Profit is the Goal — Part 1: The Power to Achieve It

As this blog is titled “The Power of the Plant
Floor,” I want to address the nature of this
“power.”  A plant floor is truly powerful when two
things are occurring:

1. The actions of the people on the plant floor —
specifically line operators and their immediate supervisors —
make a difference in achieving the goals of the plant.

2. Those people on the plant floor can see exactly
how their actions have power, so that they will take as
much powerful action as possible.

The second point is critical.  Power comes when people know
which actions are effective, so they can repeat them and refine
them.

What is also critical to the power of the plant floor is a
well-aligned goal.  Without this, the plant floor can easily
misunderstand what it is they strive to be powerful
for.  As obvious as goal alignment is for anyone who
has had their first business school course, this appears to me to
be among the most difficult concepts for companies to put into
practice.

In the case of the food and beverage companies I work with, I often
see the wrong goal being pushed to the people on the plant
floor.  Usually, it has to do with the implementation of a
software product or other technology.  Naturally, these
projects are led by middle managers in the organization —
managers who are not typically held accountable for the
profitability of the plant, but instead only for the success of
their projects.  But when this happens, the success of the
project, instead of the success of the plant (i.e., profitability),
becomes the goal.  As a result, there is no way to measure ROI
for the project, because it isn’t tied to any value. 
The workforce may do an excellent job of supporting the project,
but the project does not support the plant; therefore, there is no
real power.

In my next post, I will speak specifically about MES
implementations and a startling discovery that MES does not support
the ultimate goal. Stay tuned…