I have seen the same auto plant run both efficiently and not efficiently

[NNN0LHI]

You want to know what made the difference? The Plant Manager. When we had a Plant Manager who stayed up in his little penthouse on the "other side of the wall", as we called the offices with all the amenities including a bedroom, wet bar, you name it, the whole plant would go to hell. No one was minding the store.

But when we had a Plant Manager who had his ass down on the plant floor every day, sometimes dressed in Ford issued coveralls for camouflage, and was kicking everyones ass and occasionally firing a manager on the spot when they fucked up, the plant would run like a clock with very little if any screwing around. Everyone was busy. Even when you weren't busy you knew to look busy.

And you can bet the times when we had a good Plant Manager there was someone who was kicking him in the ass every morning by video link bright and early from Dearborn.

Don

[liberal N proud]

1. That goes with any manufacturing facility

But ultimately it is senior managements responsibility to insure that proper Plant Management is in place to drive the efficiency.

But a manager does not have to kick asses and fire people to be effective and get the people to work. He needs to have the balls to do those things when it is necessary but that should not be the motivators.

[NNN0LHI]

2. I worked in a stamping plant

When a manager orders an hourly worker to roll a multi-million dollar press over against everyones better advice and turns that press into a pile of junk that may take months and cost millions of dollars to repair he deserves to be fired on the spot.

I seen that actually happen. Luckily the hourly guy was smart enough to go and get an AVO form, (Avoid Verbal Orders) and make the manager sign it before he rolled it over or he would have been blamed.

Don

[liberal N proud]

4. There are managers like that

Thinking back to the days when I worked in a union, I remember one such asshole. He was good at blaming people and getting them fired for decisions he made.
The union was finally successfully in nailing his ass to the wall and out the door he went. I remember it because I was the one the union decided to take a stand on.

It was a valuable lesson in management that I now use in my present job. I don't deal with unions but the principles shouldn't be any different.

[rucky]

3. My father-in-law worked at Honda for 19 years...

He said the 2nd and 3rd shifts were consistently more productive than first shift, because there was less management around to screw with things. The shift supervisors were the ones in charge, and they were on the floor.