March, 2007

The Seven Goals of Operations

Follow these simple but crucial tips to take command of your daily business. 

By Tom Fife

In a vibrant operation, there’s a lot going on, and with the myriad jobs that need to be done daily, it’s easy to lose sight of what we should be doing first—and what is essential.

Remember these seven goals and you’ll give yourself the best opportunity to be where you need to be in your daily operation.

1. Incoming stock should be put up daily. The best way of making sure this gets done is to have someone assigned to perform this task. The best area to draw from for that responsibility is the receiving department. They can usually put incoming materials directly into stock from the truck.

The key is to realize that we are not responsible for our vendors’ delivery schedule. You need time to get the area ready to accept the product. You shouldn’t be double-handling a load because of the vendor’s schedule. Always put incoming stock where it goes, even if it takes a little more time to do it.

2. Return materials should be put back into stock daily. Make one person accountable for this job, or it simply won’t get done. If you think the load builders are going to do this task and build the loads, you’re setting yourself up for an unpleasant surprise. It needs to be a real job!

3. All loads must be checked before and after being placed on the trucks for delivery. You will double your workload with shortages, wrong materials, and quantities unless the loads are checked before you load them for delivery. If you aren’t checking, you’re spinning your wheels and making too many second and third trips to complete the delivery. Again, it’s wasted time.

4. All trucks should be loaded the night before the next working day. If your drivers can come in and immediately drive away with their first delivery, you get a huge jump on the day. If you load your trucks in the morning, you will have wasted your drivers’ time and the load builders will be loading trucks instead of building loads. A day that starts in pandemonium will continue that way.

5. Have the scheduled loads built a day ahead of time. If you can maintain a day-ahead cushion, you will be able to take care of any morning fires, and you’ll relieve the pressure of trying to build loads for trucks that are waiting for a delivery. If you don’t do this, at the end of the day, you are still a full day behind. An occasional Saturday may be needed to get back on track to ensure you can accomplish this goal.

6. Receive correct amounts and good quality materials. If you receive incorrectly, you start off in a hole. Always demand receiving paperwork from your company, and never receive on just the vendor’s paperwork. We all know how much wasted time and trouble it is to receive the wrong goods. Lift the paper and take a look at the quality of the materials, then count them as well!

7. Clean and maintain the yard and warehouses. A clean workplace is important for safety, but a work area that conveys the right message to our team and the customer means more than you would believe. How we treat our products will determine how our customers view our quality. Clean-as-you-go is the best method for maintaining this goal. If you have difficulty doing this, then assign this responsibility to someone in each area. You can expect some peer pressure to go to work as well.

Okay, these are the goals! Involve your entire team to achieve them. Talk about the goals, and post them. They need to be understood by all.

If you can’t accomplish all of the goals all of the time, at least start by being aware of them, and educating the team on what the goals of the operation really are. If I can help, just holler.