Ws 2 - Analysis of the Goal Chapters 6-10 - Operations Management

WS 2 Analysis of The Goal Chapters 6-10

June 13, 2010

Operations Management

The manger of the production plant starts to second guess the production of his departments and the usefulness of the employees. The plant manager begins to seek out a valuable resource who reminds him of the simple basics of business which include throughput, sales and inventory. The plant manager began to apply these simple measurements in making money and realizes that since the implementation of robotic resource inventory has increased, sales have not increased and there has been an increase in overdue shipments.

The plant manager has begins to refocus his thinking with employees actions by simple evaluations of walking past employees who are not gainfully employed and wondering why these employees are not working on something versus in the past the plant manager would have continued on without making a fuss. An employee’s day should be well managed by the foreman or immediate supervisor. There are several methods utilized in the workplace to keep employees busy with training, production work, or cross leveling resources to improve the organization efficiency. The practice of continuing to improve a employees self worth by reading shop manuals or learning the latest safety information can make an employee feel valuable and it will improve the effectiveness of the organization.

There are several instances in which the plant supervisor states “I you can’t keep them working, I’ll find a department that can…” (Eliyahu, 2010, p. 42). There will be times when department will be slow due to shifts in workloads and resources. The managers of each department should have a viable communication chain in which excess manpower can be requested and submitted when work is slow due to unforeseen circumstances. A daily planning meeting can be used to sort out excess resources for planned slowed production times. These employees can pick up new skills by assisting other employees in performing their duties. Employees who gain enough on the job training can become certified in new skills and become a valuable asset to the organization. One other method of utilizing underworked staff is to assign additional duties such as a peer trainer or safety officer so that when time become slow the employee can focus on these set of duties.

The plant shift and department supervisors did not seem to have a clear picture of how every department fits in to the big strategic picture, the departments focused only on their piece of the goal. Training managers collectively can help each manager identify overall plan weaknesses and may empower them to refocus from