The Wizzywatts Assembly Line

Running head: the wizzywats assembly line 1

The WizzyWatts Assembly Line

Elizabeth Andrews

AET/550 –Performance Improvement and Management

May 4, 2015

Charles Crissey the wizzywats assembly line 2

The WizzyWatts Assembly Line

The WizzyWatts factory has been struggling with the performance levels demonstrated by the workers on the product assembly line. These employees demonstrated difficulty in identifying defective components correctly as they passed through their portion of the line, decreasing productivity and frustrating the management team.

In an effort to rectify problems on the assembly line WizzyWatts hired a workflow consultant to provide incite on the high level of defective components being let through the assembly process. He inspected the assembly line’s equipment and found there to be no mechanical problems in the assembly process. This led him to focus on the employees. He concluded that the level of defective parts was due to the worker’s levels of fatigue and alertness and implemented two interventions. One, replacing the workers chairs with more comfortable ones and two, provide the workers with timely breaks. Over a period of time the implementation of these solutions had little effect on the workers performance, leading WizzyWatts to hire a consultant specializing in Performance Improvement Technology.

1. Factors

The lack of performance improvement demonstrated the need to reexamine the

WizzyWatts system to reveal factors that may have been overlooked by the first consultant. The first consultant did little to look at the entire system of the factory; he only focused on the environmental impact on the workers. This only provided him with a small portion of a larger picture in the assembly line process.

“Productivity of a manufacturing system is one of the important elements that decide the enterprise competitive power” (Hwam, Chung, Chang, & Park, 2013). The drop in productivity due to the continued poor performance of the workers will have dire impacts on the the wizzywats assembly line 3 factory if it is not resolved. There may be a host of underlying factors that the first consultant missed and therefor was unable to resolve the assembly line’s poor product quality output.

One of the factors that may have been overlooked was the consistency and level of training received by the workers on the assembly line. Whether it is a business, factory, school, or program proper training is vital to the success of any system where quality products and results are expected. The WizzyWatts factory is no different, which is why data will need to be collected and analyzed to determine if training is a major factor is the assembly line’s deficiencies.

Another factor may lie in the engagement and motivation level of the employees working on the assembly line. “Solid evidence supports both the need for and the benefits of motivational programs at work. For the past two decades the most comprehensive surveys of attitudes toward work demonstrate a disturbing but consistent lack of motivation among employees at all levels in all types of organizations” (Pershing, 2006, "20"). With this in mind an understanding of the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of WizzyWatts’ assembly workers may prove to be an important link to their level of performance.

2. Solutions and Interventions

Solutions and interventions for the factors employee training and motivation will require obtaining data. The data collected will provide the baseline knowledge to careful and thoughtfully design an appropriate and successful plan for the WizzyWatts factory.

First, to address the factory of employee training the consultant will collect data from a number of sources. Employee and management questionnaires will be deployed inquiring on the level of training received, their knowledge of current training policies, and the required level of knowledge needed prior to employment. Second, hard data will be collected on which assembly the wizzywats assembly line 4 line shifts are allowing the most defective product through. This will help the consultant confirm if the performance problem is widespread. Finally the data may also reveal patterns (such as survey results and performance levels aligning) that can determine if certain shifts were trained differently resulting in poor performance.

“Employees need to know how to perform their jobs. Even if a company performs every other HPI intervention well, if it does not instruct employees on how to perform their functions, the company will experience performance problems. Skills and information education concentrates on the long term, while skills and information training focuses on learning specific job competencies” (Humphress & Berge, 2006). If the data collected points to training deficiencies within the factory the consultant will design an intervention plan to help improve the

WizzyWatts training protocol. Adjustments to their training system will include a pre-test to gage the base-line of each employee’s baseline knowledge the WizzyWatts’ components specs.

The resulting data will be collected and analyzed so that the employees can be separate into groups based on their knowledge gaps demonstrated on the test. Each group will be provided professional development centered on their deficiencies and will then be required to retake the test. Each employee must pass the entire test before returning to the line. This educational process will ensure that each employee on the assembly line will have receive the needed training to successfully evaluate the quality of each component moving through their station.

The second factor of employee motivation will also require data collection. Again, surveys will be distributed to the assembly line workers. These surveys will include questions pertaining to the workers’ over-all work experience, their desire to produce quality work, and over all motivation to meeting the needs of the company. The surveys will provide answers to some of the specific areas that may be influenced by a lack of employee motivation. This data the wizzywats assembly line 5 will help provide focus for the design of the next assessment, conducting interviews. According to Pershing (2006), interviews are one of the first steps in collecting data, but unlike surveys they provide in-depth answers and dialog concerning workers’ job, company, attitudes, opinions, ideas, and feelings ("14"). This can be particularly helpful as interviews “also provide a means for respondents to explore their own solutions to personal and organizational problems, which may be beneficial when addressing emotionally charged issues” (Pershing, 2006, "14") lending focus to the type of intervention(s) needed.

If the data reveals that employee motivation is playing a role in performance of the assembly line workers motivation strategies will be employed as an intervention. This will include carefully designed monetary rewards for employees that achieve specific levels of defect free components at the end of their line. Pershing notes that a “body of studies testing different motivational strategies, conducted in small and large organizations, supports the claim that a well-designed and carefully implemented motivational program can have a very positive effect on performance” (Pershing, 2006, "20"). The rewards based initiative should provide the motivation needed to employees to invest their energy into producing higher quality work during their shifts.

Looking Forward

The factors uncovered by the performance improvement consultant are believed to be the cause of the performance issues within the assembly process at the WizzyWatts factory. Through the collection of data and its analysis a number of solutions and interventions were designed to improve the quality of work produced by the workers on the WizzyWatts assembly line. If these interventions prove to be successful the workers will be better trained, employee engagement and the wizzywats assembly line 6 motivation will rise, and the level of defective products will drop, resulting in a high functioning and profitable factory system. the wizzywats assembly line 7

References

Humphress, R., & Berge, Z. L. (2006). Justifying human performance improvement

interventions. Performance Improvement,45(7), 13-22,48. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/237247224?accountid=35812

Hwam, W. K., Chung, Y., Chang, D. S., & Park, S. C. (2013). Analysis and simulation

application for manual work performance improvement. International Journal of

Information and Education Technology, 3(6), 615-n/a.

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7763/IJIET.2013.V3.347

Pershing, J. A. (2006). Handbook of human performance technology: principles, practices, and

potential (3rd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.