It’s been over 20 years since I made one of my first real process improvements and broke a production record…

I was working as a production operative during college, making plastic parts.

That day, my job was to run two CNC lathes and carry out the post-machining operations: part clean-up, drilling, assembly, hand pressing, finishing, and quality checks.

I broke production records that day and was even told to slow down as the machines were running faster than usual and were starting to overheat!

Was I just bored of hearing the same songs on the factory radio? Maybe.

Was I just a lazy teenager looking for an easier way to work? Possibly.

Or maybe I’ve always looked at things and thought, surely this could be better.

I didn’t have any formal training at the time and I had very little experience but I had a few ideas and probably just enough naivety (or boldness) to ask if I could try them.

I’d wait by the machines until a pile of parts built up, then walk over to do the next operations. I was constantly trekking between the different work stations. It felt like it was too much effort and somehow still too slow.

So I asked if I could move a few things around for my shift.

The big CNCs couldn’t be moved, but they were already in an L-shape. I brought the other work benches in closer, roughly forming a circle in the order I needed them and all within easy reach. Eventually, I even brought the bin over too. Why keep walking across the factory just to throw away the planned waste, leaving the machines idle in the meantime as well as causing me extra effort.

That small shift changed everything.

The machines could do their part while I did mine.

It felt great. I was in a flow state and the process was flowing with me.

I’d take the parts as they came out of the machine and do everything I needed to smoothly, one task after another in order. All before the machine finished the next parts. The machines kept running because I had time to keep them fed. I could take more care over quality. I could spot and fix issues as they happened, instead of passing defects downstream.

Without knowing it, I’d just built my first cell layout, my first (near) one-piece flow, my first pull system, my first in line quality checks…and I felt good doing it.

I went home completely wiped out…but energised and fulfilled instead of frustrated and bored.

I’d made something better. I could see it. Feel it. Measure it.

Not just in the process, but in myself.

Sure, I got a few funny looks “What on earth’s going on over there?”

But I’d learned something important:

Changing the layout changed the work.

And changing the work changed me.

I didn’t know it then, but that was the start of my Lean journey.