For anyone who has worked in Manufacturing - what people problems have you come up against?

Question

Are people problems the same for managers in manufacturing as other industries? How are the dealt with - any examples please?

Answer 1

People are people and management's people problems are the same everywhere - how do i get the most production/effort/efficiency from my labor? The easiest solution is automate. That said, automation may not be a solution, so then you have people problems. There are broad categories of problems: absenteeism, presenteeism, sabatoge, errors, etc. Each problem has a set of tools and techniques for solving them. Because manufacturing (pretty braod term) might have a different demographic than, say, retail or heathcare, you might find yourself dealing with more of a certasin type of problem than others.

Answer 2

Addressing people problems will be greatly influenced by the industry the population is manufacturing for. I've been in manufacturing for 10 years. The person who is dishonest in cabling with the manufacturing records is reprimanded. The person who is dishonest in medical device manufacturing is fired.
The widgets themselves might also influence the population and their problems. An environment where the product never changes, and people dont contribute more than the same thing every day will create boredom. An environment where people are challenged, feel like they bring valued skills to the team are less likely to exhibit that same problems.
Its tough to generalize in manufacturing. Areas like fine wire soldering might have a higher concentration of women because they are physiologocally better suited to tasks requiring fine motor skills.
I would not assume a techinical environment would be more populated by men. That assumption irks me. Whoever answered that, I have unkind words for you.

Answer 3

There are differences in employees between retail and manufacturing. Since the jobs may be more technical or manual labor the work force may be more male and may also be union. You still need to treat emloyees the same way- with respect and dignity and they will usually do a good job. There are good and bad employees in both areas and the problems are similar -lazy, poor attendance, poor job performance, argumentative, dishonest etc. You deal with it by counseling, training and if need be by terminating them