2 Second Lean – Our Company Culture

One of the proudest moments of my career occurred when we had two great companies, Decorquip and Rotothurm, touring our workshops to learn more about Bradbury Tracks and to share their insights with us. James Brittle from Decorquip asked one of our team members, Alberto, “What does lean mean to you?” His response was what made me incredibly proud:

“It’s an opportunity to get involved in the company. Before lean, I was told to assemble, so I did, but now I look at what I am doing and improve it and it works. We keep quality for the customer, speed up the process and reduce costs. I’m more involved and I love it.”

As a business owner or director, how can you fail with this fantastic attitude and quality of work in your team?

What is the 2 Second Lean? 

2 Second Lean is a way of operating lean from the ground up. It involves giving autonomy to our team and letting them lead us in how best to improve the process that they have been put in charge of.

Each morning everyone in our company does 20 minutes of 3S’ing (Sweep, Sort and Standardise), and then spends around 40 minutes improving their process by just 2 seconds. It should not be a surprise that the person best suited to improve the process is the person who has done it for years. You trusted them enough to hire them for the job, so why not trust them to make the job better, or did you hire a robot? 

How has the 2 Second Lean changed our company’s culture?

As Alberto said, before the 2 Second Lean came into play, it was different; he was told to assemble in a certain way and so he did. We would now call that the 8th waste; underutilised employee talent. We would never have known how much he could contribute to the quality of our service and product delivery had we not changed our company’s culture.

Alberto, alongside our other team members, has contributed in reducing lead time from 5 working days to “when would you like your track?” It is the culture of the 2 Second Lean’s continuous improvement that brings the best out of our team, and in turn, the products we produce for our customers.

Why should a business owner or director implement this? 

We work with engaged employees who are dedicated to improving their processes each and every day, even by the smallest amount. They use each other’s hidden talents to produce exceptionally high-quality work, and when asked about the company’s culture and 2 Second Lean, they respond with “I love it”.

A happy workforce is a successful one, and when the team are enthusiastic about the product and they way in which they manufacture it, this enthusiasm drives them to deliver exeptional customer service.

2 Second Lean has led to me respecting my colleagues more and has made me more grateful and appreciative of the contributions they each make. I enjoy going to work and seeing the ingenious ways they have come up with to improve their daily processes.

Well done team Bradbury Tracks, you make me proud.

Kris Theophanous, Managing Director, Bradbury Tracks Ltd, Winner: Business Innovation Award, SME MK and Buckinghamshire Business Awards 2020