Motivating workers for quality
L ast month’s article was a
total description of the Total Quality Manage-ment (TQM)
process as it relates to the textile care industry. We learned
that dedication to the process as “service to customers”
within the organization is
dependent upon the workers’ attitudes and management’s
attention to the details of the system. Without the workers’
motivation the process will never be viable. This motivation
was brought out in my National Clothesline article of February,
1996 describing recogntion and reward as vital to TQM.
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What is motivation?
To move a person to some desired
course of action by giving the proper incentive.
How do we motivate?
By understanding people as
individuals. By learning and understanding their needs and
giving the proper incentive to satisfy those needs. By these
answers we find that the key word is incentive.
Recognition
The status of an individual
strongly influences morale, and various forms of recognition
play a major role in building up this status. An alert manager
uses every opportunity to give recognition.
Everyone needs some form of
recognition from time to time to bring continued satisfaction
with life
itself. This need for recognition
cannot be fully provided by the flow from manager to worker.
Recognition must come, in some way, from the person’s
immediate associations, workers on his or her level, the
general manager, from subordinates and his/her immediate
supervisor. This makes the supervisor’s task in giving
recognition only a part of a full flow to the individual, but
is a very important part which must gear in properly in order
to produce results.
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The recognition offered by the
supervisor, or management, must have the following essential
characteristics:
1.
It must be earned or merited by the recipient.
2.
It must be made sincerely.
3.
It must be in an appropriate amount.
4.
It must be given by the right person.
5.
It must closely match the recognition from other sources; it
must be in agreement with the opinion of the other workers.
6.
It must be given with the right timing, not too soon and not
too late, not too often and not too seldom.
Types of recognition
Recognition has great differences
in degree earned for various levels of workers, and the
supervisor, or manager, has difficulty giving it sincerely to
workers on the low end of the scale.
The solution lies in using
different types of recognition as follows:
1.
Acknowledgment
2.
Approval
3.
Acclaim
4.
Award
5.
Participation
6.
Partnership
These types are progressively
effective when they are earned. Acclaim and Award can only be
given when the worker has achieved, and should not be used so
often that value is lost: it must be deserved.
There should not be a negative
approach to recognition. Never say: “If I don’t say
anything to you, that means you are doing O.K.” This is
not a form of recognition; it only tells the person that you
mean to give no recognition, nothing but condemnation.
Today, a person’s job is
something more than a mere opportunity to earn money with which
to satisfy physical needs.
Most people spend more of their
time at work than at any other single activity. Therefore, if
they are to be efficient and productive, they must find their
work experience interesting and satisfying.
Performance – Reward –
Satisfaction
Professors Porter and Lawlor wrote
that good job performance leads to rewards which, in turn,
leads to job satisfaction. Rather than satisfaction causing
performance, it actually results from performance.
Performance + Reward = Job
Satisfaction
Therefore, after receiving
motivation, a well satisfied worker will always perform better.
In the following reprinted article
from February, 1996, Professor Richard Hodgetts gives a
complete lesson on rewards and recognition with my personal
opinion as they apply to our industry.
Richard Hodgetts, a professor of
business strategies at Florida International Univ-ersity,
outlined various factors to achieve a successful Total Quality
Management (TQM) Program in his book, “Implementing TQM
in Small and Medium-Sized Organiz-ations.” Designed to
take readers inside companies’ quality programs, the book
looks at several companies that have won the Baldridge Award,
awards given each year by the US Department of Commerce.
Although this book gears itself to
industries other then drycleaning and laundry, this author will
correlate its contents to apply to the drycleaning and laundry
industry whenever possible.
A TQM adage holds very true: “What
gets rewarded, gets done.” This cliché helps to
drive home the point that many organizations make strong
initial progress on their TQM journey, but these efforts soon
run out of steam because the workers and supervisors lose their
enthusiasm for quality improvement as time goes on.
Why is this? The chief reason is
that personnel see no benefits for themselves since teamwork
and support of fellow workers are continuously stressed.
Today, in any business, employees
look beyond the pay they receive for the work they are paid to
do. This perception does not have to be in the form of money to
achieve job satisfaction.
