Plants Should be More Like Restaurants
I would stop a supervisor and ask what he or she was doing at that moment. “Am looking for a mechanic to adjust that machine over there”, “Need to get some solvent for one of my operators.”, “Going to engineering to see if I have the right drawing for this job.”
After the second week of these observations production supervisors attended a meeting where they were told that a mechanic would be stationed in each area and would keep an eye on any machine that had to be tended to. Someone from the stockroom would go through the areas and replenish the supplies at each workstation. Engineers would review documentation on the floor daily to assure that everything was up to date. The supervisors all had a quizzical look on their face. One dared to raise her hand and ask “What are WE going to do?
These folks were so accustomed to spending their time looking for “someone” that they never tended to their primary responsibilities which would be that of assuring that everyone on their line was working at a fair pace and producing quality products.
That same day I invited all the department managers to join me for lunch where we could start discussing how we would proceed. It wasn’t till we left the restaurant that it hit me. We had to treat the production personnel in the same way that a restaurant treats its guests. Dinner guests go to the restaurant for one reason—to eat. Once there, they don’t have to go to the kitchen to help the cook with his job, they don’t have to go looking for a fork and they don’t have to wash the dishes when they are finished. Everything is taken care of by the host, by the waiters and by the chef. The diner’s role is to concentrate on their dinner; everything else is taken care of by the restaurant staff.
Following this analogy, it should not be difficult to visualize the role of the support departments in the plant. Production personnel are in the plant for one purpose, to assemble product. Everyone else is there to assure that the operators have everything that they need to perform their job.
Production schedules are available to everyone. With that information in hand it should be a simple task to provide production personnel with everything they need to do their job.