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Here are six measurable improvements that a qualified plant-floor coach can bring to your plant.
Reach Your Productivity Goals. It is that time of year when most of us create a list of new years resolutions. Losing some weight and improving fitness are on many personal lists. But by March, most will have been abandoned. What went wrong? The resolution was no more than a desire, with no plan to attain it, no accountability, and no method to sustain the results. The same happens in manufacturing plants. We want improve productivity. But how can we achieve positive results? How can we sustain the results over time? A coach can work with your crews to implement a step-by-step plan. The coach can return to your plant to reinforce the plan’s points to sustain the results.
Implement a New Procedure. Your boss has just arrived with a new procedure to implement. So here we go again. Schedule a supervisor’s meeting, call the crews together, pass out some paperwork, and demand that the procedure be followed. The new procedure looks successful for a few weeks. But then trouble arrives. Some people forgot about it. Some machine centers show a loss in efficiency. And different departments implement it differently. Where did things go wrong? A coach can work with management to create a plan to achieve a consistent application of the new procedure. A coach can implement the plan so that it is consistently a part of the operating procedure.
Train Employees Who Have Been reassigned. If your plant has recently gone through a layoff, you may now have many employees reassigned to different machines. You may notice a loss in efficiency with the new assignments. But supervisors are too busy to spend the needed time with each crew to properly train them. A coach can assist you in training the newly assigned employees in safe and efficient operation of their new machine.
Train crews to efficiently operate a new machine. If you are one of the lucky plants, you have a new machine that has arrived in the past couple of months. The manufacturer has installed the machine correctly, it functions properly, and one of the technicians stayed at your plant for two weeks for training. But the results aren’t there. Most manufacturers do not have qualified coaches to teach efficient machine setup and operating procedures. Magically, the crews are supposed to figure this out on their own. Some can and some can’t. A coach can spend the needed time with the crews, implementing a procedure that efficiently uses their time to increase output and to minimize setup and stoppage times.
Improve teamwork among newly assembled crews. Results often suffer when new people are added to a machine crew. Some lead operators have good teaching skills, some do not. Consequently, results can suffer. A coach can work with newly assembled crews to improved teamwork, coordination, and task assignments to create successful results.
Sustain the results. You find that maintaining successful results is difficult. Some days the crews achieve the goals, some days they do not. Some machines have positive results more frequently than others. Why can’t the results be achieved all the time? A coach can work with the crews to eliminate or reduce the issues that cause results below the target.
Why use an outside coach? Many plant floor workers readily accept training from an outsider, since it is less threatening than to be trained by a supervisor. Workers understand quickly that the presence of an outside coach indicates that management is serious about achieving the desired results. Many plants find that supervisors or management don’t have time for coaching, or that they don’t have coaching skills. Finally, the return of the coach for a check-up gives the workers the message that the program is to be sustained and not forgotten.
Don’t waste the opportunities available to you during this time of crisis. Hiring a coach is an opportunity to consider.
Jack McClurkin coaches operators and supervisors on a daily fee basis without any long-term contracts. He coaches crews and supervisors on diecutters, flexo folder gluers, specialty folder gluers, and corrugators. Call him at 847-359-1190 or contact him by clicking here.
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