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Employee motivation IATF 7.3.2

Discussion in 'IATF 16949:2016 - Automotive Quality Systems' started by guvenabi, Jun 3, 2019.

  1. guvenabi

    guvenabi New Member

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    Hello everyone,

    According to IATF 7.3.2 item;

    The organization shall maintain a documented process(es) to motivate employees to achieve quality objectives, to make continual improvements, and to create an environment that promotes innovation. The process shall include the promotion of quality and technological awareness throughout the whole organization.

    I have a document about this but consultant said that this does not meet the standard. I'm also trying to complete our current and outdated documents for our IATF audit soon.

    If you share your know-hows and if any document I will be pleased to.

    Thanks in advance.
     
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  2. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Did you think to have someone else check this? I would seek a second opinion.
     
  3. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    Agree with Andy. Post your process and we can tweek it if needed.
     
  4. guvenabi

    guvenabi New Member

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    Hi Andy;

    I will have an IATF 16949 certification audit soon. However, I need to close some actions I've taken and this is one of these actions.

    Yes. Auditor will look it. At least, I should be able to convince him as a second opinion on my current document. Idk exactly what to do about 7.3.2
     
  5. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    7.3.2 is very ambiguous. They are looking for some type of employee motivations/rewards/suggestion system. I suppose you could give out cookies. :)
     
  6. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    I've never heard of it becoming an issue. It can be whatever you want it to be and auditors rarely make a big deal of it.
     
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  7. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    Interestingly enough (at least to me), at a recent work event we had a guest speaker who discussed that it is more meaningful (re: value-added if you want this in business terms) to inspire people, not motivate them It was a good presentation if perhaps on the fluffier, emotional side of things.

    Despite the advice, I'm not too comfortable telling people at work "I love you." Hello, H.R. *lol*
     
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  8. guvenabi

    guvenabi New Member

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    Golfman 25;

    Actually, I have no process about employee motivation but I'm able to use the suggestion and satisfaction survey template instead of process. At least, I can show these documentation.

    Andy;

    To tell the truth, I'd like to get over the audit with minor nonconformances. When audit realized, I will show somethings with respect to all of causes of IATF 16949.

    I agree with your last sentence and what your guest speaker says . I cannot say for everyone at work I love you ☺. I think, Inspiring people depends on their competence because most of workers don't utilize value-added things or don't know how they utilize.
     
  9. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    We are struggling to meet this requirement. We just had our follow-up audit in January to close out our minor finding for 7.3.2 and it still couldn't be closed out. Our initial procedure was vague, so we had it rewritten to be more specific so anyone would know what to provide for evidence during an audit. We had simply stated that employees would be part of the problem solving process for preventive/corrective actions, annual audit awareness training and several company perks that the company provides on occasion, such as free pizza being brought in for everyone for a job well done and holiday parties as well. These were documented, as well but the auditor felt we still weren't meeting the intent of the requirement and I did my best to challenge him on it stating that how could we not be meeting the requirement, when the standard itself is so vague. Then we asked him to provide examples of what other companies are doing, and of course gave the obvious employee suggestion programs, but that takes more time/people to manage which we don't have a lot of. In all honesty, I think this is a BS requirement, but it is something we have to be compliant with. Are we completely off base here and should we have fought it a little harder? Also, what are you companies doing to meeting the intent of this requirement?
     
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  10. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    Full disclosure - I am not an IATF expert by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps showing how your initiatives support the successful achievement of your organization's objectives would be helpful. Any CARs that were related to your objectives?

    Personally, however, I don't think audit awareness training and pizza parties are the ways to make CI or establish an innovative-seeking culture.

    I think I understand where the auditor was coming from, however, I don't think the auditor framed his response in the best manner either, thus showing his own uncertainty with what the standard is looking for. There are other ways to inspire staff without the traditional suggestion box - for example, in a previous life, our shop floor operators, if they identified problems, formed formal problem-solving teams that focused on low-cost, low-tech solutions. They followed a structured process that then allowed them to be part of site, national and global level problem solving competitions within our company.

    Get creative. Maybe even ask the people you're trying to inspire what they think.
     
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  11. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    Your auditor did a "monkey see, monkey do" -- employee suggestion program. Ha, what a joke. What does he think having employees involved as problem solvers on preventive/corrective action teams is? So lets see, you have:

    1) employee's involved in problems solving/making changes -- check
    2) Annual awareness activities -- check
    3) Acknowledgment for a job well done when goals are met -- check.
    4) And this is all laid out in a pretty document -- check.

    Sounds to me like you have it covered. I would appeal and see what the bosses say. I'll bet your company has much more important things to do. Good luck.
     
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  12. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    Our thoughts exactly! Probably too late to appeal now but I think they are truly taking advantage of the fact that the standard is so new (IATF) and preying on that. Everyone is so unsure of themselves because there are new requirements. I really wish I would've challenged him more and felt like I had, but upper management got involved and they challenged him as well and I think we all just got to the point that we were tired of the back and forth and wanted to be done with the audit (that was the last item on the agenda). I guess we also felt like we had to pick our battles. Do we fight him to the death on this and risk him finding something more major? It could've been a 'win the battle, lose the war' moment. LOL We had evidence for everything. How can you reject it when the standard is so vague? They just tell you need to do it and it's up to you how you manage it. You hit the nail on the head. We really do have bigger fish to fry at the moment and this one is just that little gnat at the picnic that just won't go away. They are basically telling a company how to run their business. That's not their job. It's their job to make sure we are meeting the requirements of the standard. Opinions have no place in auditing! Thanks so much for your feedback. It's a breath of fresh air to know that somebody else out there sees it from our perspective!
     
