How long is too long to wait for something?
It really depends on situation, the scenario and the level of urgency.
In a factory, If a machine was to breakdown, this could be deemed super urgent. This will effect the stages that follow and our ability to meet a deadline, so we would want that to be addressed quite urgently to maintain throughput. Maybe 24-48hrs might be acceptable?
When we order a coffee at a cafe, most of us would be at peace with maybe a 5 minute wait. If it is a meal, and you are super hungry and did not make a booking, maybe 20mins.
When we purchase something online, maybe 5 days is acceptable.
What is the lead-time for your product or service?
Its a question that we are all asked, everyday. If we are in cabinet making, perhaps an acceptable lead-time in having a new kitchen installed, most might say 6-8 weeks? But what happens if a lead-time blows out to 12-20 weeks. What effect will that have on a consumer or a business. Would you wait or explore other options?
As an industry, whoever has the ability to turnaround a project with the shortest lead-time, based on the level of need/urgency, should have a strong chance of winning.
Yes, as well everything else being comparable such as, service, quality, product, materials etc. Perhaps much of the longer lead-times in part can be attributed to a lack of employees?
If this is the case, we must innovate.
If we accept that staff are harder to find, experience is something that is a "bonus" and will continue to be in the future, then we have to look at ways of making the various stages of a manufacturing business easier to learn so that we can open up our market for recruitment to find those new employees.
We need to make it possible to hire low to mid level skilled employees that have the ability to make an instant impact on production flow. As we know in our industry, installers are considered the master craftsman and our superstar's and ideally this is the area you want to be increasing your recruitment focus for both skill and experience, as it should mean you have increased your production output.
It is hard to manage what you can’t measure, but what if a production system can?
This is where Technology can help and allow you to reverse engineer your recruitment process to focus on staff with lower skills and experience to perform repetitive tasks. Production & Scheduling software that takes into account the various stages of production and the variables that need to be considered, reducing the guess work. Production Information that is displayed on Screens in factories telling staff what to do and when to it. On demand instructions, images and how to guides. Clear instructions.
If we focus on improving the areas of the business we have most control over by Introducing intelligent, easy to follow system's that will allow you to onboard and train new staff faster, you should reduce the time it takes to produce product, shortening the cycle times, reducing lead times and increasing profitability.
Consider the following:
1. Where is your current bottleneck located?
2. Is it something that can be automated through the use of technology?
3. Is it possible to redeploy your experienced staff members to other areas in the business to continue to grow?
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