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Who's Responsible for What and Who's in Charge Here?
Posted by MWidra,
06 February 2015
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4,348 views
responsibilities
So we had our morning production meeting today. The question was raised by the Plant Manager about why a Maintenance worker did not perform a particular cleaning procedure after working on something. The Maintenance Director said his understanding was that the production workers were to perform that after maintenance notified them that the repair was completed.
The Maintenance Director reports to the Plant Manager, who also is in charge of production. And we have a non-food grade industrial product line that is made in a separate building from the food grade, so it's a complex site.
The obvious answer is to have a document that says who does what. I proposed that. You would think that I had insulted them, but if they know the need for a document, why hadn't they written one? Just do it, was my thought, biting my tongue.
But the greater problem here is that the Plant Manager is also the head of Production, but considers that the production workers are "his" workers and that the maintenance workers are not always so favored. As more evidence mounts, the attitude is changing, but some of the damage is already done.
IMHO, the Maintenance Department should be independent of Production. They are at odds too much, and maintenance has to fix too much that the production workers break carelessly. There's no doubt about that, I can see the evidence too much as the safety officer as well as the food safety officer. We have some talented forklift and crane operators in the production ranks, they can manage to hit things that are way out of where they should be working.
It's outside of my power/responsibility to say that this is not a good situation, that the Maintenance Department should have equal clout as Production. But it's how I feel.
It sure would make it easier to get an agreement on who should do what if all those at the negotiations are on a level playing field.
The Maintenance Director reports to the Plant Manager, who also is in charge of production. And we have a non-food grade industrial product line that is made in a separate building from the food grade, so it's a complex site.
The obvious answer is to have a document that says who does what. I proposed that. You would think that I had insulted them, but if they know the need for a document, why hadn't they written one? Just do it, was my thought, biting my tongue.
But the greater problem here is that the Plant Manager is also the head of Production, but considers that the production workers are "his" workers and that the maintenance workers are not always so favored. As more evidence mounts, the attitude is changing, but some of the damage is already done.
IMHO, the Maintenance Department should be independent of Production. They are at odds too much, and maintenance has to fix too much that the production workers break carelessly. There's no doubt about that, I can see the evidence too much as the safety officer as well as the food safety officer. We have some talented forklift and crane operators in the production ranks, they can manage to hit things that are way out of where they should be working.
It's outside of my power/responsibility to say that this is not a good situation, that the Maintenance Department should have equal clout as Production. But it's how I feel.
It sure would make it easier to get an agreement on who should do what if all those at the negotiations are on a level playing field.
Sorry but I couldn't resist.......