Case Study - Productivity reporting 

Manufacturing Business 

The Problem 

This business was an established manufacturer making a range of standard products. They had a lot of orders coming in, but were making only average profit margins.  They ran a workshop with trade workers of various levels of qualification and skill. The foreman managed production by what he could see, and the owners felt there was a lot of room for improvement.  

The Action 

Data from trade worker timesheets was captured and analysed to determine average build times for each item, average wage costs, and to see what times the highly skilled workers could achieve.  

The data was then used to set target and average times for each product, and a production report created to report results to the owners, foreman and workers on a fortnightly basis. This allowed the foreman to address any performance issues while the completed work was still fresh in everyone's mind, and before they became ongoing trends.  

These results were also incorporated into 6 monthly performance reviews to show improvement over time. 

The Results 

Putting benchmarks in place and providing regular feedback was effective in setting the expectations for trade workers, which in turn improved performance. 

The foreman had an objective way of measuring the performance of his workers that could be used to manage the workshop, and to conduct performance reviews. 

Average build times for their highest selling product went from 50 hours to 35 hours, increasing gross profit margin on that product from 7% to 20%.