Any organization sooner or later faces the problem of increasing production efficiency. And it is not always about the economic component.

What methods to prefer when organizing such work is decided by the management of the enterprise. Based on the knowledge of the internal and external environment, the features of production processes, it is possible to develop a plan that will lead to the achievement of the intended goal.

What is meant by performance efficiency?

Enterprise efficiency is an economic category. This concept means the performance of the company, which can be expressed in:

• growth in production rates;
• reducing costs, tax burden;
• reducing the amount of emissions into the environment;
• increasing labor productivity, etc.

There are also scientific works that define the effectiveness of an organization as the effectiveness of an operation or project, in which the resulting product or new action brings more money than was spent. Or these manipulations save a certain amount of resources, which also exceeds the costs of the work associated with their implementation.

Efficiency Conditions

In most cases, in an effort to improve the efficiency of the organization, management expects to get a certain financial result. But this does not always reflect the strategic future of production. Therefore, it is believed that it is more correct to achieve growth rates. We can say that it was possible to achieve economic efficiency of production if:

• the resulting financial result is higher than that of competitors;
• the organization allocates sufficient resources to carry out production or management changes;
• growth rates of financial indicators will be higher in the short term than those of competitors.

This approach constantly motivates the search for solutions that increase the competitiveness of production. This is important in order to carry out work aimed at strategic development.

It is also important that each structural unit of the organization should be concerned about finding ways to increase its economic efficiency. After all, if one of them does not work well, the organization will not be able to improve its performance as a whole.

Tools for increasing efficiency

Ways to improve the efficiency of the enterprise are very diverse. The main ways to increase the profit of the organization are as follows:

• cost reduction, which can be achieved by reducing the price conditions for purchases, optimizing production, reducing staff or wage levels;
• modernization of processes or the entire production, which allows to achieve an increase in labor productivity, a decrease in the volume of processed raw materials, waste, automation of most operations;
• changes in the organizational system that can affect the management structure, principles of customer service, communication, etc.;
• strengthening marketing communications, when the task is to maximize the growth of sales of goods, changing attitudes towards the organization, finding new opportunities for production.

Each of these areas can be detailed and has its own methods of work. The entire management system in the company must be set up so that at any level, employees take the initiative, leading to increased economic efficiency.

Often, a set of measures that should increase the efficiency of work affects all blocks of activity at once. Such a systematic approach allows you to use a synergistic effect.

Factors Affecting Efficiency

If the management of the enterprise is interested in achieving improved results, it must analyze information about the state of the external and internal environment. Then it will be clear which of the existing factors should be used for the benefit of future strategic development. These include:

• Minimum resource usage. The less technology, equipment, personnel are used while maintaining the volume of output, the more effective the organization.
• Increasing the efficiency of personnel by optimizing the structure, improving qualifications and training, searching for more competent personnel, changing the motivation system.
• Increasing the efficiency of personnel by improving their health and improving working conditions. Measures aimed at solving these problems lead to a reduction in the number of sick days (savings in the employer's funds), increased productivity and employee loyalty.
• Strengthening socio-psychological factors. The use of decentralization tools in management can be a good impetus for development.
• Application of the results of scientific and technological progress. Ignoring modern technologies or excuses from their implementation due to the need for investment leads to a decrease in competitiveness and possible liquidation later. Fearing an unfavorable economic situation in the current period, companies often block their way to development in the future.
• The use of diversification, cooperation and other strategies that allow the use of existing resources in different projects.
• Attraction of investment capital and other mechanisms of third-party financing. Even privatization can open up ways to improve the efficiency of an enterprise.

All these factors lead not only to the growth of economic, but also managerial efficiency. In order to track the effectiveness of the work being done, it is necessary to outline the timing of the control and the indicators that will be checked.

Separately, we will dwell on the factor of improving the health of employees - for the reason that few employers have so far paid due attention to this. Meanwhile, taking care of the team directly affects the company's profits. For example, according to a study conducted as part of the HR Lab. – Laboratory of HR Innovations”, a smoking employee spends 330 working (!) hours per year on smoke breaks. If his salary is 50,000 rubles a month, then it turns out that in a year the company loses up to 100,000 rubles in wages, plus about 40,000 rubles in taxes and social contributions; plus the cost of sick leave, which smokers, according to statistics, take more often. And if the employee's salary is higher, then the costs are even higher. And if there are dozens, hundreds of such employees in the company?

In order to eliminate this extra cost item and increase the efficiency of smoking workers, companies can be advised. (At the link you will find a calculator with which you can calculate how much your company will save if employees stop smoking.)

Where to start?

To understand what work needs to be done to improve production efficiency, a thorough analysis should be carried out. The head of the company must have a rationale for future management decisions, therefore, it is required:

• collect statistics for previous years on product output, its sales, the number of employees in the state, wage fund, profitability, etc.;
• find out industry averages or competitors' performance;
• to compare the economic performance of the enterprise and other market participants;
• depending on which indicator is more behind, analyze the factors that led to such a result;
• identify responsible persons for the development of activities that should change the situation, and the time frame for achieving new indicators.

It is possible that management will have to make many decisions about itself. For example, to transform the functions and style of management, the distribution of responsibilities, the amount of delegated authority, the methods of working with personnel and the transfer of information within the company.

What can hinder efficiency gains?

Even if the management sees the point in the changes that should lead to an increase in the efficiency of the company, the results may not be. Oddly enough, the problems lie in the psychological perception of managerial changes, as well as in their legal support.

