Every day, across Pratt & Whitney, we work toward creating, operating, maintaining and promoting the world-class products and services in our portfolio. But we’re not perfect. We’re humans who depend on one another to meet deadlines, communicate issues effectively, and tackle challenges that face our teams. To improve alignment across the Hot Section Module Center - South Quality organization, Nimish Gandhi and his leadership team had an idea.
When Gandhi joined the Quality team, there was already a rudimentary working document that outlined priorities for the day, and what had been worked on, that could be passed from shift to shift. However, “it was more of a diagnostic report,” said Jeff Bania, first shift cell leader, Hot Section Module Center - South Quality. “It was a decent tool, but we needed a better way to set up the next shift for success.”
This was also apparent in the team’s February 2018 Pulse Survey results. Alignment scores were below benchmark, with feedback saying that shift teams weren’t communicating effectively as they transitioned throughout the day. Key items would go unreported or misreported, leading cell leads to spend valuable time simply trying to catch up on what the previous shift had accomplished.
To improve the tool and empower his team, Gandhi leveraged skills he had learned in Go Lead and other Thayer trainings. First, he brought his cell leads together, presented his leader’s intent, and laid out the what, why and when of the problem. Then, his team responded with how the problem could be better solved. The solution was the development of a dynamic, spreadsheet-style, shift-to-shift communication tool that facilitated a more efficient and accurate work transfer between the incoming cell leads. The tool focused on key categories for the Quality team like EH&S, priorities, area health, quality issues, capacity and training.
The pilot of the tool was introduced in June 2018 and, after some minor tweaks based on the feedback from the shop, the tool was launched across all quality inspection areas in the module center.
On top of the shifts feeling more connected, Gandhi’s team’s success and alignment Pulse scores have shown steady improvement since February 2018. “Of course I’ll continue to work with my leadership team and other team members to talk openly about alignment issues as they come up,” said Gandhi, “and we’ll make sure we find solutions that engages and empowers the team so that they are scalable. I am proud of the team for what we have accomplished together!”