Richard Hodgetts analyzes why this
lack of steam runs out by stressing four important rules:
1.
A recognition and reward system is vital for receiving a strong
initial response to your TQM program.
Without this system, the program’s
efforts will be viewed as an attempt by management to profit at
the expense of the workers. Although supervisors and
owner/managers are constantly “on the floor”
pushing the inspection/production process along, it is job
satisfaction and personal reward which really gets the job
done.
For example: Piece work, or
production bonus, pressers tend to lean more toward “pieces
per hour” than top quality finishing if their pay is
geared toward production primarily. They feel strained and
under pressure when they are inspected for top quality,
especially when the garment is returned to them as a “do
over.”
2. Ensure
that the program is motivational to workers and supervisors.
What will get them to support the TQM effort? Parking
privileges? Cash rewards? Certificates for free merchandise or
meals? A plaque? Recognition on the company bulletin board?
Since each business is unique, recognition and rewards in one
enterprise are often regarded as meaningless in others.
3.
Make it possible for everyone to qualify and win. Always
consider the support personnel to the production personnel as
being essential to the overall effort from receiving to filing
the completed orders in the customer service area.
Just as the military credits
supply, maintenance, transportation, services, artillery and
combat engineering as being just as essential to mission
accomplishment as combat and aerial personnel on-the-line
facing the enemy.
Therefore, the reward must be tied
in with all the workers in support of the production workers. A
well-cleaned garment, free of spots (or noting the spot as
unremovable after an attempt) saves the presser valuable time
in that the garment does not have to be returned for spotting,
re-cleaning and re-pressing.
Inspection after cleaning is
really more important than pre-spotting since many spots are
often overlooked after cleaning by the assumption that they
were seen and removed before cleaning. Most often, the
pre-spotting person cannot see the actual spot for the other
soil which is removable in cleaning.
Proper attachment of marking tags
ensures their attachment to the garment after cleaning. This
saves valuable time in forming “lots” for proper
work flow as well as saving time and claims for losses in the
assembly process.
Efficient preparation of invoices
in the customer service area enables lots to be easily formed
and the assembly/bagging operations to be faster and more
accurate. By limiting the amount of garments to be placed on
one invoice, the smaller orders can be processed more quickly
and accurately.
In this regard, management should
form teams in the production process and in the support/sales
process. To make the lot system effective, all pressers must be
dedicated to the entire lot and not merely to the garments
appropriate to their individual units.
The pressers must be considered to
be a TEAM, and they should be rewarded as a TEAM. Part of that
team is the quality inspector, although each presser should
inspect his or her own work before sending it down to the line
inspector.
The cleaner, spotter and helpers,
etc., are all part of a team to ensure proper flow of good
work.
If too many removable spots are
returned to the spotter, the entire cleaning/spotting team is
penalized since good cleaning procedures and good solvent
maintenance are important to ultimate spot removal and overall
garment quality.
4.
Do not over use financial rewards or set them too high and
beyond reach. Offering extremely large financial rewards takes
the focus off quality and puts it on money alone.
Areas where workers can obtain
large rewards are then given major attention, and the other
areas are ignored; and when there eventually are no more large
financial awards to be earned, enthusiasm for the program will
diminish.
Four steps for TQM
The recognition and reward program
must be designed to achieve TQM objectives. In achieving these
objectives, there are four steps:
• Identify the types of
rewards that are likely to be of most value to your workers and
supervisors and are acceptable to management.
• Communicate the reward
and recognition system so everyone knows what has to be done,
and they are aware of HOW and WHEN these are offered.
• Gather and chart feedback
on how effective the reward and recognition system is working
so that appropriate changes can be made.
• Drawing upon these ideas,
create a reward and recognition system that is designed to meet
the unique demands of your organization.
In creating a system that meets
the needs of your organization, it is helpful to examine some
of the possible forms and rewards: plaques, trophies,
certificates, letter from the owner or general manager, honor
roll, picture in the customer service area and company news
bulletin, logo items (hats, shirts mugs, etc.), dinner for two,
day off with base pay, tickets for special event, savings bond,
check, etc.
