All manufacturers and distributors are dependent on transportation to get their goods and services to markets and customers. Therefore, reliable transportation at an economical cost is critical to realizing business profitability goals. To respond to these challenges, transportation and logistics providers need to be lean. They also should use scientific techniques to provide competitively priced, value-added services to their customers. 
A recent rerun of the HBO television series “Band of Brothers,” the story of an infantry division in World War Two, got me thinking in new directions. What impressed me the second time I saw the show was how well the men of Easy Company came together and were willing to commit to doing their duty. also evident was their unwillingness to accept poor leadership, as demonstrated by the first line supervisors resigning from the company to force higher command to address the issue of an incompetent company commander.
My thoughts turned to our plants. Do we have people who are committed to their success? Has the current leadership nurtured an environment or culture that encourages people to accept responsibility and performance?
Ask yourself some tough questions. Do your people bring up problems that must be resolved? Do they try to tackle the problems themselves and ask for help when needed? Does your organization have problems everyone knows about but no one is willing to tackle? Does everyone believes senior management doesn’t want to know or won’t believe people underneath them? Does the leadership in your organization monitor morale and the ability of your supervisors and managers to perform effectively?
Here’s a few more. Do your people come to you? If not, why not? Do you go to your superiors and tell them of problems and mistakes you have made or your people have made? If not, why not?
Your organziation’s future and your personal career depend on the people in your organization working together – everyday. It should occur in a positive, proactive way to improve your processes and deliver new higher value products.
It may be turning into a cliche, but it’s still true: The world is a new place. Plants in China, India, and Mexico, all can get the same equipment we have here. They can get the same computer systems. The only difference is the people – which plant has better trained, better motivated, and better-led workforce? That’s the plant that has a future.
How do you begin building a band of borthers in your plant organization? Here are some beginning steps:
All of these steps depend on you believing that your prime task is to tap the knowledge, experience, wisdom, and commitment of your people. Either you believe in your people or you don’t.
Leaders who believe have outstanding organizations, and those who don’t have organziations that just get by. In today’s world, that’s not good enough.
Successful organizations resolve their cross-functional business issues using project teams with specific objectives and deliverables. Such project teams focus on subjects like introducing new products, resolving perennial production issues, achieving greater customer satisfaction, and so on. They may be calles a task force, SWAT team, productivity team, or anything else that infers an aggressive approach to problem solving.
The communication within these teams should be structured according to company values and culture. this can be a difficult issue internally and even more difficult when external contractors or consulting firms are involved. Like most of us, team members are typically more skilled at the technical or administrative tasks than they are at effectively communicating at all levels within the organization. and external companies may bring a wealth of knowledge to the project but seldom understand their clinet’s underlying power structure.
Remember your own experiences with project teams. Is it not true that successful projects always enjoyed excellent communication? Didn’t team members understand the overall project goals and other stakeholders were allowed to voice opinions? Those affected by the project were kept in the loop and willingly did their part. Effective communications was the lubricant that kept the project flowing smoothly. I find it interesting that so vital an ingredient as communication really consumes so little time within the project. Effective communication is the thread that joins the pieces of the project, yet it typically consumes only a small percentage of the overall project effort. But this small percentage is, arguably the most important piece of the project, whether the communication is purely internal or includes external companies.
Project communication consists of verbal and written communications aimed at keeping the project members informed. It also educates the employees of any eventual impact on their jobs and informs stakeholders about eventual benefits. It also spreads excitement aboout the project. we have all seen project plans in the form of PERT or GANTT charts that are distributed as the project status is updated. But there are more creative and effective ways of communicating this.
A large pharmaceutical company compiles an intranet guide for each of its projects. the guide contains project objectives, deliverables, team members, organizational structure and project calendar. Each member brings it to every meeting and writes his/her notes and actions which are subsequently added to the document. at any time, employees and stakeholders can see the current status of the project, right down to the most trivial concern noted by each team member.
A company I used to work for held daily lunch meetings to keep team members updated as the project deadline approached. This assured nobody would have conflicting priorities, and the short, informal communication overkill kept the team focused during the most critical period.
A project leader in another company decided that only top ten, critical issues would be addressed in team meetings. he asked members to settle other issues in small sub-groups. That eliminated distractions and allowed the leader to focus on the critical few issues.
A war room can bring peace. Office space dedicated to a specific project will provide team members an area that they can work surrounded by other team members, flow charts, project calendars, and other accoutrements of the project. This allows team members to better focus on the project, particularly if they are just part-time members.
There are project management software solutions that can be accessed through the Internet. This software can share schedules, maintain documentation, allow authorized individuals to update it, and will initiate email reminders. External vendors and consultants can also access the software if given security access.
These are some of the more successful project communication techniques I have learned over the years and many projects. please let me know if you have come across any interesting communication issues and how they are resolved. there are always lessons to be learned.
