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The Basic Assumption and Principle of Our Management Process
Not all of your best employees are professionally trained managers. Most of them have come up through the ranks as experienced operators, foremen or supervisors. Their experience is invaluable to your company but their lack of professional training may be hindering your action plans.
This is probably showing up as late or non-existent employee appraisals, too many employee-related brush fires, out-of-spec production, lack of action on plans to change the way things work, people not getting ‘the message’ and an overall inability to make the kind of changes and improvements you know need to be made to keep up with your changing industry. You probably feel as though each department manager were running his own little isolated fiefdom and you can’t get control of the direction.
Some of the problems stem from the fact that as well intentioned and experienced as your managers are, they just don’t have the efficiency of professional training. Professional managers know the theory of managing people and processes so that less time is spent solving the same old problems over and over again and more time is spent making preparations for the future. But, professional managers are expensive and they don’t know your business. And you know that inserting outsiders into your chain of command will just mean expensive trouble and jeopardize your experience base.
Our Management Program helps you to put the infrastructure into place to enable your existing group to act as a professional management team. Then we provide an automated method for reminding your managers and supervisors what they need to do, on a daily basis, to act as though they were professionals.
Mnerva uses computerized databases to track management activity and automatically reminds managers that it is time to review a job description or give an annual performance review to an employee for example. The Program reminds managers when it’s time to call a meeting, it records the minutes, it keeps track of the work orders to keep your facility up to standard and, if you’re in the bakery or food industry, the program provides you with the documentation to qualify for a Superior rating from AIB.
We do this by taking your own knowledge, the experience of your combined group and formalizing it in a format that makes management easier. We will set up the proper enabling systems, interview employees for information and act as moderators for group get-togethers to arrive at your very own management program.
This process takes an intensive setting-up period followed by a regular and on-going maintenance mode in which we monitor the computerized management program to make sure it is working correctly and that everyone is participating.
At the end of the setting-up period you will already have a system that will allow you to track your company’s management performance simply by tapping into Mnerva’s on-line computerized results. As the system matures you will get an ever-clearer picture of individual managers’ performances and a better idea just who needs attention and more training.
The following sections outline some of the important points of each of the elements of the Mnerva program. You may commission us to install Mnerva from start to finish or on a modular basis, step by step maintaining control over the rate at which you install the program. In any case, even the initial stages will help you and your managers gain a better understanding of how you each view your operations.
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Mission Statements
Mission statements are an important starting point for any corporation. A mission statement must be written down and it must be where everyone can see it. It must have the full and undying commitment of top management. It must be reasonable, relevant, attainable and short. It must be able to evolve.
A properly worded statement tells the outside world what to expect. It also tells and reminds employees what you’re trying to do as a company. Perhaps the biggest benefit of a mission statement is in the very road to its preparation.
Just how do you come to that unique string of words that describes your company? It is very simply the product of many people. It is the product of the negotiations between departments. It is the outcome of discussions centered around ‘what can we do’ versus ‘what do we want to do’. It is a settling point of the tug of war between what have we always done and what should we be doing.
A good mission statement should reflect the commitment toward which everyone can reasonably strive. It should reflect your company’s current position and capabilities and it should represent a future target; some sort of standard against which overall achievements can be measured.
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Analysis of Business Procedures
This stage flows out of the negotiations of the Mission Statement. Questions have been raised about exactly how you do business. You find that each has a slightly different idea about who’s on first, etc. How do you handle a customer’s order, who places which document into circulation to initiate fulfillment. How do you deal with inventory control, ordering production, confirming shipments, initiating invoices, controlling quality, grading inventory, assuring quality (yes, they are different), tracking shipments and lots. Each of these and numerous other steps in your business need to be spelled out. This is the flow of your business and is important to define in order to properly develop practical job descriptions and avoid uncomfortable overlaps and gaps in authorities and responsibilities.
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Organization Chart
The organizational chart is an important tool to let everyone know where to go to get help. The development of the organization chart is a necessary experience. Most companies have fuzzy lines of command. This uncertainty results from people taking over during vacations and illness, lack of delineation between activities and responsibilities and workers who do more than one job reporting to more than one supervisor. There are many more honorable reasons why this fuzziness naturally comes to exist but the core root is lack of discipline and routine. It is important to go through the soul searching of drawing the lines. Invariably this activity leads to a redefining and clarification of responsibilities. And invariably everyone breathes a sigh of relief because the new defined organization is easier to predict and much less stressful.
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Job Descriptions
Interviews with all of the Occupations eventually results in a complete set of job descriptions for every jab and task in the company. While the completion of this encyclopedia can take some time usually the first 20 % of the work on this project already resolves 80% of the ambiguity in a company. The Mnerva Job Description System generally takes the form of:
 – Listing of all Occupations
– Description of Authorities and Responsibilities associated with each occupation
– Complete listing of all Jobs within an occupation
– Complete listing of all Tasks within each job
– Step by step description of how to Perform tasks
– Tips related to how best to perform each of the tasks
– Additional tips related to the ins-and-outs of doing the job right and wrong.
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Management Committees
Mnerva makes use of committees to handle the global issues, such as planning and policy making. It is important that managers get together regularly to compare notes; to allow all of them to hear the same story and to understand each other’s frustrations and these regular committee meetings are the gathering point. The committees represent an egalitarian or democratic approach to company management. They address the fact that you don’t have extra layers of management in your company and by spreading the decision making over the group you can build a buffer against the loss of any one management team member without paying the cost of redundancy. These committees are an important part of the overall organization chart.
