GA 366 | Implementing a Lean Daily Management System with Liam O’Malley

I tend to found if something complicated, it's only a longer process, it has quality issues, it's harder to sustain, it's harder to train people up with and work with. So don't be afraid to challenge things and try and simplify it where you can. And if you don't understand it, ask and ask and ask and ask and ask until you do understand it.

Today I'm excited to welcome Liam o' Malley to the show. Now, as you can tell by his name, Liam has a Irish background and he's got a really interesting story to share with us today. He's going to really focus in on a lean daily management system and talking about how they are using things like visual management, kind of daily huddle meetings and whatnot to really drive the culture of their continuous improvement efforts there at their company there and in the United Kingdom. So really, really interesting podcast. I think you're going to like it. The show notes for everything that we talk about can be found over@gembapodcast.com just look for episod 366. Again gembapodcast.com and look for episode 366. And also one little quick plug for Gemba Academy. If you are interested in learning more about lean daily management, we've got a whole series that we produced earlier this year. We talk about daily management system, daily accountability process, Gemba walks process, confirmation leader, standard work, visual management coaching, Obeya. Just lots of material in that course. So go check that out over@gembacademy.com and we'll get you guys going in the right direction. Okay, enough for me. Let's get to the show. Liam, welcome to the show. How are you?

Good, good, good. Brilliant. Thanks for having me on today. Von all right. Bit nervous, but looking forward to it.

It's gonna be great. Hey, where are you calling in from?

I'm actually calling in from the Isle of Man, which is part of the United Kingdom. So if you go on Google, there's a little tiny island in between the UK and Ireland and it's only 30 miles long, 20 miles wide. 80,000 people live on here. So it's like a little mini England on one little tiny island. We're covered by lovely, hardest sea with lovely beaches, mountains, glens. It's. It's a special place.

Oh, beautiful, beautiful. That's awesome. That's awesome. We were actually in Northern Ireland a few years ago visiting a company called Seeding Matters over there. Those guys doing some great lean work, but what a beautiful part of the world, you know Just the. The green, like you said. It's just mind blowing, how beautiful it is.

So. It is. It's. It's. It's a lovely place. It's. We're. We're very lucky. It's very low crime rates. It's. It's. It's. It's almost like living 40 years ago. We don't have to lock our doors. It's. It's. It's a special type of place. I shouldn't really let everyone know because we don't want too many people.

Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. All right, well, hey, Liam, I know you've listened to the show, and as you know, we do like to kind of get things with our guest sharing a quote or two. So do you have something you want to share?

Yeah, yeah. Actually, I tend to go through quotes in different parts of my life. I don't know if anyone else ever comes across it like that, but I always tend to stick with a few quotes which have always stuck with me. And I think the first one that's been with me since I was probably 15 years old at school, and I can always remember a teacher telling me, liam, you got out of life what you put into it. And that's always stuck with me, that it's a simple one, but a powerful one where you should just say, you've got to work hard. If you want something, you've got to put in to get back out what you put into it. So it's always stuck with me, that one gone. And I think it's always proved correct, so to speak, is if you're not willing to put the effort in, don't expect the effort to come back out, and vice versa. So, yeah, that's always been one more school teacher told me, and it stuck with me ever since.

That's great. That's great. Fantastic.

And then another little one, and this is probably. I'm still working on this now. You'll probably get this from this podcast is. Sorry for the long letter, but I didn't have time to write you the short one. Now, I read that in a book a few years ago was a book called the Maverick. I don't actually wrote that neither, but that was basically about simplifying your communications. And, you know, it's. It just made me laugh when I've had. That's the hardest thing in the world to do sometimes is give someone a short explanation.

Yep.

Rather than going into detail and losing yourself.

Fantastic. Yeah, so true. So true. Well, Liam, tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about Your, your background, how you first got involved in this whole continuous improvement movement and then tell us what you're up to these days.

