Non-Utilised Talent: The Waste Most Owners Never See

What is non-utilised talent?

Non-utilised talent is the waste of not using the skills, knowledge and ideas of your people. It is the only waste that is about people, and the one owners see least. A skilled fitter doing a helper's job, or an operator whose idea nobody asks for, are both examples.

Most plants are careful about machines. We service them, protect them and use them fully. We seldom ask if we use our people the same way.

Where does it hide?

In the shop

• A skilled fitter or grinder is used as a helper, while skilled work waits.
• An operator knows a faster way to clamp a part, but nobody asks.
• A person trained on only one machine stands idle when that machine is down.
• A supervisor spends hours on data entry instead of being on the floor.

In the office

• An engineer types data that a simple sheet could capture.
• Good ideas come up in a meeting and are forgotten by the next one.
• A capable executive does only routine follow-ups because "the owner decides".

The skilled-person-as-helper case is the most common one. It looks like flexibility. In fact it wastes the skill and delays the work that only that person can do.

What does it cost? An example

At a sawing station, the operator measured each bar with a tape before cutting. It took about 40 seconds a bar, and sometimes a bar was cut short.

The operator suggested a fixed length stopper on the saw table. The bar is pushed against the stopper and cut. No measuring.

• Time saved per cut: about 40 seconds.
• On a batch of 150 bars: 150 × 40 = 6,000 seconds, or 100 minutes.
• Fewer bars cut to the wrong length.

(These numbers are an example.) The stopper cost almost nothing. The idea had always been there. Nobody had asked.

The person who does the job every day is the best expert on that job. Ask, then act.

Why does it happen?

• A "do as you are told" culture. People learn to wait for instructions.
• No easy way to give an idea. No sheet, no time, no follow-up.
• Narrow jobs. People stay on one machine for years.
• Blame. When people are blamed for problems, they stop raising them.
• The owner decides everything. Others stop thinking, because thinking is not needed.

The last two are connected to the owner-driven plant. When every decision goes to one person, the rest of the team's minds go unused. See also our article on the Second Line of Leaders.

How do we use talent better?

1. Ask. Give five minutes in the daily meeting for problems and ideas.
2. Make it easy. Keep an idea sheet at each section. One line is enough.
3. Act fast on small ideas. And tell the person what happened to the idea.
4. Recognise. Name the person whose idea worked, in front of the team.
5. Multi-skill. Every machine should have at least two trained people.
6. Match skill to work. Use the skilled person for skilled work. Give helper work to helpers.
7. Never punish a person for raising a problem.

What does the owner gain?

When people are asked, they start to own the work. The owner no longer has to solve every small problem himself. Supervisors begin to bring solutions, not only complaints. Over time this builds the next layer of people who can run the plant when the owner is not there. Using talent is not a kindness to the team. It is one of the cheapest ways to improve output.

What helps in practice?

Three existing records help. A skill matrix shows who can run which machine. A job responsibility form names a primary and a backup person for each task. And a Kaizen record notes each idea and its result. A monthly count of ideas done shows whether the habit is alive.

How to start in your plant

1. Pick one section and ask each person: "What slows your work down?"
2. Write every answer. Do not judge them.
3. Choose two ideas that are cheap and quick, and do them within two weeks.
4. Tell the team what changed, and whose idea it was.
5. Repeat every month.

Do this with a smile and without fear. If a person feels blamed once, the ideas stop.