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Workers, no matter how well intentioned and gungho, will be looked upon unfavorably when they try to impose their vision of how things should be. Especially newer ones.
There's a reason why the status quo hasn't changed.
You can try all you want but be aware it can backfire on you and your life will be miserable there until they either fire you or you quit.
I do have the experience to make the changes. I've been in manufacturing a long time and know how it should run.
That answers my question about technical expertise. Don't minimize the change management portion. Simply implementing a technical/process fix will fail if people aren't on board. They will sabatoge it simply because they don't like the change.
What about capital? Does your proposed change require investment in retooling? That could be a barrier to adopting your plan.
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The problem with the CEO is that he is a 38 year old son of the owner who doesn't know about manufacturing. He is a 2 year old trainee so to speak. Never ran a business before.
That is a challenge, but not insurmountable. If he know enough about general business practices and finances, he might understand that the plant is underperforming and be willing to take action.
It doesn't really change my assessment. If you manage to set up a meeting with the CEO, you bring two envelopes with you. The first one contains your proposal for change, the other one is your resignation letter. CEO gets to choose which one to act upon.
You were hired to oversee a department. You need to make your performance in your job stand out. I really like the Lean 6 Sigma method (I may be the only one). But it's a way to get everyone involved in the process, thus, everyone sees where the problem is and how to fix it. Why not put together a "brown bag" training session, request permission to conduct it over lunch (buy pizza, whatever). Map out your department and streamline it. We had a guy who diagrammed flow charts and swim lanes...he was really good at it. Inevitably your department is affected by the ineptitude of other areas of the business. You don't have to be the one to focus on that. The "logjam" of the process is identified by the training. Then everyone (in your department) has the opportunity to come up with solutions.
Do not walk around talking about the upper management's inabilities. I promise you it's already gotten back to them.
Unless you can marry into the family, family run businesses will protect their own, no matter how inept they are, no matter what the financial health of the company. It's pretty much a losing battle. On the other hand, if you can propose ideas that will make THEM look good...you may be on to something.
How invested are you in this company? I do understand being a loyal employee. Kudos to you for that.
You were hired to oversee a department. You need to make your performance in your job stand out. I really like the Lean 6 Sigma method (I may be the only one). But it's a way to get everyone involved in the process, thus, everyone sees where the problem is and how to fix it. Why not put together a "brown bag" training session, request permission to conduct it over lunch (buy pizza, whatever). Map out your department and streamline it. We had a guy who diagrammed flow charts and swim lanes...he was really good at it. Inevitably your department is affected by the ineptitude of other areas of the business. You don't have to be the one to focus on that. The "logjam" of the process is identified by the training. Then everyone (in your department) has the opportunity to come up with solutions.
Starting a Lean process of any significant scale needs executive buy-in. Otherwise somebody higher up in the food chain is going to start asking questions, like why are the department leads always diagramming things on whiteboards rather than working on the floor? How come all these job changes are being proposed?
OP has identified a problem. He needs others to agree that it is a problem. Only then can work on a solution begin.
Starting a Lean process of any significant scale needs executive buy-in. Otherwise somebody higher up in the food chain is going to start asking questions, like why are the department leads always diagramming things on whiteboards rather than working on the floor? How come all these job changes are being proposed?
OP has identified a problem. He needs others to agree that it is a problem. Only then can work on a solution begin.
I was suggesting a working lunch to pull the team together and improve his own department (of which he's in charge).
He already has others who agree that it's a problem.
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