So it's, it's, it's strange. It's funny actually. I left school I suppose quite young early age left school 16 and went over. In the UK we have apprenticeships where you can actually we call it saving your time. So Bas, he started off in a machine shop as a, as an operator doing the apprenticeship which is like a five year training course over here suppose. And that was, that was a good 20 years ago now. So where for a small tiny little engineering company on Liverpool Docks where there was. I would say there was probably about 6 of us working there. It was. The actual factory was no bigger than the football or maybe a basketball pitch. So you can so probably basketball pitch. And we quite literally we were the leanest company we've ever worked for. But I didn't even know what Lean was back in them days. But because we were so small we had to be efficient in everything we'd done. So it was quite literally we were working hand to mouth and that little company. So it was almost my first little taste then to continue improvement in Lean. But I didn't realize that that gave them little points. But in essence I suppose I saved me time as a machine oper. Then from there I changed company and then I got a job as a manufacturing engineer and I worked in the manufacturing engineer role for a good six years and as part of that role that's where I started getting more and more involved in the continuous improvement stuff. And that was from just the company I joined Adeline Consultant sometimes appear and I got involved and that excited me and I was like oh this is. I like, I like this continuous improvement what you're doing today and making it better for tomorrow. So sort of aligned with, with me as a person the roles in. And then even from there I just, I just from manufacturing engineer they ended up at a different company and they actually had a, a massive aerospace company actually. They actually are they a full education program for Lean Six Sigma now I'd done a bit of Lean stuff in Fever so so I knew what Lean was. I'd never heard a Six Sigma. So they were after people to train up as green belts. And I was like, I put my hand up, I thought oh I'll do that volunteer for doing that role and got myself involved in the Lean Six Sigma process. And I was, I was fascinated by. Because it really fitted into almost how I like to work which is using Data using current state. So when I come across the dynamic process it's like oh, this is, this aligns to me. So we ended up doing me green belt with black belt and then started almost coming away from the manufacturing engineers role and going into a full time continuous improvement role. And then since then I've moved company again and now I am just work full time as a lean leader for the current company I work for. So it has been a journey almost from the shop floor learning how to cut metal for them different little steps up through the ladder to know how to be contingent improvement. So it's, it's, it's. I'm quite thankful of it actually Vaughn, because I'm so maybe appreciative of their metal cotton work and what goes on and the hard work and dedication it takes and maybe standard machine for a full day and produce the exact same parts every four minutes. So it's, it's, it's give me a good solid background for picking change and food and stuff as well. I think coming from that environment.

Yeah, fantastic. I'm really, it's really interesting to hear your story that, your origin story, especially that first job where you were an apprentice, mentioning you guys were kind of doing lean before lean was a thing. Do you remember like can you give me, give me an example like what was one thing you remember from those early days as it relates to productivity or lean.

Because we were so small. I suppose one is we couldn't afford to have whip sitting around the factory. We couldn't afford to have a big material storage. So I look back on it now and I never look back around the time. But what would happen is an urgent order arrived because we were a small subcomplex. We'd get the material in with a few days from our stockist and then we couldn't really store it anywhere. So the minute the material landed, we chopped it up. We were on to say the first Turner machine and doing the Turner machine. As soon as I had to maybe finish my operation, the guy next to me on maybe the Miller machine, he'd pick the work up and he'd start doing on his work and then the operation after. And then we inspect it. So we will. We were having to work almost single piece flow just because of the constraints of the environment we were working in and the fact what was a family owned company, it was only a small little place and the general manager was the actual owner of the place. So it was his money you were dealing with to a certain degree. So he was always wanting the Same amount of shops because we need the cash flow we want to pay in every week is we had to be productive and we had to be lean. But at that given point in time, because it was probably mid-90s, I'm talking about now, I'd never heard lean and I don't think any of them guys had to tell the truth. We were just being. We were just being. I don't know what you want to call it. Productive. Yeah, but we couldn't. We couldn't afford not to be productive because we couldn't hold whip. We couldn't have jobs sitting around on the shop floor. We. We had to turn around, we had to survive. It was about surv that. That earlier stage almost. And that's. I learned so much from business then. I honestly did, working in that tiny, small environment where I can always remember one where I don't know, I can always remember I made a fixture for a customer and the fixture was spot on dimensionally. You couldn't have got it any more perfect for the door. But it didn't just smith a cosmetics point of view. It didn't look overly good. And I can always remember that the boss, the manager stopped me just as I was about to package this up and he said, Liam said, have you made this? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he goes. And he checked the quality. Yeah. Is it all. It's all quality? Yeah, yeah, quality is good on it. And he said, well, this isn't going out the door. He said, I just don't like the look of how it looks. And I was like, well, it's all right though. It's. It's what the, what the customer wants. And he said, that is. He said, but just look at it, Liam. He said, don't ever forget what a manufacturing workshop is. He said, it is just a big shop. He said, we buy a bit of raw metal, we put value into it and make it into whatever the customer wants and then we sell it to the customer. He said, if you were a customer walking into a shop, he said, would you honestly pick that up and buy it off the shelf, even if it is correct? And I looked at it and I thought, no, it just needed that extra finesse on it. So got me thinking at that point to even learn to go to know. And if that's always stuck with me throughout the whole entire engineering, their career, so to speak, what, what, what engineering's about, it's about we buy potentially raw metal off someone, we change it into something, can we sell it on to someone for A profit in simpler terms. And, and that's what my first job was all about. And it was just, it was so important because if you didn't, if you didn't make, you didn't make money. Wrong. We wouldn't have had jobs. So it was all about understanding the business, the basics of business, but keeping product flowing through that factory. If you've never worked for a small family owned company, it's a totally different ball game from working for corporate companies.

