Software Designed For Your People

Vince – Operations Manager

Title

Operations Manager

Department

Operations

Demographics

• 
  57 years old
  
• 
  Bachelors in Process Engineering
  

Environments

• 
  Private office, but spends a lot of time on the go within the company
  

Goals

• 
  Increase profit by getting a quality product out on time with the best customer service possible
  
• 
  Support the strategic goals of the company
  
• 
  Maintain financial controls over expenses
  
• 
  Provide various departments with what they need when they need it
  
• 
  Keep employee turnover low by bringing in excellent employees
  
• 
  Minimize inventory of both raw materials and finished goods
  

Roles

• 
  Production Manager
  
• 
  Operations Manager
  
• 
  Business Analyst
  
• 
  Customer Service Provider
  
• 
  Expeditor
  
• 
  Policy Maker
  
• 
  Mediator
  
• 
  Personnel Support Overseer
  

Core Activities

• 
  Decision making
  
• 
  Problem solving
  
• 
  Ongoing management and review of staff and production
  
• 
  Ongoing business analysis to determine production issues
  

Communication, Collaboration, and Interactions

• 
  Communicates with clients and suppliers by using their preferred method
  
• 
  Communicates primarily with the production staff and also the staff in QA, Materials, Product Design, Process Engineering, Purchasing, Planning, and Sales
  
• 
  Communicates with the Shop supervisor about upcoming, weekly plans and schedules
  
• 
  Communicates with project leaders who deal with specific customers
  
• 
  Meets with product design and sales staff
  
• 
  Meets frequently with each of the program and project managers
  
• 
  Participates in meetings with clients to discuss project deadlines and deliverables
  
• 
  Tracks all staff in the plant
  
• 
  Works with the Materials manager to develop reports that match the company’s business systems and also track them
  

Persona Variables

• 
  Operations managers are typically found in core, mid-market manufacturing companies
  
• 
  In small production companies, a Production manager generally fills this role
  
• 
  In distribution companies, a Materials manager generally fills this role
  
• 
  In companies where the Operations manager is the VP of Operations, the actual day-to-day production planning is handled by a Production Planner
  

Pain Points

• 
  Only 5 percent of the company’s computer system capability is used to facilitate daily operations
  
• 
  Company relies far too much on paper documentation instead of using the computer system
  
• 
  Losing valuable time when the system crashes
  
• 
  Not being able to retrieve information from the system to complete job tasks
  
• 
  Not enough hours in a day
  
• 
  Amount of time that was used to manually enter all the historical data into a new system
  
• 
  Details of daily production activity not being available until after midnight, because of the backup schedule
  
• 
  Amount of difficulty in tracking inventory and trying to find out how much inventory is on hand
  
• 
  Forecasts that are really off
  
• 
  Constantly following up with the Sales department in order to know where the breakdowns occur between Sales and Production
  
• 
  Having to figure out how to move purchase orders through the system with a minimum amount of pain, because the Production department gets tired of taking sales requests
  

Computer Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• 
  Word, Excel, Outlook
  
• 
  Fax machine
  

Values, Fears, and Goals

• 
  Always wants to know why something happened, not just the consequences or the results
  
• 
  Appreciates when a system is streamlined, or when he receives solid data, and can then see the immediate results of that
  

Technology Attitudes

• 
  Wants every person to have access to any information they need to do their job
  

Interactions

• 
  Interacts with the Warehouse, Purchasing, Production, Materials, and Shipping and Receiving managers during daily, half-hour meetings to review sales order reports and solve any problems
  
• 
  Interacts with senior management in the Sales and Purchasing departments during weekly meetings to review sales orders and plan the upcoming week
  
• 
  Interacts with customers to provide purchase estimates
  

Communication Style

• 
  Pulls together people all day long, in groups of two and three, to resolve problems
  
• 
  Calls specific individuals by phone if that resolves a problem
  
• 
  Uses email when he needs to send information to five or more people
  
• 
  Prints out and distributes important emails that could affect someone’s work
  
• 
  Posts bar charts throughout the production areas to show staff what the production numbers are
  

Business Intelligence Questions

• 
  Is our labor efficiency up or down and why
  
• 
  Is inventory trending up or down, what is causing the fluctuation
  
• 
  Should we add a new product line, how will that impact the production of existing products
  
• 
  Will we hit our revenue targets for the month
  
• 
  How many units should we make for the discount stores
  
• 
  How can we reduce costs
  
• 
  Will we get the product out in time to our key customers, or in time for key product launches
  
• 
  What do we need to do to make sure products get out in time
  

7:30 – 8:00 AM

• 
  Get a cup of coffee
  
• 
  Read through email messages and respond to the urgent ones first
  
• 
  Complete international phone calls
  

8:00 – 8:30

• 
  Walk through the shop to see how things are going at each station
  
• 
  Check in with the machine operators and the Shop Floor manager to see if there are any problems
  

