Daily production meeting
Daily production / tier meeting agenda that ends with decisions and owners
Most daily production meetings and tier meetings fail the same way. Everyone reads numbers off the board, a few problems get talked about, and the meeting ends with nobody sure who is doing what by when. Tomorrow the same problems are back on the board.
This agenda fixes that by holding every item to one rule: no item leaves the meeting without a decision, an owner and a due time. If it can't get those, it gets escalated to the next tier with a named person carrying it.
1. The rules that make the agenda work
- Stand at the board, start on time, keep it short. Set a fixed time box and keep it. Long problem-solving moves out of the meeting to a named follow-up.
- Exceptions only. Don't read every metric. Talk about what missed, what is at risk, and what changed.
- One owner per action. "Maintenance" is not an owner. A person's name is.
- Due time, not "ASAP". A shift, a time or a date.
- Known vs. assumed. Say whether a cause is confirmed or still a guess. Don't close an action on a guess.
- Ownership sits close to the problem. The person nearest the source of the loss owns the fix. It's about empowerment, never blame.
2. Daily production meeting agenda
Use the same order every day so people come prepared. Adjust the time box to your plant.
| # | Item | Question to answer | Ends with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Safety | Any incidents, near misses or unsafe conditions since last meeting? | Containment owner + due time |
| 2 | Quality | Any defects, holds, complaints or escapes? Is the cause known or assumed? | Disposition decision + owner |
| 3 | Delivery / output | Did we hit plan yesterday? Are today's shipments at risk? | Recovery decision + owner |
| 4 | Machines | What went down, what is limping, what is waiting on parts? | Repair priority + owner |
| 5 | People | Are we staffed and trained for today's plan? | Coverage decision + owner |
| 6 | Open actions review | Which actions are due today? Done, late or blocked? | Closed, re-dated with a reason, or escalated |
| 7 | Escalations | What can't this tier solve? | Named person carries it to the next tier |
| 8 | Read-back | Read every new action aloud: what, who, by when. | Everyone leaves with the same list |
The read-back is the step most meetings skip, and it is the one that turns talk into decisions.
3. How tiers connect
A tiered meeting system is a chain. Each level meets in order and passes up only what it can't solve.
- Tier 1, the line or cell: team lead and operators. Today's safety, quality and output at the point of work.
- Tier 2, the area: supervisors with support functions such as maintenance, quality and planning. Problems Tier 1 escalated, and cross-line issues.
- Tier 3, the plant: plant manager and department heads. Escalations that need resources, priorities or decisions across departments.
Every escalation goes up with a name on it, and every answer comes back down the same way. If an escalation goes up and nothing comes back, the system stops being trusted.
4. Tier meeting board examples
A tier meeting board doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to show at a glance what missed and who owns the fix. A common layout:
- Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People columns, each with a simple status for each day: green for met, red for missed.
- A short "why" next to each red, marked known or assumed.
- An action list: what, owner, due, status.
- An escalation box: what went up, to whom, and when an answer is due back.
If a red has no action next to it, the board is telling you the meeting didn't finish its job.
5. Copy-paste template
DAILY PRODUCTION / TIER MEETING
Date: ______ Tier: 1 / 2 / 3 Area: ______ Lead: ______
Start: ____ End: ____
1. SAFETY Issue: ________ Decision: ________ Owner: ____ Due: ____
2. QUALITY Issue: ________ Cause: known / assumed
Decision: ________ Owner: ____ Due: ____
3. DELIVERY Plan vs. actual: ________ Risk today: ________
Decision: ________ Owner: ____ Due: ____
4. MACHINES Down / limping: ________ Decision: ________ Owner: ____ Due: ____
5. PEOPLE Gaps: ________ Decision: ________ Owner: ____ Due: ____
6. OPEN ACTIONS DUE TODAY
Action | Owner | Due | Done / Late (reason) / Escalated
7. ESCALATIONS
Issue | Escalated to | Carried by | Answer due back
8. READ-BACK (read every new action aloud)
What | Who | By when
6. Common failure points
- The meeting becomes a status report and nobody decides anything.
- Actions get assigned to departments, not people.
- The same problem shows up red every day with no new action.
- Escalations go up and never come back down.
- Notes live in one person's notebook, so the next shift starts from zero.
To get decisions, owners and due times written up from the meeting without anyone taking notes, see the JEDI Meeting Report, built by Nathan Scalf.