What can you learn from the best industrial plant strategies?

If you don’t work in an environment with machinery and heavy production lines, it’s fair to say that you might be tempted to believe that there is nothing you could learn that would be applicable in the service and marketing sector.

Are you really sure about that one?

100% sure?

If you answered yes to the previous question, you might want to reconsider your approach. Indeed, dedicated industrial strategies are designed to make the most of the available equipment and resources to produce the best possible results at the lowest possible cost. Doing more for less sounds exactly like the kind of things that can be valuable in any type of businesses. All you need to do is to get at the bottom of each process to understand its role. Strategies such as lean manufacturing, timed action plans, and production line cooperation can exist just as well in an industrial environment and in the office. Here’s how to make it work.

Lean production management

Lean machining and production is the act of standardising the existing work processes, through the mean of developing automatic behaviour for CNC machinery. Indeed, as the machine is able to determine additional information through pre-existing data input. For instance, CNC can be set to read ID tags on tools and materials, so that it can follow the relevant protocol without requiring the operator’s involvement. The bottom line is that once the set of automatic rules has been defined, the operators can identify unexpected issues and develop critical thinking to address it. Transposed in an office environment, you can get your team together to write down how they use everyday tools – from Google Analytics to task management software – to identify the quickest and most effective approach. This will be your set of ‘automated rules,’ which saves you time and thinking room to work.

Strategic goals into manageable action plans

Production chains keep on track by monitoring the number of units they make over a period. When a new or urgent order comes in, the quantities are divided over a number of production lines, machines, warehouses, and days or weeks. They break down the big goal in small and achievable steps. Similarly, you can re-purpose this approach to keep long-term projects going and focus on one item in your to-do list at a time. You’ll be surprised to notice that you can achieve more when you quit trying to tackle everything at the same time.

Team cooperation every single step of the way

Working together effectively should come naturally. But most offices struggle with a fair share of tasks and responsibilities among team members. In the industrial world, though, everyone knows and understands their function in the lane of events, making cooperation appear smooth and accessible. You can apply this tip in the workplace, focusing on communication and leadership to ensure everyone plays a role in the big picture. Employees who don’t feel integrated into projects tend to act counter -productively.

Charlie Chaplin got it right with Modern Times. When one person fails to respect the work process, it’s the whole production that needs to be stopped. Similarly, office-based companies also need to understand how to make the most of their resources in terms of skills, people and time to keep a productive profile.