Manufacturing Program Managers in an manufacturing industry

What is manufacturing program management? 

    Manufacturing program management is a functional department in a manufacturing environment. This role act as a leader for a smaller team in an organization. Manufacturing program management team is also the group that acts as the customer interface. In short, we called it "the voice of customers". This team is also the internal customers of the CFT (customer focused team). Internally, the manufacturing program management team also resolve internal conflicts, provide directions and guideline while at a higher level, assist the team in removing roadblocks. 

    For the sake of standardization, I will be using the term program management instead of the full term of manufacturing program management The situation also is more towards a contract manufacturing environment. 

Overview:

If you need a pdf copy of the above, or a list of the items in text form, please email me. 

Why is program management so important in an EMS industry? 

    It is important as this role leads the smaller group servicing their customers. The program management team is the connector to all team members as well as the customers. Usually, a program management team has a real good relationship with the customers and are considered as one of the best team in management. 

    I am offering 4 paid courses in manufacturing program management that involves basic, intermediate, advanced and professional. Courses will be done online currently due to the global pandemic challenges we faced currently. These courses explains in great depth of the program manufacturing as a whole. 

Please email me if you are interested.....   

What is the main roles and responsibilities of a program management team? To name a few....

• team leader
• remove road blocks
• resolve conflicts
• customer interface
• defend team members in front of customers
• story teller

        A comprehensive list is as stated in the mind mapping above. Please message me if you would like to have a copy....

What are the main characters of program management personnel?

• multi-tasking
• optimistic
• passionate 
• resourceful
• strategic thinking
• business savvy
• calm
• firm
• leader

        A comprehensive list is as stated in the mind mapping above. Please message me if you would like to have a copy....

What are the knowledge & skills needed to be successful in program management?

To name a few....

• leadership skills
• problem solving skills
• strategic planning skills
• interpersonal skills
• project management skills
• customer relationship management
• computer literate
• Microsoft office literate (word, excel, powerpoint, outlook)
• excellent business language (comprehension, listening, written)
• time management skills
• experienced in the field involved
• business presentation skills
• psychology & body language reading

        A comprehensive list is as stated in the mind mapping above. Please message me if you would like to have a copy....

    Each and every topic will be discussed in greater detail. My courses (depends on which one) will cover almost everything possible in program management in an EMS world. 

    It is a course that will take up a lot of the brain power. But the magnitude for success in the future is unlimited. You can apply to work, to businesses, to personal matters, etc.

    The ultimate goal is not for you to become an outstanding program manager. Becoming an outstanding program manager is just the beginning. When you have your base established as a program manager, you can advance to be a director of program management. After becoming a successful program management director, you opened the door to a whole new world. You can choose to become a operations director, you can also choose to become a general manager, and so on. 

    In short, the potential of an outstanding program manager is unlimited. The future is bright & the sky is the limit.   

    A program manager is a jack of all trades, and that is his/her value to the company. Not many people will take this as a  core value. But when there is a situation, program managers are usually the ones that step up, leading the team of experts to manage the situation. In the real world, we need program managers to manage. 

Training provided on account management - an overview

    This is the training that I have provided previously on account management in an EMS industry. 

Just to share what are the topics involved in account management.

Below is the list of items as above, in text form:

Account Management Overview & Training

o Company internal Definition

 Find from Intranet

o Roles & Responsibilities

o Organization

 Customer

 Hierarchy 

o Trainings proposed

 Usual HR Training

 Mandatory Training Required by COO

• Cornerstone

o Search "Training Market Sector"

 RFQ Explanation

• How to use the system?

• How to smartly quote

• What is this for?

• Items to take note

 Software & Tools

• IBM

o Planning Analytics

o TM1

• Power BI

• Microsoft Dynamics 365

o Use of CRM

 Customer Contacts

 Customer Organization

 Set opportunities for RFQ

 Trigger NPS

• VPN

• Web based

• Citrix

• Microsoft Office Tools

 Company Intranet navigation

 NPS

o Topics to discuss

 Miller Heimann

• Green sheet

• Blue Sheet

 CRM

 CVN

 Customer Review

• What is this? 

• Format

o In Share point 

• Purpose

• Attendees

o Who needs to attend?

o Who may attend?

• What do you need to do?

o Prepare

o Peer review

o Review with Senior Director

o Review with VP & MSVP

o Anticipate questions

o Access to Power BI

o Access to IBM Planning Analytics (Web1)

o Know how to navigate

 P&L

• Details

• How to obtain the file

 Quotation

• Process Flow

• Ownership

o New

o Existing

• OIL

• Format

o Customer

o Internal

 Finance

• TM1

o What is this for?

• Planning Analytics

o What is this for?

