Workers are bored because they are doing repetitive work or feel that their work is meaningless.
Compensation or benefits are less than reasonable or not competitive.
Workers feel like there is nowhere to advance.
Workers do not control their own work flow, work piles
up which cause bottlenecks in
material flow and worker feels overwhelmed.
Solution
Redesign the workflow process to improve working conditions:
Eliminate non-value added work wherever possible, using automated equipment to reduce manual labor for storing/retrieving/moving material.
Minimize dirty, dangerous, difficult tasks such as heavy lifting through ergonomic planning and process redesign.
Involve the workers who understand the process in which they work to evolve a new process that they control.
Allowing workers to control their own output has consistently shown significant increases in capacity, quality and customer responsiveness, as well as a significant reduction in turnover.
Provide a clear, documented career path for all employees. Give them a goal to work for.
Provide reasonable benefits and pay levels that are competitive and appropriate for the work being done.
For labor intensive processes:
Utilize power assist devices to ease ergonomic issues.
Install automated equipment to do repetitive, mundane, and labor intensive steps.