  13. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    We are struggling with this requirement as well. The only thing I can tell you at the moment is whatever you put in your procedure, make sure you are actually doing it. Don't just put something in there to satisfy the requirement. The standard is vague anyway, so you have to do what works best for your company to meet the intent of the requirement and make sure you can provide evidence that those activities are being done. I wish you all of the best and let us know what you come up with. We are in the process of coming up with a more detailed process for this ourselves, as it was a minor finding in our last audit.
     
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  14. Golfman25

    Golfman25 Well-Known Member

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    Actually motivation and empowerment was introduced in the TS standard (if not before). The IATF standard revises it a bit. But it is still a silly requirement.

    As for pushing back or not, the problem with capitulating is that your QMS looses credibility. Now you put a suggestion system in place "because the auditor said so." You're no longer doing it for the company and now doing it to please auditors. Your systems grows and grows and gets completely out of control. I appealed once. The CB on the other end had the audacity to say "it's an easy fix, you could just do . . ." They completely missed the point.
     
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  15. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    Right! I have absolutely no problem with fixing things that are in clear violation of the standard but it's when you get into parts of the standard that are open for interpretation and the auditor won't budge on giving you a finding for it. Like I said, of all of the clauses, this is the one he wouldn't give on? There's just not a whole lot to it, but I do understand the importance of it. We almost felt like he was very passionate about this based on a personal experience. Even though he shouldn't let that influence his audit, you know it can.
     
  16. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    That's NOT their call. This is mission creep. An auditor's job is simple: To verify that what you have in place is EFFECTIVE. It's not "feely-touchy". I would not have fought, but simply contacted your CB representative and told them NOT to send the auditor back, to rescind the finding because it was borne out of a lack of objectivity and open-mindedness (2 key characteristics from ISO 19011)!

    Exactly - who cares about their specific hot buttons? Does your method work?

    I would encourage you to feedback this information on auditor performance to your CB. I do. You'd be surprised at the outcome..
     
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  17. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Having said all the above, what motivates employees? Setting aside that the IATF 16949 requirement is incorrect - it's NOT a "process" - it's worth exploring what actually motivates - or demotivates - employees. Philosophically, we can turn to Maslow or some other behavioural analysis. Practically, it comes down to some basics like participation, good supervision, and a few others.
     
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  18. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    Well, we probably would have BUT he was changing courses and becoming a witness auditor. I guess he was 'going out with a bang', so to speak, at our expense! I really do regret not requesting an appeal on this one because there are so many variations of how this requirement can be met. It just makes me so nervous because a different auditor will be back next year to close this one out. We need to make sure there won't be any holes they can poke in our process. We all know, if a minor can't be closed it will turn into a major. I am guessing they don't want to get that ugly with it, but you never know!
     
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  19. qmr1976

    qmr1976 Well-Known Member

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    Right....our initial thought is your paycheck should motivate you, but you can get that anywhere. I think for the most part people want to do a good job and be recognized beyond monetary means. They also want to feel like they make a difference. Employee suggestion programs can be cumbersome to maintain, but we are looking into incorporating them into our LPAs. It's a process already in place, not a huge amount of added work and it will document what type of suggestion it is. (i.e. process improvement, cost savings, safety, etc.) The only problem I see with this is, we need to encompass ALL employees and the LPAs do not provide for that. Another thing you can't lose sight of is following up with employees regarding the status of their suggestion. Nothing too involved. Just a quick conversation that we can or can't do it and here's why. I think communication is key because if they don't receive any feedback, we lose credibility with our people and implementing anything in the future will be challenging.
     
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  20. RoxaneB

    RoxaneB Moderator Staff Member

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    I sit in one of our Regional offices (since it's closer to home), but I am a Corporate employee. It's usually enjoyable to see things outside of the "ivory tower" and sitting here provides me with access to a quick litmus test on ideas or improvements. It can, however, also be frustrating. Our fiscal year starts on 1-Apr and our merit increases just came through. It's not significant, but we're also not-for-profit, so any increase is welcome (at least in my eyes).

    Today I overheard one of our call centre employees say to another "Can you deal with the nurse? That x.y% increase isn't enough to make me want to care." I had to walk away - if I had stayed, the words leaving my mouth would not have been appropriate for public. I've addressed in another way, but to hear such a statement made in public and in an area where a client on the phone could have heard that, I was equal parts angry and frustrated.

    As for suggestions, why wait for PAs? My team gives me suggestions and recommendations during our team meetings and 1:1's. I make a note of them. I get back to them in the same venue in which the idea was suggested (i.e., if they raise it in a team meeting, I give my answer in team, meeting).

    I also give credit in public when it's their ideas or work that set others up for success.

    I also am transparent about company activities wherever possible.

    I take on the extra work where possible, but also know that they will help out if I ask.

    Another component is allowing people to be a part of their own solution. We did this in my previous job (see post#10 above), but I also incorporate this with my own team in my current position. Your idea? You take the lead if possible...or let me know how I can help.
     
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