For example, the introduction of new technologies and the installation of equipment almost always results in a reduction in staff. Naturally, the employees of the enterprise do not want to be left without work. Their task is to delay such changes as much as possible. They can also resort to economic arguments, saying that the reinstallation of equipment for some time will require the cessation of work.

From the point of view of legislation, the process of dismissal of employees is strictly regulated. If procedures are violated, the enterprise is doomed to incur additional costs, which reduces economic performance.

In order to overcome all these resistances, it is necessary to think over a system for notifying employees about changes, demonstrating the positive aspects of implementing changes.

Additional difficulties may be related to:

• with a lack of funding or the inability to access investment sources;
• with the lack of competencies among the employees of the enterprise, which does not allow the implementation of the plans;
• with the lack of a strategic planning system in the organization and analytics for previous years of work.

To achieve economic efficiency, systematic and large-scale work will be required. We cannot exclude the need to involve third-party specialists who can save time on implementing changes.

In general, with a competent approach and the use of reasonable measures, it is possible to increase the efficiency of each enterprise, regardless of the situation and at what stage of its development it is.

The great importance of improving working conditions is explained by the fact that they basically represent the production environment in which human life takes place during labor. The level of a person's working capacity, the results of his work, his state of health, and his attitude to work are directly dependent on their condition. Improving working conditions significantly affects the increase in its productivity. In this regard, as practice shows, the costs of their implementation pay off in an average of 3-5 years.

Factors that shape working conditions are divided into two large groups: factors that do not depend on the characteristics of production, and factors determined by the characteristics of production. The first group includes natural, socio-economic and other factors. Factors belonging to the second group are divided into production and socio-psychological. This paper considers the second group of factors, since they are of interest from the point of view of the scientific organization of labor and can change.

Production factors are the most extensive group of factors generated by the characteristics of a given production and forming specific working conditions. Among them, there are several subgroups: psycho-physiological, sanitary-hygienic, aesthetic and some others (household, organizational, material, etc.).

Psychophysiological factors are determined by the content of labor and its organization, therefore they are sometimes called labor factors.

The main measures to reduce physical and neuropsychic tension are the following:

• 1. Increasing the level of mechanization and automation of labor-intensive production processes, the use of modern high-performance equipment;
• 2. Improving the organization of jobs;
• 3. Organization of techniques and methods of work;
• 4. Optimization of the pace of work;
• 5. Optimization of the regime of work and rest;
• 6. Improvement of transport services for jobs associated with heavy objects of labor;
• 7. Scientifically substantiated establishment of equipment maintenance standards and maintenance time standards, taking into account the amount of information that an employee can correctly perceive, process and make a timely and correct decision;
• 8. Alternation of work that requires the participation of different analyzers (hearing, vision, touch, etc.);
• 9. Alternation of work requiring predominantly mental stress with physical work;
• 10. Alternation of work of varying complexity and intensity;
• 11. Optimization of work and rest regimes;
• 12. Prevention and reduction of the monotony of labor by increasing the content of labor;
• 13. Rhythmization of labor (work according to the schedule with a load reduced by 10-15% during the first and last hours of the work shift);
• 14. Computerization of computational and analytical work, the widespread use of personal computers in the practice of production management, the organization of computer data banks on various aspects of production activities, and others.

Sanitary and hygienic factors are, roughly speaking, the external production environment, namely, the microclimate (temperature, relative humidity, air velocity), the purity of the air environment (the presence of vapors, gases, aerosols), illumination, noise, vibration, ultrasound, various radiation, biological and other influences. Almost all of them are normalized by setting standards, sanitary norms and requirements and quantified using the methods of sanitary and hygienic research.

Numerous studies of hygienists and labor physiologists have established that the sanitary and hygienic factors of the production environment have a significant impact on the human body. Some of them have an adverse effect on the worker, which reduces efficiency, worsens health and sometimes leads to occupational diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to know not only the cause of these factors, but also to have an idea of ​​how to reduce their negative impact on the body of workers. It is advisable to pay special attention to the influence of adaptable environmental factors (meteorological conditions, noise, vibration, illumination), the negative impact of which can be significantly reduced through the use of active means of improving the labor process.

Considering the mechanisms of the impact of meteorological factors of the production environment (temperature, humidity, air velocity, the action of radiant energy of heated parts and assemblies) on a person, it should be noted that the human body seeks to maintain the relative dynamic constancy of its functions under various meteorological conditions. This constancy provides, first of all, one of the most important physiological mechanisms - the mechanism of thermoregulation. It is carried out at a certain ratio of heat generation (chemical thermoregulation) and heat transfer (physical thermoregulation).

To ensure normal meteorological conditions in industrial premises, a lot of research work is being carried out.

No less important in the conditions of production is the prevention of hypothermia of the body of the worker. It is hypothermia that is one of the causes of colds. The main reason for the occurrence of a cold is the uncomfortable conditions of industrial premises and inappropriate clothing. The cause of colds, according to many researchers, is not in the strong effect of cold on the human body, but in the long-term effect of cooling on the skin surface.

Colds arise not so much from exposure to cold air, but from its combination with high humidity. Humidity contributes to the cooling of the body and in cases where the surface of the skin is covered with sweat, since wet skin is much more cooled than dry. Heat transfer is especially enhanced when the skin is covered with sweat at low temperatures or in wind.

