(Repost) Some summaries and insights on on-site production management

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Reposting Qingfeng’s blog: First, maintain a proper attitude, work for yourself, master skills, and do good deeds. 1. In our work, whenever we do something, we should not first consider it as the company’s responsibility, nor should we think of it as someone’s superior’s duty. You need to understand that every time we complete and handle a task successfully, it represents an opportunity for growth for us; it is also a form of experience that contributes greatly to our future work and personal development. At the same time, this job is an important source of income that helps sustain the livelihoods of our families; it should serve as a key starting point for each of us. In our work, we should approach everything with gratitude and a sense of responsibility, doing our best in whatever tasks we undertake – this is the proper attitude towards work for each of us. 2. When entering any industry or company, one is not familiar with everything, so a learning process is necessary; therefore, the right attitude towards learning is also very important. In my view, learning should not only involve learning from professional technicians – in fact, every experienced employee has something to teach. From professionals, one learns knowledge, while from experienced employees, one learns experience. If one can adopt this right attitude, integrating into a team should not be a problem. Integrating into a team is an important step in doing a good job in on-site management at the grassroots level. It’s difficult to carry out work at the grassroots level if one is unable to integrate into a team. Currently, there are a few grassroots managers whose methods for integrating into their teams when they first arrived were similar to these ； Using power to pressure others – I am the leader appointed by my boss, so you must obey me. Using power to force employees to do things, as well as using meals and drinks as a means to build relationships and employ tactics of flattery in order to get employees to work. All of these are not desirable. In my opinion, employees’ demands are actually quite simple: they need respect, they need praise, and they need to be convinced with reason. They need recognition for the work they do, and leadership recognition is a form of respect, a form of praise. In my opinion, there are no disobedient employees; only leaders who lack the skills to manage effectively. Every manager should be able to think from others’ perspectives. If I were an employee, how would I handle the tasks assigned to me by my supervisor? What would I think? This is one way of working. Never think that just because you are in a leadership position, you’re the best and the number one; that the department can’t function without you. We need to remember one sentence ； The world will keep turning without anyone; every enterprise is the foundation for all of us to survive. If you leave the company, it is not the company that suffers a loss – it is you. Without you, the company will continue to develop as before, but you will have to start over once you leave. Therefore, a proper and positive attitude is the foundation for doing work well. Second, learn to summarize and reflect on work and life, and learn to respect employees. We have to do a lot of work every day, which is very tiring; sometimes we have to go to the construction site in the middle of the night to resolve certain issues. But when we look back on the tasks we completed that day, we can’t even explain exactly what we did – it’s just a constant back-and-forth movement from one place to another. If this is the case frequently, it will reflect the seriousness of the problem. It’s shameful to be tired. What to do about those? My personal opinion is ； After working in a particular role for some time, one should learn to summarize, identify the root causes and patterns of the problems, and then consider solutions to them. How to simplify and organize complex tasks. Within three months of joining the company, I need to take two to three sets of notes, as I am not familiar with the environment, work processes, and the people around me at first. During these initial three months, I will learn about everything, record it all down, and write down my thoughts at that time, so as to be able to reflect on things and make improvements in the future. For example, when I first joined the Liling Ceramics Factory, it took me about ten days to record the basic information and individual capabilities of all the employees. At that time, there were 134 people working in our workshop. When I took over as the workshop supervisor forty days later, I brought out this notebook and made significant adjustments to the staff based on the information I had gathered at that time. Why the first three months? Because when you first arrive at a company, you are unaware of all the people, things, and the environment around you; therefore, your initial impressions and feelings are the most straightforward, free from any emotional bias. Over time, one will be assimilated, and the resulting perspective becomes more objective (Chinese people tend to approach matters with a strong emotional component). An objective perspective, however, allows one’s thoughts to be influenced by the environment and cultural factors, which may prevent achieving the desired results. Therefore, what we write down in our notebooks must be straightforward, and when thinking, we must rule out all various objective factors. As a new employee joining a company, there are things to do within the first three months. When decisions need to be made after those three months, you can review the records from that time to find evidence or the truth behind them. When communicating with employees, I often take the time outside of work to have casual conversations with them. However, there is a common issue that arises during such conversations: complaints. Many managers get annoyed as soon as they hear complaints; whenever someone complains, they respond with a counterargument, and in the end the conversation ends on a bad note. Some managers even say ； If you’re going to do it, do it; if not, get lost. Think about those who often complain to you; did they end up leaving? Most people, except for a few, will not leave! In fact, when communicating with employees, we should adopt an attitude of being a listener; there’s no need to explain things to them, as we are in different positions and view issues from different perspectives. Some issues simply cannot be explained clearly, and in such cases, it’s sufficient to act as a good listener. Being a good listener is not an easy task either; while listening, one needs to be in a good mood and able to be patient. Moreover, there is actually some very important information in their complaints, which needs to be identified through filtering those messages in order to address it as an issue in future work. Now let’s think about whether we ourselves often complain as well – definitely so. Complaining is actually a way of releasing stress, and in this process of releasing stress, there is a need for an audience. Often, one has to play that role of an audience member. If one fails to do so, three consequences can arise: first, employees will accumulate resentment and keep making mistakes at work; second, they will turn to their superiors for someone to listen to them; third, if they seek others as an audience, the impact will spread further. I don’t