Playbook, Production

A production playbook is basically a set of alternative options depending upon predictable situations.

The most common playbook entries cover operating in unusual staffing or demand situations. One set of plays might clarify what is done when 1, 2, or 3 people are absent, and another set of plays might cover how to set up for 3 different demand ranges or for a demand spike.

In addition to staffing and demand plays, you might have plays for when there are maintenance issues, or even plays for how to manage when there is a natural disaster.

When creating plays, it is important to make sure that work is spread out and that nobody has an undue burden placed on them. This means both during the running of the play and afterwards. This is targeted at office workers who routinely leave piles of work for their absent coworker.

Getting Help

Well-run companies have the ability to match their staffing to the current demand. (See shojinka). This takes a lot of preparation, and it takes planning about what you will do with people when they are not doing production.

For example, perhaps a production area operates with fluctuating demand. Normal demand might require 4 people to meet the takt time. Low demand might require 3 people. High demand might require 5 people. You can’t just have a person standing around when you only need 3, and you can’t magically make a 5^th person appear when demand is high.

That means cross-training with another group, having supervisors or engineers step in, or bringing in temp workers. The key is to know in advance what you are going to do and have a process ready to go.

For production lines, playbooks mean multiple takt times and multiple sets of Standard Work. Each demand level requires its own standards.

Don’t Overload People

Think ahead about how you are going to split up work. This means that whenever a person is gone there is about 8 hours of work that needs to get covered.

It is unreasonable to expect one person to do all that work. So, let’s assume you have a production line with 4 people, one of them is absent, and you are unable to backfill.

The playbook should tell you how the work will be split up. You’ll be limited by some sequencing issues since tasks have to be done in a set order, and you may have some physical layout issues that make bouncing back and forth more difficult. Leaders will need to get creative on how to do assembly line shifts when the line is shorthanded.

This seems pretty obvious in manufacturing. If a production manager didn’t split up the work when there were fewer people, one person would be holding everyone else up. The message is really more for office managers. They have the luxury of letting work pile up., so they often do. That puts an unfair burden on the person when they return from work.

Instead of one person returning to a giant pile of catchup work, make a playbook so everyone has an equal, but much smaller, pile of work.