Operational Assessment to Identify Improvement Initiatives

Assignment

Provide unbiased recommendations to address and prioritize operational and product quality issues (specifically throughput and delivery performance) by conducting a comprehensive onsite operational assessment of production, processes, and people.

Earned Hours     Total Daily Shipments

Results

Created detailed corrective action plan; Mentored plant management; Implemented recommendations; Emphasized continuous improvement

Challenges/Tasks

  • Multiple company acquisitions had led to: unorganized production workflow and poor communication to production labor.
  • Lack of performance metrics and no primary point of contact to support data analysis.
  • Shortfalls in production goals and lack of KPIs prompted leadership to hire additional labor, rather than address operational failures. A highly competitive labor market combined with poor HR administrative practices led to shortfalls in hiring.
  • Plant leadership lacked relevant manufacturing experience and struggled to establish a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.
  • Production consisted of non-standard work, however the lack of standard routings and well-defined, visual product flow left the plat unprepared to meet customer demand.
  • Each function viewed the issues differently; this coupled with conflicting leadership support, led to the inability to agree on clear priorities and starting point for corrective actions.
  • Use of historical build rates coupled with the absence of accurate standard routings, led to the inability to provide meaningful production schedules. No clear understanding of the internal supplier / customer relationships.
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