Improtance of Visibility into the Plant Floor

[Shoplogix]

When it comes time to allocate a plant's continuous improvement budget, the decisions are often based on data that is slow and inaccurate. This leads to a process that relies quite heavily on speculating where problems actually are, resulting in improvement based on those assumptions.

The problem lies in that the plant managers do not have the right visibility onto their plant floor, instead it is just a 'black box' of production. The information Plant Managers use to make their assumptions have been passed between numerous hands before finally reaching them. This results in data that is now outdated as well as inaccurate, due to the corners cut here and the time wasted there.

Has anyone noticed or had to handle similar problems?

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[Kaoticor]

Completely understand what you are talking about as some operators will favor getting the machine running at times... Not that I've ever done that in years past However, I've also seen, working with management for a while, that it is easy to look at numbers and make a decision. Just thought I'd share one quick thing we used here to address that (although we do log things here, it's just that our operators are very diligent about logging information, and that is pretty rare).

We started incorporating weekly meetings with all press operators. Not too long, just 15-25 minutes to go over the weeks production schedule, as well as any problems that have arisen and suggestions and/or comments. Also, possible improvements are discussed together with both management and the press operators present. I know you already know, the operators are the ones who see where the time and money is going...

By having management present and also having the meeting weekly, any problems that are still fresh are communicated clearly, and we can make an informed decision. It's basic, but I am a firm believer that nothing beats good old fashioned direct communication. If, like you said, everything is constantly "changing hands", it just complicates things that shouldn't be complicated.

[BeauchampT]

On problem with that approach: how often do people say what they really think if they are in a room surrounded by peers who may strongly disagree? Sometimes for the sake of not having to deal with a complicated issue or for diplomancy, ppl just don't speak up. It can take months for an issue to become obvious. And when it is obvious, it is waste.

[Ptheobald1]

I've found one of the most effective ways to get legitimate visibility and honest feedback/input is hold a quick, very casual "5 Minute" meeting every day.
Do it mid-afternoon around 1:30 or so....nobody sits, no long preparation or coffee prep distractions...just get in, everybody stands around a table or computer workstation, the supervisor makes a few points and goes over the day's production expectations, asks for input or concerns and gets out.... 5 minutes and done

After a couple of days the operators will anticipate this chance to get a couple minutes of the supervisor's time and may start to open up a bit, especially if they are directly asked how they are progressing on a project, or if they see any bottlenecks to making the delivery dates.

Pat

[Shoplogix]

Very true Beuchamp, it's a shame that politics has to impede the improvement of a plant. There are a lot of people with a lot of good ideas, but they're just not at the right place to do anything about it.

And Ptheobald, we've found that a few of our customers had similar solutions. One used whiteboards in the meeting room at the start of every day, and each foreman had posted their information on there. Yet they still found significant gains by replacing that with accurate data coming straight from the machines.