In 2016, Williams embarked on a journey to adopt lean operations into its company culture.
Steve McIntosh, left, with Williams and Kenneth Woolridge of Air Liquide.
"We strategized a little bit on how we could provide a scale or value to the organization and, prior to even building the team, we took a look at lean [operations] and identified several 'closet lean' people within the company to help us develop champions," said Steve McIntosh, director of process, performance and reliability for Williams. "And as they came out of the woodwork and we identified what we could do, we built a team that included some folks who had good, strong lean backgrounds."
As part of this champions-building process, "master black belts and folks who could train" were brought on board, McIntosh said at the Operational Excellence in Oil and Gas Summit held recently in Houston.
"And they're very qualified people who could run projects," McIntosh said. "With that, we put in place a framework that included education, coaching -- doing the big projects for our chief executive officer, our chief operating officer and our C-suite community. Then we added an assessment piece and started moving it forward."
McIntosh said employees not only got excited about continuous improvement but also felt a renewed sense of respect for their company leaders.
"They really got excited that we were going to be training leaders how to be good leaders, of all things," McIntosh said. Feedback indicated employees had not previously felt comfortable sharing their ideas about improving processes.
Providing structure
Following that foundational training, leaders were trained on leading with lean and "Gemba walking" to support their people, McIntosh said. A Japanese term meaning "the actual place," Gemba in a business setting refers to the physical location where value is created.
"Gemba walking is a person - it doesn't actually have to be a leader - who walks out to where the work is being done," he explained. "Gemba is where the work takes place."
One of the value drivers Williams executives found in instituting Gemba walking was providing a solution for front-line leaders struggling to get out into the plants and spend more time with their people.
Leaders conveyed they would like to have "a structured process where they actually get out into the field with some deliberate intent and then come back with some improvement ideas," McIntosh said. Gemba walking, he added, provides that structured vehicle for moving toward continuous improvement.
Kenneth Woolridge, director of continuous improvement for Air Liquide, noted that maximizing the value of lean operations in an organization does depend on leadership, but not just the top leadership.
"Focus on all of leadership," Woolridge said. "And from that, you will have a good organization with the right people and the right culture."
Woolridge said career development within an organization spawns "the right opportunities and clarity for where you need to go," adding that training and "having the right delivery and development at the right levels" are equally essential.
Woolridge also recommended companies establish KPIs "that really are leading indicators" so they can take "the right measurements." Recognition of achievement is integral to success, he said.
"Make sure that you have the right motivation, because different people are motivated by different things," Woolridge concluded.