Most of these items cost the
organization little money. It is the recognition and
psychological benefits that are most appealing.
However, do not overlook the
important reason for being in your employ in the first place: a
decent salary (money). This is always the basic requirement of
job satisfaction although it is not the only requirement.
In addition to the basic
requirement there must be that extra reward and recognition for
a job not only well done but just done in a satisfactory and
acceptable manner.
All these add up job satisfaction
which is the foundation of TQM and good customer relations by
contact personnel.
Developing your own recognition and reward
program
There are a number of steps to
consider in developing the recognition and reward system that
will work best in your business. It will take time to fully
implement a viable system, and you will likely be continually
modifying the system and making changes until you strike it
just right.
Even after that time, you will
make changes in order to maintain interest and enthusiasm among
workers and supervisors.
It is not enough just to offer
recognition and rewards. There must be an evaluation of the
system’s effectiveness. Is it producing the desired
results? If not, what needs to be done?
One way to answer this question is
to gather and chart data on performance.
The gathering of data ensures that
the business is managing by fact. The charting of the
information helps the enterprise track performance over time
and make comparisons with its own past performance and that of
the competition.
It is critical to monitor
performance so you can judge how well the system is working.
You can talk to workers and get their suggestions that are
submitted each month; review how well the quality teams are
implementing ideas; and monitor key performance areas such as
cycle time, error rate, and customer satisfaction. These steps
can help you identify breakdowns in the system and begin taking
corrective action.
Note: My spotting video, “The Caplan
Method of Stain Removal,” which includes my comprehensive
text (edited by Hal Horning) and the handy spotting board
reference, is available in English, Korean (video only) and
Spanish from the Golomb Group, c/o Dennis McCrory, 7664 Plaza
Court, Willowbrook, IL 60521, phone (800) 679-5856. This video
is actually a “Trainer in a Box” and is a complete
training course for both experienced and novice spotters. My
comprehensive text reinforces all of the background technical
material required to produce a professional spotter. Each
method of spot removal is thoroughly discussed and
demonstrated. Bleaching and use of digesters are explained in
addition to basic textile chemistry.
Also available from Golomb Group, in
English and Spanish, is my video on step-by-step shirt
finishing which includes my comprehensive text in loose-leaf
form outlining each procedure for single-operator and
two-operator cabinet shirt units. Both units are demonstrated
using a cabinet sleever and single, or triple, heated collar
former. This procedure was developed by me for top quality with
no touch up (regular sizes) together with maximum production
without overexertion by the operators. Avoiding shrinkage,
wilting and dipping of the collar, together with its proper “breaking
and forming” on the heated collar former, are all
demonstrated. Both the collar and front buttonhole placket, the
two thickest parts of the shirt, are totally dried under the
press head with no loss of production.
Attractive detailing and packaging of the
hangered shirt, padding, steam pressure and timing are all
discussed. A unique wash formula to give whiter whites,
brighter colors and complete removal of grease and body oils is
included in the loose-leaf text book.
Stan Caplan has more than 35 years
experience in his own high volume drycleaning, laundry and
tailoring plant and two package plants with adjoining
coin-operated laundry and drycleaning. He is a former
chief instructor at the International Fabricare Institute, the
Southwest Drycleaners Association School, the Illinois State
Lfabricare Association School, the Michigan Institute of
Laundering and Drycleaning School, the Mississippi Fabricare
Association School and the Louisiana Fabricare Association
School, the Pennsylvania Drycleaners and Launderers Association
(now Pennsylvania-Delaware Cleaners Association) School, the
Johannesburg Cleaners Association School (South Africa), the
Hyatt Regency Southeast Asia School (Singapore and Hong Kong)
and numerous short courses throughout the US and Canada. He
offers consulting, training and engineering services in all
areas of the fabric care industry from customer service area to
the boiler room. His total system (TQM) encompasses
maximum efficiency, economy, and product excellent quality.
Stan can be reached at 7341 Amberly Lane, Suite 310, Delray
Beach, FL 33446; phone/fax: (561) 496-2548; e-mail: stancap100@aol.com.