First of all thanks to the members in the LEAN pilot areas who attended the meeting on Monday 1st September 2008 and provided their views on the LEAN pilot.
As agreed at the meeting the issues would be raised with Senior DCPU Management as part of the ongoing discussions about LEAN and the employer’s proposals to roll it out across Warbreck.
On Wednesday 17th September 2008 myself and Dean Rhodes (DCS Industrial Relations lead) met with Senior DCPU Management to discuss the LEAN pilot and the potential roll out.
We were asked to summarise our views and the following are the details:
“At the meeting this morning I said I would let you have a summary of the points that had been raised at our members meeting on Lean on 1 September 2008.
We asked staff whether they find the work better, worse or about the same as before. They said that it was hard to judge given the fact one area had work at the start and the other didn’t. Both areas felt lean was badly organised and that work levels were in chaos. Staff also felt that the concentration on turrets and the lack of staffing meant they were not able to fully judge the new work processes and there experience was that post was being left resulting in increased chase ups, duplicates etc.
We asked whether staff had more, less or about the same input as before. Members told us that they were asked about the processes but felt that there comments were ignored and that concern strips were also ignored. They felt the lean team were not helpful or adaptable and that staff who voiced concerns were labelled as being negative.
We asked whether lean helped or hindered the work flow of work. Staff in one area said they could see some benefits with the new processes but that these were not being realised or implemented because of the lack of staff and the focus on turrets.
However there were many members who felt Lean hugely hindered the way they work.
In general staff were more concerned about the impact of turrets and staffing reductions and felt both these contributed to their view that Lean wasn’t working. This was a recurring theme. Staff were also concerned about the apparent manipulation of counts, targets etc and post building up. Also, we were made aware that payability cases were being suspended but no further action was taking place, files were going missing and on hand levels were being manipulated”.
We raised issues about staff putting their hours of attendance on the information centre and I will be looking to speak directly to members shortly to discuss this further.
Management are also looking at taking forward work on the Role of a Leader which we cautiously welcomed. We believe it is essential that our managers are given the tools to do their job of actually managing staff rather than just collating stats.
If you require any further details about these or any other points then please do not hesitate to contact the Branch Office on Ext: 61186.
