Keith Leitner, Vice-President of Continuous Improvement at Metzeler Automotive Profile Systems (formerly BTR) Technical Center, has seen remarkable improvement in manufacturing operations by training internal consultants to influence others that new methodologies do work.

"In 1995-1996, this company was in big trouble," according to Leitner. "We were not as profitable as we should be, and, in some cases, we were not profitable at all." The company had quality problems, delivery problems, production problems, and cost problems. "Basically, our North American facilities were on Q1 probation." MAPS is a global supplier of sealing systems for the automotive industry.

With the arrival of new management, the company started to focus on lean manufacturing. An internal consulting group called BTRim (BTR Improved Manufacturing) was formed to conduct Kaizen workshops.

Leitner, who led the team of seven BTRim facilitators, found that they were "able to make big changes that were hitting the bottom line pretty quickly." However, the BTRim group wasn't receiving much buy in, there wasn't much follow up, and the program wasn't accelerating the way they wanted it to.

By late 1998, after restructuring the program several times, BTR developed the first phase of their new program -- Performance Improvement Program (PIP). PIP was designed to train people who were going to facilitate improvement activities at each facility. "We realized that we had a real need to train beyond just the lean methodologies; we realized that we also needed to train them in the 'people' skills," Leitner said.

Alexander/Hancock Associates has worked with Keith on this program since the fall of 1998.

The PIP training is an intensive three-week program involving approximately 20 participants, mostly managers from the manufacturing areas, but also supporting groups such as engineering, quality, production control, and materials.

The program has evolved from to training the leaders of the company on how to implement improvements in a team environment. "I don't think any of us envisioned what it was to become," Leitner said. Though the term "internal consultant" wasn't used, that's exactly what these trained facilitators and leaders were charged with becoming. In each plant, they had to learn every aspect of the business and the unique aspects of the plant. They had to develop relationships with operators, maintenance staff, engineers, and managers. They had to demonstrate their own credibility and expertise. And they had to help plant staff use quality tools and techniques to diagnose problems, find root causes, and implement and measure improvements -- and collect data throughout the process.

Today, the PIP program combines the "hard skills" of using quality tools and techniques, with the "soft skills" of influencing, negotiating, facilitating, managing change, and communication. "We weave those skills into every one of the other (technical) phases," said Leitner. "They learn how to get other people to work with them to actually implement the tools. Basically, we're talking about changing people and the way we do things. The tools are pretty easy to understand and fairly easy to get a grip on. But we're not talking about introducing tools to a machine or a process. We're talking about introducing tools to a group of people who will be using them. And anytime you have that, you have all of the necessities to be a consultant. You're coming in, and you're going to tell a group of people that you have a better way for them to do what they do on a regular basis. You have to sell them on that. You have to convince them that it's the right thing to do. You have to be knowledgeable enough in the tool and knowledgeable enough in how to apply it. Then you need to be able to say that in such a way that you get the people on your side pulling with you. And all that is just your basic consulting skills."

The PIP training has proven successful. In 1996 "our defective parts per million among all of our customers was near 1,000. In 2000, our defective per million per customer was less than 100, closer to 70. That a 90-95% improvement."

On-time delivery has improved from 86% (1996) to 98% (2000); extrusion scrap improved 77%; finishing scrap improved 94%; quality improved 75%; productivity improved 31% from 1996. "In order to do that it has required using all the tools and skills that we cover under the PIP program."

The challenges now facing Leitner and his staff are the cultural issues within the company. "Introducing the tools, the training and so forth is really not that difficult. The tools are pretty self explanatory. It's the cultural change issues," said Leitner. "We're starting to develop more and more a culture that supports the tools and methodologies and the process for implementing those. And that has been a huge obstacle. However, the culture is not something that is going to change overnight; it's not going to change in three or four years; it's going to take 5-15 years to completely change."

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