Process is everything, especially in the manufacturing industry. What happens when there is one discrepancy; one little mistake? It can change the entire outcome of the project, right? Having inefficient processes means you’ll likely run into challenges and road bumps along the way, and these challenges can cost you big business opportunities. That’s why there is always a need to enhance those processes.
Part of enhancing processes in the manufacturing world, CMTC.com writes, is by “reducing activities that consume resources without lessening the value to the customer. [You should] generate maximum value for customers with the minimum amount of waste.”
What You Need
Training
First things first — start by eliminating the challenges at the source. One of the best ways to do that is by consistently training and educating your employees. When you take the time to formally train your workers, not only are you helping them learn an additional skillset, but you are also investing in your business. Helping your staff’s professional growth comes in many forms — whether it’s from certification programs, associate degrees or even just in-house system/program training.
One of the major ways to facilitate development is to see how your employees want to grow and develop a plan for them to become personalized with their goals. This way you, as a business owner, can train your A-Team to perform to the best of their ability, and be ready for the moments when they fall a little short. Everyone has strengths, but everyone has weaknesses, too. It’s important to always continue to enhance your team so they can learn how to manage both. Investing in their training will allow them to overcome any type of challenge that comes their way, since you were the one who trained them to be their very best.
Communication
Say that a challenge does arise; that something does come up and your staff wasn’t prepared for it, or one of your employees missed a step in the day-to-day process. The best way to stop the problem in its tracks is by emphasizing the importance of communication and feedback. Let them know that open communication is encouraged, but it goes both ways. When an employee is allowed to speak freely and provide feedback, they feel like their opinions are valued and will be taken into consideration. But they also know that, when given feedback, they are to embrace it and embody it moving forward. Try to keep your environment revolved around giving and receiving input, while also keeping the lines of communication to management open at all times. Instead of being scared to talk about the issue or having fear of losing their job, your staff should be able to openly speak with you and let you know what obstacles or issues they’ve come across.
But what happens next? If your team comes to you with one, two or even 10 challenges they face, what do you have to do about it? Look for a resolution. Try to understand why people are missing deadlines, using certain tools incorrectly or are completely missing the mark on end goals. What part of the process did they miss? Or, maybe, what part of teaching them the process did you miss? Understanding why things go wrong — and where in the process they fall off — is key to coming up with a fix.
Vacations
Working in the manufacturing industry means you — and your team — are constantly on the go. Maybe you have some early mornings or late nights, or even just days when you can’t believe how fast the time went. We understand that the work can be tough and the need for the products you create is great, but everyone deserves a break.
Imagine working a nine to five every day for an entire year without a single vacation day. You’d burn out pretty quickly. Well, the same goes for your employees. A study from research firm Harris Interactive* found that more than 60 percent of employees surveyed worked while they were on vacation. This doesn’t help them unwind. Try to encourage your staff to take vacations and actually use that time to recharge. As an owner/manager, you want your team to know that you care about their well-being and their mental health. If they go on vacation — or even take just a couple days off — this will eliminate the possibility of error and of employee dissatisfaction.
Not only should you encourage your staff to take vacations (there’s a reason they get vacation time), but offer incentives for those who go the extra mile. Offer a vacation ‘sweepstake’ in which employees (who were voted on by their peers) get to take a trip somewhere company-paid. It doesn’t have to be anything too expensive or fancy, but just enough to give them even more of a reason to crush obstacles. Not only does this show that you encourage them to use their vacation time, but that their work will not go unnoticed.
The Strategy
Now that we’ve talked about eliminating potential challenges, what about being able to strategize your improvement as a whole? The first way to do this, as simple as it sounds, is to have a solid plan and create achievable goals. Key word there is achievable. Here’s how:
Fill the Team In
A Harvard Business Review** reported that an astounding 95 percent of employees surveyed don’t know or understand their businesses’ strategy. How can you expect your team to all work towards a common goal if they don’t even know what the goal is? So the first thing we suggest is to fill them in on the strategy and how they, as employees of your business, will help you get there. But remember: Speak in layman’s terms. Not everyone knows the big business buzz words. Talk to them so they understand exactly what they’re supposed to be doing to help drive the success of the business forward. You don’t want to fall short on goals because they were lost in translation.
Customer Experience
To-do lists will become your best friend as you work towards a target. Review all of your processes not just from your end, but from the customer’s viewpoint as well. If he or she is paying you, ask yourself if you are doing something that gets them the most bang for their buck. Understanding what will enhance the customers’ experience will make it easier to improve your internal (and external) processes, and hold onto valuable clients.