Well, it sure is. And if you think about even Toyota story, right, I mean back in the early days of Toyota production system being born, it was born out of a need to survive. You know, they had a high mix and low volume and very limited resources and so many of the things you're describing there in a small company, unfortunately what happens is I remember back in my corporate days and some of the companies that I've worked at, you know, we would go through the warehouse and there's millions of dollars of inventory just sitting there on the shelf, you know, thinking about that's money that we've spent and we haven't converted it into any profit, you know, and it's. But you know, these big giant companies, they just, I think people just grow numb to it. Right? And. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that's amazing. It is, you can just grow numb to it. But I think if you work in that small, tiny environment and you are quite literally, you feel the need to, to turn cash around and make that money because you want to get paid every week. And it was a definitely an eye opener from. Continue. You've done continuous improvements to survive, not to, not to tick any boxes or to implement a culture.

Without it you wouldn't have survived, right?

Nope, I wouldn't be here today. Potentially, I don't know where that career would have gone, but it was fascinating to work on that and to learn different things because we used to actually go out to people's sites and actually do assembly stuff and we learned a lot about the customer service side and just presenting yourself to brand and yourself being confident when you're coming across. So it was just a massive learning experience. And again I thank all the guys looking back who took me under the wing and showed me what engineering is all about and how to make money and, and all the best practices go with that. So brilliant experience. It really was honestly. Good.

Well, listen, really what I wanted to talk about today, I know you have some experience with LDMS or Lean Daily Management System. There's a few different terms for it, but I'm wondering if you could just tell us a little bit about. Let's just maybe start with like, what is it? What would you describe a lean daily management system is?

So it's again, I'll talk about how we use it to drive continuous improvements, I suppose Ron, because that's the biggest thing I enjoy about Olaudms system in my eyes. But in essence I just see it as a. And maybe everyone has their own different take on it, but I just see it as an ecosystem as in it's, it's a whole entire communication tool what we use. So we've got a, potentially any issues of any of them customer orders, what we have got a, a communication tool so we can escalate at the earliest given point and potentially do something with that order to either stop any quality issues, any, any delivery issues or service issues or anything like that. So to me, if someone asked me what LDMS is, it's a communication tool in my eyes. It's, it's something we use to signal at any given point in the process what there might be something going wrong about customer orders.

I love it.

So yeah, I don't know.

No, exactly. I think that's great. I mean I, sometimes I, I even add in like, are we winning or are we losing? Right. Like right now, if you walk out into the shop, are we winning or are we losing? And if you have a good management system in place, anyone should be able to tell you right at any moment in time whether they're winning or they're losing.

Yeah. And that's, that's the key thing. Ironically, we tend to do a bit of education. Everyone, dear all the associates who bed into this project and that's the key message. What we try and sell is, look, it's communication tools so we can see we're winning or losing and we can do something different if we're not winning or losing. So we can support users, end users who are the closest to that customer order to tell us if there's something going to go wrong. So we can bring you the support you need and do something different with that. So it is such a powerful tool and you know, it's, we've only just started maybe with there's the different pockets of it, but we've, we've just started now with the visual management side and I love the fact in the last probably three months we've gone really good with the hourly tracking the visual management and the associate get the buy in. But I love walking up and down the shop floor and I don't have to have a look at any computers. No MRB systems. I can just walk up and down and see by the colors on the board of machines are behind all that. Yes.

