Shift Change, Five Minutes Late

It’s 6:55 AM in a European plant.

Tier 1 huddle should have started five minutes ago. Yesterday’s board is still up. The same press that caused downtime last week is flagged again. Maintenance hasn’t arrived. Line leaders are waiting. Everyone’s frustrated, but no one’s surprised.

This isn’t a factory with bad intentions. It’s one without a functioning tiered daily system.

When daily meetings drift into routine updates without escalation or ownership, performance stalls. Rework creeps in. Throughput lags. Problems repeat.

The fix isn’t another meeting.

It’s building a system that works. Tier 1 on the floor, Tier 2 for support and decisions, Tier 3 for management alignment. All run with discipline, clarity, and speed.

What Tiered Actually Solves

Tiered daily management isn’t a Lean gimmick. Done right, it’s the difference between chasing problems and controlling them.

A proper tiered system creates:

• Real-time visibility on production risks
• Structured escalation from the floor to senior leadership
• Clear decision paths for support teams and managers
• A daily rhythm that reinforces stability, not status

But most factories don’t run this way. Many confuse reporting with managing. Meetings run long. Attendance creeps up. Issues cycle without resolution. There’s no closed loop.

That’s not daily management. That’s daily maintenance of chaos.

Week 1 – Stand Up Tier 1 Where the Work Happens

If you’re starting from scratch, pick one pilot area.

Define a 10 to 12 minute Tier 1 huddle, same time every shift. Meet where the work happens – next to the line, not in an office.

Use a simple visual board:

• Safety
• Quality
• Delivery
• Cost
• People

Add actions, owner names, and target close dates. Keep it hand-written if needed. Update daily. Track issues flagged and closed. Time the meeting. End on time.

Give one person the mic, not five.

And start every meeting by asking, what’s blocking us from hitting target today?

This is not about reporting. It’s about execution.

In factories where daily control is missing or failing, CE Interim can deploy a seasoned Plant or Operations Leader within 72 hours to launch the Tier 1 to Tier 3 system, establish flow control, and stabilize daily delivery while permanent hiring is in motion.

Week 2 – Add Tier 2 and Real Escalation

Once Tier 1 is stable, introduce Tier 2. This is a 10 to 15 minute huddle with area leads and support functions, scheduled directly after Tier 1 ends.

Only unresolved Tier 1 issues with blockers make it here. Each must have:

• A clear owner
• A defined resolution target
• Visibility until it’s closed

This is where Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, and Planning show up ready to act. If your Tier 2 is turning into a blame game or an update parade, stop and reset. The goal is to clear blockers, not document them.

Track:

• First-time fix rate
• Average time-to-close for escalations
• Daily trend of open vs closed actions

If Tier 2 doesn’t work, Tier 3 becomes chaos. Get this layer right.

Week 3 – Build Tier 3 Management Rigor

Now it’s time for Tier 3, the site-level leadership meeting. This isn’t a long sit-down. It’s a 15 to 20 minute daily or alternate-day checkpoint that brings together the plant head, value stream leads, and heads of support functions.

The goal is to:

• Confirm delivery and staffing status
• Resolve escalations from Tier 2 that need resource decisions
• Align on external issues like suppliers or customer service
• Flag tomorrow’s risks before they explode

Use the Obeya mindset. Stick to facts, not stories. KPIs should be visible. Escalations should be ready to close, not introduced for the first time.

Most importantly, decisions must happen in the room.

Boards That People Use, Not Admire

The strongest daily systems rely on visual boards – not because they look good, but because they create speed and clarity.

Your Tier 1 board doesn’t need to be digital. It needs to show:

• Yesterday vs target on key KPIs
• Trends, not snapshots
• Risks for the current shift
• Owner-tagged actions with due dates
• Safety or attendance flags

If digitizing helps, go for it. But only if it reduces effort and raises visibility, not just ticks a transformation box.

The board isn’t the output. The decisions are.

Plug in Layered Process Audits (LPAs)

If quality is lagging or variation is creeping in, don’t wait for complaints.

Layered Process Audits are the natural partner to tiered meetings. Done right, they push fast, frequent checks across different levels of leadership – with Quality, Operations, and Engineering all participating.

Follow CQI-8 guidance to define scope and rotation frequency. When LPAs uncover issues, the best plants channel them straight into Tier 1 or Tier 2, with action tracking until closed.

This links quality, operations, and leadership in one loop – daily.

Metrics That Prove It’s Working

Don’t overload your system with vanity metrics. Choose 5 to 7 hard indicators that reflect actual system health.

Here’s a compact list:

• Tier 1 start-on-time rate
• Issues resolved within 48 hours
• Repeat escalations rate
• First-pass yield or FTQ
• OEE or throughput rate
• Safety incidents and short attendance flags

If a metric doesn’t trigger action or learning, cut it.

In complex or multi-line factories, CE Interim places interim CI Leaders or Value Stream Managers to run PDCA and A3 problem solving, chair Tier 2 or Tier 3 meetings when needed, and drive escalations to full resolution during operational turnarounds or post-merger integration.

Scale Without Losing the Plot

Once the pilot area stabilizes, expand to new areas – but don’t just copy-paste.

Create a lightweight playbook:

• Meeting times
• KPI sets
• Escalation rules
• Roles and responsibilities

Use one weekly cross-site Tier 3 or PMO call to track rollouts, share lessons, and keep leadership connected.

Avoid the trap of letting each site interpret the model. Standardization is what gives daily management teeth.

For multi-factory groups, CE Interim can coordinate a rollout PMO led by an interim Program Director who owns the playbook, KPI alignment, and governance loop, then hands it over once behaviors hold.

The Daily Habit That Keeps Factories Honest

Tiered meetings aren’t new. But most factories either don’t run them properly or don’t run them at all.

What separates the top quartile is not the tools, but the discipline:

• Same time, every shift
• Same owner, every board
• Same expectation – surface risks early, assign owners, follow through fast

It’s not magic. It’s five short meetings a day that surface problems before they become losses, and create the rhythm that keeps a factory sharp – every shift, every line, every day.