Manufacturing Productivity Planning and Evaluation.

Manufacturing Productivity Planning and Evaluation (MPP&E) is a comprehensive, organized planning system designed to evaluate all production improvement suggestions relevent to current productivity levels or other improvements.

It thrives in a culture that encourages continuous improvement and sustains enthusiasm for upgrading productivity. Productivity improvement begins with committed people. To be successful in that effort, a company must be willing to delegate responsibility for planning, evaluation and decision making to all levels of management.

Every manager and supervisor in the foundry must share a common understanding of the factors that influence productivity. That collective sense of responsibility for good planning and performance is essential for effective improvement. To facilitate this, a company must develop a consistent way of organizing and displaying productivity information, and the responsibility for using that information must be agreed upon by all levels of management.

Productivity Planning

Each month, the production manager establishes labor authorizations and productivity goals for each processing area reporting to him/her the following month. Managers of these processing areas allocate the authorized labor and assign goals for each supervisor reporting to them. Monthly productivity goals are published five days before the beginning of the month.

First-level supervisors prepare a detailed productivity plan for each work center. Managers review the plans of subordinate areas and coordinate them. This process continues until a consolidated productivity plan is developed for the entire manufacturing plant. This plan is submitted to the productivity manager and is published as the month's manufacturing objective.

The process of developing this plan increases management's awareness of the factors that influence productivity, while providing realistic objectives for every manufacturing employee. The productivity plan is based on the foundry's available labor resources and should include:

* the amount of time to be expended;

* indirect labor;

* direct productive labor;

* effective use of resources and overall productivity.

Every supervisor and manager should use a consistent planning method to ensure the best use of each work center's labor resources to achieve productivity goals.

Responsibilities

First-level supervisors have primary responsibility for managing each work center to ensure achievement of the productivity plan. Higher level managers are responsible for providing the necessary resources, assistance and coordination to foster the supervisors' efforts.

All levels of management are equally accountable for plan achievement.

Productivity Evaluation

Because all levels of management are responsible for these initiatives, all supervisors and managers must know how every manufacturing work center is progressing toward its goals. To ensure that this progress is common knowledge and to increase involvement in productivity improvement, supervisors and managers conduct productivity evaluations as follows:

Personnel Evaluations: First-line supervisors are responsible for ensuring that individuals who report to them maintain acceptable productivity levels. To this end, supervisors regularly review individual productivity information and counsel employees.

Weekly Evaluations: Supervisors and managers conduct more general productivity evaluations with the people who report to them. They discuss performance to plan, problems, reasons for difficulties and needs for assistance. These evaluations are scheduled so that supervisors complete their sessions with subordinates before they meet with their managers.

Semimonthly Evaluations: The production manager conducts semi-monthly evaluation sessions with people who report to him/her. The first session each month is a discussion of the consolidated productivity plans for the current month. Occasionally, a workshop on productivity improvement and management techniques is scheduled. The second session is a review of the previous month's progress. Each person reporting to the production manager briefly reviews his or her area's performance and concerns.

To make certain all of this information is accessible and understandable, each supervisor and manager establish productivity files for their areas of responsibility and display graphs of selected productivity indicators.

The Resulting Edge

MPP&E is a powerful tool for increasing awareness of productivity indicators and involving management in the improvement process. An integrated and consistent approach to productivity planning will give committed companies an edge in today's competitive market.

And increasing management knowledge and involvement in continuous productivity improvement will help companies grow even as market demands rise and change.