Yes, rapid culture change to support Continuous Improvement that is sustainable is possible and actually not hard to do.  Years ago I was contracted to provided manufacturing engineering services to a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  During the first 8 months or so I worked on the usual manufacturing issues from a Open Issues List I started when I first arrived.  During this “drain the swamp” time I witnessed some very unprofessional behavior by maintenance personnel toward production workers.  Chastising workers for calling maintenance in the first place, trashing the workcell with old parts that were replaced, leaving behind coffee cups and candy wrappers, etc.  The maintenance supervisor was a working supervisor and rarely followed up on the conduct of his charges.  I requested that this problem be put on my issues list.

My paradigm for everything I do for a manufacturing environment is this:  If you work for a factory, but you don’t stand at a machine making parts, you are a servant to someone who does and you better work and act like it!

I met with the company president and HR manager and requested permission to create a role reversal environment for the maintenance team.  After they heard my plan they were enthusiastically on-board with it.  I took a week to prepare a new work order form that prominently featured the following items required after completion of the work:

Was the maintenance person who did the work courteous and respectful?
Was the work completed within the promised timeframe?
Was the problem corrected
When the work was complete was the workcenter left in satisfactory order?
I asked for a rating of one through five with one being unsatisfactory and five being satisfactory

I think I had a couple more items, but you get the idea.  Obviously you have seen this before, but what may be unique is that we attached raises for the maintenance staff to the results.  If the average rating for a particular individual was 1 or 2 there would be no annual pay increase.  An average of 3 would get the standard increase.  An average of 4 or 5 would get either a greater raise or a one-time bonus check.  This strategy put each maintenance person in charge of his own financial destiny.  It put some of his own “skin in the game”.

The meeting to present this new program was attended by the company president and the HR manager showing the full support of company management.  The meeting was less than 30 minutes and the culture of that department was changed from that meeting on.

Benefits:
The worst offender of the maintenance team quit within a week
The culture change was immediate and permanent
The supervisor did not have to lord over his people to ensure professional behavior or performance
Production worker morale improved more than expected
Getting everyone’s “skin in the game” is limited only by your imagination.  This approach is in keeping with providing the “internal customer” everything necessary to be successful in meeting quality and production goals.

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