I was recently travelling home from Salt Lake City on a Delta flight and had some time to watch the takeoff procedures from my window. The precision they use with every step of the departure is both interesting and meaningful to me. Having worked in manufacturing for three decades, I’m always interested in how things work. I want to know what steps someone takes to do work and how flexible it is for them each step of the way. Do they need to do the work precisely or is it an approximate set of steps to the end game?
In this case, there is no room for error. There’s not personal choice as to what the workers at the gate will do and what they won’t. They have operational procedures that supersede personal choice. And that’s important for those of us on the aircraft. We want to know that the team that’s helping us get off the ground is doing the work that needs to be done exactly to specification.
How specific are you with the work your people do? Have you figured out how your product(s) need to be made and do you want the team to follow those directions exactly? Or are you more loose with your production?
I don’t know even 3 of you in that latter category.
Every manufacturer we’ve ever spoken to wants or needs their team to follow directions. There are multiple reasons for this:
While you may not be regulated like the airlines or their workers, you need your team to do the work as it’s been laid out. There’s really not much room for individuality in the workplace on this topic. You either have a team that’s working well and maximizing work as you’ve laid out, or you don’t. We see lack of performance in the areas above showing up in places that you might not expect. Let’s talk through some examples.
You believe you have the right quality. Customers are not turning back your product. They seem satisfied with the quality you produce and continue to order from your team. Two things are going on behind the scenes, however, that you don’t see in your end unit quality, but are directly related. You notice that orders are taking a bit longer than you thought they should. You also notice that inventory is a bit lower than you think it should be. Could it be that your team is running into production problems and solving them on the fly? This takes both more time and more material. It goes unseen unless you’re looking for it, and the team may assume that the cost comes “out in the wash” but this is unsustainable.
You believe you know the cost of making your product. Let’s take the scenario from above. Every time that happens – every time the team does something to “make it right” when things don’t go according to plan (or process) – your cost rises. It’s imperceptible to you and so you go on proposing work at the same rate. You don’t know what you don’t know about your team. Not even the shop supervisor knows when things go wrong – a team member needs an extra “A” to make a product because one is defective, they dropped it, or they have to redo something. This, too, is unsustainable for you and your team.
You believe your team is efficient. They match or beat their numbers from last week. In fact, they’ve been on a positive trend for the last 3 months. That does look good and, on the face of it, you could reach the conclusion that your team is efficient. You might be wrong, however. Very wrong. You’ve already seen how issues “hide” from sight, buried in the day-to-day workings of your team. And they’re not doing anything wrong – they’re conditioned to get work out the door or to the dock or shelf as expeditiously as possible. And they’re doing that. It’s just costing you more time and money than you think.
These problems don’t usually come to light without some in-depth discovery on your part. A digital system makes this much easier – data is at your fingertips and you can dig in where you need to. Huddle boards, daily metrics, and financial performance reports only go so far in really helping you to control quality, cost, and efficiency. In today’s market, we believe these are the three key things you need to keep your eye on. To compete globally, or even to compete against global teams that can produce it for less money than you if you’re in North American manufacturing, you have to be efficient. Building it right the first time matters.
We’ll explore a little more in each of these areas over the coming weeks with some things that you can do to help yourself today and over time. If you need help, we’re here. We’ve been helping North American manufacturers with issues surrounding manufacturing quality, cost, and efficiency since 1996.