The main means of preventing colds are the improvement of sanitary and hygienic conditions in the workshop, on the site and the systematic hardening of the body.

In the cold period of the year in closed industrial premises, it is necessary to eliminate everything that contributes to hypothermia of the body. Of particular danger are sharp streams of cold air rushing in through open gates, doors, unglazed windows, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to protect workplaces in industrial premises from sharp flows of cold air with frequent opening of doors and other openings using locks, vestibules, air curtains, etc. If it is impossible to install vestibules in places where there are drafts, screens-partitions up to 3 m high should be installed near the workplaces. For greater protection from cooling, radiators can be placed on the partitions.

An air curtain is also a good protection against cold air. Air is blown through the entire width of the door by means of a fan from a channel with a grill located at the bottom or on the side. Depending on the mass and speed of air movement, it is possible to stop access to the outside cold air or let some of it through. In winter, it is recommended to preheat the air supplied from the duct.

Single glazing of windows in workshops poorly protects against the intrusion of cold air currents. In addition, large glass surfaces serve as a source of negative radiation. Therefore, in workshops where work is associated with a cold technological process, double glazing should be provided. In hot shops, if there are workplaces located near external glazed railings, there should also be double glazing of windows located at a height of at least 3 m. Double glazing protects not only from sudden air flows, but also from the cooling effect of window surfaces that have a low temperature .

For natural ventilation in winter, transoms should be used, which are usually located in the upper part of the window, which contributes to the passage of cold air to the upper zone of the room. The transoms must have side guiding reflectors.

Noise and vibration limitation.

Numerous studies have established that during the period of adaptation to sound stimuli, the sensitivity of the hearing organs to them decreases, and after the cessation of the stimulus, the sensitivity is restored. If the stimulus acts excessively strongly and for a long time, then fatigue quickly sets in.

The negative effect of noise leads to a slowdown in the speed of nervous reactions, lowers attention. Acting on the autonomic nervous system, excessive noise causes a change in the rhythm of the pulse, negative shifts in blood pressure, which can lead to fatigue and even some diseases.

One of the important prophylactic means of preventing fatigue under the action of noise intensity is the alternation of periods of work and rest under the action of noise.

Rest reduces the negative impact of noise on working capacity only if the duration and amount of rest correspond to the conditions under which the most effective restoration of the irritated measures of the effect of noise on the nerve centers occurs. Therefore, when choosing rational means of increasing efficiency for a particular production, it is necessary to take into account the effect of rest on limiting the impact of intense noise on the human body.

To limit and eliminate the harmful effects of vibration in production, it is necessary: ​​careful maintenance of the equipment, timely replacement of wearing moving and rubbing parts, the use of vibration-absorbing pads, the use of various types of silencers, the elimination of contacts between the foundation of the unit and the foundations of buildings and, most importantly, the possibility of changing technology - replacing production operations associated with noise and vibration, silent production processes, rational alternation of periods of rest and work when exposed to vibration.

What questions will you find answered in this article:

• Why does the CEO need to listen to the workers?
• How to encourage staff to improve their work?
• What practical tools exist to improve production efficiency?

You will also read:

• How did the working group solve the problem with marriage in the VSMPO-Avisma corporation?
• Why did the time of the total production cycle at the Kaluga Automobile Electrical Equipment Plant decrease?
• Expert advice: how to implement kaizen in five days (comment by Michael Vader)?

Before assembling the engine, the engine armature is balanced to eliminate vibrations - pieces of paste are attached, which break off from the whole piece, like plasticine.

Periodic work is an activity that is not included in every cycle of manufacturing or processing a part: control, changing tools, oils, receiving parts, materials in the pantries, cleaning the workplace, etc.

In order for production to work efficiently, it is not enough to purchase equipment and establish production technology. The main part of the production process is the work of the staff. If you can not only teach people to perform daily routine work with high quality, but also interest them in constantly improving their performance, then your production will work smoothly and efficiently. It is important to choose the right control technology.

Methods of Western management recommend standardizing processes, describing them in regulations and bringing them to the attention of the staff strictly “from top to bottom”. But such techniques almost exclude the feedback of the leader with people. As a result, the General Director rarely visits production and does not consider it necessary to listen to the opinion of the working or technical staff. As a result, many production processes are inefficient, and it does not occur to the worker or specialist that he can change the situation. For example, the button of the machine is located under the right hand of the worker, and in order to perform the operation, he has to turn around, spending about a minute on the whole process. On the scale of the whole enterprise, this is a significant time investment. If the button is moved under the left hand, the procedure will take no more than 15 seconds. The problem is that such questions, as a rule, do not reach the level of top management.

A worker who feels like an engaged participant in the process would tell the manager how to speed up the production operations. And the time savings would be obvious.

How to get the CEO interested in the staff

The staff will treat the improvement of production processes at their site as a daily and necessary work if you create an atmosphere in the team of a constant search for ways to develop. How to do it? Try to convey the following thoughts to subordinates:

• I'm interested in the opinion of all employees of the company.
• Everyone is responsible for their own workflow and can suggest improvements. All will be heard.
• The decision to change production processes will be discussed in working groups and taken collectively.
• Initiative workers will be encouraged.

When employees see that you support change, that the entire enterprise management system is focused on them, they will actively look for ways to improve their own work. It is equally important that employees be confident in the future. It is impossible to take responsibility for the work process and improve it if the threat of dismissal is in the air. For example, in our company, I promised people that while I was in charge of production, none of them would be fired. We are talking about a team of like-minded people, which I formed over the course of several years. For a company that is a participant in the alcohol market, where staff rotations occur frequently, such guarantees are very relevant.

