Mar 04 2025 34 mins 1
Pablo Scarpatti, co-owner of Scarpati Amoblamientos, chats with Tom about how Lean principles have helped scale his custom woodworking business. Pablo shares insights on the birth of his lean business starting with an accident, how he developed workforce understanding of processes with QR codes, the process standardization, and the role of a strong skills matrix (and how it inspired GembaDocs Skills Module!) in driving growth.
"Knowledge alone is not enough—if it's not documented and shared, it doesn’t exist." - Pablo Scarpatti
Key Topics:
- How an accident led Pablo to discover Lean
- The challenge of standardizing a business with no fixed products
- Using QR codes to make SOPs accessible on the shop floor
- Implementing a massive skills matrix for team development
- Why creating opportunities for employees to grow, even if they leave, is key to success
"So teach them everything and releasing from them the fear. It's a roof that many people have. They don't want to do things because they're frightened. And sometimes in the production culture, the owners, like myself, have the fear of holding people because you don't want them to go because who else is going to do that task that only he can do. So yeah with the skills matrix, everybody can do it because everybody can learn. So you don't have a specialist. Everybody can be a specialist." - Pablo Scarpatti
Takeaways:
- Identifying repeatable steps in unique processes creates consistency.
- Training everyone in multiple tasks eliminates bottlenecks.
- Developing employees, even if they leave, strengthens the business.
- When employees own processes, efficiency skyrockets.
“If a 10-year-old can follow our SOPs, then we know we’ve done it right” - Pablo Scarpatti [talking with pride about his daughter knowing how to start and use their machines, and even get the factory up and running with the electricity generator!]
Links and Resources:
- Find out more about Scarpatti
- Explore GembaDocs (https://gembadocs.com) for your SOP, skills training and lean needs.
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