big week this week

When I went hunting for a business, I specifically wanted to find a manufacturing firm. I've got so much background and training with process improvement methodologies that I wanted a chance to see if I could make a difference in a small company. Boeing was great but it was always difficult to tell if I had made a difference. Toss a cup of water into the swimming pool . . . now get just your water back out.

With a small company it's all up to me. That's not exactly right since my goal is to get everyone engaged, but I've got to get the ball rolling. This week the rubber hits the road. Several months ago I engaged a consulting firm called Washington Manufacturing Services (WMS). They're going to provide 10 days of training and facilitation on implementing lean manufacturing in our factory. The first two days are Tuesday and Thursday this week. We'll do four more days in December and four in January. We're closing the business for each day. Nothing else will happen except the training (one of my jobs is to put out any fires that appear). I'm very excited to start getting this toolkit into the hands of the employees. I think they're motivated anyway, but this week they'll also be getting bonuses based on our excellent 3rd quarter performance. That can't hurt!

So, I'm excited and nervous. This is the start of a big thing!