Why The Pragmatic Plant Manager website:

 

 

There is a proliferation of literature and firms prescribing lean, operational excellence, manufacturing excellence, lean-6s, and other derivatives of manufacturing systems and continuous improvement. These all come at a cost; each slightly different. How does an operations leader know which to choose to satisfy their current need? 

 

Underwhelming results may be the fault of an executive at a critical inflection point of the business or the vision of the lean consultant. Perhaps the expectations are too ambitious regarding the magnitude of the expected results in a rather brief period of time. The Pragmatic Plant Manager prescribes to reasonable expectations that are scalable as a function of effort and commitment. 

 

“Are you better today than yesterday, will you be better tomorrow than today?”

 

“Better” is subjective and scalable.

 

“Today” is also subjective. One could move as quickly as the organization can absorb the change or as quickly as business conditions require.

 

The production philosophy is not as important as the conviction to succeed. The discipline of execution leads to success. Therefore, you, the leader, must decide what makes sense for the organization and how quickly change is necessary.

 

The objective of the Pragmatic Plant Manager website is to present a framework that is simple to understand and relevant to most. It will not be prescriptive. PragmaticPlantManager.com will:
 

• Educate

• Summarize to create awareness for executives

• Have specificity to utilize as an implementation roadmap

• Suggest standard work for the leaders of the organization

• Refer to widely-available, well-documented, free resources and tools to assist with your journey.

• Enable the reader to develop a “personalized” plan.

 

 

The Website:

 

PragmaticPlantManager.com will evolve over time to become a complete source supporting your journey toward operational excellence. What you need will be found through the pragmaticplantmanager.com portal. PragmaticPlantManager.com will provide references to widely available, well-documented free resources. It will also provide sufficient content to stand on its own.

 

The vision for The Pragmatic Plant Manager is to become a recognized brand in this space. Books are anticipated to provide detail for specific topics. The books will not be required to be successful but will serve as training tools and reference-guides for managers and associates. They may accelerate the operational excellence journey by reducing trial and error discoveries.

 

 

Operating Principles

 

The pragmatic plant manager protects the team, the customer and the shareholders. These serve as guiding principles for an operation. Or are these values? For the sake of clarity let’s discuss what a principle is, and what a value is. After this discussion, you should not be concerned with the terms you use. You should simply understand the relationship between the two so they become a part of your organizations DNA.

 

Principle:

A basic truth, law or assumption

A predetermined mode of action (check)

A standard or rule of personal conduct (ah ha)

 

Value:

Values are “whats” - that fail to answer the question “why?”

The principle answers the question “why?”

 

 

What might we do, should we do, to protect the team?

 

We should measure and improve employee morale.

We should possess an unrelenting focus on Safety.

We should create the proper environment assuring safe conditions for your associates.

Expect and motivate safe behaviors

Model, then demand leadership behaviors regarding safety.

 

 

What might we do, should we do to protect the customer?

 

We should produce quality products.

We should deliver these products when the customer requests them.

 

 

What might we do, should we do to protect the shareholders?

 

We should continuously improve the operating cost structure.

We should responsibly manage cash-flow.

We must meet the financial obligations of the organization.

 

 

Policy Deployment

 

PragmaticPlantManager.com presents a roadmap to consistently meet these operating principles. Even with this simply understood roadmap, distractions occur and it’s easy to lose your path. You are strongly encouraged to consider this a journey.

 

The pragmaticplantmanager.com will not provide all of the answers to the challenges you may face. Each journey is different – but we can all reach our destination. Use pragmaticplantmanager.com as a forum to share your experiences and learn from your peers.You will make mistakes and you will learn along the way. You, as the leader, need to understand the capacity your team has for change. 

 

We encourage you not approach this as revolutionary change. Your team needs time to understand the new philosophies and techniques. 

 

 

Enjoy the site.

 

Please conclude your visit at the contact page and provide feedback. We wish the site to evolve over time to meet the needs or our readers.