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Take the time and question your production people as to what makes them stop doing their job and thus making less or no money for the company?
Here are a few questions to consider asking all of your production/office personnel every day:
- What makes you stop doing your job? (What deadline are you missing because of this stoppage or halt to work?)
- Is there a machine that we should consider replacing that holds everyone up? (Have you noticed a machine that everyone has problems with and maitenance cannot seem to repair?)
- Are you missing supplies or tools that would help speed up the line? (The supplies or tools you need may be expensive, but we may be losing more in lost production than the cost of the supplies.)
- What gets in your way from meeting deadlines? (Are the deadlines reasonable and if so, how are they defined?)
- What machine fails often causing a shutdown? (Maintenance people will tell you the machines with the most problems and suggestions for new capital to be spent that will eliminate these problems.)
- What process is not well thought out and does not work in the plant?
- Are there production parts that get shipped that you know will be returned? (Yes, we want to speed up production but not to the detrimatent of our customers. We need to only ship good products.)
- What do we need to do to eliminate those obstructions for production to speed up?
- Who is primary person you have problems with which stops production in your area? (He may be holding you up but he may be running into problems in his position also. You ask to find out each roadblock in order to fix it, not to necessarily lay blame.)
Ask these questions and tell them no one is blaming them but only wants suggestions and ideas to try or investigate. Tell them to point out problem or pinchpoints in during their shift and bring them up so they can be addressed. Ask everyday and tell them their answers can be confidential if they wish.
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