Talk with the Production Staff first. Be there to understand the problems first. Get the top 3 reasons for not getting the Production on time. Work on those issues using proper RCA methods like DMAIC. Make sure you have a proper Problem Definition at first otherwise it will be a waste of time. Involve production staff for RCA, make them accountable as well. After getting the root cause, work on sustaining those results.

Value Stream Mapping and Lean Manufacturing can be the starting points for working towards efficiency enhancement. Latent capacity can be exploited by challenging the existing processes and brainstorming for alternate safe ways. Most of the times, it is the assimilation of available information into data which can be gainfully used for efficiency improvement.

First thing talk to your people and listen to their views. Having received people's feedback proceed systematically. Identify the bottleneck. If it's a capacity issue then add extra capacity. If it's productivity issue go further and find out if it's machine or human productivity.If it's machine productivity issue analyse the types of downtime. There could be more than one reason. If machine capacity is a bottleneck you may like to upgrade some of your machines.Look at maintenance of machines. If it's a human productivity related issue. Go further into the issues and identify the bottleneck. Look at your process, and layout and see if there is any scope to simplify them. If it is skill related issue train and re-train people.

Acording to my experience, production delays are a consequence of several factors; some of the more “popular” are the over estimation of real capacity to produce in a real world scenarious. Another factor is the lack of reliability of machinery and equipment; for primary and secondary apolications. The third, and no less important, is the lack of skills of personeel in charge of the operations; the worst case is when there is not any experienced person capable to understand both, product and process. The experts use to recommend lean Tools and techniques, but, How could be reached a good peoductivity level if the organization don’t have one of the three elements indícated above?