I'm curious, maybe walk us through a little bit Liam on like how's it work? Like maybe even start like in the morning. Like is there anything that you're doing in the morning versus the afternoon? Just walk us through how it works there at your company.

Well, I'll try and tell a little story about almost a day in life of LDMs on our shop floor. And again, I'm going to use shop floor, but we use LDMS in all of our office functions. And because we've got design, we've got scheduling and we've got every, every different function within this factory. And you all follow the LDMS process, but the shop floor is the easiest to talk to because most people relate to the shop floor environment, so to speak. But in essence, if I come in, so I'll pretend to be an operator. So I come in every single morning. And every single morning we have startup meetings and they're quite literally is based on the area you work and all the show you work and whatever function and you work. And we've got a PVD board. It's basically our metrics and our visual displays and our key areas within the business. So we'll have a startup meeting around that PVD board and all that's basically about is you've come in, you've done a quick shift handover with your partner and then you're doing a startup meeting and all the startup meetings for is for you and your supervisor to start that communication loop off. Your supervisor will communicate potentially any goals for the day. Anything you might want, you should achieve that. There's potentially any quality issues you want to share, the health and safety issues or if there's been any people issues. So you might have people phoning in sick or something like that. So it's a startup meeting to basically get you going for the day and set the expectations for the day. But as well as an operator, I can also at that given point in time talk to my supervisor and go, right, we potentially had a, I've just done my shift hand over and it looks like that machine may be down Or I could do the hand stairway from manufacturing engineers or something like that. I see the sort of meetings almost the very beginning the process where the supervisors communicate out their expectations and you're potentially communicating out if you've got any issues with any expectations for the day. So to speak from. So that's to start the process. So anything what we will have is we will have, I think startup meetings. We probably have about six them going on at every single shift changeover. So they always happen at shift changeovers. Then what happens after we've almost done our sort of menus startup meetings, sorry, with all our associates. Then the supervisors all pull together about half an hour later and they'll all then bring any issues what they've got from any of the startup meetings and they can then escalate them up into the management team. So I don't know, save half of one area is phoned and set for some reason and then another supervisor has got too many staff because he's got more machines. That's I call it the supervisor startup meeting or DOM meeting. At that meeting the supervisors can take all the info from the startup meetings and they can share them at the supervisor meeting. And what we're looking to do there is basically share problems and solve problems. So again, if you know you've got sickness and you've got two people off, but you need two people, we share at that forum and go right to can anyone lend me some manpower or can and kind of maybe give manpower a different way. So it's all about problem solving, I suppose at that issue the supervisor startups, so they're almost. That's the beginning of day one. So we've had the startup meet with the associates there to understand that there's any problems to set expectations for the day. Then if there is any issues, the supervisors have a little huddle with some of the management team. They give again a quick update if they're winning or losing on the day ahead and what they're about to face so they can resolve it there. And then basically we're off into the day, so to speak. And then this is where I suppose what I like about the whole LDMS system, this is when, where we have our cell walks coming in and our main interactions between shop floor associates and supervisors. So after we've set our day up, what I would do then I go back to machine. I'm going to start running a part to fill in the hourly track. It's the same behind or ahead. And basically all we then encourage the supervisors to do is interact with your associates, go on your show walks, which we call short interval leadership walks. It's basically every two hours. Just don't harass your operators, don't go out and harass them, but just make sure they can see what you're there for. And what you are doing your walk to see how the hour attacking is going if they need any support and things like that. Well as a supervisor you're doing that interaction with the shop floor associates so they can escalate you at any given point. And again we have all lights on the machine so we have different hand ons to signal via our fell behind or have. In essence it's about you just then communicating with your software associates. And the thing I like about that is what the best thing about that is. The minute we see that going onto the track door we have associates escalate what they've got problems. It gives us a chance to try and solve that problem firsthand. One we're not waiting until the end of the shift or the next startup shift and go oh yeah, an operator suspended 7 hours strugg design set of machinery. And we go ah, we've lost seven hours because we didn't do our cell walks. So with the daily or with the I suppose the cadence of the walks every two hours the worst thing we do is we lose a few hours or maybe an hour because we haven't escalated. But then the best thing about it is the minute we escalate we get a chance to fix that problem. Then it's, it's real time problem solving. And I just think that's so powerful. I remember I went to Toyota last year and I come back in B side in Wales. I went to a Toyota site and I watched them using their hand on system and the minute they pulled it was just like Bing instant someone there problem solving. I was like wow, that is amazing. So that's where we start to develop what we're doing. It was like actually what we need to do is we just need that operator to tell us when there's something wrong and then it's up to us to bring all that's a ball function to it. Or with that being said as well, when we do that the benefits of that is we're encouraging the operator to problem solve. So we're saying right, we'll just, I'll go and get what, I don't know, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, whatever support may be need of that operator or maybe to supervise, you can resolve the issue. But at that problem, at that given point in time we're using a problem to learn because we're encouraging one, the operator to try and solve the problem. But then the operators are working with these different functions to do real line, real time problem solving. Rather than go out, fill out a piece of paper, we'll take that piece of paper to one of our problem solving boards and then we'll look at that problem afterwards and then you lose your momentum. So that's, that's the main thing I do like about the whole LDMS process is the fact. Well, it's about escalating. Just put your hand up, tell us as fast as you know something wrong and we will bring you that support to you. Yeah, so it's, it's, it's so powerful from that point of view. And I think it's, that's been the biggest challenge point with operators is going you, you're there to police our processes and you tell us when there's something wrong with that process and we will give you all the support you need to try and recover that. Yeah, it's, it's powerful. Really is. And then I suppose the end of the process is because we run multiple shifts is then we finish off with a shift handover again. So it's almost just. What I mean by. It's almost an ecosystem. It's a big loop. It never ever stops. It just. You'll get one operator handing over to the opera over operator. They talk, they communicate whatever issues have the supervisors of communicating to supervisor to supervisor of any of the issues they found on cell walks or the startup meetings. So again, any problems we can just highlight and communicate in real time and keep that. Oh, what you want to call it, it's almost just keep that cadence going and that I don't. It's the culture to say, look, it's okay to have problems, just raise your hand and we'll come along and try and support you the best we can and give you that opportunity to learn from them problems which I just find that powerful. What every operator we have in this place, we offer them that challenge, they go, come on, can you solve some of these problems?

