SMALL GROUP ACTION LEARNING
Suparawut Panson1, Songyot Khomkham2, Somkiat Nuanthaisong3, Somsak Sunantakul4, Sittipon Puthong5,
Jitladda Phakamas6, Jaruaiporn Puttarawan7, Ekkamon Thawong8, Thanaporn Wongpakdee9,
Tampong Sitthikesorn10 ,Pradit Chaloeysamai11, Sontaya Jamjumrus12, Komsak Hnulek13
1Glazing Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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2Productivity Improvement Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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3Pressing Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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4Preventive Maintenance, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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5Energy and Environment Conservation Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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6Process Quality Control Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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7Raw Material Quality Control Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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8Operational Excellence Engineer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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9Facilitator, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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10Human Resources Officer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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11Mechanical Maintenance Officer, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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12Technician, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
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13Technician, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.
ABSTRACT: This project is based on The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.(SGI) vision of being the leader in ceramic covering business by valuable products with cost leadership. Due to the nature of business is labor intensive, to enhance quality or lower the cost are up mostly to the operators. If the operators don’t have enough required knowledge level to solve their working problems efficiently, it almost impossible to maintain the sustainable leadership. So SGI put first priority to operators. The operators must know their problems and know how to solve them by themselves. They have to know their knowledge sources and be able to bring them into use. They have to work as a team rather than waiting for orders from their supervisors. To help them accomplish all that, SGI integrated all conceptual ideas from C-Building, C-Leader and Operational Excellence and applied them to small group which SGI calls “Small Group Action Learning”. SGI have brought knowledge from Knowledge Management such as organizing knowledge, show and share and blended it with Small Group Action Learning and extended the results to others.
Small Group Action Learning resulted in the operators have knowledge and abilities to solve problems more efficiently. Targets of small groups were all achieved. KPI for the project of Small Group Action Learning has got much better tendency. These all resulted to the cost which lowered better than target for the last couple of years. SGI has consistently developed product quality throughout the years, the true cost leader in the business has been maintained and SGI’s sustainability built up hereafter.
Keywords : C – Building, C – Leader, Operational Excellence, Knowledge Management, Small Group Action Learning
INTRODUCTION
The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd.(SGI) is the leading manufacturer of wall and floor tiles in Thailand and is the leader in low manufacturing cost in this business by concentrating on conserving energy and reducing all waste in production process. Small Group is another activity that supports SGI’s policy of cost reduction under TQM and TPM management systems. Most of small group activities focused on cost saving and did not focus much on knowledge or on process of problem solving. Many small groups did not have enough knowledge or did not solve their problems accordingly so they failed to achieve their targets and also failed to get any developed skill from the activity. The problems were lack of important awareness, lack of knowledge to solve problems, lack of participation, vagueness in job delegation and topics of problems were assigned by supervisors rather than by group members. To solve the problem, SGI comes up with the counterattack measure which activity is called “Small Group Action Learning”.
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MAIN SUBJECT MATTER
SGI has formed a new way of small group, called Small Group Action Learning.
Figure 1 – Concept of Small Group Action Learning Activity
The concepts brought into integration are
C-Building
· Focus on learning from practice plus theory rather than practice until getting knowledge.
· Learners compare new and old knowledge. Conformity causes knowledge integration and new ideas. Contradiction to old ideas, learners will experiment their ideas repetitively in order to confirm their new ideas.
· Change notion frame and discover better ideas.
· Co-facilitator must be patient while learners are experimenting trial and error. Learners will be urged to change their notion frame (under co-facilitator observation).
Figure 2 – C- Building role toward Small Group Action Learning Activity
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Operation Excellence (OE)
Concentrating on using tools to sustain ably solve problems. These tools are QC 7 tools & New 7 tools, Problem solving & QC story, Why-why analysis etc. OE project engineers will provide tools knowledge and pass on their work experiences to supporting engineers (Facilitators), section managers, engineers, officers, small group action learning teams as requested from learners. The knowledge provided must coincide with their activity at that time.
Figure 3 – Operational Excellence (OE) role toward Small Group Action Learning Activity
Another way is supervisors who get knowledge from OE project engineers pass on their knowledge to other small groups.
C-Leader
It is the leadership development program to develop the skill of direction, motivation and guidance.
Direction : Direct activity’s processes so group members clearly see purpose and target of project and their impact to group and organization.
Motivation : Supervisor acknowledges benefit and effort of group activity by compliment and reward.
Guidance : Group gets support and need-to-know suggestion to do group activity effectively. And develop their ability by absorbing role model from supporting engineer (Facilitator) and their supervisor.
Knowledge Management
Group will get new knowledge from their activity, both knowledge from the instructor and knowledge discovered by their activity. Group will record their knowledge as knowledge asset from activity. It is another KPI.
Activity process
The KM working group recruit small group team who wants to participate with this program and set up a meeting to clarify program’s objective, activity procedure as manual and instruct fundamental knowledge of small group such as company’s policy, TQM, TPM, loss tree, and etc. After that group set their own activity plan consisting of time frame as in steps of problem solving & QC story, learning plan conforming to activity process, acquired knowledge, group’s role and supporting engineer (Facilitator)’s role who record all information facts from entire process of group activity.
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Example
Figure 4 – Activity Schedule
When group require other supports for example knowledge, tools, equipment, place, time etc. They will inform supporting engineer (Facilitator). Supporting engineer (Facilitator) will properly support in the area requested so that the activity proceed continually.
Every step of the activity, KM working group organizes Show & Share so the group has opportunity to present their work, exchange knowledge and experience of their activity. Also the opportunity for KM working group to receive comment from every group and improve their program.
Group assessment will be held every 3 months of the activity. Purposes of the assessment are to evaluate the result of learning, group activity and bring out all weak points for them to improve. The assessment topics are ;
1. Group learning behavior during activity
2. Understanding and practice problem solving the small group way
3. Understanding and using statistical tools to solve problems (QC tools)
4. Group’s participation
5. Activity result, extending the result and improvement
CONCLUSIONS
Small Group Activity generally emphasizes on manufacturing cost reduction. But Small Group Action Learning Activity emphasizes on change in learning behavior and people development (not only team members but supporting engineers (Facilitators), supervisors and all involved parties as well). In the upcoming future, The Siam Ceramic Group Industries Co., Ltd. has planned to extend this idea throughout the organization in order to sustain successfulness of SGI’s small group activity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (WHEN APPLICABLE)
Once passing Small Group Action Learning program, the group can counterattack losses and get saving from their activity. All team members can cooperate to do their activity eagerly. They correctly use tools to solve their problems. They know how to fix group’s weakness. They can themselves prepare and submit their consulting plan to counselors or their supervisors. They are able to find out their own problems and by themselves counterattack the problems. Supervisors become backers and support them in every area of the activity so the group succeeds in their activity.
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REFERENCES
People Development in SCG – 2008
Figure 5 – SCG Training & Development Program
- Human Resources Development Philosophy
- Goal and Direction in Human Resources Development
- Business / Leadership / Functional / TQM
- Development Expenses (600 MB/year)
- Learning Organization
- Eager to Learn – KM / e Learning
- Constructionism
- Development of Business Associates
- Business Partners/ Suppliers
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