VPP, God and Pull

9/17/14...Over the last few years, our plant is considering pursuing a Virginia VPP certification in safety. We believe using this process may change our plant culture, ultimately driving reduction in injuries. However, like other third party auditing such as SQF, ISO, etc., there are wastes in this process. Typically auditors, at times, take certain elements to extremes, which may bring no value into the system and increases costs. VPP is a great example of this. We are hearing from other companies, that although VPP helps drive safety culture improvement, the downside is the process drives up costs and ties up significant resources within a company.

What I find interesting about VPP is the approach. Virginia’s OSHA agency created this program. A significant part of their customer base is manufacturers. Their challenge is how, under limited people resources, do we enforce compliance within the state of Virginia? In part, the way they answered this question was creating a program called VPP. Elements were developed which communicated information. Requirements were created such as requiring those with VPP certification mentoring other companies. Finally they created a gap analysis which helped interested companies understand their current state and what their future state should look like. The approach, with the marketing and branding of a certification and award, is genius. Their customers, including our plant, are using their resources, energy and passion to go after this prestigious certification and even mentor other manufacturers. OSHA added no resources. From a lean perspective, they created a pull versus a push system.  

I am experiencing this same genius within our company. Our global CI group created a Lean Gap Assessment. This assessment, when filled out, conveys how far a plant is on their Lean journey. The group also created an award and a small monetary thank you. More importantly though are the bragging rights between Plant Managers. Most of our plants worldwide are now going after this award. So in essence, this is a pull system. Instead of the global group pushing compliance, our plants are asking, sometimes begging, for knowledge, help, etc.

With these examples, I also wonder where else can a pull versus push system succeed. Leadership generally pushes down. Instead, how do we create pull with initiatives? 

Once again, I believe my God is already two steps ahead of all of us. Spiritually, from a Toil perspective, I find God’s approach is pull. Is it not true in the Bible, He conveys to me, the closer I am to Him, the closer He is to me.

Indeed…a pull system.