A major hurdle we faced in our unit has been that of information dissemination. Sometimes people just are not aware of what really is happening. There is no bulletin board or infrastructure present to pass on information to everyone responsible. This can cause problems with ramifications ranging anywhere between  small to HUGE.

Recently one the assembly items had been manufactured as per a wrong specification. The mistake was with our design and went undetected all the way till assembly. This was a costly proposition as the whole item had to be scrapped and a new one put into place.

The point in question is our manager didn’t know about the situation until i specifically asked him about it. Then he had to enquire and find out himself. Comments like “Nobody told me” and “You should’ve known” flew back and forth.

The Problem

My interest lay here in how to disseminate the right information at the right time and avoid such unpleasant situations. Also to integrate it into the process and thus I will prefer offline systems as we are talking about a manufacturing unit where having a row of computer systems with email is not really feasible. IT’s really an overkill! at times.

Suggested Solution

We decide to setup a small board with the monthly ‘Production Schedule’. We add a  column to indicate results of inspection. The column indicates REWORK/REJECT/PASS. They are also to state the reason for the reject/rework with just the name of the part in question. The root cause can be debated upon later during weekly meetup.

Sometimes the parts are reworked and the product assembled before end of day; In such cases the red marks are to be followed by green but marked nevertheless. This will ensure a discussion on finding root cause. This is in line with my simplicity rule.

Quality personnel were instructed to mark their copy of the ‘Production Schedule’ as stated above. They are also to do it immediately as soon as they finish inspection. Sometimes the items with rework as marking are cleared before end of day. In such cases they are to mark rework and then mark as pass. So we know that “Something Went Wrong!”.

The board is displayed in as noticeable a place as possible! Ta-Da!!

used to be an avid Age OF Kings player. For those not in the know, it’s a multiplayer game played on an online gaming portal. You can form teams and compete against other teams. If you prefer you can also play a one-on-one i.e. two players compete.

Over the years i realized that a few concepts really stuck on to me even after i quit the game years ago. The reason i list them here is because i would rather jot them down here than anywhere else. Also it helps me give myself a perspective.

Here goes ..

1. Start Early

One of the most important aspects of the game was managing your economy. If you last the initial battles, then the strength of your economy alone will decide the course of the game.

Translated into life, this means start saving small but start saving!! The longer period you can save the greater the time your interest accrues to provide higher returns.

2. Give It All

Put in the maximum effort that you can in each and every battle, you might just win by a small margin, but a win is a win at the end of the day.

3. Salvage

The real good players never fought a losing battle and salvaged whatever they could, whenever they could.

This strategy might be slow and boring but in the long run it works.. and it works well!! Don’t batter yourself on a lost cause. You have to live to fight another day!

4. Controversy Is Short Lived

Kids quite often used to curse and call each other names just to garner attention.The name/fame associated with such incidents quickly fade from public memory.

Only true skill, ability will stand you in good stead over the long run.

5. It’s All In The Mind

I remember feeling very low before a game and totally exhilarated after a win just 15 minutes later. It was only a case of mood. He agrees.

6. Develop Good Habits

Habit yourself to always protect yourself (in game) and you will naturally construct a wall even without thinking every time you play.

Develop good habit in your daily life and you shall never go wrong. This is very similar to my stress on developing good processes than relying on people.

That’s it.

I was going through my RSS feeds in google reader and realised that i needed to either change my reading habit or remove a list of feeds which i never read. I went through these lists to check if there was anything which would interest me enough to not give them the cut!

Finally i removed a few, added a few and left alone a few. This made me think about the type of content i wished to see daily. I seem to prefer people with action items more than people with ideas. For example, i read the Microsoft Excel Blog a lot more than Seth Godin. This is not to say that iam not interested in ideas, i really am. But little Tid Bits do not seem to water my appetite any which way.

Also i preferred The Web Urbanist to Guy Kawasaki. Guy seemed more of a sensationalist even if brilliant on occasions with his mix of humour and intellect. I stick with the urbanist.

I realise that my preferences have changed over time. I preferred ‘Ideas’ in B-School and ‘Action’ now. Maybe my routine has got me more about thinking how to get things done rather than ponder on ideas which may or may not materialise in the future.

It’s been seven months since i have moved back to Bombay. Fiscal 2007 has been one hell of a year so far.

The Small Yet Significant Hits

• We have our new office ready for production. It will seat three more people.
• We have a new manual Crane setup, it has already chopped off considerable cutting time of rods and pipes.
• We have a new rack which eases up the storage problem even if only by a infinitesimal margin. Need more work here.
• We had a meeting with our subcontractors at the beginning of the first quarter. These were mostly about Quality Improvements and reduction in double work and waste. Baby steps to a high quality product. The effect is there for all to see albeit with an undesirable side effect (Increased Inventory).
• A semi-finished system is in place with controls. Now we need more checks built in. We finally have dealt with Roles and Responsibilities, there is still much to be done on this front but we have a start! Tracking has been achieved to a large extent. We still want more transparency with the production file.
• And finally the one BIG HIT .. GROWTH!!!

Figures are Year On Year[YOY]

24%

Our growth in ‘07 since April to September as can be seen is 24%. I have crossed out the rest of the entries under the ‘07 column as they do not take into account actual production during the period.

The blue line tapers down from month 7 as there has been no production since September. (October figures are pending as of the time of writing this post.) Note that the rise in month 7(October) is due to poor performance in the corresponding month in ‘06 (previous year).

Also note the sharp dip in the beginning of the fiscal and compare it with the red and the green lines. Production has shown negative growth in those periods until finally picking up in the following months. This is due to abnormal growth witnessed in April for ‘06 and low base in ‘05.

We expect the production to pick up in second half though not at the same growth rate. This possible deceleration is due to the high production rate during the previous years in the second half.
Other Changes
An Cad Operator has been hired for faster processing of designs. A new Manager has been hired for facilitating and co-coordinating efforts across the process chain.
So much more to do..
The changes in the offing are multifold,

EFFECT SHORT TERM

• Employ shifts in our bottle neck areas, to ease out traffic.
• Hire one more draftsman.
• Assign helpers to a particular set of machines to prevent unavailability. This will also allow the helper to be trained on his particular set of machines and thus breed skills in house.
• Create racks for Piston Rods for easier pick-up.

EFFECT LONG TERM

• Get people to document policies concerning their particular function. Redefine and revalidate if necessary.
• Create a new assembly area to facilitate faster Assembly and to separate assembly from the production line.
• Get a crane on another side of the shop floor, this should free up helpers.
• Standardize.
• Device a faster Assembly Line, time the current one.
• Have a design policy in place.

The journey finally begins…