The Monday Conversation: Five Questions a Manufacturing CEO Should Ask the Plant Head

Beyond the Dashboard

Dashboards are good at telling a CEO what happened. They are weak at telling her what is about to. The gap between the two usually lives in a weekly conversation with the person who runs the plant, and the quality of that conversation depends almost entirely on the questions.

Here are five that tend to work, with the reasoning behind each. None needs a new report.

The Five Core Questions

1. What stopped the line last week, and for how long? Not "how was uptime", which invites a percentage. Ask for the stoppages themselves, in order. Patterns show up in a list that never show up in an average: the same die, the same supplier, the same shift. A plant head who can recite them has been standing on the floor. One who has to check has been reading summaries.

2. Where is the rework hiding? Every plant has a corner where parts get fixed instead of made right. It is rarely on the books as a cost centre. Ask where it is, who does it, and how many hours a week it takes. The honest answer is usually larger than anyone guessed, and often traces back to one incoming material or one machine setting.

3. Which customer complaint has been open the longest? A long-open complaint is a small wound the plant has learned to ignore. It tells you whether quality problems travel to the people who can fix them, or die in a folder.

4. Who could run tomorrow's shift if the supervisor didn't turn up? This is the succession question at the level where it matters most. If the answer is a name, ask what that person has been taught lately. If the answer is a pause, you have found your next training budget.

5. What would you stop doing if I let you? People who run plants carry reporting duties, meetings and approvals that long ago stopped earning their keep. Giving someone permission to name one takes about thirty seconds and tells you what the organisation has been quietly paying for.

“Patterns show up in a list that never show up in an average.”

How to Use Them

Ask on the floor, not in the cabin, and ask the same questions each week so the answers can be compared. Write nothing down in front of the person; write it afterwards. And when the answer is uncomfortable, thank them. The fastest way to stop getting honest answers is to react badly to one.

The point of all five is the same. A CEO who knows where the line stops, where the rework sits and who is next in line is running the company. One who knows the uptime percentage is watching it.