Abnormal not Staying Overnight

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Nov 25, 2022, Mr. Wang cited the case of a strategic customer's delayed exception handling, and explained the principles of not staying overnight for exceptions and no backflow in production.

At the manager's regular meeting on Monday, the person in charge of the logistics department fed back the order of a customer. Because the workshop management personnel and QA did not follow the company's "present principle", "reporting principle" and "sunset principle" when dealing with exceptions, the actual production progress fell behind the production plan. This customer is a strategic customer of the company, which is the main target of the company's future business development. In order to serve a strategic customer well, the company has organized training for all members of the R&D, quality and production teams. The main persons in charge of business, quality, delivery date and production shall organize a meeting every day to ensure that the development and production progress are carried forward as planned and the problems can be solved quickly. However, the actual result is that the production and quality teams still procrastinate and haggle when handling exceptions. Such behaviors that seriously violate the company's "present principle", "reporting principle" and "sunset principle" are not allowed by the company. To this end, the company's senior management immediately decided to transfer the production manager who violated the enterprise values of "quick action and focus on results" from the metal production line.

Abnormal not staying overnight

Michael Porter, a professor of Harvard Business School, proposed that there are three basic competitive strategies for enterprises to provide success opportunities against the five basic competitive forces, namely, cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy and target aggregation strategy. There are more than 1000 enterprises above the designated size for eyewear manufacturing in China. Today, the products are relatively homogeneous; we should achieve differentiation in service, and make sure that no one I have, I have excellent. If we cannot achieve differentiation, rapid action, and improve the turnover rate of funds by shortening the cycle, we cannot achieve the cost leadership strategy. If we do not implement the goal focused strategy and concentrate resources to serve the company's strategic customers, we cannot achieve sustainable development. Zhang Ruimin said, "There is no eternal enterprise, only the enterprise of the times". At each stage of the development of the enterprise, we should keep pace with the times and use practical actions to achieve customers. The reason why such cases occur in the enterprise shows that our management team has not recognized the importance of the "current principle", "reporting principle" and "sunset principle" for the enterprise's current operation and future development. Here, I think it is necessary to reiterate these three principles.

1. Sunset principle. It is required that the work of today must be completed before sunset, and the service requirements for customers must be met on the same day, so that the work can be completed every day. The core of the sunset principle is immediate implementation without delay. The specific requirements are as follows: First, the work of each position and organization should strictly follow the sunset principle, complete the task volume of the day, and work overtime if the task is not completed. Second, No matter to customers or internal communication of the company, the principle of reply on the same day must also be followed, without any reason. If you ask for leave, you must find an agent to handle it. If there is an exception that cannot be completed on the same day, the main person in charge of the exception must give a reply to the served person on the same day, clearly telling the served person when it can be completed. Third, any employee in the company can complain to the superior of the department or the cooperating department about the problem of violating the "sunset principle", and the superior of the cooperating department should give a clear reply on the same day.

2. The principle of the moment. To solve any problem, we must solve it at the same time, locally and by the same person, and we must determine it within one working time. If the people present have no way to make a decision, they should inform their superiors to the highest level of the company. The core of the current principle is to eliminate the bad style of bureaucracy and buck passing. The company's senior management must take the lead in following the "current principle" when solving problems.

3. Exception reporting principle. When problems occur in the work, which cannot achieve the expected results or affect customer service, the personnel concerned must report to the superior and shall not conceal them. The core of the exception reporting principle is to keep the information flow smooth, so that exceptions can be effectively resolved in a timely manner.

In order to effectively implement the above three principles, the company requires the logistics department to implement the four levels of joint and several liability (namely, the staff involved, the dispatcher, the grass-roots management and the department manager) in the event that the logistics department fails to comply with the "sunset principle", the "immediate principle" and the "reporting principle" for exception handling, and does not provide handling measures and implement action plans on the same day.

Principle of no backflow in production

When planning and laying out the workshop, the company tries to make the process as smooth as possible, the process as simple as possible and the distance as short as possible according to the requirements of lean production. In 2019, the company began to implement the assembly line production mode, and asked the Standards Office to sort out and optimize the operation process of each module. Production backflow not only makes the process complicated, but also lengthens the manufacturing cycle and increases the manufacturing cost. For example, if there is a backflow or rework in laser processing, the procedures for issuing and warehousing materials and the handover process between warehouse and workshop will be increased, making the whole process more complex. At the same time, rework will lead to longer manufacturing cycles and increased costs. Backflow is the main source of affecting efficiency, and the efficiency of uniform production is relatively high. Moreover, the reworked products cannot return a good product, and the reworked products cannot reflect the manufacturing capacity of an enterprise. Just like running, the first thing to do is to find the right rhythm, and the second is to find ways to improve the speed. In order to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of backflow, the company requires grassroots cadres to stick to the production line instructors to make good products, keep an eye on employees to do things as required, and pay more attention to the mantissa and repair frame in the workshop. It is required to increase interaction between the front and back processes, production and quality teams, timely remind and feedback problems, and control the problems in the bud. It is required that the team leader, like the stewardess, should explain the SOP to the employees weekly, daily and constantly, and "tell them, show them and watch them do" as required by the company. The company implements this series of combined fists, which aims to let employees do things right at one time and remove the cancer of backflow. At the same time, the company first promoted that rework and backflow are not allowed from the A+ production line. In the future, we will extend this requirement to all production units. In case of rework or backflow, we should do three things in place: first, analysis in place, that is, when backflow occurs, the production team and the quality team should jointly analyze the cause of the abnormality in detail, and must find the root cause of the problem; Second, cognition in place, that is, when there is a backflow, the dispatcher, the basic management and the production manager of the relevant workshop should go to the site to understand and confirm the link that caused the problem, and let all the employees, the dispatcher, the basic management and the department manager know the seriousness of the problem and give preventive measures; Third, responsibility in place, that is, when there is a backflow, the employees involved, the dispatcher, the grass-roots management and the department manager should all bear the responsibility.

The principle of staying overnight for exceptions requires management cadres at all levels to follow the "sunset principle", "present principle" and "reporting principle" when handling exceptions, and to achieve differentiation strategy through "quick action and focus on results". The principle of no backflow in production is to let employees learn to do things right at one time by reducing or eliminating backflow or rework, and to maximize efficiency and minimize cost through uniform speed production. When backflow occurs, we should do three things in place: namely, analysis in place, cognition in place and responsibility in place.