Last night after work, I had a meeting with production to discuss the recent issues of low production efficiency and output. In fact, the problems are still the same ones as before, which we have discussed previously, but after a while, these issues resurface gradually. Today, I went around the workshop and found that out of 7 machines, only 3 were operating. Was it because there was nothing to do? I checked the production schedule and that was not the case; there were several orders that were about to expire. Is it because the personnel are overwhelmed? It doesn’t seem so; they even have time to play on their phones (not that playing on the phone is wrong, we don’t have strict rules against it). Clearly, it’s not that they are too busy.Ultimately, this boils down to a management issue. We have delegated authority in management, but we have not implemented proper supervision. Right after meetings, for a short period, things go well; meetings and discussions have a time-bound effectiveness. Therefore, there is often a situation where for the first few days after a meeting, things are done very well, and everything is followed according to the process, but once it gets busy for a while, we revert back to old habits. This reflects our management problems. We have tried to establish an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for every product, but sometimes when we have many samples to make, we tend to forget about the SOP once things get busy. As a result, sometimes employees, after finishing one step, do not know what the next step is or feel uncertain about how to proceed, so they end up waiting for instructions because we have not provided them with a complete SOP, leading to a feeling of being at a loss.Perhaps for experienced employees, it’s not too bad. After all, they’ve seen and dealt with many situations. However, relying on people and experienced individuals is not sustainable. I firmly believe in the power of SOPs for production. Everything has to be institutionalized and procedural to achieve stable results. If everything relies on manual management step by step, one, people will become exhausted, and two, due to limited energy, it’s simply impossible to manage effectively. Take our foam production, for example, starting from receiving the order to cutting the materials, programming, to setting up the machine, which step to do first, which step next, whether to change the tool in between, etc., must all form a complete SOP. Only in this way can employees operate smoothly and follow the process step by step without questions, ensuring high efficiency and quality of the products.