The Means Is Necessary To Be Effective And Efficient

Is there a football team without a weakness?  No.  However, the team with the most means (talent, health, good manager and assistants, and most complete team) has the best chance of the Superbowl.  The same is true of any company.

You must have the means available (employees, machinery, and time) to get the job done effectively and efficiently .  You can't accomplish more than the means allow.  If you made mistakes, make note of it and rectify the problem.  If there’s a problem you can fix, fix it as soon as you can.  If the circumstance or situation is outside of your control, notify your manager.  Report the pros and cons of your recommendations when letting your boss know what you think is required to make the operation more effective and productive.  Involve your employees and include them in your circle of decision-making.  If you’ve done everything possible to make things work and they don’t, realize it’s no longer in your control.

You must have the means available (employees, machinery, and time) to get the job done effectively and efficiently.

You have a set number of employees, machinery, and time to get things done and unless you can change one of these variables, it’s out of your control. An experienced supervisor generally knows what’s possible, especially when they have tried everything they’ve thought of. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep trying, just that you shouldn’t beat yourself up needlessly. Always try, but don’t allow yourself to feel that you’ve failed.

For example, I agreed to help a Plant that was having a slough of different problems, including delays, service issues, and labor problems.  It didn’t take long to see the many causes behind the problems.  They included:

• Serious lack of communication
• High overtime rates (17% +) that had become the norm. 
• High absenteeism rate (6% +)
• Workplace bullies
• Burned out supervisors
• Cases of harassment
• Shortage of employees – there weren’t enough to staff operations adequately
• Incompetent supervision
• Lack of labor knowledge
• No weekend staffing

Through time, all of these were getting much better except for the overtime rate and a shortage of employees. Continued efforts for hiring approval hit a dead end with the District and Area levels.

Despite the numerous problems, this office still carried the highest productivity in the District. Unfortunately, the high rate of overtime was leading to increased absenteeism, accidents, and morale problems. I requested additional modifications to existing machines to make them more efficient, but the District denied these requests. In the end, there was nothing to do except admit defeat. The means weren’t there to do things the right there, nor any assistance provided.

Excellent Managers Excel At The Basics

Excellent leaders have a great awareness of the basics and make sure they are done exceptionally well.  Keep things as simple as possible.

“I emphasize the importance of details.  You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well.”  Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald’s

I’ve always been amazed at how many managers look for the magic switch that suddenly fixes every problem.  Success is a process of doing a lot of little things right.  The greatest inventions and achievements came after countless trials, errors, and failures.  From each step, a small nugget of knowledge was gained and forward progress was achieved.  Eventually these small nuggets begin to make a big pile of knowledge and the problems diminished.  The last piece of knowledge that we need to finish the job is usually discovered as a result of the accumulated knowledge we gained throughout the process. 

Check your Recording Practices

If your recording practices are flawed your true efficiency and productivity won’t be known.  If you are setting productivity goals, be sure the numbers you are basing them on are accurate.

The more variables involved, the more likely you’ll find problems.  Likewise, if the goals were set a while ago, it might be time to look at them again.  If technology or procedures have changed, the goals might be dramatically understated.  The ideal goal is one that requires some stretching, yet is achievable.  If you make it too easy, it won’t be effective in raising your efficiency.  Similarly, if the goal is set too high, it will do nothing but frustrate your employees.

There’s a lot more to the basic equation, Productivity = Hours / Pieces Worked, than first meets the eye.  These include: 

1. What hours are currently counted?
2. Whose hours are included?
3. Are there any other operations that should have their hours included?
4. Are there any operations that shouldn’t be included?
5. How do you measure productivity in areas where piece counts are unavailable?
6. Of the pieces worked, are reject and discarded pieces subtracted out?
7. What level of quality is required and how do you verify it?

The general process of evaluating procedures is to map every input into the operation, identify errors; and calculate the real throughput that is possible on machines.  When I say real throughput, I don’t mean the throughput that is possible if there are no mechanical or operator problems.  I’m talking about the throughput that is possible on most days, allowing for a certain amount of time for mechanical and operator problems.

For example, my company had machines that had listed throughputs of 40,000 pieces per hour.  However, in actual use they did about 32,000 pieces per hour.  If you were to base your budgeted hours and productivity goals on the higher figure, you would be gravely disappointed in the results.  The latter number is the more appropriate number to base any projections.

Re-evaluate any goals that may be outdated once new technology, modifications, or improved processes are put into place.  The worst thing you can do is have goals that aren’t in line with the capabilities of machines and people.