BADA LAUNDRY: RISK OF LOSS OF PRODUCTIVITY IN LAUNDRY BUSINESS(2020)
Introduction:
Most of the organizations emphasize the high value of productivity to sustain continuity in business for a long
time. Losses in production can impact all sizes of the industry. Sustaining
productivity in an organization requires a healthy work environment for the
employees. A number of factors are responsible for the decline in the
productivity of the organization.
These factors result in reduced performance and result in negative
productivity. Loss of production risk may include technological factors and
internal relationships between the managers and employees., outdated management
techniques, outdated manufacturing equipment, fear of loss, poor communication
or poor delegations, organizational safety, unexpected breakdown during the
manufacturing process and sometimes health issues with the employees. The major
loss in productivity observed is due to procrastination.
All these issues add time to the
production process and production falls short of goals. Other factors like
malfunctioning of the machines (OEE-Overall Equipment Effectiveness), utility
supply shortages, human errors, weather conditions and the other factors which
are in the control of the company policies. Loss of
productivity forces an organization to adopt creative alternative ways to
deal with the problem, which ultimately results in productivity losses. However,
preventive measures can be taken to minimize loss in productivity, with less
financial impact by implying proper planning with proper managerial skills.
What are the elements responsible for loss of productivity?
The following are some of the
elements responsible for the loss of productivity. We will be discussing it one by
one in detail.
1. Effect of technology for loss of production.
2. Selection of equipment
and down time due to loss of production.
3. Due to illness and
Organization Safety.
4. Low productivity due
to insufficient resources.
5. Poor management
results in stress in the work place.
1. Effect of technology for loss of production.
You must have observed a lot of
employees spending a lot of time on mobile phones. Technological developments
have always helped in the improvement of productivity for any organisation, but
due to the development in smart phones, which can be linked with the help of internet
to different social media sites like Facebook, tweeter, snap chat, Instagram,
WhatsApp, YouTube and many more sites have provoked the employees to get
entangled and engaged in it. You may find some employees spend time playing
online games, watching advertisements, downloading different applications. Lots
of sites attract people to work online and earn money. Here, to earn extra
income online, employees started spending time online. Very few people find the
right way to earn online, others waste time on it. This time can be
productively utilized in productive organizational activities.
2. Select the right equipment to
reduce
Let us take an example of the laundryindustry. When the machines are installed at any of the laundry sites.
Capacities of the equipment are always designed as per the production required
per day. It is expected to run out of equipment for a long time, giving good,
designed production without a break down. Many of the contractors are seen buying
economic equipment to save on initial investments in capital goods.
Unfortunately, if the procured equipment is not robust enough to withstand
the long hours of production in a day and fails after some days, then what will
happen?
There will be costly downtime issues that will arise as production gets held
up. Here is how the Overall Equipment Effectiveness comes into the
picture. Restarting the equipment incurs the cost of spares, service charges
from the technician and tremendous loss in the production and subsequent loss
in the revenue generated. In a continuous process where there has to be a
particular amount of production to be done every day.
The stock of the washed linens gets exhausted till the machine gets
repaired. The working hours on the other equipment increase to cop up with the
required production and subsequently the plant fails to produce the required
number of linens and the operating issues start with the discussions with the
higher management. Downtime can escalate dangerously when it happens unplanned.
Downtime has the potential to be expensive for the company.
To prevent this from happening, it is very important to procure this robust
equipment first hand to avoid chaos. Hence, one should avoid saving in the
initial capital equipment cost and concentrate to keep the operating cost to a
minimum.
3. loss of productivity due to illness and
Work Place Environment plays a vital
role in the performance and in the productivity of the employees. Employee
productivity gets reduced due to the unsafe and unhealthy environment. If the
workers are injured due to a non-safe environment there will be absenteeism of
the important workmanship, which will hamper the production of the
organization.
Due to illness of the employees the organization suffers a loss of
in production so also the company has to pay these employees, which is a cost
to the company. Herzberg in his two factor theory describes how the
organization can influence the work place. These two factors are: Motivators-
Which can encourage the employees to Work Harder and Hygiene factors: Employees
get discouraged if hygiene factors are not maintained.
4. Low
productivity due to insufficient
resources.
Adequate professionals and trained
laborers are the resources of any organisation, which helps in production and
expansion of the business. There could be a shortage of trained professional
personnel’s to work in a particular department, which can and lead to low
productivity due to underutilized opportunities. Employees leave the organization
without prior explanation or intimating that the organization leads to a
sudden vacancy in the organization. The company has to act first to fill such
positions to make sure that the available resources are utilized. Low labor
supply could also lead to low outputs of production.
5. poor
management resulting in stress in
Ineffective management develops stress in the work place, which ultimately affects the productivity of the organization. The management is responsible for making different strategies to improve the productivity of the organization. Inefficiencies in implementing the different strategies in the organization can lead to the lack of productivity in the organization. Mode of communication, the relations of the manager with different employees and the confidence of the managers in themselves and with the employees play a major role in achieving the healthy atmosphere in organization.
Inadequate staffing to excessive
tasks can lead to the development of stress in the employees in the organization. High
level of stress in the employees need not be as productive as it supposed to
be, which ultimately results in absenteeism in the work place. By reviewing the
employees’ performances, the managers can find out the weaknesses of
the employees and correct accordingly in the benefit of the organization. Other
stresses caused may be due to unclear supervision fear of causing conflicts and
tensions in the labors. Reduced efficiency in the production can be caused due
to workers in stress.
