5 Quick Questions to Assess the Effectiveness of Your Manufacturing Plant

Effectiveness and efficiency are one of the most important aspects to review for any type of manufacturing plant. Lower effectiveness can mean not only lost in profit but also be a rise to a number of safety issues. So here are 5 quick questions to assess the effectiveness of your manufacturing plant.

1. How orderly is your plan?
   Orderliness is one of the best way to assess the efficiency of your manufacturing plant. Without orderliness production time can be lost as there can be such a mess that workers can’t find what they need to do their job. Also disorder can cause hazards that make working unsafe. An unsafe work environment can severely reduce worker’s confidence in producing a product as well as incur lose of time due to employee accidents.
2. Do you set and track production goals and metrics?
   Without setting and tracking goals and metrics it’s almost impossible to know if you’re being effective. You don’t have to have complex goals or metrics. Simple things like the number of boxes shipped can send you a clear indication of the effectiveness of your plant.
3. Is your production line straight to jagged?
   Thing of your production line as a line of string. If you connected each step along that line with a piece of string would that string go in a relatively straight line or does it go all over the place? A more straight line is going to be much more effective and yield a faster and less expensive product.
4. Are people’s desk/work place clean?
   Have a dirty or cluttered work place is a sign of a back log of un-handled work. If someone is unable to keep their work place clean or clear of clutter it’s usually a sign of an inability to handle all their work. Lots of piles of papers means things didn’t get done. “Half dones” and “not dones” means something is running very inefficiently.
5. Is there a focus on quality?
   If you’re not focusing on quality then chances are you’re trying to cope and get by which means something is not efficient. Focusing on quality is a sign you’ve tackled efficiency. If you’re not focusing on that you should find out why you can’t focus on that and handle those points to bring up the efficiency of your plant.