Situation & Target
“We have the feeling that engineering simply drops of the machine. Not seldom they come in on Monday, do their thing, and leave on Friday. So guess what happens the next WE. We are confronted with all the misery of keeping it running 7/7 24/24. It is so frustrating!”
Change is a lot easier if you involve key stakeholders from the beginning and you truly listen. In the case of manufacturing, Operations is not just a stakeholder, they are the customer of many projects. If you can’t operate your production, you can’t sell anything to your end-customer. The OEE impact caused by the start-up of a start-up is an important KPI. The question is how fast you can get it back to its original value.
(note: how fast this ramp-up should be depends heavily on the type of project. For exchanging a machine with a next generation machine in a 7/7 24/24 production, we have targeted to do so in less than 1 week. For a new production line same of a kind, you mind target 1 month. A new to the world production line will take several months.)
Approach
Don’t expect operations can just take anything on top: they have to run production 7/7 24/24 and that is a challenge as such. As a general rule of thumb any person or team is confronted with executing existing processes – ‘Run’ dimension – and improving or innovating processes – ‘Build’ dimension. In real life, when there is a heavy work load, ‘Run’ always wins from ‘Build’. If you want people to spend a significant time on the ‘build’, create a specific group that does not have operational responsibilities. In this case, create a small team that only focuses on managing (larger) projects coming into your factory. They are the interface or Single Point of Contact between the outside world and the factory.
They have specific responsibilities that should not be underestimated:
- Provide feedback to the project
- Join workshops such as design reviews
- Join a Vendor Acceptance Test
- Communicate
- Usually, a plant has several communication platforms to reach the site lead team, the department managers, shift leaders and the operators.
- Planning
- Align on the installation timing
- Align with planning (required build-up volume, SKUs to be scheduled, …)
- Ensure the testing materials are available on time
- Plan capability building (which is far from trivial in 5 shift operations)
- Plan (extra) sampling with QC
- Develop capability within the factory
- Create skill matrix
- Ensure all training gets translated in the local language
- Ensure visuals are adapted to the local situation
- Measure success
- Gather data about safety, quality, OEE, …
- Support evaluation of the project