DuPont, the US chemicals group, spent six years driving Six Sigma, the management excellence techniques, through the company. Then, in 2006, it launched its own productivity initiative—the DuPont Production System (DPS). The system uses process tools and techniques for changing mindsets and behaviours to implement comprehensive production improvements throughout its operations.

The focus of the system was to improve productivity at every level of the employee base—including engineers and operators.“We realised we needed to engage the larger community,” says Don Wirth, vice-president of global operations and corporate supply chains at DuPont, and the individual responsible for much of the implementation of DPS.

At the heart of the strategy is a visual form of performance management. At every facility, visual boards provide a meeting place and a means of reviewing performance, prompting action, building teamwork and accelerating problem solving. “It gives operators a place where they can communicate with each other across shifts, and receive updates on different areas such as the production cycle and the performance of the unit,” says Mr Wirth.

Daily meetings in front of the visual boards allow supervisors and operators to review performance and address inefficiencies that could be as simple as changing a task that requires an unnecessarily long walk. “It’s looking at the design of the work,” says Mr Wirth. “And getting supervisors to be more engaged with their workers.”

Supervisors are coached in the different types of dialogue they might have with operators, from an appreciative conversation to more difficult discussions in which participants have to dig deeper to find out why a system or process is not working as well as it could be. This approach also changes what Mr Wirth calls “the master-victim relationship” and turns it into one focused on collaboration, coaching and teamwork. “You work on the premise that the person is not the problem,” he says. “So it’s shifting the dialogue to a different place—one in which operators can take ownership of continuous improvement.”

In this spirit, each site takes charge of its own DPS implementation. “DPS is giving more control to everyone in the organisation,” says Mr Wirth. “It’s less about rules and more about principles and boundaries.”