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Organisational Health Check

How well is your organisation set up to survive and prosper during the recession. How does it stack up against other manufacturing organisations. Click here for a 10 point review framework to help you to assess relative strengths and weaknesses and prioritise where to put your efforts.

The 10 points should be assessed on a 1 to 5 scale. Score 1 for not true, 2 for true in some areas but informal, 3 for formal standards in place and established as a routine approach. 4 for documented successes in this area, 5 significant history of success in this area.

As Best Factory Award sponsors we asses the recent award winners at 4 out of 5 so be honest with your assessment and recognise that many of the current winners would have scored averages below 2 at some stage of their development.

The questions are targeted at 3 levels of the organisation. Complete the assessment with representatives from each level try to reach a consensus. If in doubt select the lowest score.

Statement Score
  Senior Management Team  
A Employees accept that change is a way of life and that capturing and sharing lessons learned is part of the routine  
B Employees are primarily regarded as a source of brainpower not just muscle power. All functions are encouraged to apply innovative ideas for protecting and enhancing customer value.  
C Supply chain effectiveness is monitored and improved through collaboration across organisations to reduce total costs and enhance end customer value.  
  Middle Management  
D There is clarity of cost and profitability by product and customer.  
E Material moves very quickly through the process. There is a continuous effort to reduce throughput times.  
F Process engineering is regarded as important to performance.  Continuous effort is focussed on process improvement.  All employees are actively engaged with continuous improvement for at least 5% of their time.  
G Employees have very broad work task definitions with high levels of labour flexibility across skill ranges supported by systematic cross training and task transfer processes.  
  Front Line Team  

H

 The plant is clean, tidy and uncluttered. There is a place for everything and everything is in its place.  
I Plant performance is managed against full process potential not just demonstrated capability. Performance measures track conformance to plan in terms of quality, quantity and timing  
J Process documentation is detailed and accurate when compared with current working methods.  Standard practices are used by all shifts/locations.  
  Average  

 

Using the Results

The health check looks for evidence of working relationships to assess the current state of organisational fitness. Each areas is interlinked so it is not practical to address areas in isolation. Use the assessment to agree where your organisation needs the most support. Then apply the first part of the Manufacturing Improvement Guide to help you to develop your own road map to year on year improvement in performance.

Revisit the assessment in week 10 and see how far the organisation has improved. You could surprise yourself at how much progress your organisation has made. Although the assessment is qualitative, these measures are lead indicators of results. Use the second half of the programme to involve more functions and build their confidence.

Irrespective of score, treat activities 1 to 3 of the Manufacturing Improvement Guide as both an investigation and as evidence of your organisational ability to take on new challenges.

Use activities 4 to 7 to support the development of an agreed plan of action to target key areas of weakness

Use activities 8 to 10 to implement the plan.

Remember, at least half of your success will involve addressing people issues.

Support Options

If you would like our support with any part of the programme we offer a menu of options including:

  • Review, benchmarking and customer programme development
  • In house training to support each phase of the programme
    • Week 1: Planning the plan
    • Weeks 2 to 5: Mobilise & Launch Teams
    • Weeks 5 to 10: Performance Management
    • Weeks 10 to 20 Engaging the Organisation & Raising standards
  • Coaching for managers, team leaders and teams
  • Programme Management
    • Project Management
    • Facilitation
    • Analysis and policy development

To contact DAK Consulting click here