A monthly people review for automotive component makers: ten questions for the owner

On the first Tuesday of the month, the owner of a stampings and assemblies plant reads three reports: dispatch against the schedule, customer rejections in parts per million and receivables ageing. People appear on none of them. They surface when the tier one buyer rings about a missed truck, or when the weld line stops because the only signed-off tack welder on nights has gone home ill. By then the decision is a scramble.

A fixed monthly review puts people risk on the same desk as dispatch. The format below suits the plants described on our component plant HR page: three shifts, customer call-offs, a few scarce setters and a large operator base. Four people sit for forty-five minutes: the owner, the works manager, whoever leads HR, and one shift supervisor who changes each month.

Q1. Which lines ran extra shifts or Sunday working because the customer's schedule portal changed, and whose names carried most of those hours?
Q2. Which starred stations on the control plan had fewer than two signed-off operators on any shift?
Q3. How often did a relief operator stand at a station where the matrix did not show him as qualified?
Q4. Which customer complaints, premium freight bills or red-bin spikes traced back to a skipped poka-yoke check, a rushed die change or a stand-in?
Q5. Which setters, die fitters or mould technicians show signs of leaving, and who is their trained second?
Q6. How did absence look over the three days following wage credit, and near any festival, line by line?
Q7. Did every joiner in this month's batch complete the six-shift induction sheet and reach code 2 on one station?
Q8. Which supervisor issued the most warnings or had the most disputes, and does another shift handle the same problem differently?
Q9. What near misses or injuries were logged at presses, spot welding guns, robot cells or the paint oven, and what changed afterwards?
Q10. What did we promise the floor last month, and did it happen?

• Q1 and Q6: the biometric punch export and overtime slips, split by line and by person, never as one plant total.
• Q2, Q3 and Q7: the skill matrix with sign-off dates, the relief board beside the line office and the joiners' induction sheets.
• Q4: the complaint log, red-bin tallies and quality's corrective action write-ups, including any freight debit notes from the customer.
• Q5: stay conversations, the tool room's call-out log and what line leaders overhear at tea breaks.
• Q8: warning letters and grievance slips, sorted by shift and supervisor.
• Q9: near-miss cards dropped in the box at the press shop, plus the safety officer's note on what was done.
• Q10: last month's action list, which opens every pack.

1. 1

   HR pulls the figures two working days ahead

   One page, one row per question, a short answer and a colour: green for fine, amber for watch, red for act now.

2. 2

   Supervisors check their own lines

   Each shift supervisor sees the draft for his crew a day early and can add a line of context. No surprises in the room.

3. 3

   Last month's actions go on top

   Each action shows done, slipped or dropped, with a reason. The review loses credibility the first month this is skipped.

4. 4

   Reds get one action each

   An owner's initials, a deadline and what will look different. Ambers are noted and checked next month. Greens get no discussion.

5. 5

   The owner signs the page

   A signed sheet filed by month becomes a running record of how people risk was handled, which helps in customer audits too.

Single answers mislead. Overtime on the axle bracket line, heavy absence there after wage credit and three warnings from its night supervisor may be one story. The same few operators get asked for every extra shift, tire, take days off, and get written up. Treat it as one red with one owner, not three separate actions. Patterns that repeat for two months deserve a walk on that line by the owner himself.

• Discuss patterns by line, shift and role; operators are not named for blame in this meeting.
• The visiting supervisor speaks first on Q8 and Q10, since managers rarely hear the night crew's version.
• Every agreed step carries one person's initials and a target week.
• If a question has been green for six months, keep it anyway. A quiet record is information.

The usual failure is a month of heavy call-offs when the meeting is postponed, then dropped. Book twelve dates each January and hold a short version rather than skip one. Software helps only after the habit holds; reporting and analytics support can then build the pack straight from the registers. For why a plant-wide leaver figure cannot replace Q5 and Q8, see why a single leaver figure misleads. The rotation rules behind Q1 are laid out under shift and overtime planning for auto parts plants.