For manufacturing companies, the cost of misalignment is missed deadlines, wasted materials, and frustrated customers—but figuring out how to stay aligned is a challenge in itself.
In the midst of daily fire fighting on the shop floor, the team may start to feel that time spent in meetings is time wasted, or discard regular meetings altogether. Communication can become fragmented and irregular, and time that appeared to be “saved” by skipping meetings becomes lost to inefficiency issues—issues that could have been avoided if the team were in full alignment.
How does a manufacturing team strike the right balance between time spent aligning and time spent executing? It comes down to committing to a regular cadence of structured meetings. Instead of meeting for the sake of meeting, every minute of these events needs to be approached with purpose and clear expectations.
Resolve Issues Fast with Daily Huddles
To sustain a continual flow of important information without taking too much time from operational work, establish a Daily Huddle. This is a short, focused meeting, no more than 10 or 15 minutes, to keep the team informed so they can proactively tackle issues as they arise.
To run your Daily Huddles effectively, you must:
- Start on time. This sets the tone for a tight, disciplined meeting. This is not the space for long, meandering discussions. Pro tip: Set your Daily Huddle at a memorable time, like 7:37 am, instead of on the hour or half hour. This slight shift in time can bring out more intentionality in your teams.
- Bring issues to the forefront. Since time is of the essence, there can be no tiptoeing around problems or sweeping them under the rug. Everyone must understand that bringing issues to light so that they can be addressed is a gift to the whole team.
- Make decisions. Once problems have been brought up, decide on the actions that can be taken today in response, and identify who will execute these actions. Root cause issues may necessitate longer, more complex discussions; those should be noted and reserved for a different meeting.
- Show appreciation. In fast-paced environments, team energy and morale is everything. Create a practice of saying “thank you” to team members who bring issues to the forefront. You can also weave in moments of celebration, like employee shoutouts or Core Value stories, to make the team feel valued and united.
Dig Deeper with Daily Adjustment Meetings
Once a week, the team should hold a 60-90 minute Weekly Adjustment Meeting, or WAM. This is the venue for reviewing key metrics and the progress of strategic priorities, which helps the team stay focused on longer-term goals and understand the “why” behind their day-to-day efforts.
To have the best WAM possible, manufacturing teams should:
- Invite the right players. Consider who should attend this meeting. Who needs to have an in-depth view of team metrics and strategy? Who needs to contribute to the discussions and decision-making? Do not pull team members off the floor if they do not need to be there. Daily Huddles are sufficient for some employees.
- Hone in on key issues. Even though this meeting is longer, time is still precious. Make sure to discuss problem areas early in the meeting so that decisions can be made regarding next steps. You do not want to leave team members stuck or confused because you spent too much time on less impactful conversations.
- Invite guests or rotate attendance. Teams that work closely together, like Operations and Engineering, should consider how to best align using WAMs. For example, the leader of each team may join the other team’s WAM on a bi-weekly basis. Any issues that come up during a WAM that need the visibility of another team should be documented and communicated cross-departmentally following the meeting.
Slow Down to Speed Up on the Shop Floor
Sometimes, achieving high efficiency can feel counterintuitive, because you must slow down to speed up. Whether it is 15 minutes a day or 60 minutes a week, holding regular meetings may feel like a hard commitment to make—but ultimately, it will reduce misalignment and save the business time and money.
Implementing the right daily and weekly meeting rhythms will produce long-term results. Stay intentional, stay disciplined, and watch as the team begins to tackle issues faster and hit their targets more consistently—all because they are staying aligned.
If you need help establishing the right meeting habits, you are not alone. The Rhythm software has powerful tools to keep your team’s meetings tight, focused, and productive.