Communication in the Production E-Book

Marcus Karl Haman

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: production management for managers
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 66

Beschreibung

Communication in the production and especially on the shop-floor is more important than many a manager would think. To hold discussions and re-views over all possible subjects seems to have be-come a kind of sports discipline in many organiza-tions. The false belief of many senior managers is to think that the more discussions a manager attends, the more important and esteemed he is. Otherwise no one would think of inviting him. And already the manager is sitting in a confer-ence room and discussing with other participants. Naturally with coffee and if possible also with biscuits and cakes. A fantastic picture for every employee on the shop-floor, or? A manager is only then a manager, when he car-ries out his management responsibility or can carry it out. And this is only limitedly possible in a conference room, since the problems are to be found on the shop-floor and not in the conference room. Here it must also be said that not all the discus-sions in the conference rooms are unnecessary, or are a wastage. There indeed are discussions, which should or must take place in closed or quiet areas. But how many of the discussions really take place due to these reasons? And how many discussions take place with participants, who ask themselves only one question over the entire meeting: „What am I really doing here?“ The inviting party should ask himself the following questions, as for instance:  How structured is the discussion?  How prepared is the discussion?  Are the right participants invited?  Which objective, which significant points does the discussion have?  How long should the discussion last?  Which rules are there in the discussion, in case it does not run so smoothly?  Where should the discussion take place?

Leseprobe

When senior managers are more in conference rooms than on the shop-floor, they cannot carry out their responsibility and cannot achieve their objectives.

Problems are to be found not in the conference room, but rather on the shop-floor.

Marcus Karl Haman

Contents

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

STEP 1 – THE DEMARCATION

STEP 2 – THE ANALYSIS

The 5 Business Plan Deployment Categories

STEP 3 – THE TARGET CONCEPT

In summary till now the following can be stated:)

Health, Safety & Environment:

Quality:

Productivity:

Costs:

Organizational Development:

The daily meeting:

The Meeting Structure / the process:

The Process Sequence:

The Process / Sequential overview inclusive of questionnaire:

The detailed overview of the individual categories:

The role of the discussion leader:

The Quality Discussion:

A quality discussion can be handled as follows:

The RASI Chart for the Quality discussion:

The Productivity meeting:

The Sequence of the Productivity Meeting:

Brief Interim Results:

The next as yet open points:

The Business Plan Deployment Review:

The RASI Chart of the BPD Discussion:

The Locations of the individual discussions:

STEP 4 – IMPLEMENTATION

From experience we should begin as follows:

The Morning Discussion:

The Team Info Center:

The Quality Discussion:

The Performance or Productivity meeting:

The BPD Review:

STEP 5 – REVIEW & KVP

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS:

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Communication in the production and especially on the shop-floor is more important than many a manager would think. To hold discussions and reviews over all possible subjects seems to have become a kind of sports discipline in many organizations. The false belief of many senior managers is to think that the more discussions a manager attends, the more important and esteemed he is. Otherwise no one would think of inviting him.

And already the manager is sitting in a conference room and discussing with other participants. Naturally with coffee and if possible also with biscuits and cakes. A fantastic picture for every employee on the shop-floor, or?

A manager is only then a manager, when he carries out his management responsibility or can carry it out.

And this is only limitedly possible in a conference room, since the problems are to be found on the shop-floor and not in the conference room.

Here it must also be said that not all the discussions in the conference rooms are unnecessary, or are a wastage. There indeed are discussions, which should or must take place in closed or quiet areas.

But how many of the discussions really take place due to these reasons? And how many discussions take place with participants, who ask themselves only one question over the entire meeting: „What am I really doing here?“

The inviting party should ask himself the following questions, as for instance:

How structured is the discussion?

How prepared is the discussion?

Are the right participants invited?

Which objective, which significant points does the discussion have?

How long should the discussion last?

Which rules are there in the discussion, in case it does not run so smoothly?

Where should the discussion take place?

illustration 1 - questions

Questions about questions, which should be answered before the discussion, or?

This book should show points and suggestions from practice with the objective of preventing errors or of efficient utilization of the resources, especially of the senior managers. Because, senior managers should be on the shop-floor for a very high percentage of their time and not in some conference rooms. However, this should not stand in contrast to communication, because this is a key to success, when communication is used specifically and when it is experienced.

PREPARATION / THE MODEL

In order to implement an efficient and effective communication strategy it is important to proceed in a structured manner. Othewise it is quite possible to get lost in the jungle of details and to lose the helicopter view, which is required to preserve the overview in a total manner or in order not to lose the objective of simplication of the communication landscape.

In order to improve the communication landscape in the undertaking, a project is created with the objective of starting a structured and slimmed down communication structure. It makes sense to convert this in to a regulated project procedure, since the results from the project are well founded and considered on a broad basis.

Since this involves a project, the 5 steps model finds a good possibility of application for support. This model was developed in order to make available a ‘central thread’, i.e. a kind of ‘guideline’ in overall form for support.

The 5 Steps Model

The 5 Steps Model contains the following steps/stages:

Step 1 -

Demarcation

Step 2 -

Analysis

Step 3 -

Working out of the improvement

potentials

Step 4 -

Implementation of the improvement potentials

Step 5 -

Review and KVP (Continuous Improvement Process)

For preparation, especially the steps 1 and 2 are the most important building blocks, in order to be able to convert the step 3 efficiently.

Illustration 1 – The 5 steps / Stages model

STEP 1 – THE DEMARCATION

The first step, the demarcation, contains among other thing, the following topics:

RASI – Chart

Resources

In scope / out of scope listing

Time frame

Project Charter

Over all Target

Steering comitee

Escalation Process

Decision rules

etc.

These different points must be fixed before the Diesproject start and thus they indicate a frame, which must be passed and carried by the entire team.

In order to obtain a simplified and understandable form of the RASI Chart, the RASI Chart presented in a matrix.

Table 1 - RASI Chart

AREARASIDiscussionmatrixWorks ManagementAssistanceArea ManagerTeamList the contents and topics of the respective discussionWorks ManagementArea ManagerDept. ManagerTeametc.

The RASI Chart has thus the task to nominate clearly and equivocally all the responsible persons for each individual area. This clear regulation prevents unnecessary discussions within the project team and thus simplifies an efficient course of action.

To take over and to delegate responsibility are important functions of a management. It is important and essential that roles and responsibilities are clearly regulated, maintained and appropriately carried out.

A process without clearly defined distribution of roles will automatically come to nothing, and/or fail. It always requires a „driver“ and „caretaker“, in order to keep a process not only alive, but also to reach the desired and set objectives. Also adhering to the process is important for a successful project. Measurabillity and control, only to name 2 of the most important properties of defined rules and roles, are essential, not only in a project. For this purpose a simple chart helps, the RASI Chart.

RASI stands for:

Responsible

Action

Support &

Information

Irrespective of how these 4 groups are called, the meaning is always the same. The more important fact is however, that these roles are employed and carried out within the process.

The decision or the decisionmaker decides in the mentioned point and his decision is binding. However, in this role there can be only ONE person, who has the responsibility.

Illustration 2 - decision

The role of execution is left to the execution specialists, who should bring the theory ‚on to the road‘. In this role several positions can also be named, should this become necessary and sensible.