Better business processes, smoother days

We have probably all seen Larry the Cable Guy and admire his popular (and trademarked) “Git-R-Done” catchphrase. What exactly it means depends on how it’s used, but in many situations, people say it when they need to charge ahead and, well, get something done. In this context, we’ll call it “get ’er done.”

Have you ever felt like your day was more about just “get ’er done” rather than about having a plan, executing a process, and going home at the end of the day in a positive frame of mind? Have you ever felt like Larry the Cable Guy runs your business?

Manufacturing businesses have too many variables and too high expectations to be run by a get ’er done mentality. Let’s explore how to move away from firefighting mode and toward a workday with structure and purpose.

The Symptoms

Why exactly do you continually just try to get through the day? It has to do with not having confidence that a process will be well-executed. A good process executed smoothly usually leads to a smooth day and, just as important, an enjoyable evening.

So do you have a get ’er done environment in the shop? Let’s examine several symptoms through the perspective of a production manager named Bill.

Constant state of firefighting. To Bill, every day seems chaotic and full of disruptions. Meetings are unproductive and schedules break down because of the next crisis. It takes too much unplanned overtime to get products out the door, and everybody always seems to be putting a Band-Aid^® on problems. Bill goes home every day very tired from all the effort and stress.

Lack of knowledge until end of the day. Bill really does not know the score until the end of the day or the next day, when the output is counted. Bill and his team work hard, but they always wonder throughout the day if they will meet the schedule. There is no upstream process monitoring that would give early warnings and provide enough time to take corrective action. Bill is flying blind until the output report comes out—when it is too late.

People operating at cross-purposes. Bill sees everyone working hard, but their work doesn’t align with company goals. In fact, Bill sees departments operating at cross-purposes—that is, with mutual misunderstanding and frustration. Bill feels like the production department is not being served well by the supporting departments, including materials, engineering, procurement, and human resources. The people in those supporting departments think they are doing what they need to do and blame Bill’s production department for not carrying its load. Lots of finger-pointing … yet everyone is working hard.

How to Break the Cycle

When Bill operates in a get ’er done environment, his results do not match his efforts. This is not about people dragging or purposely slowing down the process. This is about hard work being misdirected. For all the excitement around a get ’er done mentality, it just does not work effectively in a manufacturing business with lots of variables.

Breaking this cycle takes hard work and perseverance. The specific actions you take depend on your unique situation, but these examples illustrate ways to get started, ordered from the simplest to the most complex.

Measure the number of disruptions. Count the number of times during a day you are disrupted, pulled into a firefighting meeting, and expected to resolve a dispute or make a decision that someone else should have been able to make. Keep a daily tally and short description of these instances over a few weeks. You probably will see patterns that point to corrective action.

What is an acceptable number of disruptions? What are their root causes? You may be surprised at the number of disruptions you record. These represent opportunities to create clarity and structure. Set a goal to work the number down.

Daily production meeting. Convene a daily production meeting that focuses on “today and tomorrow.” This tactical meeting should answer some basic questions. What are we producing today? Are materials available and ready? Do we have any quality issues, and do we have the manpower to get the work done today? Employees from operations, materials, and quality departments should participate, along with engineering as needed. Set the production meeting for one hour into the shift; if the shift starts at 7:15 a.m., meet at 8:15 a.m. People should come prepared to address their issues. Also, limit the meeting to 15 minutes or less.

Say the production manager, production supervisors, materials supervisor, and manufacturing engineer meet in the shop conference room promptly at 8:15 a.m. Minutes from that meeting might look something like this:

The production manager reviews yesterday’s performance and today’s schedule. She then goes around the room to get input regarding today’s schedule expectations. The fabrication supervisor states that one press brake has a hydraulic pressure problem, so work may need to be moved to another press brake. The team will work through lunch and breaks to stay on schedule. The assembly supervisor says he is having fit-up problems with a weld fixture, and the production manager makes this a priority for the support staff. The materials supervisor states that all component materials are in the plant. The supplier resolved an issue and got parts during the second shift yesterday. The production manager thanks the group and concludes the meeting at 8:27 a.m.

Now everyone is on the same page, and the day’s actions are aligned.

Push responsibility for execution down in the organization. When in get ’er done mode, it is easy to let people in your span of control push decisions and activities up to you. They are, in essence, delegating up. You must create an environment where you delegate down to the people closest to the point of action. Provide direction and boundaries, and then hold people accountable to do the things they should be doing.

Let’s say someone delegates something up to you. Can you push it back down? Do you need to provide training to confirm the person knows what they should do? If a machine operator comes to you and says he was waiting for you to tell him what to run next, is that an opportunity to teach him how to understand the production schedule and reinforce that he is empowered to use the schedule to determine the next item to run?

Organize materials before you run out. If you see people spending too much time looking for material, then you probably have a disorganized shop floor and warehouse. Get materials and inventory organized. Try identifying drop and pickup zones, implementing clear kanban signals, having a specific (standardized) number of parts in a container, and removing unneeded items. Make materials organization visual and easily understood by everyone in the company, from the production manager to the front-line employee.

How many times have you stopped what you and others were doing to put a full-court press on finding those parts or that tool that has disappeared? If shop floor employees spend time trying to find materials or tools, then you have opportunity for improvement.

Plan beyond today. If people are confused because they don’t know what job takes priority, or materials are not available and people in procurement are on the phone with suppliers, or if capacity constraints keep changing, you may be getting pulled into firefighting meetings. One way to address this is to implement sales and operations planning (S&OP). This is a structured way to look out several months (depending on your manufacturing and procurement lead times) and make informed and rational decisions about how to use your company’s resources to handle customer demand.

This monthly process takes inputs from operations, sales, materials, and finance to develop a plan. The plan must gain buy-in and support from all parties involved. In effect, good S&OP eliminates the need for some of those get ’er done actions.

Keep Larry on TV

Whatever your specific situation, you can create clarity and structure while still maintaining necessary flexibility and nimbleness. Some actions are very simple and quick; try them and see if your situation changes.

Other actions are a bit more complex and will take thought and planning. Regardless, this transition requires work. Don’t expect one magical, quick-and-easy action to solve all of your get ’er done problems. It doesn’t exist.

After leaving the get ’er done way behind, Bill (and everyone else at the company) will experience huge benefits. There will be fewer disruptions, the day will go smoothly, and customer needs will be met more effectively.

That sounds pretty appealing. No more “get ’er done.” With all due respect, let’s keep Larry the Cable Guy on TV and out of the factory.