Reorganizing a Factory

I guess changes would be based on where in the world you are.

Change is always hard to implement, but if done correctly keeping in mind the local culture change is not impossible.

The other question would be if you are in a position to implament change? I would gladly consult for you and provide you with a simple effective solution. Anything is possible, it just takes a different way of thinking.

Send me a PM if you are interested.

A good reason for change is that, sooner or later, people will leave due to:

• Long-term sickness
• Retirement
• skills extinction
• etc.

Even given a long-term stable job-count, any organisation that doesn't have some form of succession policy in place, backed with training and experience evaluation, will start to deteriorate as the first ones, usually those with the most experience, disconnect from the organisation.

Engineers are not best placed to evaluate this one. It is a subject best discussed in detail over a period with a local human resources [HR] specialist, who will have the current training and knowledge of local legislation and be able to invoke high-level HR policies. A chat with that individual, in confidence, at an early stage is highly recommended.

Surprising! 20 long years and no change whatsoever. This is stagnation.

You should immediately get in touch with a professional organization in your vicinity who would study your installation and be able to suggest number of techniques and changes that would result in sizable savings in energy costs. There would be some cost involved but the same can be studied in light of 'pay back period' I have experienced this myself and I am continuously working in the direction of improvisation resulting in energy savings.

Lalit Thakkar

lalit_thakkar40@yahoo.com

As a first reaction, I would advise against going to 'outside specialists' or HR. They have expertise in sectors you don't seem to need. They lack an insider's insights and tend to cause damage more often than good, despite their best intentions.

I would agree with #2.

Most people keep their own ideas to themselves when posting a question here, and I suppose the same applies to you. I'm sure you've got a few ideas. Not being there, we can't aswer your question for you. I will say this: Optimising an operation is never about optimising job descriptions, it runs much deeper than that.

In the unlikely event that you really don't have any idea on what really begs to be improved and how, you should certainly not change anything.

By all means consult with your own people there, they may not know best, but they know better than any outsider (and sometimes even you). You'll need buy-in from them for anything to succeed anyway.

Cheers

To understand your problem we should know your location, workload at present on each person, how far are your 14 departments located.At present you have 14 Electrical Engineers, 14 Instrument Engineers, and 14 Electricians total 42 personnel. I suggest to centralise the department for more flexibility and lesser overhead.May be you can cut down some manpower.

Change always invites opposition from all working in the departments, but you will have to convince them that change is good for organisation.

the best solution is tO hire a mentiac, the human computer, as i know of there are only a few on this planet, lucily we all use this message board to comunicate witth each oyther, (our code is hidden inside mispelled wurds) first off this problem needs a consultant we cant ansswer a 20 page letter here that doesent have the correct 20 page question asked. hiring a consultant from out side can be good they have good new way of looking at things ,but may not know your field, take every thing they tell you with a grain of salt,use what works discard what doesent, like many mentiats here, we could use the work so hire one of us we would make your factory ROCK WITH PRODUCTIVITY. spotsart@yahoo.com but you are asking for the blueprints of a house here, not just some free advice over a single issue....

I do not think for such type work you need to hire a consultant. Is it very difficult to sort out such problem?. What consultant will do? Will he do better job than the client?. First of all he will try to learn from you, then ask you for solution, then he will use his little brain and prepare a nicely typed report running in pages (some of them are paid on per page basis) file in nice plastic folder and present to the management along with his Bill.

Sounds like a new manager "team" is in order before anything happens, then study the new deals that the Obama Administration is offering to make plants more efficient and green - then study equipment - if you are in control, be sure that you get "ideas" from everyone in the plant -so, regardless what you do everyone is having input on how to improve the company and keep their job.

Stay warm!

Dear Tarek10,

Before you want to ask yourself what you want to do with your department you need to implement a department Business plan with following key points

1. Mission statement: (what is the reason of existance for my department?)

2. Key tasks (what is our core business?) Here you can ask yourself if rewinding motors or making controlpanels is key business or should be done subcontracting company's

3 Vision (where do you want this department to be / to change for the next 5 years)

4. Values (which values du you find important)

5. Goalsettings (these are derived from the general goals of the factory)

6. Strategy (which strategy do you want to implement) How far do you implement preventive/predictive mainteance

7 KPI (Key performance Indexes) Goalsetting /operational

When you have this businessplan implemented and COMMUNICATED (very important) and accepted (by Higher managment and your own people) you can start looking if you have to make some changes to your department. These changes will be easier to implement because people know where you want to go(VERY IMPORTANT)

It Doesn't matter if your department is small 5 to 10 people or bigger which such a plan you will have both your managment and people of your department on your side