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The Employment Manual
An Employment Manual spells out the relationship that employer and employee have. Most importantly it tells each party what is expected of them and what they can expect from the other. A well-constructed Employment Manual eliminates the need to re-think everything from vacations to illness to banked sick days to Grandmother’s funeral. This saves a lot of management time.
Example Table of Contents
Policies
The employment or employee policies reflect the character of your company. The policies tell your employees what they can expect from the company in most situations that may occur. More importantly the policies represent a sort of contract between the company and its employees and as a result the employment manual clearly tells employees exactly what is expected of them.
Food Safety
By incorporating the Food Safety Policies directly into the Employee Manual you underline the importance of your food safety philosophy and procedures and you make them an integral part of an employee/employer obligation.
Provides guidelines for Managers.
The manager’s copy of the employee’s manual provides forms, worksheets and advice for handling most employee situations. No longer will a manager have to hide from employee related tasks for fear of having to figure out what to do. All of the guidelines and forms covering employee appraisals and disciplinary actions are included in the program as are the following example issues.
Evaluations
Hiring
Discipline
Firing
Vacations and time off
Provides a tool for orientation of new employees
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Food Safety Policies
This set of policies provides the complete definition of standard operating procedures including engineering standards and Good Manufacturing Practices.
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Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
This is the heart of the matter. It is here that the management program starts. Everything else, every other management element is put into place to make sure that this core element is always supported, valid, up-to-date, real, relevant, accurate. You must have confidence that your management system is going to protect and nurture this; the heart of the matter.
Listing of all product families and all products
Development of schematics of all processes
Evaluation of the risks associated with each process step
Development of descriptions of the methods to control critical stages.
Integration of the operating methods and food safety policies.
Integration of the operating methods into task and job descriptions.
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AIB & SQF Checklist and Compliance
The regular, monthly group inspection walk through is the cornerstone of the Food Safety Committee activity.
1. Mnerva provides an inspection checklist for committee members to use to record observations during regular inspection tours.
2. Entry of inspection results into the work order system to record, list, prioritize, assign, track and remind.
3. The program automatically allows monitoring of departments to confirm compliance
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Listing of production areas
Map of building(s) and production areas
Assignment of responsibility for areas
Map of pest control devices
Map of electrical outlets
Map of control systems.
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Preventive Maintenance Section
Nothing will ruin your day like a machine breakdown with a customer’s truck waiting to load, or a production run contaminated by a blown seal caused by improper greasing. A properly designed Preventive Maintenance let’s you sleep better at night and gives your customers confidence
Listing of equipment, model numbers, serial numbers by areas (this will also make your banker happy)
List of parts and part numbers, supplier phone numbers
Description of maintenance and schedule
Description of method of performing maintenance.
Scheduling of Preventive Maintenance
System for regular, scheduled review of procedures
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Master Cleaning Schedules
You can’t leave cleaning to chance. One employee may get it but chances are others will not. You must have a documented system of telling everyone what to clean, how to clean it, when to clean it and how to check to make sure it is clean; and they need to document that cleaning and you need to double check it. If you can prove this to your customers they will be more confident.
By equipment, areas and responsibility
Approved cleaning methods and frequencies
Schedules of cleaning
Checklist for daily compliance
System for regular, scheduled review of procedures
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Training Program Curriculum
You can’t assume that everyone knows as much as you do. They go home at the end of the day and play with the dog. You stay and fret. You should make training a more formal affair. It needn’t be a university course it can be a session passing on experience from one to another. But document it; give them the material in a handout form so they can review it and so you can prove you’ve done it. Of course this is a never ending job and so you need to put some routine around it. Once you’ve done this you will be amazed how fast the knowledge base grows.
Training Credits
Training Records
The Curriculum
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Documentation of Ingredients
Here’s an important area. Are you passing your suppliers woes on to your own customers. Your customers rely on you to protect them. You need to have a system in place to monitor incoming ingredients and you need to have a system to evaluate new ingredients.
Specifications
Ongoing supplier guarantees
Sampling methods
Test methods and frequencies
Incoming ingredients receiving procedures.
Incoming/outgoing shipments inspection forms.
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Process Records
You need to be able to prove that you have exercised due diligence in making sure that your process and procedures have ensured safe products. More importantly you need to ensure yourself that your process made product that was up to your product quality standards, There is no better way to lose a customer that to ship product that didn’t taste right or wouldn’t perform correctly. The problem may not represent a food safety hazard but it sure will be a hazard to your bank account
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Consumer Complaint Procedures
Consumer complaints are the tip of your iceberg. You need to pay special attention to these because they will alert you to problems in your procedures that you may have missed. They can also herald the need for product recalls. The sooner and the more aggressively you handle these the better. The proper procedures with regular practice sessions of mock recalls can keep you out of court. Regular mock recalls underscores for everyone how important the program is.
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Pest Control Procedures
Proper pest control is like motherhood; it’s fundamental and it is essential. It is complicated but yet, handled properly, it’s straight forward.
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Procedures for Handling a Regulatory Inspection.
When the inspector shows up, does everyone know what to do. There is a very particular way to provide access and information to regulatory agencies. You want to make sure they get all the information to which they are entitled but you don’t want them to have inaccurate or partial information. Make sure everyone knows who is authorized to organize and provide the information.
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Metal Detector/Magnet Inspection Logs
It’s amazing how a simple form backed up with discipline and routine can keep a situation straight.
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That’s What We Do. Provide Systems for Discipline and Routine.
And Then … Safety Happens
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