If there’s a problem with your product, you want to find out about it as early on in the production process as possible so that you can minimise the risk. 

In the production world, I witnessed the lowest-value stage thinking first hand at the assembly line of a Toyota factory. Here, employees can pull the “Andon” cord to (temporarily) bring things to a halt as soon as they come across an issue. It’s an easy way of escalating things, making sure that a problem or bottleneck is dealt with before proceeding with the rest of the assembly process. 

In order to run a production process well, you’ll need a set of indicators that help you monitor and improve the efficiency of the production line. For these indicators to be useful, you have to focus each indicator on a specific operational goal. 

Leading indicators like the sales forecast, inventory, manpower and quality give you one way to look inside the production process by showing you in advance what the future might look like. 

Leverage is the output generated by a specific type of work activity. An activity with high leverage will generate a high level of output; an activity with low leverage, a low level of output. This raises the question about what qualifies as managerial leverage and output.

• Judgments and opinions
• Direction
• Allocation of resources
• Mistakes detected
• Personnel trained and subordinates developed
• Courses taught
• Products planned
• Commitments negotiated

A manager’s output is the output of all of the people and the teams that report into her. For example, if someone manages a design team, then his output consists of completed designs that are ready to be implemented. That output can take many different forms depending on the type of role and industry. Regardless of the form of output, managers must measure its quantity and quality:

A manager’s output = The output of his organisation + The output of the neighbouring organisations under his influence

To maximise the leverage of his or her activities, a manager must keep timeliness firmly in mind. Equally, managers micromanaging or ‘meddling’ are examples of negative leverage activities. A big part of a manager’s work is to supply information and know-how, and to share a sense of the preferred method of handling things to the teams under his control or influence.

• When many people are affected by one manager.
• When a person’s activity or behaviour over a long period of time is affected by a manager’s, well-focused set of words or actions.
• When a large group’s work is affected by an individual supplying a unique, key piece of knowledge or information.

• Identify our limiting step: determine which things have to happen on a schedule that’s absolute, and which can’t be moved. You can then plan more flexible activities around it and thus work more efficiently.
• Batching similar tasks: group similar activities, e.g. performance reviews, as these activities tend to require (mental) set-up time. You can thus maximise the set-up time needed for the task and reduce duplication of effort.
• Forecasting your activities: Your calendar can be a valuable production-planning tool.

A lot of managerial tasks are best suited for face-to-face interactions, and more often than not, for meetings. There are two kinds of meetings:

Process-oriented meetings: Knowledge is shared and information is exchanged during process-oriented meetings, which take place on a regular, scheduled basis.

Mission-oriented meetings: The purpose of mission-oriented meetings is to solve a specific problem and often produce a decision.

Three steps your planning process should consist of:

• Step 1 – Establish projected need or demand: What will the environment demand from you, your business, or your organisation?
• Step 2 – Establish your present status: What are you producing now? What will you be producing as your projects in the pipeline are completed?
• Step 3 – Compare and reconcile steps 1 and 2: What more (or less) do you need to do to produce what your environment will demand?