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It appears the UK economy has started to grow again, albeit very slowly.
Sooner or later, businesses will come up against capacity constraints in meeting the demand. It is usually the case that unused capacity becomes lost capacity. The assumption that you had the capacity two years ago so still have it today is just that, an assumption.
To help bring up general productivity levels, to boost capacity, we suggest you think about the three techniques below and what they can do to your organisation’s performance.
Naturally the tools are largely software based as befits a 21st Century solution.
Industrial
In the industrial setting, we need to make widgets more cheaply than our competitors. The depreciation of the pound sterling will only be of temporary help. The following story shows a solution.
A keyboard manufacturer has to ensure the availability of all the parts needed to make a keyboard. In order to maximise efficiency they have dedicated moulding machines, one of reach key, one for each part of the case.
The operators of the machines are extremely skilled and by careful adjustments to the machines can change the throughput considerably. These operators are incentivised, the more parts they make the bigger their bonus.
The bonus scheme was a runaway success. So much so that the storage facility was overstocked with L, F and O keys for weeks. Clearly this wasn’t acceptable so the operators were asked to slow down but naturally it was only fair to protect their bonus payments. Clearly tightly incentivising people has dramatic results.
Office
Office work mostly involves computers these days so finding a way to measure how much attention people are paying to their work is of primary concern. You don’t want people looking out of the window daydreaming when they should be typing hard!
The biometric iris scanning systems, developed for high security access controls, provide a high tech solution.
A tiny camera fixed to the top of the screen and simply calibrated to the operator, allows a remote monitor of the amount of time the operator is looking at the screen.
The software package can accumulate data on 1024 different operators and display their statistics in real time as well as produce summary reports. This allows the employer to determine when an operator usually has slack time and can then have a supervisor on hand to give encouragement.
This productivity tool is being enhanced at present as it was discovered that many operators were capable of staring at the screens, daydreaming with their eyes open! Just another example of the lengths some people will go to in the attempt to avoid work!
Creative
Obviously those in the creative industries don’t expect to be tied to their PC screens! Yet capturing their ideas is important and a measure of how creative they are being. A simple solution, utilising well proved technology, is to monitor keyboard activity. The theory is simple. The more they type the more they have created.
Clichz is a software product that measures the person’s keystroke rate. While a copy typist might achieve a 1000 keystrokes per hour that would be high for a creative activity.
However the Clichz software has a nice feature. Along with the customary remote monitoring and summary reporting, it provides individual feedback to each creative person.
Each person has a little screen display showing their Clichz rating against their peers. This is done in a completely open manner and the figures are collated to be used in the annual appraisals during the payrise discussion.
Organisations find that this hugely increases the amount of created material.
Of course this incentive should not be applied to the quality control team. We would not suggest any pressure to pass more work and therefore endanger standards.
Organisations using the Clichz product have been extremely successful as witnessed by the expansion of their quality control teams.
The metrics are very good. The creative people are now twice as productive, as evidenced by their pay rates, and some organisations have had to treble their quality staff to keep pace with output!
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