Low Productivity impact on the employees:
Low productivity leads to low morale
of the employees and subsequently they fail to perform as per their expected
requirement, these employees starts becomes the liability to the company,
because the company can work without their contribution. Sick employees due to
illness or unsafe working conditions increase cost to the company, reason being
that the company has to pay those unproductive employments.
Technological improvements like
smartphones hamper the physical status of the employees, as they use the
smartphone till late at night, which makes them unfit to work long hours the next
day. These technologies lead to misuse of the employer facilities or the
resources provided to the employees leading to the underutilization of these
resources for the right purpose. Organizations with this risk of the low output
which lack the competitive environment, which reduces the market share and
reduces business profits.
Strategies to Protect the Loss of
Daily targets have to be decided with
daily reporting strategies and setting up targets to achieve targets for the
next day. This data is basically used to analyze the productivity on a regular
basis of each employee to evaluate the completion of the task assigned to them. A
meeting has to be conducted to guide the employees to redirect them in the direction
of the organizations goal achieving directions. This method enables step by
step evaluation to determine the employee’s efficiency in the work place and
how effectively they have completed their allocated duties. The employees
should clearly communicate with the tasks they have completed and plans of the
next duty. Employees should highlight the obstacles when working.
To reduce downtime losses in productivity, the following are the preventive measures taken by the Organisation:
1. Accountability:
Employees should be
reminded that they are accountable for the work assigned to them. This analysis
is done and communicated to the employees from the reports collected on a daily
basis. They should be asked about the difficulties faced to achieve the allotted
duties, instead passing the blame to supervisors or colleagues.
2. Setting achievable targets for employees:
Employees who think that they are
over loaded with the targets which are not achievable should be relaxed to
achieve targets to boost the confidence lost by the employees and elements
the probability of work stress. Some challenges which the employees feel can be
achieved will boost their level of confidence. But if the difficult challenges
persist this can become a source of stress to the workers again.
3. Awards and Rewards:
Rewarding employees in their
excellence of work. Rewards should be given in a fair manner otherwise it
will lose its meaning. A manager should not only criticize the employees; he
also should complement the employees for the good work done. Employees should
not feel undervalued, otherwise they shift to organizations where they are
recognized.
4. Calculating Down time losses:
How much money the
company loses due to down time is never calculated by the authorized person,
maybe it is neglected for a short down time. But this short down time
collectively calculated over the year makes a huge difference.
Downtime losses are: labor loss, complaints by the party, production loss, extra hours required to compensate for the production required. All this has to be calculated as a loss because ultimately it is a cost to the company.
5. Technology to detect the expected
Nowadays there are
technical methods and sensors available to warn of the breakdown in advance.
The unusual rise in the temperature of equipment, more noise than usual and
more vibration, which cannot be understood manually.
The breakdown
detecting sensors is very cost effective as the cost of break done is huge
compared to the cost of detector sensors.
6. Data and reporting System:
Collecting real time data ERP
Software can be used. Automated manufacturing equipment, which is used today,
sends machine health monitored history on a regular basis. Checking equipment
in real time keeps product quality high.
7. Employee training:
Training employees
regularly keeps them smart and alert. Keep them motivated in their field of
expertise. Productivity gets enhanced, as they feel that they are taken care of
by providing timely training to them.
A good operator understands his machine very well, he comes to know that this particular machine requires maintenance. And proper action in advance can be taken by the preventive maintenance team.
8. Schedule
regular maintenance and
Monitoring:
Regular maintenance
reduces the chances of break done and saves downtime. In the long run the
life of the machine also increases, which again saves the cost of early
procurement of new machine.
As we do the
maintenance of our vehicles by changing oil, washing and cleaning it regularly.
Similar care has to be taken of the machines, to use it to maximum productivity.
9. Machine Records:
Generally small companies do not have
the practice of keeping the records of the production and aligned machines used
in the organization. Machines like Motors, Compressors, D.G Sets, Reactors,
Welding Machines, Grinders, Drill machines, Cutting tools these are some of the
machines used in almost all the manufacturing units.
The maintenance department has to keep the records of each and every machine like when they are produced, their technical specifications, when the routine maintenance done, what all parts changed. All this helps to enhance the life of the equipment.
10. Keep Backup:
Do not forget to keep the backup of each and every machine used in the operations. Keep the memory backup for the software, keep the production backup keeping stand by equipment. Keep the emergency spares in stock, which takes long delivery times after procurement. In addition, regular maintenance back up is kept to avoid downtime in production.
11. Monitoring:
Keep monitoring the employee
regularly to see whether the employee is not wasting time which results in
productivity. If the electronic media is distracting the employee, then it
should be kept away from the employee.
The number of times sick leave is taken by the employee should be monitored by the supervisors or managers.
12. Proactive:
The managers or the higher authorities should take proactive measures for the expected disasters. It is the activity of the managers to keep the company environment friendly. This helps to keep the productivity and the image of the company in the market.
Conclusion:
It is said that prevention is always
better than cure, hence pro-activity can be the best strategy for the business,
to prevent risk, before they occur. This can be done by applying a conducive
working environment to minimize the risks of loss of productivity.
Maintaining a healthy work environment should be the strategy of the managers.
