Coaching
Operational excellence from the inside.
No consultant who leaves a report behind. Marc Winkelman works alongside your team. On the floor, with the people who are there every day.
“Manufacturing excellence is often a management programme. It reaches a handful of people and it does not last. Because it starts with the managers, and it leaves with them.”
That is why this method is designed for every level at once. From operator to board, each at their own level, so that it holds when the coach has gone.
The four pillars
Pillar one
Setting direction
Few priorities, but the right ones. And every employee knows how their work connects to them.
Pillar two
Building the organisation
Work out how many people a task really needs instead of guessing. Do not hire, redistribute.
Pillar three
Building capability
Every critical process becomes standard work. Without a standard there is nothing to train anyone in.
Pillar four
Assessing yourself
Every team assesses its own work. An audit takes thirty minutes at most. Any longer and the scope is too wide.
Where does your team stand?
Only continuously building capability delivers lasting results. These four steps are the way there.
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No standards
Failing team
Everyone does the work their own way. Every loss comes as a surprise.
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Standard work
Struggling team
A standard exists, but it is not alive yet. Following it takes effort.
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Micromanagement
Improving team
It works, but only while management stays on top of it. That is not sustainable.
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Self-sufficient
Performing team
The team maintains and improves the standard itself. Even when nobody is watching.
Method
54321.SCRUM
Five S’s, four C’s, three R’s, two U’s and one M. Those letters spell SCRUM. And together they make a leader who carries the team rather than directs it.
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5
S. Set direction
Spell-out · Specify · Simplify · Streamline · Structure
A few priorities that genuinely matter, carried all the way to the floor. Steer on what you can see coming, not on what went wrong afterwards.
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4
C. Control the conditions
Continuously · Controlling · Confirming · Challenging
Continuously check that conditions still hold, confirm what is going well, and challenge what has become a habit.
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3
R. Reality
Real team member · real issue · real loss
With the people doing the work, where it happens, about the loss that is actually there. Not in a meeting room about a chart.
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2
U. Unleash talent
Unleash · Upbuild
Every team member should be able to do all of the team’s tasks. That makes the team robust when someone is off sick, and the work more interesting.
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1
M. Mastery
Common standard work, done uncommonly well. That is the whole point, and the one step you cannot skip.
How many people do you actually need?
Do not guess, calculate. How often must a task be possible, and how many people therefore need to master it?
| Class | Must be possible | Capable | For example |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | every minute | more than 3 people | changeover, reception, payroll |
| B | every week | more than 2 people | paying invoices, maintenance |
| C | every month | more than 1 person | work plan, painting |
Do not hire more people.Redistribute the work of the people you already have. Understaffing costs more than it looks, and overstaffing is not solved with a vacancy.
How to start
The test model: one line, one team, one week.
No lengthy intake, no business plan. We pick one process line and show what is possible. In five working days.
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1
A conversation
Forty-five minutes, two questions: what costs you the most time right now, and where is the most pressure?
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2
Day one on the floor
Marc stands beside your team. Not with a clipboard, but thinking along. By the end of the day there is a picture of what is going on.
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3
Three improvements
Small and measurable. Your own team carries them out; Marc guides. That is the whole point. Otherwise the improvement leaves with him.
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4
Measuring at the end
What has changed? We measure it together and you decide whether to continue. No obligation.
Your coach
Marc Winkelman
35 years at Procter & Gamble · operational excellence · Vossem
Marc built his method not in a boardroom but on the floor of P&G plants across Europe. He knows what drives operators, why planners fall behind, and how to get a team moving without provoking resistance.
After thirty-five years he decided to make that knowledge available to Belgian SMEs and manufacturers. Companies too good to stand still, but too busy to change on their own.
He always works on site, always tailored. And he only lets go once the system stands.
Ready to start?
One conversation, one week, first results. No obligation.