How many people work in your facility like on a shift?

On a shift. So we have three shifts, six days a week. So we probably, probably 40 to 50 associates working actually out on the shop floor. And then there's probably another hundred associates sat in office functions doing different support levels of that. But the whole point of it is we keep enough support functions on this place on so when an operator escalates, we can bring him everything what he needs. Because the one danger of the LDMS is like any system, any system, LDMS system, we're going to encourage operators to escalate problems, then we've got to be there to support it. It's got to be true servant Leadership. We can't say every time you, you shall shout for help and we don't turn up or we haven't got the support we needed, then you're gonna soon stop shouting for help and just try and fix your own problems. And that's, that's, that's something what we never technically ever want to get into. So it's, it's. I just find a simple tool just to escalate what's going on real time on the shop floor order and any other function. Because I say we can use this for, we use this in offices. If we're going to get material turn up later, we can't get programs done. We use it in all functions of the business. The process is the same as escalation. Suppose we don't have hourly tracking in the offices. That's more for the shop floor associates, so to speak. But it's that the whole message from the LDMS system to say there's a problem, just escalate and then you escalate to the right people. You're giving someone the chance to fix that problem at the earliest opportunity.

How, how mature is the system? Like how many years have you been using an LED mask system?

I would say I, I mean I've been here now for about seven years and it's, it's been on and off I suppose it's, it, it grew slowly and it's now been built into almost the full ecosystem what I've just spoke about there. But I think it started again out of necessary of, you know, we were struggling at one point to get made, maybe customer orders done with quality issues. And then we started building it almost just from the supervisors needing to say, well let's just start with startup meetings and making sure. We're having that daily startup meeting to make sure everyone knows what the quality issues are and working on. And then from there we then put the supervisor meeting in place and I suppose we slowly built on it until we've ended up with what we've got now which is that continual loop at just communication which, which never stops to a certain degree. It's, it's, it's quite refreshing to say actually one, it's a. Yeah, I bet it was a challenge as well. So I should mention that it's a challenge. I think the first thing is with if you're going on the shop floor as well is we did face challenges when we were doing the hourly track and where it operates. It's as. It's a bit like the OE thing. Oh, you're monitoring me. You just want to know if I'm producing your part and this, that, the other one, it's like, no, no, no. You're the most important part of this whole LDMS process. Besides with the customer, you're the most important bit of it because you're so close to that customer's work. And all we want you to do is tell us if that customer order is going to be late and it's like, ah, right, okay, I go, yep. If you can imagine if you order parts from ebay and you'd want to know if them parts are going to be laced and arrive on time for the right quality and prices said, that's all the LDMS process gives us the ability of our customer orders. It just allows you to escalate if there's something wrong against that.

What's your advice, Liam, for someone listening to this, that maybe they're thinking about starting, you know, an LLDMS type system and. Or maybe they've just begun to dabble in it. Do you have any advice for those folks who are kind of just at the very beginning? Is there any, any advice you have for them?

