Operations 101: How to Establish and Sustain Clear Expectations

“If you don’t communicate expectations, there are none.” This statement has probably been my most remembered quote since starting my new position 8 months ago; and, after 8 months, I still feel like the communication of expectations is extremely lacking. To implement a lean, sustainable culture, there must be a focus on clearly communicated expectations, and holding people accountable to meeting these expectations.

The systems we have in place rely heavily on the work instructions managed by the quality assurance and tooling departments; however, these work instructions are outdated and unreliable. How could have this happened? It happened because while we put a system in place to clearly communicate our work instructions – or “expectations” – we did not feed the system in order to maintain and update these instructions/expectations. What is meant by feeding? It means the system/process that was put in place to update these work instructions was not monitored; therefore, nobody assumes the responsibility of diligently updating these work instructions.

These instructions/expectations should be viewed as dynamic rather than static – they are simply the best way we know how to operate, for now. With that said, we need to develop a separate support system which feeds into the communication of expectations via work instructions. This system must be accessible to anyone on the floor and visually tracked for adherence and completion.

I know, easier said than done, right? “We’ve tried something like that before and it didn’t work out so well…” Yeah, because we didn’t monitor the process to ensure results… Make the visual call to action visible to all involved in the process and you will have the tools in place to hold each other accountable right in front of you.

Ok, so you have a visual control in place, so now what? What happens when people stop paying attention to the display board? Well, the only reason people will stop paying attention to the display board is because YOU (the manager/supervisor) have stopped paying attention to the display board. Make it part of your daily standard work to review the tracking chart, and you have the evidence right in front of you should the system breakdown. Don’t make it just a part of your daily standard work either, set the EXPECTATION with a Supervisor or Team Leader that they are responsible for monitoring the results of the production tracking board (even if they are a Supervisor/Team Leader from a different department), so it becomes part of their daily standard work. That way, when not completed, it is easy to assign responsibility and enforce accountability.

So, as you can see, by focusing on how you can better communicate expectations to entry level employees, you find yourself in a position to better define your expectations up the organizational hierarchy by creating daily standard work for your leaders that monitor and sustain the systems in place.

How do you verify that this work has been completed – again, visually displaying the process for all to see and making the effort (and staying disciplined in your own daily work) to visit and review the visual controls. A daily submission of a completed checklist of standard work in a drop box hanging on the wall (1 assigned to each Sup/TL) is all the visual control you would need.

The same goes for tooling requests, raw parts requests, orders on hold, the first article process…make the work-flow progression visible for all involved and take the time to monitor it yourself. The 5 minutes you spend each day at a display board saves you tons of time in the end.

Nate