Another incentive for development is the opportunity to acquire professional skills at the plant. When the production opened, there were few specialists. We took university graduates to the position of technologists and trained them from scratch. I spent up to 70-80% of the time in the shops, talking with managers and workers, advising how to solve systemic problems. This is how we do it to this day. In addition, we support employees in their pursuit of career growth. All this allows our people to believe that increasing the efficiency of production (improving quality, productivity, reducing time costs) depends on each of them.

How the working group reduced manufacturing defects

In the corporation "VSMPO-Avisma" in one of the shops there was a lot of marriage. To deal with the problem, we have created a working group.

1. What has been done:

• collected and analyzed data on the causes of nonconforming products;
• the main "problem" products (forged bars
• and rolled rings) and “problem” stages of production (forging and cleaning of bars, production of blanks for rings);
• a questionnaire survey of employees involved in the production of these products was conducted;
• an action plan was created to reduce the number of defects;
• amendments have been made to existing technological documents that clarify some important production points;
• recommendations were written for loading furnaces, allowing for high-quality forging and obtaining conditioned products;
• the forging procedure on the press was detailed and described;
• "forging maps" were created, in which the sequence of transitions and the time allotted for each transition are indicated;
• an instruction was written explaining how to improve the quality of metal forging by optimizing the cleaning process;
• the system of motivation for workers of the forge shop has been changed: now defects are analyzed at meetings of teams, this information is taken into account when making decisions on bonuses;
• training of operators, blacksmiths, foremen to new standards of work was carried out, certification was organized;
• training of foremen in the system of lean production was carried out, which contributed to a change in views on production and a desire among employees to suggest improvements.

2. Bottom line. During the year, the number of defective products decreased by 46%. We did not come to this result immediately. At first, due to misunderstanding on the part of the shop workers, there were difficulties with the implementation of the project. But then, in the process of teamwork and training, the need and opportunity for change became obvious, and then the work went quickly and amicably.

Based on materials provided by Antonina Sokolova, business coach at CenterOrgProm

Expert opinion

Michael Vader
President and Lead Trainer of Leadership Excellence International Inc, Colorado Springs, USA; certified expert in the implementation of lean manufacturing

People should not be afraid to suggest improvements, on the contrary, they should be assured that their efforts will be rewarded. In order for employees to be interested in looking for optimization methods over a long period, it is necessary to gradually connect material motivation. For example, to pay at the end of the quarter (year) bonuses based on the results of savings due to the transformation of funds. It is important that all employees receive equal percentage bonuses and know about it. If a top manager receives, for example, an incentive bonus at the end of the year - 15% of the salary, then the worker should receive at least 15%.

Leadership Excellence International was founded in 1995. Provides consulting services to optimize production and business processes, eliminate hidden losses in production, in organizations in the service sector. It has branches in India, Malaysia, Singapore, and is actively working in the Russian market.

How to implement lean manufacturing

The main task of the General Director is to be the initiator of the implementation of the lean manufacturing method and its active supporter. In practice, you can entrust the implementation to the production director.

There are management tools that encourage staff to take an interest in the work process, as well as constantly improve performance. All of them are aimed at introducing lean thinking into the enterprise. This means that each participant in the process should strive to do their work faster, better and with the least effort. In our factory, we use five tools:

1. Establishment of an autonomous problem-solving working group.

2. Visual management.

3. Rational use of the production site.

4. Change of activities of the staff.

5. Maintenance of equipment (workplace).

1. Establish an autonomous problem-solving working group

As a rule, information from a worker goes to the General Director along the following chain: worker - foreman - foreman - process engineer - head of department - head of workshop - production director - General Director. As a result, information may be distorted or received with a delay.

To speed up the exchange of information, I created working groups at the enterprise. They consist of representatives from all production departments. Groups meet about once a week. Employees are assigned daily, weekly, monthly tasks. Each group solves the issue at its own level, regulates it, and then comes to me with a decision. I'll give you an example. Preparation of activated carbon before loading into carbon columns was a laborious and messy process. At the initiative of the employees, a plant was developed and constructed that allows for lower labor costs and better quality to carry out this operation. Now coal preparation technology is the know-how of our company

What gives. As a result of this practice, in recent years, the loss of raw materials and auxiliary materials has decreased several times.

CEO speaking

Alexey Baranov


In one Russian car assembly company, the work is built as follows. At a weekly meeting, the assembler team considers the operators' suggestions for process improvement. Then a decision is made on the implementation of one or more proposals. What would then happen in most companies? Weekly approval of rationalization proposals, visas in many offices. What's going on here? The team's decision is binding on management. And the head of the shop has one month to implement it. Did not meet - blame yourself. The team will meet again in a month and demand a report.

TsentrOrgProm LLC is a Russian provider of services for the development of Lean systems (lean manufacturing, kaizen, Toyota Production System). Clients - "Rusal", KamAZ, "VSMPO-Avisma", "AvtoVAZ", Uralmashzavod, confectionery factory "May 1", "Uralsvyazinform" and other companies in Russia and neighboring countries.