Yeah, I would, I think it's, it's about selling it. I mean one, I would argue if you're going to start this process, you must have a business need for it. So you must be struggling with something or the ability to see if you're winning or losing. You must be doing it to kick off. So you must have the best intention to start off with. But I wouldn't underestimate the education of this and putting some visuals together so you can explain to everyone involved this process what it's all about. An escalation tool and it's not easy to sell. You've got to go out and make sure the operator is on board of it, making sure they know why they're escalating. Then all the support functions around it, making sure the supervisor is doing the so walks, making sure all the engineering functions, what you employ your ready to go for when that escalation happens so they can be instantaneous and come out and help fix the problem. So you've just got to get, it's like any sort of change. You've got to make sure you get everyone on board and make sure there's a good need for the business to do it. Because if you signs a driver by yourself and you've just read it up in a book or something like that and feel like doing it, then I don't know how you get it, you've got to have a business need. You've got to understand it's a tool to tell you winning or losing. And if you can understand that, then it's powerful from that point of view.

I think, yeah, we got to start with why. Right. Always. Why are we doing this? What problem are we trying to solve? Yeah, very good.

Don't, please don't do it. If you just fed them apocalypse. Right?

Exactly, exactly. No, that's a great point.

It's not for that and it's. It. I think the thing is with it as well, one of the big things I like about it is it is a continual loop book. It's, it's, it's one of the most powerful things we've got for, to drive continual improvements within the factory. And you know, as we, we give every single associate we employ is the opportunity to come into work every single day of their life and to highlight if there's problems. But then we don't just say, oh, thank you for telling us a problem. We then challenge them associates to go, well, you, you run the job. How do you fix it? How would you make it better? What we got to do different next time. And that's that sort of engagement we're getting from the sill walks and from our startup meetings where it's actually, it's okay to have problems. It's good. Show the problems, highlight the problems. If you're struggling to do something highlighted but then we don't just take it away from the operator and go, oh, we won't fix your problems for you. We then challenge that operator saying, well, how do we fix that? What could we do different next time? Is there any ideas? You've got to see if we can change what's happening. And I maybe I underestimated how powerful that was until I went to Toyota and it was actually John Chalk was at the Toyota talk. Actually it brilliant listening to him. It was a funny story because he. I don't think everyone at Toyota D side and John done there, he don't like the gambit or the walk with us all and everything like that. And I don't think everyone at Toyota, including myself at that point in time didn't know John Chalk was, he was just a kind looking old gentleman walking around the shop floor of this group of people doing a Toyota visit to sound. John got up at the end of it and he gave everyone a bit of a talk and he said, I thought it's brilliant to come back to this plant after 25 years and affairs Help implement lean at this Toyota. I was like, wow, he's like one of the top guys. Realizing to him. But he stopped the whole room and he said, what? You've got to understand what he said. One of the benefits what Toyota does for the associates. He said, if you can just stop for 40 seconds. And we all stopped and he counted out 40 seconds and he said, imagine coming to work every single day and doing that repetitive tack for 40 seconds. But there's something wrong with that process, what you're running every 40 seconds. And he said, you haven't got a voice or an opportunity to make that better. He said, it's so demoralizing not to have the opportunity to improve what you do on a day to day basis. And I stopped back and I just thought, you know, that's when I look at it and that, that point of call, I think that's a brilliant tool. What we give every single associate. The ability to come in raises a problem and then we go, how do we make it better? So we're developing our associates, we're developing a business because we're getting better, because we're solving problems. But we're giving every single person we employ. It doesn't matter if you're doing, I don't know, clean and afford. In our place, the, you're the top dog. Everyone gets this exact same opportunity to improve what they do every single day.