 Pricing File

 Contract

 Financial Forecast

• Site level

• Market sector level

 Inventory E&O

 Branding & Marketing

• Self read

• Company presentations

o Self learnt

o Expectations

 Make mistakes & learn from that

• Avoid repeating the mistakes

 Pay attention to details

 Stand back & think

 Methodology

• Self learning

o Self explore

 Purpose

• Multiple ways

• Think out of the box

• Challenge the status quo

• Questions & Answers after reading the materials

• Daily 1 hours of calibration session

o 10 am

o 3.30 pm

• Practie yourself

o Be hands on

o Don't worry to make mistakes

o Purpose

 Learning curve

 Overview

 Share what is the R&R

 Knows what is CM

• And know when to push back

• Ownership

• Responsibility 

 Gather previous CMs' experience

 Know what is important to CM team

o Characteristics

 Open

 Resourceful

 Always ready

 Independent

 Leader

• Make hard decisions

 Strategic

 People manager

 When in trouble

• Always come with proposals/solutions

 Salesman

• Buyoff & agreement

 Pay attention to details

 Think & strategize

 7 habits

 Story teller

If you would like more information, please leave me a message. 

As usual, I appreciate your feedback & comments. 

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Ronald Gan

4M + 1E, reloaded

     It has been a long time since I have written about this topic. I would like to share more on this topic with more details. I noticed that my previous article does not have lots of details. 

    As mentioned previously, 4M is:

• Man
• Machine
• Method
• Materials     

    And the 1E is related to "Environment".

    I typically used mind mapping method to go through and prepare the details of 4M & 1E. I will be sharing a few examples that I have prepared. 

    By using mind mapping method, I realized that I will unlock all the limitations and all the barriers. I can input anything that I have immediately into the work. 

MAN

• This is any topic that is related to human,  resources needed, training, organization,  roles & responsibilities, job descriptions,  hiring, firing, employee benefits, employee compensation,  knowledge needed, experience needed, etc. 
• Organization chart is also in here. 
• Employee relationship internally as well as relationship with customers are also topics worth discussing here. 
• If you want to, office politics can also be taken into 

MACHINE

• This is an area that you input the needs of equiment, machines, facilities etc.
• You will also need to consider the specifications & capabilities of the equipment, machines and facilities. 
• The physical office area & manufacturing facilities are also taken into consideration here. 
• Also, anything related to networking, IT facilities, ISP (Internet Service Provider), Software licensing, programming in house & externally can be considered here.
• Total cost of equipment, facilities, machines, etc.
• ROI calculation can be looked at.

METHOD

• There are just too many things that you can discuss here.
• You can discuss on the process flow here.
• SOP (Standard operating procedures) can also be taken into consideration here. 
• What types of ERP used here can also be considered. 
• The methodology of ERP loading is critical to be discussed.
• How you do things, the company guidelines are also a good starting point here.
• Anything you need as guideline can be registered here such as the Dos & Don'ts, policies, restrictions, organization beliefs, policies, goals, etc. 

MATERIALS

• This is anything related to materials that includes direct & indirect materials.
• Example is everything related to BOM (bill of materials). What is a BOM? I will have another topic of discussion subsequently. 
• What is a direct material and what is an indirect material? It will also be discussed in the BOM topic.
• This topic also will take into consideration of the material purchased price, selling price.
• Suppliers & vendors are also included here.
• The specifications, engineering details, mechanical references etc are also included here.
• How to purchase and when to purchase also could be set here.
• Logistics methodology is also needed here.
• Inco terms (buying & selling) & trade compliance is very important here too.
• One important topic is also ERP used.

ENVIRONMENT 

• What does this topic cover?
• The manufacturing required environment such as temperature,  humidity, cleanliness, etc.
• The storage requirement is also needed here.
• Certain products required very clean environment for manufacturing.  This is called cleanroom requirement. It could be Class 10k, class 1k or class 100 cleanroom.
• It is also ignored many times that the efficiency of the manufacturing environment needs to be considered in the beginning, before the manufacturing line is set up. Why is this important? Send me a note if you would like to discuss more on this. 
• The effectiveness of the overall supply chain environment in the factory is critical here. You need to know where is your storage place, supply depot, finished goods storage, loading bay, receiving bay, JIT (just in time) methodology to supply materials to the manufacturing line. 

I have prepared an example of 4M & 1E using mind mapping tool. It is a very good one for you to use and understand the overall of 4M & 1E. 

The image is not defined well as you can see per below. 

If you want, drop me a note & I will send you a soft copy in PDF form. 

I can also output them into text form so that you can copy them into excel format or word format, or HTML format too. 

 

 

As usual, I value your feedback & comments. 

Please drop me a note if you care. 

For further enquiries, please email me. 

Thanks. 

Best regards,

Ronald Gan

 

Outstanding Manufacturing Program Manager

More of my comments & discussion per the link below:

http://mymindmappingcollections.blogspot.com/2008/03/outstanding-program-manager-mindmapped.html

Program Management Terminology

On the left are some of the terminologies that you must know in manufacturing program management. These terms are very useful, so that a program manager can really manage a certain situation well.

By knowing the basic, he or she can ask the right questions, and make the right decision. He or she can then lead the team to the right path accordingly.

P/S: If you would like to know more of each terminology now, please drop me a note. I will do my best to explain clearly to you.