![[PHOTO] Light streaming through a key hole illuminating an old iron key.](../images/ph_findings.jpg)
(Nicholas M. Total Quality and Process Management Consultant)
If you think Quality Teamwork and Participative Management as a relic of management fads gone by, or an impossibility in tough union settings, you haven't talked to Carlos Hernandez, a Teamster and 16-year veteran of the DKS supermarket chain and distributor of beverages and foods. Carlos, with the help of Moravec and Associates and Operations Manager Owain Smith, launched a quality circle group that has shaken long-held attitudes of both union and management.
Three years previously, after a dispute with management that cost him three days' pay, Carlos pushed for a worker/management roundtable that would suggest workplace improvements. The original team of six drivers fought "a long uphill battle" for acceptance, says Hernandez. Soon after the resources of Moravec and Associates were made available, the team launched a Quality Teamwork Group and undertook a survey of more than 551 drivers about the most troublesome work issues. The "winners" all involved safety.
Using the "seven management and planning tools" that form part of Moravec and Associates' continuous improvement strategy, the Quality Teamwork Group researched the costs and benefits of improving loading dock ramps, lighting, and unloading equipment. As a result of the findings, DKS installed hydraulic lifts at 226 stores.
Store managers and corporate executives soon were lining up to participate in a Quality Teamwork "ride-along" program. CEO Don Flynn, for one, spent a day riding in and unloading - by himself - a 50-foot truck. Such "mind, hands, and legs" experiences have had an "incredible positive impact" on management, says Flynn, and show why it's important to listen to employees thoughtfully.
"People say you can't do such things in a union setting," says Owain Smith. "We're living proof that you can. Sound ideas are always in fashion."
Quality Teamwork and total quality management & continuous improvement the has become an unofficial vehicle for both managers and drivers to get things done. It has made hundreds of operational enhancements in DKS's greater Boston area distribution centers, improved driver safety, and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Our next priority," says Flynn, "is to have a consistent problem-solving language. procedures and tools across DKS so we all talk the same language when analyzing problems, issues, and barriers to improving performance."
(The name of the company and certain situations are disguised due to a confidentiality agreement. The actual client approved this case study)