looked different at each company
Overriding thought: we have their hands, but we
could have had their minds & their hearts if we had
just known how to ask

8. Self Examination
1. Great programs for employees – episodic in
nature
– Quarterly All Employee Meetings
– Picnic, Halloween Party, Christmas Party, Chili
Cook-off, Ice Cream Truck, Hot Dogs
– Recognition – Company Bucks, Living Our Mission
– Hands-on Product Training

9. Self Examination
2. Leadership training consisted of educating
managers to go out and do something to our
employees
– 6 one-day trainings / year on leadership
3. We never asked our employees what they
wanted!

10. The Trail after their Minds & Hearts

11. Leadership Training - February 2014
What will people-centric look like here?
• 42 leaders gathered – top management to
production leads
• 3 components of the day
– Colonel Arthur Athens: “What’s love got to do
with it?”
– Dissect his message and explore the
behaviors of people-centric leaders
– Go to the Gemba…ask the employees what
should PCL look like here?

12. Synthesized the day’s data…
• Communication
• Care
• Alignment
• Development
Goal Statement established:
“Engaged when we are here…
fulfilled when we go home

13. New Name
“People-Centric Culture”
• Why Culture:
– Leadership is really a relationship
– Goal is to educate both sides of the equation
– Strove to make it daily…not episodic
– Wanted it to be employee driven

15. Communication Skills Training
Seven Interlaced Modules

16. How one leader reacted…

17. C
A
R
E

18. ALIGNMENT
LINE OF SIGHT MANAGEMENT - PDCA CYCLE

19. Line of Sight Evolution
Teams and
Framework
Company Culture, Strategic
Framework, Teams and
Functional Performance
Plans Introduced
Tracked, Functional
Area Plans Driven by
Routine Follow Up
Focused on Results
(Company,
Operational,
Individual)
AME
Hitting the Target!!!
Independent Units Focused, Clear Business
Direction
Behaviors Identified
and Organization
Energized
Smart and Sharp,
Lean and Mean
Vision and Mission
Driven

20. Development, Benchmarking &
Wellness
Pillar
• Development
• Benchmarking the Best
• Wellness
Program
• Mentoring & Coaching
• Autoliv, Danaher, AME
• Lincoln Industries Model
Pillar
• Development
• Benchmarking the Best
• Wellness

21. Minds & Hearts…to Hands
• Equip all employees with a
standardized problem
solving tool – A3
• How?
– Trained all employees
in the A3 process
– Hands on workshop
with real problem
tackled
– 3 year incentive plan
launched

22. A3 Incentive Plan & Evolution
• Payout if overall company goal achieved and
individual goal achieved
• Year 1: One A3/employee/quarter
– “On anything”
• Year 2: Two A3’s/employee/quarter
– Department identified focus area of improvement
• Year 3: Three A3’s/employee/quarter
– Introduced Team credit

23. Added in “2 Second Lean”
• Department read “2 Second Lean” as a team
• All team members – 15 minutes daily at
beginning of shift
• On my walks I reviewed their A3 submissions
• Motivated me to start daily “2 Second Lean”

24. One of my “2 Second Lean” Improvements
2 Second Lean – 09/15/14
BEFORE AFTER
Business cards in folder Cards stored electronically through App

25. A3 Results
A3’s become the standard problem
solving tool
Everyone is thinking “root cause” and
asking…”what problem are we trying to
solve?”
Over 1200 A3’s completed in Year 3!

26. Shining Example
• Over that time period, reduced COGS by $1.8M
annually on a single product through incremental
improvements
Minds…Hearts…Hands

27. Another Example of Results – Autoliv
• 100,000 Kaizens in one year with 1100
employees
– ~91 completed Kaizens per employee!
• In 2012, largest plant had 5X Productivity of
1995 with 3X product complexity

28. Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
HERE’S HOW Engagement Links to
Business Outcomes and why it Matters
28
-37%
-25%
-65%
-28%
-48%
-41% -41%
10%
21% 22%
-70%
-60%
-50%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
Business units in the top quartile of
engagement have 21% higher
productivity than their bottom quartile
counterparts and 48% less safety
incidents.
Turnover
Absen-
teeism
High-
Turnover
Orgs.
Low-
Turnover
Orgs. Shrinkage
Safety
Incidents
Patient
Safety
Incidents
Quality
(Defects)
Customer
Metrics
Produc-
tivity
Profit-
ability
Meta Analysis Outcomes: Top vs. bottom quartile work units

29. Firms of Endearment (FoE)
Investor Returns Over Time

30. Summary
• People-Centric Leadership – where everybody
everyday flourishes
• Leaders are “entrusted” with these lives
• People-Centric Leadership will look different in
each company
• Minds…Hearts…Hands

31. Summary (cont’d)
• Current State of Leadership / Training:
– Episodic engagement
– Only educating half of the relationship
– Never asked our employees what they
wanted
• Shared the 6 Pillar approach:
– Communication, Care, Alignment, Mentoring
& Coaching, Benchmarking the Best and
Wellness

32. Summary (cont’d)
• Equipping, Incentivizing, Turning Loose!
• A3 Progression 1,200 completed in one year!
• Business Results that differentiate you from the
competition!

33. Wrap Up
• Enterprise Excellence + People-Centric
Leadership / Culture can transform your
company and the lives of your employees
• The transformation of your company
cannot happen without the transformation
of your employees!

34. One Last Quote
“Employees are not our company’s
greatest asset…they are our company!”
Bob Pritzker
The Marmon Group / Colson Associates

35. Thank You!
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Session No: ThP/42
Love & Lean
George Saiz
AME
gsaiz@ame.org