Creating Employee ‘Pull’ for Improvement: Rapid, Mass Engagement for Sustained Lean

Abstract

The paper describes an approach to engagement called Rapid Mass Engagement (RME) that has been used at a quarter of Shingo Prize winning sites in Europe between 2010 and 2017. The approach has been developed over the past 20 years with an ongoing process of experimentation. Particular features include the involvement of ALL employees, a series of diagnostic and problem-solving not merely consultative meetings, and the development of an employee-created organizational culture, locally developed by employees and codified in their own words. This ‘bottom-up’ dominated approach is in contrast with many top-down approaches, but helps to facilitate lean by enhancing leader standard work, policy deployment and continuous improvement.