Staff mobility We recorded that adopting the right approach; one that stimulates, objectively evaluates, and swiftly implements front-line ideas can unlock significant financial rewards. We found that employees’ ideas increased in value by 20,000 euros per month after a move, and this increase lasted for several years. Cost Savings (over three years) Due to a Typical Process Optimization Idea
2. Identify similar processes, machinery and products when deciding the exchange: If processes, machinery, and products differ too much between two plants, the gap between their existing knowledge stocks becomes too large for any meaningful knowledge transfer and learning to take place. If two plants are too different, knowledge from one plant may simply not apply to the other. In our view, turning to related units in similar contexts is better than visiting technologically advanced but unrelated ones. 3. Limit how many employees participate and how often exchanges take place. At the car parts manufacturer we studied, about three per cent of the workforce visited another plant each year. Involving more employees much beyond that in exchanges may increase costs, such as those incurred from covering staff members’ absences at their home factories. In addition, while there was no limit to employee learning, we found that knowledge transfer started to decline after about ten exchanges per factory pair and year.
Notes. Cost savings are given in thousands of euros. This improvement idea led to a 12.68% reduction in cycle time (from 11:50 to 10:20). The idea was implemented in 2007 and led to cumulative cost savings of €102,770 (over three years). In fact, the average move created manufacturing improvements worth more than 100,000 euros within one month. For a mobility strategy to be successful though, we identify three key principles that are important to consider at the outset:
From this intriguing study we were able to draw a key conclusion: adopting a mobility mindset can be key to realising the creativity and innovations possible from front-line workers. Giving workers the opportunity to understand more about what they know, to share their knowledge and to learn from other people’s experiences through mobility is also motivating and empowering. We were impressed at the high calibre ideas that the mobile workers contributed, that would have otherwise gone undiscovered. Especially in the post-Covid world, it takes careful planning and strategy to roll out mobility across an organisation in a meaningful way, but in the long-term, productivity gains and financial benefits would be worth the hassle. v
1. The approach has to be purposeful, and problem driven. Employees should not be sent to other plants to passively observe operations or receive training, or as a reward. It is important that moves are tied to a specific and operationally relevant task. In our study, employees were regularly sent to other factories to support local problem-solving, such as when the production process was facing quality issues. These visits were kept to a maximum of two weeks and involved an intense immersion in the local factory’s operations. In doing so, employees became deeply embedded in the context of the plant and achieved maximum interaction with its staff, processes, and machinery. This very hands-on, focused approach to front-line mobility is instrumental to knowledge transfer and learning.
Philipp B. Cornelius, Bilal Gokpinar and Fabian J. Sting Philipp B. Cornelius (cornelius@rsm.nl) is assistant professor of technology and operations management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Bilal Gokpinar (b.gokpinar@ucl.ac.uk) is head and professor of operations, technology, and innovation at the UCL School of Management at University College London. Fabian J. Sting (sting@wiso.uni-koeln.de) is the chair of Supply Chain Management — Strategy and Innovation at the University of Cologne, as well as chaired professor of digital supply chain innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. The UCL School of Management is the business school of University College London, one of the world’s leading universities, consistently ranked in the global top 20 for its academic excellence and research. The School offers innovative undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD and executive programmes in Management, Entrepreneurship, Business Analytics, Business Information Systems, and Finance, designed to prepare students for leadership roles in the next generation of innovation-intensive organisations. Philipp B. Cornelius Bilal Gokpinar Fabian J. Sting www.mgmt.ucl.ac.uk
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