Daily Management

2009-01-07T02:52:00.000-08:00

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Refer the other topics that are closely related to "Daily Management": (5S Housekeeping) http://5s-housekeeping.blogspot.com/, (Kaizen) http://kaizen-improvement.blogspot.com/, (Gemba Kaizen) http://gemba-kaizen-improvement.blogspot.com/, (Total Productive Maintenance- TPM) http://total-productive-maintenance.blogspot.com/, (Total Quality Management- TQM) http://total-quality-concept.blogspot.com/

Introduction and Definition

Daily Management is the system that provides the ability to manage departments, functions, and processes, wherein processes are defined, standardized, controlled, and improved by the process owners.
Important aspect is that the management should be done on a day-to-day basis. This ensures that daily jobs and daily objectives are accomplished strictly on daily basis. There is a perfect control system built into daily management which does not ordinarily allow any slip up on daily plans, activities and results.
Business, we know, is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous in an environment increasingly unpredictable, competitive, and fraught with danger, that their continued existence depends on the day-to-day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence. (Konosuke Matsushita)

Innovations/Breakthroughs and Daily Continuous Improvements

Innovations/breakthroughs are brought about in any organization occasionally or intermittently. There is a high jump in improvements. These high jump improvements are incorporated in the new practices/systems/processes. Then, after one innovation/breakthrough, there may be a lull. During this lull period and in absence of daily management or continuous improvements, these dramatically improved processes start degrading or deteriorating. And the processes become inefficient/ineffective. Lots of advantages of innovation disappear or are lost.
This is where daily management comes in. It insists on daily performance and also, daily improvements. It keeps on maintaining and further improving the processes. The fall or degradation of processes is now just not possible. Therefore, daily management is in fact a management imperative. You cannot do without it (you may occasionally do without an innovation/breakthrough).
It may not be as stunning or exciting as an innovation, effective daily management is the foundation on which maximization of advantages due to innovation and company viability firmly stay.

Daily Management: Subset of Long Term Management and Is Customer Driven

Daily management is daily planning and execution of daily plans on a day-to-day basis by every one in the organization at each level from top to bottom.
Daily plan is the set of tasks and activities to be executed during the day as per a decided sequence on a time line.
Daily plan should be derived from the organization’s vision and mission and the long term/annual objectives and departmental objectives. These get translated into department’s key performance areas (KPA) or key result areas (KRA) as well as the job/position descriptions. In turn, each KPA/KRA is expressed in terms of measurable objectives in that area.
Since organization’s annual plans are driven by the external customers’ requirements, ultimately each department’s plan also is focused to fulfill customer requirements.
Thus the daily deliverables of each department must fulfill the daily requirements of its next internal customer departments. Therefore, the daily plan of each department and each individual in the department should satisfy this condition. as well as the job/position description requirements.
Day’s plan thus arrived at is then the basis for executing the daily tasks and activities.
Therefore, daily management is a subset of long-term management and is customer driven.
These daily tasks/activities are slotted during the day’s available time based on the principles of fourth generation time management i.e. when to do which activity? You may like to refer: (Time Management) http://time-life-management.blogspot.com/
Each activity thus decided must therefore be executed in accordance with the daily plan.
In doing so, continuous improvements will have to be effected to ensure that higher performance is achieved within the existing resources and with high productivity.

Indicators of Ineffective Daily Management

Increased quality problems and incidents.
Process performance (quality and output) different from shift to shift.
Planned process changes/product changes don't get implemented smoothly.
Different operators run the same machines and equipment differently.
There is no improvement in work rules, methods, and conditions for a long time.
Process performance deteriorates as the machines and equipment get older.
There is recurrence of the same problems in key performance areas (e.g. quality, cost, delivery, productivity).
Different departments (and individuals within departments) have or appear to have different goals and objectives.
Machines and equipment breakdowns create havoc for the organization.
Processes are run to the best of the operator's ability and adjustments and corrections are made based on his judgment (rather than based on data and analysis).
When expert employees change jobs or retire, problems spring up in their work place.
Process performance modification and controls are not documented.
Many problems of quality and accountability are traced to during shift transfer or handing over.
Expedited orders slow down (even get lost) between shifts and/or between departments.
During VIP visits, employees waste time and effort on housekeeping.

Slip-up on Daily Management May Mean “Lost Customers”

Customers are got and retained because your organization is giving value to those customers higher than the one given by the competitors.
The “value” deliverables to the customers are: products that customers need, overall quality, pre/during/post service level, relationship with the customers, the price customers are willing to pay and acceptable lead time.
If the “daily management” of the departments and the managers do not include the activities meant to deliver the “value” thus understood and they are not executed as per the daily plans, the entire value chain becomes weak and value creation and value transfer process suffers. Ultimately the delivered value is less than the one the customer expected or less than the one promised to the customer.
One such single failure or its repetition may result in “lost customers”.
The lost customers may take away from your organization many more customers by simple “word of mouth” anti-publicity.
Getting back lost customers is a very expensive proposition.

Daily Management Model

Establish ownership: It is the foundation of daily management. For inculcating the sense of ownership the roles and responsibilities for the department and empowering the employees to perform their daily work are the pre-requisites.
Define and standardize: Define the processes. Develop and implement common operational practices.
Daily Control: Monitor, review, control and correct to maintain performance levels and prevent slippages or backlogs.
Daily improvement: Incorporate some daily improvements as a part of continuous improvement program.
Data-based Communication: Establish data and fact based systems of communication between employees and between departments.
Daily Work: The above-mentioned five factors ensure daily completion of daily tasks in a Superior fashion as per the plans. . Daily work completion is the primary objective of any department.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in "Daily Management" is provided by Prodcons Group's Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar, management consultant, management guru and trainer- par excellence, with the distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations. Guidance and assistance in implementation of "Daily Management System" are also given by the team of Prodcons Group.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

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