How to Walk the Shopfloor Floor with Intention
As a production Supervisor, walking the production floor is one of your most important tools for achieving results. This tool is sometimes more formally known in business circles as “Management by Walking Around (or MBWA)”. This is a little different than a Gemba walk, because a Gemba walk is a focused walk conducted by a group of leaders in a plant.
In a manufacturing environment, your personal effectiveness is important so your individual walk should be intentional. By intentional, I mean deliberate and focused but flexible. At a minimum a production supervisor should be walking the floor at least three times a day. The shop floor is where all the action is.
You’ll want to observe the production floor with your eyes, ears, and nose. This is a true art!
Sight: The production floor has certain sights that tell a story. You can see what machines are up and running. You can take note if an Operator looks to be trouble-shooting an issue. Or maybe an Operator is talking to a Quality Inspector. Maybe someone is missing from the floor. Maybe a maintenance tech is taking off a machine guard to look inside. Inspect your products. Pick-up a few samples and make sure everything looks okay. Are the product dates correct? Is the carton printing clear? You’ll want to look in corners and nooks for housekeeping issues. You’ll want to look for safety issues. You’ll want to look in trash cans and scrap barrels. Is there food in a trash can and there’s a “No-Food'' Policy? Is there a scrap bin with excessive scrap? What happened? Get a visual story of your department.
Sound: You’ll want to listen to the sounds. A well running production floor has certain sounds. Fans, motors, forklift horns, clicking, banging, squealing. You’ll get to know these sounds well. Missing sounds and new sounds will be a red flag that something is wrong.
Smell: Lastly, you’ll want to take note of the smells on the production floor. Production operations have certain typical odors. You should get to know what your area typically smells like. I know this sounds funny. But non-typical smells can mean trouble. Obviously, a smoke type odor could mean something is burning. It could be a small fire, or a superhot machine bearing, an HVAC problem or any number of issues – all of which have the potential to cause a major fire. What about a gas leak, or a chemical leak? They can be often detected by smell. Maybe your process uses exhaust fans and one of those isn’t running so your typical odors are even stronger than normal. Odors in your factory mean something. Don’t ignore them.
After you get a good assessment of the floor and determine what abnormal conditions exist, then you want to make assignments. Does maintenance need a call? Does an Operator need to clean-up an area? Maybe you need to make a staffing adjustment to hit the day’s schedule? These observations provide the information you need to make decisions and map out your daily plan.
Depending on your time constraints, walk to other areas of the plant. Walk through the warehouse or stop by engineering or maintenance. It will provide a broader perspective for you. Visiting the quality department is a daily must. There is much information to be gained there about your products and its defects. It's also always good to know how your product is tested. Again, the more you know, the better you’ll perform in your role. As a supervisor, it’s easy to get caught-up in the weeds and so taking a longer walk sometimes gives you a chance to see the bigger picture and breaks-up the daily grind.
At the end of your shift, make a final tour and make final housekeeping assignments. The goal should be to hand-off the shopfloor in the condition that you would like to receive it. Finally, take some notes about your shift's activities and pass them on to the next shift. It will help the next shift to get off to a fast start.
Are you looking for exceptional manufacturing training? Checkout Tools for the Trenches training that is designed specifically for shopfloor leaders.
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