Daily Management That Actually Changes Performance (Not Just More Meetings)
Daily huddles can be a key part of making your operation run smoothly.
They can also be one of the biggest wastes of time in the plant.
The difference isn’t the board, the script, or the corporate template.
The difference is whether decisions are getting made and actions are getting assigned.
If that’s not happening in your DMS, you don’t need more discipline—you need to keep tweaking it until it works.
The Theater Version of DMS
Most daily management systems look like theater.
A stage has been set.
You’ve got a nice board on the wall.
Props are in place—colored magnets, charts, and KPIs.
There’s often literally a script to walk you through the meeting.
Everyone shows up.
Numbers are read out.
People nod.
But if decisions aren’t being made, if actions aren’t being assigned, what are you actually there for?
A lot of this comes from corporate requirements:
“We need a tiered meeting system in every plant.”
“Here’s the standard agenda and standard board layout.”
“Every line must have this same DMS.”
The intent is good—create consistency and visibility.
The problem is: it ignores the nuance of each plant, each line, each value stream.
You end up with a very clean-looking DMS that doesn’t actually help anyone run the day.
Where It Breaks: Wrong People, Wrong Focus
I’ve seen the same pattern in a lot of plants.
Imagine you’re the operations manager with 10 lines or areas.
Each one has its own lead and its own DMS meeting.
You have 2 quality engineers to cover all that ground.
Are your QEs supposed to be at 5 DMS meetings a day?
Own actions on 5 different boards each?
Is the quality manager supposed to track all of that—or even know it exists?
Now multiply that same problem across maintenance, safety, logistics.
Each area has its own top priority, but what’s the actual top priority for the plant?
At the same time, your line lead is already overloaded.
They’ve got three callouts today and aren’t fully staffed.
They’re standing at the board, reading through a tired script, repeating issues the team already knows about.
Nothing gets solved.
Everyone feels “busy.”
Performance doesn’t move.
That’s the theater version.
Triage vs. Chronic Issues
The real job of a daily huddle is triage.
Control the bleeding.
Stabilize today.
Make sure we’re using today’s resources against today’s biggest problems.
What it is not:
A daily deep dive on chronic issues
A place to rehash the same long-term problem every single morning
A forum to “admire” the gap without doing anything about it
If we can’t move it today, we shouldn’t dwell on it in DMS.
The pattern should look like this:
Can we fix it today?
Yes → assign a clear owner and a clear by-when.
No → put containment in place so we can run safely and predictably today.
Does it need deeper problem solving?
Yes → it goes on the chronic issue list for weekly/bi-weekly review with the right people.
Once it’s on that chronic list and owned, DMS only needs transparent status, not a daily beatdown.
Example:
You’ve got a machine near end-of-life. It’s causing issues every day. A new machine is on order and will be here in 12 weeks.
Do you really need to tell the responsible engineer every single morning how badly you need that new machine?
It’s decided.
It’s ordered.
Use DMS to:
Confirm containment
Manage the risk day-to-day
Keep status visible
Then move on.
Get the Right People, Not All the People
Another common failure mode: trying to prove “support” by having every function in every meeting.
That sounds collaborative. In practice, it’s waste.
You need:
The people who know what needs to be done
The people who can actually get it done
And that mix should change over time.
If an area has major ergonomic issues or a safety concern, maybe HSE needs to be in that huddle every day for a while.
Does that mean HSE should be in every huddle every day across the plant? Probably not.
Support does not equal “I attend every meeting you invite me to.”
Support is:
I’m present when my function is critical to today’s decisions, and
I reliably follow through on what I commit to.
When you design DMS, start with:
“Who has to be in this room for us to make real decisions today?”
Not: “Who might feel left out if they’re not here?”
Stop Over-Standardizing the Wrong Things
Standardization is good.
Misunderstood standardization kills effectiveness.
Requiring steel-toed shoes is a standard.
There’s a clear intent—protect feet from impact—and the standard meets that intent.
But saying everyone must wear a size 10 steel-toed shoe?
That’s where standardization stops making sense.
DMS is similar.
Good standards:
We will meet every day at this time.
We will review safety, quality, delivery, cost.
We will identify the top 1–3 issues for today.
We will leave with owners and due times for actions.
Bad standards:
Every plant must have the same board layout, no matter the process.
Every huddle must follow the same script, in the same order, regardless of today’s reality.
Every function must attend every tier at every site.
Standardize the intent and outcomes, not the theater.
Using Digital / Visibility Well
Now imagine a different version of this.
All issues from the DMS are captured digitally and prioritized.
The line lead prepping for the meeting can see real-time updates on the top 3 issues for their area.
There was an issue on 3rd shift last night—now you can focus the huddle on containment and recovery, not digging for information.
Functional managers see their action list consolidated across the entire plant, instead of scattered across 10 physical boards.
Now:
The quality engineers don’t have to attend 5 meetings to know what’s going on.
Maintenance can see where they’re over-committed and where they need to re-prioritize.
Plant leadership gets a clear picture of where to deploy support today, not in next month’s review.
The meeting stops being about “going through the board” and starts being about where today’s effort will matter most.
What Good Daily Management Looks Like in 15 Minutes
Here’s what a simple, effective 15-minute huddle can look like:
Prep (before the meeting)
The lead reviews yesterday’s performance and today’s schedule.
Digital (or physical) board shows the top issues and open actions.
Open with safety & critical risks
Any new safety concerns or quality holds?
Any reason we can’t safely run the plan today?
Review yesterday + last shift
Hit the key numbers briefly.
Call out only the gaps that matter for today.
Triage today’s top 1–3 issues
What is most likely to hurt throughput, quality, or safety today?
Who owns each issue? What are they doing about it by when?
Containment vs. chronic
If we can’t fix it today, set containment and make sure it’s on the chronic issue list with an owner and a review cadence.
Quick look at chronic items (for transparency only)
“This is in progress, next milestone is Friday.”
No deep dives here.
Close with a clear recap
“These are our top 3 issues. These are the owners. This is what we’re watching.”
If your daily meeting isn’t consistently producing clear priorities, clear owners, and clear next steps, it’s theater—no matter how nice the board looks.
The Point
Daily huddles can absolutely be one of the most powerful levers you have to run a stable, high-performing operation.
They can also be 15 minutes of reading numbers everyone already knows, with no decisions and no actions.
Don’t accept the theater version just because it meets a corporate standard.
Keep tweaking it—who’s in the room, what gets discussed, how issues are captured and escalated—until your DMS is actually helping you run the day.
If you walk out of that meeting and nothing about today changed, that’s your signal: it’s time to redesign, not “tighten discipline.”
If you want help applying this in your operation—or you're ready to improve performance—you can reach me directly:
📩 Email: brett@e3-ops.com
📞 Call or Text: (615) 802-8175
📅 Schedule a time: https://e3operations.as.me/