think this is the result we want. So one must be a listener and extract useful information while listening. Let me tell you a little story ； When I was working in Guangdong, my wife worked at the factory next to ours. One day she said that a few of her colleagues wanted to go shopping in the city and asked me to drive them there. So I went; along with my wife, there were four of us in total. That day I really understood what it means to say \"three women make one drama\" – as soon as we got in the car, they started talking non-stop. They complained about the unreasonable rules at the factory, about certain supervisors being incompetent, and about the boss being too strict, etc. It was all complaints. The drive took about half an hour; during that time I focused on driving and didn’t say a word. When we arrived in the city and were about to get out of the car, I spoke up once ； Since your factory is so poor, why don’t you leave? That factory is currently hiring people. They stopped talking right away, and later, when they were back at the factory, they remained quiet in the car as well. When my wife came home that night, she told me about what had happened in the afternoon ； They’re just talking; some of them have been working at this factory for five or six years and won’t leave easily. In fact, complaining is, in a way, a sign of concern; if one isn’t even willing to complain, then they have truly given up. It’s like when a leader loses even the interest in criticizing you – do you think you still have any future? Summarize in one sentence ； Everything that happens in work and life, every person who appears, requires us to keep track of it and think about it. Truth comes from practice; every one of our ideas is brought to life by our employees through their hard work. Therefore, we must learn to respect our employees and understand the importance of doing so. Third, we are sandwich cookies. As frontline managers, we are in a difficult position; why? We are responsible to the company and our supervisors at the higher levels, and at the same time we are responsible for our employees at the lower levels. Many times, employees have strong opinions, and we represent them by bringing those views to the company or management. But the boss has his own ideas and tells you what he thinks, before saying that this is the final decision and asking us to go back and convince the employees to accept it. When you go back, you first need to explain the situation to the employees from the company’s perspective. At that time, the employees are very confused and dissatisfied; some even use abusive language or engage in other extreme behaviors. This puts us in a difficult situation. It is necessary to protect the interests of employees as well as those of the company. What should be done? When faced with such situations, have you ever felt the urge to just walk away? Some people actually do that. If we have to protect interests on both sides, then who will protect ours? I would like to say something here ； Many of us talk about how much work we do every day and how little we can contribute to the company, but the boss just doesn’t understand or believe us. He only demands that we get things done without providing us with the necessary resources, so how are we supposed to carry out our tasks? Do we have such complaints? I used to have them. What I want to say now is ； You must believe that in a company, the person who knows you best is your boss; it’s just that the boss uses different criteria to judge you. The boss focuses only on the results, while we, as frontline managers, need to pay attention to the process, because it is impossible to achieve good results without a proper process. And it is at this point that the ability to control and manage this process, as well as to balance the interests of the company and its employees, tests a manager’s skills. We used to like to say a phrase all the time ； There is hard work even without any recognition. Perhaps this saying was somewhat useful in the past, but with the passage of time, it has lost most of its usefulness now. No matter how hard and tired you are, if the results aren’t good, no one will acknowledge your efforts. The leadership of the Southern Operations Center has now given us these words ； Getting the job done is ability; that’s merit. What “getting it done” means is the outcome—this is what leaders want to see and need. As for how to get it done, that refers to the process, which is precisely what we must do and control. There’s only one end result, but there are countless ways to achieve it. The boss evaluates our merits based on the results, while we grow and mature through the process. When making sandwich cookies, there is one principle to keep in mind ； One must not harm the interests of the company; doing so will mean no future for one. Nor should one harm the interests of employees, as that will result in losing their support. The right approach is to achieve a win-win situation. By making sandwich cookies, you can achieve something for yourself. Fourth, as managers at the grassroots level, it is our highest priority to implement the company’s intentions and decisions. So, how to carry it out effectively is a matter of execution ability. Many times, when the company assigns a task, we always have many objective reasons to delay it, and we don’t take action until the last moment. Sometimes the boss is too busy and forgets the tasks he assigned. Many of our managers see this as an opportunity to delay things indefinitely; and when the boss remembers to ask about it, we come up with countless excuses to explain it. This is a sign of inadequate execution, as well as a problem with work attitude. To carry out the tasks assigned by the boss effectively and fulfill his intentions, I believe it mainly comes down to the following points ； 1. To truly understand the boss’s intentions and wishes, it is necessary; without understanding them, it is impossible to complete the tasks assigned by the boss properly. 2. Analyze the current situation based on the boss’s intentions and wishes, and report the situation to the boss in a timely manner without any delay. 3. Practice empathy by considering things from both the boss’s and the employees’ perspectives, so as to accomplish tasks in a way that does not violate the company’s overall interests. 4. Stick to one’s position; do not refrain from taking action or increase the difficulty of carrying out such actions just because it conflicts with one’s own interests or those of employees. 5. Hold firm to the belief that the boss is always right; never doubt the boss’s decisions. 6. When encountering difficulties during execution, strive to solve them on your own; if you can’t, seek help. Don’t give up just because of obstacles – remember, the boss only cares about the results. 7. Remember, procrastination harms not the boss, but oneself. The boss loses money, while you might lose an opportunity. As a frontline manager, I believe that 80% of our time should be spent on the production site, rather than giving orders from afar, because only there can we identify and resolve problems in a timely manner. Regarding some poor working habits, I used to give them plenty of guidance and insist on addressing these issues day after day; by doing so, they would naturally think about whether there were any mistakes they had made as soon as they saw me, thus developing a conditioned reflex. As long as one holds firm for a while, I believe it can be corrected; after all, humans are intelligent creatures.