Communication Rooms (policy deployment)

Developing the goals and objectives of an organization is a common and necessary practice in any company regardless of size or complexity. The problem is seldom in establishing these goals. Our experience performing numerous lean assessments has determined that the problem with a vast majority of companies is that companies are extremely ineffective in aligning and connecting these goals and objectives throughout all levels and functions of the organization. The solution is the development of communication rooms at the corporate/division level across all functions that are cascaded and established at the plant and shop floor levels. Establishing communication rooms is a powerful mechanism to:

• Clarify and communicate the vision of the organization
• Obviously and visibly connect all performance metrics to the goals and objectives
• Assure that every activity and initiative is moving the organization closer to achieving the stated goals-helps eliminate the waste
• Easily, efficiently and effectively perform operating reviews at every level of the organization
• Drive accountability throughout the organization to achieve the desired goals
• Assign and assess projects and programs specific to the desired metric goals

Communication rooms are physical locations at the corporate/division offices, the plants and the shop floor dedicated for scoreboard and operating reviews. The process starts with the development of a communication room at corporate/division that is cascaded down thorough the organization. Some of the major features of communication rooms are:

• Common look and format from corporate to shop floor
• Balanced metric tied directly to each goal and objectives
• Connectivity of all functions toward achieving performance goals
• Common metrics from corporate to the shop floor in all functions, clearly aligned and connected
• Daily, weekly, and monthly monitoring and reporting procedures
• Cascading PDCA's (plan, do, check, act) check sheets connecting each level of the organization specific to the monitoring, management and review requirements for operating reviews
• A minimum of 3 significant projects for each measurement category at each level of the organization
• Master schedule for easy update and review of project progress

It is impossible to adequately address in these few paragraphs how effective communication rooms are in improving performance and driving accountability. We encourage you to further investigate the potential.