Working with Romanian Factories – Experience of Last 10 Years

The list of experiences could be long, however applying 80/20 rule (20% of items what I met at 80% of companies) I would focus on two of them:

1. Observed constant care how to update Physical Work Conditions (PWC)
2. Production does not meet efficiency targets, and instead of ringing an alarm, this become forgiven and remain ongoing during period of time

A care for improvement of Physical Work Conditions has his reason: the production is organized in remained buildings of died giant companies and the infrastructure should be adjusted to the new needs and 21 century demands. That’s the reason of a constant effort to update work conditions.

Focus on 2: Not meeting the efficiency targets for a longer period could have a reason that managers are not used to handle properly the tool what could change this situation: the FEEDBACK.

The feedback loop is working very simple:

Current status is compared with desired one, and upon result of comparising is given a kind of intervention.

Feedback loops are running in the background of our lives and they are influencing our bodies and minds. We can tell: they are the invisible forces shaping human behavior. (Source: James Clear)

To construct a feedback loop, we need 3 elements:

1. Measure
2. Compare
3. Adjust

The basic element of giving feedback upon something is the measurement. If I want to give a feedback upon work of individuals, I should found a way to measure it. As the measurement is done automatically and real time (or quickly after action) gives possibility for stronger effect.

To be able to compare, the reference (target) value is needed.

Intervention (adjustment) is the action of manager that closes the loop. They should be made as rapid as possible. ”The best way to change long-term behavior is with short-term feedback.” (Seth Godin)

The very important fact is, that feedbacks are shaping our lives, weather we are aware of them or not.

See the image up, lines 1 and 4: in absence of feedback the initial status is continuing!

To produce the desired changes, adjustment (intervention) from lines 2 and 6 should be applied.

Unfortunately, in absence of conscious management practice, hectic feedback (lines 1, 3, 4, 5) is received from environment (peers, informal, incompetent leaders) what in a best case maintain the initial situation.  

After implementation of proper feedback loops (followed by management trainings), the immediate (and measurable) change happened:

\”In this period we experienced constant decrease of necessary worked hours for the same production volume, at the end we arrived to more than 25% and in a same time raw material yield showed remarkable increase\”

-C.C., Production Manager, Wood Processing, B. Mare-

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