Performance Management: Improving Workshop Production Reliability
We have defined and implemented an effective performance management system to reduce production shortfalls for a specialty chemical industry player.
“Before the implementation of the production feedback loops, our performance management system was time-consuming and inefficient. Tracking and addressing production shortfalls were an absolute necessity for daily workshop management.”
Context
Our client, a specialty chemical industry player, is facing a loss of competitiveness for one of its major products. The main source of this issue lies in the underperformance of the workshop manufacturing this product. Specifically, the level of production shortfalls is high, and the “good months” do not compensate for the “bad months.”
Approach
To reduce production shortfalls, we have defined and implemented a systematic process for eradicating these shortfalls: characterization, capture and monitoring, problem treatment and resolution. We evolved behaviors in the workshop: shift teams now record shortfalls, closer to the ground, and the production manager monitors them on a daily basis. We also defined and implemented the lower-level loops of a production management system, including practices and rituals that enable close monitoring of performance: shift brief/debrief, shift handover, daily production meeting, weekly loss hunting meeting, problem-solving meeting.
Results
The implementation of lower-level production loops combined with a process to eradicate production shortfalls was carried out at a fast pace, thus avoiding the involved personnel from reverting to their old practices. Our approach solidified the management rituals to clearly define roles and responsibilities and re-emphasize the significance of frontline management in performance improvement. It also engaged shift teams in the daily management of the workshop and established a continuous improvement logic that enables teams to independently address new improvement opportunities.
