Baugh estimated that they now have over 85 percent of their orders out within three days. Baugh has also implemented use of a production routing worksheet out on the shop floor for recording daily production. It documents the sequencing of tasks which is especially useful when training new staff. It captures daily yields and gives employees a method to record the circumstances or problems they encounter during production. The staff now meets each morning to discuss the previous day's documentation which allows management to evaluate and summarize what is happening on the production floor, Baugh said.
Employees are an important source of problem identification.
The hands-on project produced other assessment tools to allow tracking for waste, errors, and workflow in a variety of time configurations useful in management. And we can estimate how long a job will take. This helps fit their workload with staffing flow. He estimated that the changes will save 15 to 20 percent in man hours on each job and between five and 10 percent in materials costs. Governor Marc Racicot's office estimates that manufacturing pays wages that are 26 percent more than other private, non-agricultural jobs in Montana.