THE ELEMENTS OF LEADER STANDARD WORK

Creating standard work for leaders starts with the weekly structure of their routine tasks and meetings. Defined meeting times lay the foundation for the tasks a team leader needs to cover. Next are the list of tasks to be done each day and over the week. If there are preferred times to carry out these tasks, they can be written in. If their completion is flexible in the day, these tasks can be defined as a list to check off as they are completed.

Weekly tasks needs to be spread out over the week to level the load. The benefit of spreading these weekly tasks across the week is that it increases the chances of completing them and making sure the important tasks get done, even when urgent tasks try to intrude. Tasks like reviewing the auditing and checking on long term projects can also have a time slot.

Monthly tasks, meetings and reviews can be tackled a few ways; for higher level reviews, this may have a weekly time slot, but the meeting topic changes each week (for example Week 1 Quality, Week 2 Sales, Week 3 Safety, Week 4 Lean projects) This sets aside time for all people involved and creates the expectation of people begin in that forum at the set time. Other monthly tasks may be defined as a list to check off as they are completed. Reviewing these to make sure they are not all left to the end of the month becomes the challenge here.

THE BENEFITS OF LEADER STANDARD WORK

Leader Standard Work provides leaders of all levels with structure and predictability to their working week to enable them to maximise their efficiency and impact.  The process of developing a leader’s standard work ensures that the leader understands all of their “must do” tasks and allocates the most appropriate time to complete these tasks.  By coordinating the timing of tasks with internal customers and suppliers, leaders are able to minimise the rework and lead time associated with these activities.