2. Visual management

Visual management tools can be different depending on the specifics of production. The development and application of visual management tools in production is usually the responsibility of the quality department. At our plant, there are bar charts in front of the workshops, and all employees can get acquainted with the state of the production line by shifts. Indicators below the norm are marked in red. Next comes the downtime analysis, all performers identify its causes. They can be organizational, supply-related, functional, etc. Quality department employees document the work of the bottling line per shift, the operation of machines, and analyze the reason for stoppages. All this is noted on the primary sheets of accounting, compiled and then analyzed at meetings with the head of the shop. Another useful tool for visual management in production is the distinctive color of the work clothes of QCD employees. In our production, the specialists of this department are dressed in bright clothes so that each employee, if a problem or question arises, can quickly seek advice.

What gives. Saving time and labor costs.

CEO speaking

Alexey Baranov
General Director of CenterOrgProm LLC, Yekaterinburg

Along with histograms, you can use the andon board system - a device for visual control of the production process. It can be a scoreboard that shows what is happening at the enterprise, or several light bulbs that light up, notifying about certain processes. For example, a red light indicates that the equipment has stopped for some reason, a light of a different color is on if the equipment needs to be loaded, that is, the materials have run out or the intervention of workers is needed.

3. Rational use of the production site

Rationally organized workplaces meet the following requirements: free space around the worker, no obstacles (nothing should interfere with his movements), passages between machines and workshops are designed so that workers do not have to spend a lot of time moving.

What gives. Increasing the utilization rate of equipment, saving time and labor costs, freeing up production space, reducing losses during transportation and movement.

Practitioner tells

Marina Antyufeeva
Director for Development, Production Optimization and Quality Management System, Autocomponents Division, Avtokom OJSC, Kaluga

In 2005, at the Kaluga Automobile Electrical Equipment Plant (KZAE), I headed the production development center. We started to implement improvements in the assembly areas, as there were equipment that was easy to move, and short-term operations were carried out. At all plants in Russia, there is now a shortage of personnel; there was a shortage of balancers at the assembly sites of this enterprise. When observing the work of the operator, it turned out that the balancer receives the paste in the workshop warehouse four to five times per shift (which is 1.66 seconds per part). If the balancing paste is delivered to the workplace, this will give a reduction in periodic work by 35 hours.

Another example. Analyzing the work of the unit assembly site, it was revealed that the equipment was placed not according to the technological chain, but according to the principle “where there was free space”. We made a new layout, arranged the equipment in series - in accordance with the technological process. Now the part moved from machine to machine and passed from hand to hand. There was no need for a large number of containers and a supply of parts, 90 square meters were released. m of space, the time of the total production cycle decreased from 420.11 sec. up to 331.86 sec. This increased the capacity of the section by 20%. And most importantly, operators, mostly women, no longer carry burdens from one workplace to another.

OJSC "Autocom"- one of the suppliers of AvtoVAZ, manages the Kaluga Autoelectronics Plant, the Avtopribor Plant (Kaluga), the Kozelsky Mechanical Plant (Kaluga Region), the Lyskovsky Electrotechnical Plant (Nizhny Novgorod Region), the Serpukhov Automobile Plant, owns a 50% share of the Kinelagroplast plant (Samara Region). The company was founded in 2000. The number of employees is 16.5 thousand. Annual turnover - 300 million US dollars.

4. Change of activities (staff rotation)

After you have explained to people that it is possible and necessary to offer improvements, it is necessary that this be done not from time to time, but systematically. It is important that employees understand what the result of work in their production area depends on, so that they become familiar with related processes. If an employee produces low-quality products and it gets to the next shop, the workers of this shop will have no time to think about whether to improve the process - it will be necessary to eliminate the marriage. You can solve this problem by rotating staff. Recommend to the production director to move specialists from one shop to another several times a year.

At our plant, specialists from one workshop periodically move to another and work there for some time. For example, technologists from the blending shop move to the bottling shop, where more questions are related to the organization of labor and assembly. So far, this practice is common only in production, but over time, I hope it will be applied throughout the company.

What gives. Employees become familiar with related processes, communicate, work together to solve cross-functional problems, and then standardize the procedure to prevent future recurrence of these problems. In addition, this approach disciplines the staff, allows you to understand what exactly slows down the work at the enterprise, which specialists duplicate or redo each other's work.

5. Maintenance of equipment (workplace)

Work at the enterprise should be convenient. To do this, it is necessary that the condition of the equipment be impeccable, that everything necessary (tools, workpieces) be at hand, and all unnecessary be removed from the desktop. Our company has an equipment care system that requires the participation of not only employees of the technical department, but also machine operators at their workplaces. It includes scheduled preventive maintenance and preventive inspections.

What gives. Changeover time is reduced, the risks of emergency shutdown of equipment are reduced, and production safety is increased. As a result of careful attitude to the equipment in our company, we have achieved the maximum utilization rate of bottling lines - 0.88–0.90 (whereas normally it is 0.80–0.85) using domestic equipment. Some companies cannot achieve this on advanced German and Italian equipment.

Boeing visual control system

The visual production management system at the Boeing Moscow Design Center is arranged as follows. The designers are in a large hall, each has his own workplace, which is fenced off from the rest by small partitions. Each person works at his own computer and is not distracted by anything, but if he gets up, he can see the whole hall. The manager's workplace is on some elevation, and he sees the whole hall. The center adopted such a visual system: if the designer has completed the task, he raises a green flag. The manager sees that the employee is free and can perform the next task. If the performer has problems that do not require immediate attention, then he raises the yellow flag. And the leader knows that when he has free time, he must approach this person. If the problem is serious (the designer cannot complete even half of his task), the employee raises a red flag - this is already a signal not only for the manager, but for the entire team of employees assigned in advance. Team members see a red flag and immediately go to a colleague in need of help, figure out what's wrong, and fix the problem together.

