The qualities that a successful production manager or material manager should possess.

The qualities that a successful production manager or material manager should possess.

Every company in manufacturing needs a position, that is, a production planner. The person in charge of production planning is called production manager, or production management engineer or production management planner, commonly known as production management (PC). The person in charge of material planning is called material manager, or commonly known as material control (MC), and some companies are called material manager (business department) after the name of Taiwan Province Province.

No matter what his/her name is, his/her main responsibility is to plan and arrange production and materials. This is a very hard job, and we have to face many problems and challenges every day, such as customer's request to insert orders, early delivery, changing the order quantity, machine failure and downtime, supplier's delay in delivery, poor procurement quality and so on. ......

However, the company still needs to deliver goods to customers as scheduled, not only to maintain the efficiency and normal operation of the production line, but also to maintain a very low inventory level. He/she is the soul and nerve center of the manufacturing factory. Every day, he/she has to face many unexpected situations and make many decisions, but generally speaking, he/she can't escape from three basic problems:

1. What do you want to produce or buy?

Second, how much is produced or purchased?

3. When should the production or purchase order be issued? When should the order be completed?

These three questions are not easy to answer.

It is not easy to play the role of a successful production manager and material manager. He/she should have a good understanding of the company's products and production steps, as well as the characteristics and uses of materials, and always control the production schedule and the state of materials. Only in this way can we plan and control production and materials. Besides professional skills and knowledge, what qualities does he/she have?

APICS has listed ten qualities that a production planner should possess. The following is a detailed explanation.

1, a good number concept: because the planning and control of production and materials are related to numbers, such as what is the order quantity of production or procurement? Which project (item)? What is the value of the inventory amount? When should the order be completed? Moreover, this number is changing at any time. Without the concept of numbers, it is difficult to do and do things well. Do you have a good concept of numbers? Most of them are personal, and your efforts and changes are limited. This is because the person who holds this position must first understand his own characteristics.

2. Grasp the implied meaning of numbers: Numbers certainly provide some information, but what does it mean? For example, is inventory too high or too low? Can the plan be realized as scheduled? Is the production efficiency in line with expectations? Has the on-time delivery rate improved for customers? All these need to be discussed or explained by production management or material management personnel. So it is helpful to have a deeper understanding of the hidden meaning behind numbers.

3. Keep calm under pressure: Due to the ever-changing situation, there will be many unexpected problems, and many things can't be carried out according to the original plan, such as the supplier's delayed delivery, and the inventory account is not allowed to cause shortage. Under such pressure, production management/material management personnel must keep calm in order to make better eucalyptus substitutes and have unexpected effects.

4. Be flexible and try to do what others think is impossible: because the actual environmental conditions are changing all the time, when the original plan cannot be implemented, the production management/material management personnel must come up with better methods to solve the problem. There are not only one or two solutions, just like the creed advocated by industrial engineers: "There is a better way for everything". Production management/material management personnel must also come up with better methods when facing problems. "Production management/material management personnel must also come up with better methods when facing problems, and put them into planning and implementation.

5. Be a problem solver, not just a fire brigade: production management/material management personnel may face many problems every day, which may be temporary or frequent for a long time. If they only play the role of firefighters, they can only solve the problems at that time or that day, but if the root causes of the problems are not found and solved, the problems will still happen again and again. Therefore, production management/material management personnel should not only solve the temporary problem (fire fighting), but also try to find out the crux of the problem and completely solve it to avoid its recurrence or reduce its frequency. In practical work, many production management/material management personnel try their best to play the role of firefighters in their daily work, but they are unable to solve fundamental problems, such as establishing systems or proposing improvements. Therefore, they often feel very tired.

6. Orderliness, good data preservation and high accuracy: Production management/material management personnel have to deal with massive data every day, including customer orders, production schedules, manufacturing work orders, dispatch work orders, purchase orders, supplier delivery orders, warehouse receipts, etc. If you don't have good habits at ordinary times, you can classify and file these data at any time to facilitate the query and avoid not finding the needed data when needed. Therefore, we should first ask ourselves to do everything in an orderly way, and at the same time, we should also ask ourselves to provide or provide information to others with high accuracy, such as inventory, production completion, sales forecast, specifications and quantities of customer orders, etc. If the information is inaccurate, the decision based on it will be wrong, and the wrong decision often needs ten or even a hundred times of strength to make up. PMC management

7. Firm determination to achieve the expected task: As the implementation of the plan often encounters difficulties, production management and material management personnel must have firm determination to overcome all difficulties and achieve the original goal.

8. Good communicator: The role of production management and material management personnel is the coordinator of many functional departments, so they must also have good communication skills. This communication skill includes oral, written and interpersonal communication, so as to reconcile the opinions of various departments and solve problems together.

9. Gain trust and confidence: Production management and material management personnel are responsible for planning and control, and his or her decisions are followed by production, procurement and other departments. Therefore, it is usually necessary to build others' respect and confidence in his/her plan before it can be effectively implemented. Production/material management personnel should think and plan carefully in advance, consider possible situations, and avoid "changing constantly", thus winning the trust and confidence of relevant departments.

10. In order to solve the problem, we are willing to reflect the problem to the higher level of the organization: small problems faced by production management or material management personnel are often big problems that affect the whole large enterprise, such as: the goods promised to customers cannot be delivered on time, the production line stops for some reason, and workers have nothing to do. At this time, the production management or material management personnel must immediately report upwards, ask for instructions or help solve it. "People talk lightly" dare not report to the higher authorities, thus delaying the processing time limit, and small problems will become big problems if they are delayed for a long time.

Production management and material control personnel are people who coordinate various units and draft production or material plans in manufacturing industry. To do this job well, some of them must have some innate qualities, such as having a good concept of numbers; Some can be obtained from their own requirements and training. For example, the above-mentioned calmness, calmness, firmness, accuracy, good communication skills and problem-solving ability, successful production control/material control personnel will not only have a good working life, but also be the most important and indispensable wealth in the manufacturing industry.

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