Know Your Competition
The next piece of that is to look at your company as if you were a potential customer shopping around for the best deal. They’ll be doing their research and so should you. If you can’t come up with five things that make you stand out amongst your competitors, it might be time to have a whiteboard session with your team and see what you can do better. If potential customers don’t see an immediate benefit to using your business, they will find someone else to use. Part of your strategy should involve creating something that will not only improve the customer experience, but that will also blow your competitors out of the water.
Staying Organized
Staying organized will help separate you from other manufacturers. Why? Because organization equals efficiency, and the more efficient you are the faster and easier each process becomes.
Keep equipment and tools in an easily accessible area. Think of how many minutes in a day are spent searching for the proper equipment to do each job. It wastes time that could be spent doing actionable work that helps drive your business forward. To solve this common problem, it’s a good idea to create a blueprint and equipment manual. Show your employees where the equipment should be at all times. Then take it one step further and explain in that manual what the proper use of each piece of equipment is so there are very few unanswered questions along the way. Make this guide easily accessible and available for your team. Not only will having this book make jobs easier, but it will also help you to reduce costs (of lost equipment) and improve overall efficiency.
Invest Regularly in Your Business
There comes a point when working with what you have isn’t enough anymore. Having outdated equipment or technology limits the amount of training or enhancement you can do. That’s why it’s important to make investing regularly in your business a high priority.
One manufacturer we work with commits to buying at least one new major piece of equipment every six months. To help him afford those purchases, he turns to financing. This allows him to spread the cost affordably over time while also leveraging tax advantages to lessen the burden. So far, this strategy has worked out very well for him. The owner has told us that those consistent purchases boost morale of employees tremendously because they know he’s keeping their job fresh, improving efficiency and showing them that he’s serious about growing the business.
Setting Achievable Goals
If motivation is something that your team is lacking, get them going by having them see the value in the goals your management team sets. To increase productivity, set targets that are challenging, yet obtainable at the same time. Giving your team unrealistic goals is setting them up to fail, but giving them goals that aren’t challenging enough doesn’t help them — or your business — so find a happy medium. When your employees meet a challenging goal, it gives them the satisfaction of knowing their hard work paid off. Then, once all is said and done, reward them for their successes. Having happy employees is, and always should be, part of your long-term strategy.
Show Real Results
To-do lists are great, but only if they are followed through. How many action items have sat unattended over the last few months? Years? For your team to rally around what you want to do, you have to show them real results. Explain that making to-do lists help form the strategy, and they are the key players in making it happen. Then, give them an example of something new and exciting they helped check off your list. Sharing results, not just tasks, boosts morale and shows your employees that their work is actually getting results. Remember, seeing is believing.
Think Outside the Box
If your strategy is to simply do your work and go home, you aren’t going to make it very far. Part of running a successful and efficient manufacturing business is to think outside of the box. Interacting and engaging your team in strategy creation and implementation means you are on your way to being an outside-the-box leader. CMTC.com writes, “Encourage fresh perspectives and ingenuity in your team in order to develop innovative ways to forward manufacturing without changing what is already efficient and successful.”
If you are always thinking about improving, a culture of change will be created in the workplace, making the team always ready to adapt to new changes. It’s easy to get caught up in being a manager and wanting to be the one to make all the decisions. But your workforce are the ones who knows your business the best and to be successful, you need to lean on them just like they lead on you for guidance and mentorship.
Implementation
Once you have the new structure on your process planned out, you need to implement it as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Implementation is the fuel that drives results and improvements in your manufacturing process. Ultimately, the last thing that you need is to have a plan that’s created and planned out, but put on hold for one reason or another until it is forgotten about completely. If you have a project, be sure to get it rolling as soon as the logistics are nailed down.
How Important is Process?
Process is everything — and it drives everything. For every task you do in business, there’s a reason for it; a process behind it. Every strategy needs a process to implement efficiently, and every employee needs to follow a process to understand how the business functions and what their role is. Enhancing your manufacturing business processes not only ensures safety and compliance, but also improves efficiency, speed and customer satisfaction.
It’s safe to say that process is one of the most important aspects of your business, and we can only hope you’ll continue to enhance it, improve it and fulfill it every day.
*Source: https://nistmep.blogs.govdelivery.com/workforce-tips-for-manufacturers/
**Source: https://hbr.org/2005/10/the-office-of-strategy-management