Based on materials provided by TsentrOrgProm LLC

CEO speaking

Alexey Baranov
General Director of CenterOrgProm LLC, Yekaterinburg

At one of the light industry enterprises located on the Volga, the team of fitters had the following situation: each fitter on duty had his own box, which contained all the tools, fixtures, components, including absolutely unnecessary ones. It took a lot of time to find the tool necessary for the job - more than five minutes. When the enterprise began to organize workplaces, the working group, together with the adjusters, analyzed the contents of their boxes. They removed everything rarely used and unnecessary and came to the conclusion that instead of boxes for each adjuster, you can get one for the whole team. So instead of twelve toolboxes, there were only four. Since the number of tools and fixtures has been reduced, less time is now spent searching for the necessary tool - just a few seconds.

How to Implement Kaizen in Five Days

Michael Vader
President and Lead Trainer of Leadership Excellence International Inc, Colorado Springs, USA; certified expert in the implementation of lean manufacturing.

You can start the implementation of kaizen in the enterprise with a five-day assault-breakthrough. The CEO can participate in the process personally, entrust control of the process to the production director (in the case of a manufacturing enterprise), or involve an external consultant.

1st day. The CEO must set a specific goal for employees to achieve after the five day period (eliminate waste by so many percent, increase productivity by so many percent, reduce cycle time, etc.). It is especially important to show that you will listen to the opinion of not only the top manager, but also the worker.

The next step is to create a working group. It should include no more than six to eight people. Each member of the group has one vote, everyone has the right to express their own opinion. Approximate composition of the group:

• two operators (performing mechanical work);
• engineer or supervisor (manager responsible for a specific area where improvements are required);
• the head of the quality service (if we are talking about processes on which quality depends) or the repairman (if these are production processes);
• two people from other departments (accounting, purchasing or acceptance-shipment department, representative of the supplier or customer); these people, who are not privy to the process, will ask questions, perhaps silly, from the point of view of specialists, but necessary for the emergence of new, breakthrough ideas.

The team goes to the shop and collects data on the performance of current operations as of one day (production volume, rejection rate, quality issues, hidden losses due to movement through the warehouse, machine downtime, etc.). Then the problems that arise in the process of achieving the goal set by the Director General are described. The task of the first day of the group is to understand the goal and collect data about the process.

2nd day. The person in charge (CEO, COO, external consultant) should take the lead in reviewing the team's list of issues that need to be addressed on the way to the goal. All participants are involved in the discussion. Combine similar ideas and try to focus on two or three possible solutions. The proposed improvements need to be measurable.

3rd day. The working group discusses the possibility of implementing the ideas. Let the team agree that small trial improvements will be implemented in which all employees can participate. Someone on the team should start documenting the new procedures. It should be noted that the group submits a report on the transformations to the General Director no later than the fifth day.

4th day. The group continues to implement the changes and begins to work on measuring the effectiveness of the new process. To tell management what improvements the team has made, it will need to compare performance before and after the change.

5th day. The group finalizes the documentation of the new operating procedures and reports back to the CEO (if he did not participate in the brainstorming) what improvements were made.

"Company number one" or the ideal company If the company is part of a community, country, if the company has high ethical standards, financial strength, attractive locations, progressive working conditions in the long term - this will be my ideal company. And also, if the company has flexible working conditions, a clear path for promotion, competitive remuneration, international career opportunities and a career followed by a secure financial base with full employment being the most important thing to me. To be an ideal company, it must have a clear vision of the mission and ideas for managing the company in order to carve out its place in this big world.

There are many benefits of a good company culture. Some of these benefits include productivity, employee morale and motivation, increased interaction and collaboration, employee turnover, and company profits. Companies must work to achieve a "good" corporate culture, but as a potential employee, you can match the culture fairly quickly during the interview. Ask yourself the following questions to help determine company culture:

• Will I be involved in decisions that affect me?
• Do company employees focus on getting jobs rather than politics?
• Will I be personally responsible for my work?
• Will I look forward to coming to work for this company?

If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you can bet absolutely sure that this company is close to perfect. What do I need to do?

Improving Organizational Culture

Training your employees in the right direction is an important step towards improving the work culture of the organization. When your employees know how to do things right and what the company expects from them, conflicts and mistakes can be greatly reduced.

Discuss with team members issues related to the current culture of the organization. Make changes that you find worthwhile. Maintain healthy communication with the team. Tell the team about the organization's leadership and strategies adopted to create a more engaging company culture. Conflict is an integral part of any organization and is directly related to the health of its culture. Therefore, when conflicts arise, management must resolve them quickly and amicably.

Creation of an objective, transparent and fair system of conflict resolution.

A positive company culture can do wonders for your business by turning ordinary employees into super workers who go above and beyond your competitors.

Provide easy access to information

Give employees quick access to information so they can make their own decisions with the information they need. Failure to do so can result in loss of opportunities and income.

Increasing employee engagement

Without frequent interactions between employees, good ideas and opportunities are missed. The result: valuable workers frustrated with their insignificance, which, as a result of poor cooperation, can be disheartening. And yet, how to develop the involvement of employees when many work remotely? An IP network with integrated voice, video, and wireless communications provides interactive web-based video conferencing, IP telephony, and other tools that facilitate collaboration.

