How much of the production cycle is each individual employees responsible for? Is each one only responsible for a certain portion of the manufacturing or are they responsible start to finish for individual items?
We have a several different areas. I have carpenters who build and sand frames, a finisher who applies stain and varnish, an upholster who does almost nothing but apply webbing and springs, a cutter who cuts the fabric, seamstresses who sew pillows and for the upholsterers, several upholsterers who put on the foam and the fabric and another guy that does mainly cushions and checks the pieces prior to wrapping them for delivery. So, I guess it's pretty broken up. The office manager and I assign the work to everyone. We decide when to put order into production, how to prioritize them, who does what pieces, etc.
I have a career as an industrial engineer, and have done a lot of time studies in light manufacturing. Here are some suggestions:
1) try a 4 x 10 hr shift. People may be motivated by seeing a stack of customer orders. Also reduces the number of breaks and shift starts you have in a week. People like the extra day off. Limits overtime that happens even when you aren't very slow, etc.
2) Post the expected pace / half day that they are expected to finish, and chart a graph day by day, and have nice fun rewards for a combination of safety and exceeding personal goals. Keep it positive, rather than disciplinary on the downside.
3) Post a goal for the whole team -- e.g., State that your business strategy is an under 5 day order to shipping time for 98% of all orders. Have a group reward (lunch or ?) when it is met. Have it be an obtainable goal, but only if there is steady work done at a good pace.
4) Do your staff have regular height chairs or just sit / stand stools or standing only? I will emphasize that a full sit down chair is MURDEROUS on your rate of productivity. (includes forklifts!)
5) Look for tasks that they can do with two hands instead of just one. I had one person who was placing fill into a container, but only used his right hand -- because his reach was limited while sitting down. The task was simple enough to do with two hands with about an hour of practice, and the pace was almost double.
6) Remove or reduce access to computers for the general staff. Have a shared pc station or two only. Includes supervisors. So easy to get trapped into PC work / reading instructions, looking t numbrs. Again... Momentum says it is hard to get out of that chair.
7) Mid morning stand up 5-10 minute huddle, to discuss the charts from aboe, and needs / urgent items for the day. (toyota style)
8) Never allow beer or wine to be stored in the fridge in the break room. Sets an unprofessional tone for the whole place, may encourage lunch time beers when you are away. If you have a friday after work social time, bring the beverages, but remove them from property immediately after. Just seeing them puts people in a complacent state.
9) Random drug testing may be warranted. (your call, hard to do if not safety related) Smoking pot severely limits a person's ability to connect "urgent need" to their current actions. It's major function is to help reduce tension.
10) Increase the number of orders per day, per person. There simply may be not enough work so a "non urgent" feel abounds. and a lack of consequences for missing deadlines, too.. maybe even start with letting someone go home early occassionally, when it is all done for the day. We all will expand our day to match the work that MUST be done... even good employees, when there is not enough.
11) Ask a few people for feedback about it, that work with you. Include people from production, ask one to one, after stating your big company strategy / team goal... (eg., after you set the goal of a 5 day custom order completion to shipping, start asking individually for feedback on what the challenge is, after a day or two).
Good luck! you are not alone. Just yelling a lot will get you some productivity now, but blows your ability to adapt to changing customer needs and innovate, which may be a problem for your company long term.