Avoid the curse of the active banana!
I’ve often said before that its important to buy into the philosophy behind six-sigma, TQM, Lean, etc and not just focus on the tools. This focuses the organisation on only one level of the four suggested in The Toyota Way
Details on the “active banana” were reported by The Guardian via the Newcastle Journal:
£7 million were paid to consultants in a “Lean” initiative. Part of this process involved using black tape to let workers know where to place their keyboard and stapler. Workers complained that not only is it an enormous waste of money but incredibly demeaning. A union worker said in certain consulting session in Scotland employees were asked if the banana on their desk was active or inactive – and if it was inactive it had to be removed!
These guys should have read: How To Prevent Lean Implementation Failures
Reason #1: Lack of Top Down Management Support
Reason #2: Lack of Communication
Reason #3: Lack of Middle Management/Supervisor Buy-In
Reason #4: Not Understanding That This Is About Your People
Reason #5: Lack of Customer Focus
Reason #6: Lack of Improvement Measures
Reason #7: Lack of Lean Leadership
Reason #8: People Measures Not Aligned With Lean Goals
Reason #9: Using Kaizen Events As The Sole Improvement Measurement
Reason #10: Bonus Pay Systems Where The Only Measure Is Company Profitability
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Comments
By shaun sayers on November 20th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Oh how I would LOVE to know who those consultants were
By shaun sayers on November 20th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Oh how I would LOVE to know who those consultants were
By shaun sayers on November 20th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I may be wrong, but is this Newcastle Office with the black desk tape and inactive bananas the very same one that only today has managed to lose the personal and financial details of over 25 million child benefit claimants?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm
By shaun sayers on November 20th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I may be wrong, but is this Newcastle Office with the black desk tape and inactive bananas the very same one that only today has managed to lose the personal and financial details of over 25 million child benefit claimants?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm
By anna forss on November 20th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Does anyone know if they used the tape on any people. Like that guy: he’s really productive. But that guy, he’s probably waste. I hope they taped up the consultants and threw them out.
What is fun with all these processes and tool, in what ever area you might find them, is that people who likes having the label MANAGER on them finds the appropriate things in the theory and uses that to continue what they already are doing.
By anna forss on November 20th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Does anyone know if they used the tape on any people. Like that guy: he's really productive. But that guy, he's probably waste. I hope they taped up the consultants and threw them out.
What is fun with all these processes and tool, in what ever area you might find them, is that people who likes having the label MANAGER on them finds the appropriate things in the theory and uses that to continue what they already are doing.
By admin on November 20th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
@shaun – [http://tinyurl.com/ysaz39]
The National Insurance department at Longbenton, Northumberland, has been picked as a pilot site for the latest clear-desk concept. Revenue & Customs declined to say how much Unipart had been paid for the project. But a PCS spokesman said that the project was costing £7.4 million nationally.
@anna – I agree. Perhaps the tape could have been better employed on someones mouth.
[http://tinyurl.com/26vtyx]
______________________
More info:
The consultants are Unipart, described on their website [http://www.unipart.co.uk/], somewhat cryptically, as a “pioneer of lean thinking”.
The union’s branch secretary at Longbenton, Kevin McHugh, also pointed out a seemingly significant drawback to the plan – many of the desks are shared:
“If the person coming in after you has longer arms, he will have to move the markers. This office has been open for 60 years and people have managed to find their pens and staplers without consultants helping them in that time.”
By admin on November 20th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
@shaun – [http://tinyurl.com/ysaz39]
The National Insurance department at Longbenton, Northumberland, has been picked as a pilot site for the latest clear-desk concept. Revenue & Customs declined to say how much Unipart had been paid for the project. But a PCS spokesman said that the project was costing £7.4 million nationally.
@anna – I agree. Perhaps the tape could have been better employed on someones mouth.
[http://tinyurl.com/26vtyx]
______________________
More info:
The consultants are Unipart, described on their website [http://www.unipart.co.uk/], somewhat cryptically, as a “pioneer of lean thinking”.
The union's branch secretary at Longbenton, Kevin McHugh, also pointed out a seemingly significant drawback to the plan – many of the desks are shared:
“If the person coming in after you has longer arms, he will have to move the markers. This office has been open for 60 years and people have managed to find their pens and staplers without consultants helping them in that time.”
By National Lottery UK on April 30th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Good way to waste £7 million, deactivating all those bananas?
By National Lottery UK on April 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Good way to waste £7 million, deactivating all those bananas?