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This is a simple and effective method to do every week. Most companies do not ask the best people who know simple but obvious company problems.  Of all people, employees out in the shop, on the retail floor, driving company vehicles and those loading products into the cars of shoppers will have a different perspective.  Ask them a question and listen.

Ask these questions of random employees on an ongoing basis. Here are a few.  Pick one or more and do it on an ongoing basis.

Questions to ask your company’s employees:

• What one place, department, machine or function causes the largest waste of company money?
• Which products does the company make best?
• Which products does the company fail at producing? Repeatedly?
• Which company machines do you think are the best, most productive and easiest to operate?
• Which machines seem to be the most unused? Sitting idle with no operators?
• Which company machines are the worst to operate, ruin materials, stop unexpectedly, cause production delays or is just difficult to run on a regular basis?
• Which machines cause the most accidents?
• Which machines ruin the most products or materials?
• Which machines are the worst ones or take the longest to fix for the maintenance guys?
• Which customers products are the most difficult to make or prepare or take the most time?
• Which products that we make are the easiest, fastest and seem to be the most profitable?
• Which services that we provide seem to be the worst or most difficult to complete?
• What tools are we missing that would help the process in the plant proceed more quickly?
• Where do you see the largest waste of money, if you can name only one? (Ask everyone as well as the maintenance guys. They fix the problems and must spend money quickly.)
• What would be the next two or three areas of waste you think may be costing too much company money?
• Which group of employees (department) needs more training, help or assistance? (Ask this question of everyone but especially of the QC personnel who determine rejects.)
• Which materials that the company buys seems to be ruined, wasted or lost the most? (Ask the material handlers and inventory personnel this question. They see the write-offs.)
• Which customers are the worst to service or most demanding? (Ask the service department this question as well as your drivers.)
• Which customers seem to reject shipments the most? (Ask receiving personnel this question.)
• Which customers call most frequently with complaints? (Ask the receptionist and anyone who answers incoming calls as well as customer service representatives.)
• What area of the plant or store does maintenance spend the most time?
• What type of products have the highest failure rate? (Ask Quality Control as well as other production personnel.)
• From which machines do the largest number of rejects come? (Ask Quality Control as well as production supervision.)

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