Everyday at 7 a.m. the alarm clock goes off. A hot shower and some freshly brewed coffee gets my mind into gear.
As soon as I hit the street I can tell it is a crisp and clear morning, contrary to what happens in my yearned Galicia.
I grab the car and head out to the customer’s home. The factory is located in a beautiful spot in the province of Gerona, known for its mysterious lake. The feeling of being overwhelmed brought on by the traffic jam to leave Barcelona, disappears once I enter the highway that will take me to my destination.
I arrive at the factory. It’s 9 a.m. and another coffee from the machine gets me fully awake before starting the day. I enter and I find my colleagues and factory personnel. We are a team of five people for a customer that is a pleasure to work with, a family business with great hospitality , management that is dedicated to the project and a very committed organisation with the company and the project.
I answer urgent emails and reassess and discuss my work plan with the project coordinator and director and what actions are on the agenda today. We review the indicators and the data taken so far, it seems that the work groups, with the customer’s people, which we have started up continues to progress and the quality and performance of the plant has already improved by ten percentage points.
At 9:30 a.m. we have a meeting with the plant manager to talk about the changes we’re going to start up that day and the evolution of the project to date. It is so important to do things right, as the customer is convinced that what we do is right, when the project ends, the customer should have undertaken the changes that have been made in order to be really solid. Their conviction that what we do is right is fundamental for their support and achieving results.
The meeting ends at 10:30 a.m. and I comment to the project coordinator what I plan to do. At 11:30 a.m., after another coffee I go by one of the work stations, we will be making observations on the activity, which will allow me to familiarise with the work and help me lead the group meeting on improvement, which I have tomorrow, with better control. As I watch how they work, I start to indentify certain activities that could be improved, if the work group does not identify them by themselves, I’ll point it out; that will motivate them to become more involved and propose ideas. In this job the tactics component and how you treat people is essential, one must be very straightforward.
I then discuss the results with the project manager. Sergio is an expert consultant and his input is very valuable, he has worked on projects in gas companies, for the furniture industry, and his experience in the field of logistics is very valuable in a project to improve the flow of the supplier’s materials to the plant, it will be vital to achieve results.
This afternoon I have to study, I am working and at the same time studying an MBA at the ESADE, and tomorrow at noon I am off to Barcelona.