8:30 – 10:00

• 
  Review the Sales Bookings and Shop Floor reports
  
• 
  Get briefed by Production and check the load for each department and the flow of the jobs
  
• 
  Get all the Operations departments together to plan the day, prioritize jobs, and address any exceptions or large orders
  
• 
  Discuss any potential delays
  

10:00 – 12:00

• 
  Approve specifications and drawings
  
• 
  Answer the Purchasing department’s questions about prices and quantities
  
• 
  Respond to breakdowns and machine maintenance
  
• 
  Drop in on Engineering to anticipate work order issues
  
• 
  Respond to a key customer's questions about their orders
  

12:00 – 1:00 PM

• 
  Eat lunch on the go
  

1:00 – 4:00

• 
  Resolve work stoppages if the line goes down
  
• 
  Approve purchases of capital equipment with the CFO
  
• 
  Deal with multiple personnel matters
  

4:00 – 7:00 PM

• 
  Work on strategic plans and other engineering issues related to new products or processing
  
• 
  Get confirmation from the Production department that all the work orders for the day are closed
  
• 
  Read the rest of the email messages to see what requires a response
  
• 
  Go home
  

Production Manager

• 
  Plans or approves the plan for managing the demand for materials
  
• 
  Manages inventory
  
• 
  Breaks down projects into labor and materials and estimates the subcontractor requirements
  
• 
  Works with the Sales department on forecasting
  

Troubleshooter

• 
  Anticipates the various ways that production problems can arise
  
• 
  Manages risk by developing a plan for production overflow
  
• 
  Stays close to operational needs by walking through the production area on a daily basis
  
• 
  Communicates daily with the Production manager and Planner to review operations
  

Status Checker

• 
  Produces a weekly tracking and scheduling report that reflects all the departments
  
• 
  Reviews orders, job assignments, and readiness to begin work with all the machine operators, the Shop Floor manager, and with Production management
  

Decision Maker

• 
  Participates in make-buy and make-drop decisions
  
• 
  Collaborates with other members in senior management on which ERP system to buy
  
• 
  Follows up on IT problems with the software vendor
  

Problem Solver

• 
  Resolves engineering issues related to new product development, new product releases, the capacity required for new products, and the feasibility of manufacturing a proposed product
  
• 
  Resolves emergencies stemming from jobs that have not been completed
  
• 
  Resolves problems with assembled products that have component parts that are not aligned
  
• 
  Resolves any problems identified in daily briefings with Production
  

Efficiency Strategist

• 
  Maintains productivity by off-loading customer requests to Sales when necessary
  
• 
  Prioritizes customer responses
  
• 
  Continually evaluates production efficiency
  
• 
  Works to maximize production across all the cost centers
  
• 
  Works with Production and Process Engineering to improve staff efficiency
  
• 
  Approves the development of new processes or the purchase of new equipment
  

Quality Control Contact

• 
  Communicates to the Quality and Production managers any problems about products that are in the field
  
• 
  Tracks issues about product defects
  

Meeting Leader

• 
  Leads a weekly meeting about the production schedule with the Production, Materials, Warehouse, Purchasing, and Planning staff
  
• 
  Leads a weekly meeting with design and process engineers on job design, processes, and specifications
  
• 
  Leads a weekly production meeting to review inventory count, project status, and metrics
  
• 
  Schedules formal meetings or presentations with other department heads when needed
  

Cost Controller

• 
  Estimates the cost of a job by using either partial or complete MRP information
  
• 
  Monitors budgets and approves expenditures
  
• 
  Performs post mortem reviews of projects and programs to determine areas for improvement
  
• 
  Monitors and follows up on deviations in cost variance
  

Scrutinizer

• 
  Monitors adjustments made to inventory by Receiving
  
• 
  Identifies which high-priority orders Production needs to fill for the upcoming day
  
• 
  Reviews projected Sales reports
  
• 
  Reviews Shop Floor Capacity reports
  

Customer Service Provider

• 
  When necessary, responds to key customer inquiries or complaints about delivery of their orders
  
• 
  Occasionally quotes jobs and checks customer purchase orders for accuracy
  

Expeditor

• 
  Facilitates communication among the staff about relevant issues
  
• 
  Serves as backup for the Purchasing Agent
  
• 
  Provides information on quantity and price to the Purchasing manager
  

Policy Maker

• 
  Drafts personnel policies related to all production and manufacturing operations
  
• 
  Drafts strategic plans, policies, and procedures for Operations and Manufacturing
  

Personnel Support Overseer

• 
  Implements company employment policies and procedures
  
• 
  Motivates employees and responds to employee concerns
  
• 
  Mediates personnel issues and conflicts between machine operators that could interfere with production
  
• 
  Mediates between project managers to resolve job completion and production conflicts