I love it.

And it's a, it's, it's, it's simple but it's powerful. But it makes your, it makes the, the purpose of why you come to work so much more. Yeah, I don't know, it gives you a sense of purpose. I think it's got to, it's got to, it goes for me, that's why I do continuous improvement because it's, it's that belief where I can come into work and make myself better and make the processes better and, and to learn from other people and, and, and develop, so to speak. Now I think everyone should have that opportunity. I don't know, I just couldn't picture anywhere on coming into work where you have to stand there. Yeah, you could have problems with your process and I do hear the problems with your process. You've got no communication tool to say you've got a problem with the process, you should get beat up over it. And then you can't even fix the process now. And I go, I just couldn't picture working somewhere like that. So I think that's what you get from the ldms. Okay, the ldms tool is a communication tool, but to communicate problems so you can then fix them and develop all your associates who's working with them. And it's okay. It feels painful sometimes when you're fixing problems, you're under pressure and it's real time. Got to keep that stuff going. But it also, it keeps that urgency to things and it gets you to develop, it gets you to think, it gets you to use all the resources you've got around you. So it's powerful. Good.

Well, Liam, this has been good, man. Great, Great. What I love about your story is just you can hear the authenticity in your voice and that you really believe it. And obviously it's having a huge impact there at your company and it will have a huge impact anywhere where it's adopted, you know, correctly and with the right intention. So I wonder if we could just maybe wrap things up a little bit. Liam, I'm wondering if maybe you have some. Some final words of wisdom and then why don't you tell folks how they can best connect with you over social media or any other way.

Yeah, yeah. So my words of wisdom are just to keep it simple, simplify everything you do. It really is. I've found this. And again, it's a bit like the quote actually. Maybe be at the start of the process where, you know, sorry, I didn't have a time for long letter, but a short letter because I didn't have a time to write a long letter. But very much the same. I've always found if you simplify what you do, if you can't explain a process or what you're trying to achieve in a few simple words or a few simple sentences, then simplify it. Because if it's. If it's complicated, it'll be hard to communicate. People struggle understand you. I've tend to found if someone something complicated, it's only a longer process. It has quality issues. It's harder to sustain. It's harder to train people up with things, up with. So don't be afraid to challenge things and try and simplify it where you can. And if you don't understand it, ask and ask and ask and ask and ask until you do understand it and then you can simplify yourself.

Great. What's the best way to connect with you, Liam?

Right, so tie me on LinkedIn. So it's Liam O'. Malley. Let me just say, I don't know if I've got apostrophe on that, but it's L, I, A M O apostrophe M A double O E Y. I would love to hear from anyone from any forward lean point of view. Just if you, if you're going for your lean development, if you're trying to improve the culture or you've got any stories to share, please feel free to reach out to me because I'd love to talk more about this type of stuff.

Fantastic. Liam, it's been a lot of fun, man.

I.

Next time I get over to, to the uk, I'll fly over to your, your island. If you'll allow me in.

You know, I'll let you then, Ron, you can come and you can come and see us, some of our dolphins and sharks and all of them. The only thing I can't guarantee you on is good weather. That's one thing. What we don't get in England.

Yeah, well, that's why you have everything so green. Right. You got a lot of rain. So.

Yeah, we're just raised. So there's plenty of water there for you. Beautiful.

All right, well, take care, Liam. Thanks again. Well done.

Excellent. Thank you. Bye. Cheers.

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