SFM – Morning meetings in production

The system of regular meetings (Morning meetings in production) or SFM is an excellent system that we recommend to all companies for good information transfer. Many factories have set up corners for SFM meetings where workers and their managers can meet.

SFM (Shopfloor management) makes it easier for us to manage production processes at the operational level.

• Raise operational efficiency through standard operations
• Improved information flow
• Reduction of errors in the manufacturing process
• Disclosure of gaps in production or processes.
• Raising employee productivity
• Positive effect on RVC

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• Save time
• Greater attention throughout the meeting (concentration drops sharply after 20 minutes)
• Focus on key points (or a single point in one meeting)
• A short meeting is much more interesting than reading emails
• Effective communication
• Establishing strong employee relationships
• Greater involvement in the topic
• Getting feedback
• Making better decisions
• Better coordination of progress towards the objective
• Strengthening the concept of common goals
• Better sharing of knowledge with other team members
• It increases trust

Morning meetings in production (Shop flor) are intended primarily for employees in production (Shop flor). As the whole factory is in all probability too large for a single meeting, such meetings should take place separately for the different departments of the factory. Each foreman / supervisor leads a meeting for their team. In our experience, the number of participants ranges from 3 to 20, although we prefer 5 to 10 members to make meetings more manageable and efficient.

In addition to employees and managers, you may involve other people, such as logistics, maintenance, management, or other support staff. But pay attention to their time as well. Even if you split the meetings throughout the day, the support staff member will not do anything else if he attends twelve meetings every day. The common strategy is to have support staff not join on a daily basis, but once a week or once a month, depending on the number of sales meetings you have in your area of responsibility.

Alternatively, invite support staff on a case-by-case basis. If the presence of certain support staff has significant benefits in resolving the issue, that support staff may join one meeting or a smaller number of meetings to help resolve the issue.

I regularly saw the presence of senior management to the plant manager. The head of the factory attended the second meeting every day, and his participation was monitored by the supervisor of the meeting in production (Shop flor).

A meeting in production (Shop flor) should happen with each shift. All employees currently working in this part of the sales area should be present. The duration varies, but is often somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. Do not prolong the time, as this will directly reduce productivity.

This is usually at the beginning of the shift to get the most useful information from the previous shift. However, if several groups use the same space in the corner of the team or if the leader wants to attend more than one meeting, the start of such meetings can be adjusted. In other words, Team 1 meets from 8:00 a.m. to 8:20 p.m .; Team 2 8:20 to 8:40; and team 3 8:40 to 9:00 in the same corner of the team. Similarly, if the production supervisor and his team meet from 8:00 to 8:20, with the production manager present; the general production manager meets and then his staff meets. Of course, it makes sense to start meetings at the lowest hierarchy and head up. This allows the fastest transfer of information from production (” Gemba “) upwards.

There are usually only a few agenda items in a production meeting (Shop flor). It often starts with a visit . This is followed by a look at the key performance indicators of the previous day. These usually include safety, quality and cost or performance. If an accident has occurred, it should be (briefly) discussed to avoid a recurrence. If there is a major problem, a separate meeting or project may need to be resolved, as the production meeting is too short for detailed analysis.

The second block addresses current issues and improvements . What was wrong yesterday? What is the progress of open items on the list of improvements. Note that this meeting does not have enough time for longer discussions, the emphasis is on providing information. If there are obvious problems that need to be resolved, a separate troubleshooting process should be initiated. The third block may contain various updates and organizational data that have emerged since the last meeting.

In almost every case I know of, it was a standing meeting. In general, regular meetings are usually shorter.

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Morning meetings outside production

Similar meetings are becoming more common outside of production. Such meetings could, for example, take place with logistics groups, maintenance staff or other organizational groups. Things in production (Shop flor) change very often and due to the nature of the work there is usually not so much time to exchange information. Therefore, the meeting is well justified in each shift.

In other areas outside of production, however, this may be different. It may be justified to meet only twice or thrice a week or even just once a week. If it is less than a week, these meetings begin to lose their effect.

Common mistakes: Morning meetings in production – SFM (Shop flor management)

There are some common mistakes made in production meetings. Probably the biggest of these is to let the group develop a discussion. They are convinced of the advantages and disadvantages, or worse, we attribute the blame for certain events on a personal level. But time passes before any meaningful conclusion is reached. The next day the story repeats itself and since yesterday’s points are repeated, there is no progress.

Another common problem is the opposite: lack of employee involvement . Only the boss speaks and the employees listen. It is good practice to assign different parts of the meeting to different people. Employee A., employee B. are present, KPIs are reviewed together, and so on. Not only does this significantly increase employee involvement, but it also frees supervisors over control of organizational tasks and gives more time for the actual added value of knowledge, and perhaps also for a bit of teaching and mentoring. Also, allow employees to customize the content of the team corner. Some companies offer a template for a meeting in production (Shop flor), but it is often better to adapt this template to the actual needs of the team.

The third mistake is meeting time . Try to avoid postponing the start or end of the meeting. In some companies this works well, while in others it seems impossible to adhere to a meeting schedule… with employees following the example of their superiors. You probably know where your business stands in this area.

However, if you avoid these mistakes (at least most of the time), a meeting of the production team (Shop flor) can be a very useful part of your production management. It facilitates the exchange of information and helps you run production more smoothly than if you do not have such a meeting.

The support and motivation of the company’s management is crucial at this starting point. Lean or lean production, efficiency, productivity, reliability, availability, performance, management.

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• TPM ,
• 5S ,
• 
  6s,
  
• Kaizen ,
• SMED ,
• SFM ,
• VSM,
• JIDOKA…

Lean methods are indispensable elements of any organization that wants to improve OEE and wants to successfully compete in the global market.

Get out of the office, meet people regularly and organize your production, if you need help or advice, we are happy to help you.

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Still briefly instructed video on the topic of SFM.