Reprinted with permission from the Winter 2017 issue of Target, an AME Publication. Authored by Lea Tonkin Part Three of a Four Part Series. Miss Parts One and Two? Click Here to Read!
Humility
The culture at Cambridge reflects a unique perspective on pursuing humility. From the president to the front line worker, people share a consistent theme of humility as something to strive for instead of something to endure. “Humility is part of the beauty of working here and part of what attracted me,” said Meg Brown, human resources director. “You are asked to make improvements and share them with videos. It’s empowering to be able to say, ‘I made a difference today.” “No task is too small,” added Brown. Leadership and others from throughout the company voluntarily share the task for cleaning bathrooms, for example – reflecting humility and ownership. 
Cultural recruiting
Cultural recruiting – attracting potential employees who will support the Cambridge collaborative approach – is crucial to the company’s long-term success. “We attract people who enjoy being problem solvers, and being given the ability to make changes,” Brown said. “This gives us a huge competitive advantage in this tight labor marker.” Cambridge Engineering’s employee turnover rate is 12.7%, including seasonal workers. “This is ‘sticky’ in a good way,” Brown said. “People like the freedom to change things that bug them, and to be supported in their work environment.” Brown added that training and development investment will continue to evolve, as Cambridge leadership continues to strive for organizational health and alignment in all areas.
Morning Meetings – cultural glue
Finding frequent opportunities to celebrate employees and their improvement ideas, and to grow leaders, is key to building lean capabilities at Cambridge. All-company 15-minute meetings are held daily at 8:30 am. “The morning meeting provides an enormous opportunity for growth across the company,” said Bruce Kisslinger, Jr., director of manufacturing. Meetings are led by a different employee volunteer every day; more than 50 percent of the workforce step into this role. The meetings start with stretching and the leader sharing anything they would like to with everyone in the company. Then employees share gratitude for anything that brings job to employees. Anyone can grab the microphone and share; many do. Next, videos created the day before are viewed and everyone claps as employees courageously share their attempt to improve their processes. Finally, company announcements and company metrics for safety, quality, delivery and revenue are covered. Outsiders are encouraged to experience these high-energy meetings first-hand.
Learn through exposure (benchmarking)
Mike Taylor, who works in pre-paint, is a volunteer member of the Cambridge External Lean Exposure Team. “About ten of us are on the team,” Taylor said. “We are in charge of finding other companies doing lean, where we can learn from them. Our goal is 100 percent external opportunities (every Cambridge employee visiting at least one other facility) by May 2018; we’re now at about 70 percent. “We try to take one nugget from every place we visit – something we can use in our lean projects,” added Taylor. “For example, one of the main things we focus on is visual cues throughout the plant – labeled parts, visual cues for replacing parts so that you can go ahead and order parts while you keep working. We bring back ideas to our team, and if it’s low-cost and not affecting safety or quality, we can implement changes ourselves. We have the freedom to make our lives easier.” Part Four of this Series will be released on Wednesday, January 24th! Make sure to check back to finish the series!