Saving Wasted Time.

Foundry managers justifiably become irate when they learn their best molders, coremakers or grinders are wasting hours each week on the plant floor. Yet, as I visit foundries, I see hours being wasted by the highest paid employees in the foundry away from the plant floor, and the managers don't seem to care at all. In fact, the managers usually cause this wasted time. The management of the foundry is wasting this time at meetings.

Let me insert a disclaimer--not all meetings are a waste of time, nor is all of the time in meetings wasted. But, everyone who has attended meetings knows about wasted time. Is there anyone who has gone to meetings who hasn't wondered, "What does this have to do with me?" Is there anyone who has attended meetings that hasn't waited for one to start because the key players didn't show up on time? Is there anyone who hasn't come away from some meetings wondering, "What did that accomplish?"

The typical foundry meeting has 510 people in attendance and lasts less than an hour. Assuming an average wage of $50/hr (a conservative estimate if fringe benefits are considered), then each short meeting costs between $125-$500. How many meetings are called in your foundry?

These few words won't stop all meetings, and they shouldn't. Meetings can be important tools for improving foundry operations, but they need to be used judiciously and efficiently. Consider the following three rules to make meetings more productive.

[1] Know the Meeting's Purpose

Meetings are held for many reasons. A meeting may be held to make sure that all employees know what everyone else is doing, to ensure that everyone hears the same information, or to define the foundry's next steps and how they will be taken.

Reduce wasted time by making sure that everyone attending the meeting knows why it is being held. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has gone to a meeting called by the boss expecting it to be on one topic, only to be completely surprised when it is about something different. I wasted time preparing information that wasn't needed, and everyone's time was wasted in the meeting because we hadn't prepared what was needed.

[2] Question the Meeting's Purpose

While many reasons exist to hold meetings, there also are many reasons not to hold them. If you need more reasons than the hourly rates of the participants, here are some things to consider.

If the objective of the meeting isn't realistic, don't have the meeting. Holding a meeting to develop a plan to eliminate all scrap castings is not likely to be productive.

If the purpose of a meeting is to tell everyone the same information at the same time, write a memo. Even though people hear the same thing at the same time, they don't really hear it. Putting the information in writing leaves no doubt.

In my experience, the biggest time wasters are the meetings held regularly to keep everyone up-to-date on what others are doing. If a department was two weeks behind yesterday, it won't be caught up today. Usually someone has a problem affecting only one or two of the attendees; consequently, a long discussion evolves with input coming from people who don't have a full understanding of the problem. In addition, the rest of the people at the meeting think about what they should be doing instead of sitting at a meeting that has little relevance to them.

Wouldn't it be far less time consuming to develop a job status form that employees update? If the boss detects a problem, he can discuss corrective actions with the involved people and not waste everyone else's time.

[3] Accomplish the Meeting's Purpose

The biggest waste of time occurs when a meeting fails to accomplish its objective. This danger exists with all types of meetings, but it arises most frequently with meetings held to develop a course of action. How many scrap meetings have you attended where the same job was discussed without any real results?

It takes discipline to set the goals and run a meeting so that it achieves the desired result. The temptation to be diverted by some current issue can override the focus on the objective. For a meeting to be productive, the person running it must keep the attendees on task. If not, the meeting will drag on without the intended results.

Review the outcome of every meeting objectively. What was the meeting's purpose? Did the meeting accomplish that purpose or did it waste attendees' time? If someone else ran the meeting and reports to you, don't let his ego cloud his judgment about its accomplishments. If you ran it, don't let yours. After reviewing the outcome, if the meeting didn't achieve its desired goal, reconsider rule 2.