Improve the quality of your company's customer service

In a tough economic climate, improving customer service can be the key to survival. The reputation of a company depends on the quality of customer service. Favour, customers, and your customer base will increase due to their relatives and neighbors, who will be recommended to them by satisfied customers who work with you. But if one is unhappy, it can also cause word of mouth. “The experience people have with your company and then what they hear from friends and family affects their perception and likelihood of doing business with the company. Understand what is important to customers. The speed and availability of services are universal truths. Improving customer service - starts with your employees. The most important person in the customer service scheme is the manager, since staff turnover is directly managed by the manager. Other important qualities are empathy, consistency and patience. Experience is vital, but it can be a double-edged sword: too much and the representative may come across as pedantic or condescending; too little and the representative will not know how to handle sensitive situations. Improving Customer Service: Use Online Tools to Personalize Help Your website is usually the first introduction customers have to your company, so your homepage should be user-friendly.

Each new day gives you the opportunity to move forward. You can improve your business on several fronts: by increasing profits, reducing losses, getting more customers, expanding markets.

1. Determine your core values What is your mission? What makes your business most valuable?

2. The right people Assess the potential of hired people and their compatibility with core values ​​and corporate culture. Ask specific interview questions that focus on loyalty, passion for your job, and the ability to communicate and work with other people. These traits can have a significant impact on the productivity and coherence of your employees.

3. Build a system of trust and accountability Your employees need to know that you respect them and trust their abilities. Let's start with empowering qualified employees to share in the decisions that affect the company. A little extra responsibility shows your confidence. If your employees make a mistake, hold them accountable - not by punishing them for failures, but by analyzing the mistakes. Be clear about what went wrong, how to fix it, and how to make sure it never happens again. Trust and responsibility goes beyond the interaction of employees, the relationship with customers is also very important. If your business is not honest with its customers, it can hurt employee relationships with customers. Learn from mistakes and keep your promises.

5. Reward People usually respond well to well-deserved praise and become motivated to keep doing good work that supports your core company values. The best way for you to use this fact is to create performance incentives that reward employees when they reach a goal. The reward doesn't have to be monetary - you can alternatively offer small, unique perks like a better parking spot or an honorary title (like "Employee of the Month"). The strength and vitality of your corporate culture comes down to your people doing work that advances your core values. This positive attitude will extend to everything - improving customer relationships by getting a new order, and improving your brand as perceived by people outside of your company.

How to Improve Company Morale Without Spending Money

Company morale is a key indicator of employee satisfaction. Tax incentives are critical in attracting talented workers. However, non-monetary rewards remain a critical resource that directly affects the improvement of company morale.

1. Determine what motivates employees by surveying areas of importance in career development: leadership, praise, recognition, status, accomplishment tasks, and guiding others.

2. Link the vision of the company and its mission by connecting the individual goals of employees. Create an atmosphere that expresses genuine concern for employees. Ask staff to bring photographs, short stories, and memorabilia. The employee's life and general well-being fits into the larger goals, missions and vision of the company.

3. Instill a sense of confidence in the company's ability to provide resources for employees to succeed.

4. Highlight the achievements and success stories of employees by placing them in a prominent place.

5. Lead by example. The behavior model you are looking for in your employees.

6. Promote open communication towards achieving your goals.

7. Increase the level of responsibility. Set clear goals to accomplish. Be prepared to explain to your employees how to achieve the goal. Be available to employees. Help them identify problems by working together to overcome obstacles and explain how to achieve personal success. Encourage employees to be proactive in solving problems and welcoming their contributions.

Be creative by creating a productive and interesting work environment. Print posters with inspirational sayings and post them in prominent places.

1. Make sure your employees understand what you expect from them. Employees who understand what is expected of them are much more satisfied and productive than employees who have to guess what it takes to complete their job successfully.

2. Smiles. Smiles are contagious, if you smile, your employees smile too. The reverse is also true. If you spend your day with a grimace on your face, your employees will adopt your sour mood.

3. Provide positive recognition. Employees need to hear that they are doing a good job in order to keep doing a good job.

Surveys show that many employees are more motivated, their work is valued, recognizing high marks, than for a salary increase or additional incentives.

4. Let your employees leave early for the occasion if they finish their work early. Some employees don't want to go home, and that's okay.

5. Make your work environment fun. For example, competitions are great to cheer up and, as a result, work productivity. Sooner or later people will stop being afraid of work. You can increase the motivation and loyalty of the company by introducing a less rigid schedule, tying work time to the result. An employee may feel responsible for the productive use of their time.

Determine what your company can offer to improve the work environment. Financial incentives, additional training and other benefits increase productivity.

1. Find out what motivates your employees. Give them the opportunity to do a self-assessment to see what is hindering productivity in the workplace. Perhaps the working conditions need to be improved (Internet speed, the presence or absence of devices important for work, etc.).

2. Creating effective changes in the shortest possible time can increase productivity at no other cost. Adding new resources, flexible time, educating people are also important components of motivation and performance.

3. Remove inefficient resources. It can be equipment or people. Sometimes bad equipment or a bad worker can create less desirable results from an activity. Update tools that are essential to the manufacturing process, or replace a worker who refuses to meet the standards set by management. By improving the environment, you can change the end result in your favor.

Employers can increase the productivity of workers by improving working conditions and removing obstacles that prevent workers from performing at their best. Management must provide workers with the tools they need to carry out their duties.

