Of the many critical communication exchanges that occur in a manufacturing setting, the shift handover is one of the most important. Poor communication and preparation have been the cause of countless catastrophes, and the chance of negative repercussions drastically increases when the working group changes on such a dramatic level. Expressing the importance of tasks, the current situation, and necessary preparations become paramount to efficiency in the entire workshop.
At Wepco, we use a purposefully redundant set of processes to change shifts and combat miscommunication. The most widely accepted one of these is the Shift Handover Form; a form that ensures each shift has provided the next with, at the very least, a standard selection of necessary information to properly guide the following shift. Because so many companies have implemented the Shift Handover Form, countless templates can be found online, and some companies even offer a service to help automatically collect the necessary information for the shift handover. Our process emphasizes communication by not only implementing the Shift Handover Form, but also a swing shift, where the supervisor for the following shift moves their hours ahead of the rest of the shift. This allows the coordination of efforts on their respective shift to align with the previous because, for two extra hours, the supervisor can assess the previous shift’s direction, goals, and current situation.
Finally, Wepco uses a third redundancy to prevent miscommunication between shifts: a shift overlap. After the shift supervisor has spent two hours with the previous shift, the next group of workers comes in before the previous has left. The hour and a half shift overlap that Wepco employs serves as a period of learning for the employees. The previous shift can effectively and comprehensively teach necessary tasks to the next shift, and ensure that the person taking over their work can perform it with the same attention to detail that they have begun the task with. The shift overlap also helps on an individual level to merge multiple shift’s goals and build trust and camaraderie amongst coworkers who would normally not have much interaction.
Although Wepco employs practices not widely utilized among manufacturing companies, our redundant system of shift transference allows us to trust more freely, work more efficiently, and build a unified community in our workplace.
Learn more about Wepco and how we operate on our About page, https://wepcoplastics.com/about/, and follow along to hear from our team members through #InjectingOurOpinion.