Team Building

Events such as corporate parties or outings will improve employee morale and allow employees to get to know each other better outside of the office. Relationships built outside the company can enhance team spirit at work. Events and activities also improve employee satisfaction, which can lead to increased productivity.

Connection

To reward employees, management must communicate its goals to employees. Regular meetings will help maintain a clear vision of employees' goals. Workers without a clear understanding of the company's goals are less likely to work towards meeting them.

Employee recognition

Managers and supervisors can motivate employees by encouraging and stimulating them to achieve goals. Praise workers for a job well done will help inspire workers to give their best. This employee can also inspire other employees to achieve goals productively. Monetary and other incentives are also a good way to increase productivity.

Environment

The work environment can play a big role in productivity among workers. The location of the office must be efficient and allow employees to do their jobs without obstruction or interference. In addition, giving workers a place in the office, such as a personal desk, encourages a sense of belonging that can improve worker morale and satisfaction. Improved morale and job satisfaction leads to increased productivity.

Limiting communication time both among employees and on the Internet can increase your productivity. It's hard to be productive in today's world where distractions and situations go from TV to the Internet to your home computer and smartphone. Add to that the traditional distractions of family, kids, friends, and colleagues, and it's amazing that we can get anything done in such a short amount of time. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to quell distractions and improve productivity. Get rid of the time thieves. Turn off the TV, log out of your email, log out of social networks and other sites such as Twitter and Facebook, stop mindlessly surfing websites and blogs. The Internet can be viewed as a wealth of useful information or a major time waster, depending on how you use it. If you can completely disconnect from the Internet, do so. If your job, on the other hand, requires you to use the internet to answer emails or research, limit your use of social media and reading non-work related literature and newspapers. Find a quiet place to do your work. Noise and movement can be distracting. Without distraction, there may be a quieter place, such as a public library or your own home office.

Communication in the workplace

Chatting with co-workers on a coffee break is fine, but the constant distractions of personal email, text messages, instant messages, or visitors can be detrimental to your productivity. Tell employees not to disturb you during certain hours when you need to be more productive. Tell friends and family about this.

organization

Organize your desk to rid it of clutter that can make you absent-minded. Make sure to remember where you have everything, down to paper clips, pens and notebooks. A clutter-free workplace will help make you more productive. Don't forget to organize your time as well. Marking important appointments and project deadlines on a calendar will help your productivity and allow you to see specific goals.

Incentives

Form a system of rewarding yourself for achievements. For example, if you have a 10-page paper due within two weeks and you want it to be done on time, create incentives to write at least one page a day. The incentive could be the time spent on your favorite site after completing that day's page, or it could be a movie or a meeting with friends. Rewarding yourself for your hard work will increase your chances of being productive.

Instruction

Western methods of management seek to standardize processes, regulate them and force personnel to work according to these regulations. Such methods exclude feedback from management to subordinates, management rarely visits and is not interested in the opinion of workers, and therefore production is inefficient. And workers are powerless to change the situation.

In order to create an atmosphere of continuous improvement in the quality of work in the team, employees must be sure: - that the management is always interested in the opinion of all employees of the company,
- that each employee is personally responsible for his work and has the right to suggest improvements,
- that all changes will not be discussed and adopted strictly collectively,
- and that the initiative will always be encouraged. With such support for change and a focus on change throughout the management system, workers themselves will strive to improve production efficiency. It is also important that workers have confidence in their future. The director should assure subordinates that even in difficult times the company will not have employees. That each employee is invaluable to the enterprise. Such guarantees are especially relevant after the past economic crisis and mass layoffs as a result of it. Another incentive is the opportunity to receive advanced training at the enterprise. Along with stimulating the desire for career growth, this improves the quality of work, its productivity and reduces time costs.

To reduce marriage, you need to do the following: - collect and analyze all the causes of marriage;
- identify the main products for which marriage often occurs, and the main stages of production where it occurs;
- Interrogate all employees associated with the release of low-quality products on the subject: how to eliminate defects;
- create an action plan for improvement;
- to make amendments to the technology of the necessary production processes;
- create instructions and recommendations for improving product quality, if necessary, detail production procedures;
- improve the system of motivation of employees to eliminate defects;
- if necessary, conduct training for both employees and even management.
All these activities must be carried out with the direct participation of a team of workers.

The introduction of lean manufacturing, which means that each employee should strive to do their job faster, better and with minimal labor costs. First, it is necessary to create working groups to speed up the exchange of information between the management and the work team and eliminate distortions and delays in the flow of information . Working groups should consist of representatives from all departments and meet regularly to solve daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Each group must resolve the issue at its own level, regulate it and present the finished solution to the leader. The decisions of the group related to the increase in production efficiency must be immediately implemented. And middle management should be responsible for their implementation. Secondly, jobs should be used rationally. This means that there should be free space around the worker, no obstacles for his movements, rationally designed passages between machines and workshops. This will increase the utilization rate of equipment, save time and costs, free up production space and reduce losses during movement. Thirdly, you should change activities (introduce staff rotation). This will familiarize workers with related processes, clearly demonstrate what happens when defective products enter the next shop. Workers can, by communicating, jointly solve cross-functional problems and eliminate them. The staff is disciplined, understands what slows down production and which specialists redo each other's work. Fourthly, the implementation of a system for caring for equipment and a workplace reduces changeover time, reduces the risk of an accident and increases production safety. As a result of a careful attitude, the utilization rate of the equipment reaches its maximum value.