Question 1:
How do we tie any operations strategy to the hundreds of decisions made daily on the shop floor by our employees?

Answer:
The Hoshin Planning process, from the Toyota Production System and further developed by Danaher and other companies, is a specific methodology for doing just that. Also called Policy Deployment -- a fairly descriptive American term -- the Hoshin Planning process specifically ties longer term breakthrough objectives to top priority near term objectives on the critical path, which are then tied to near term action items. Resources are also specifically addressed by the process.

There are several variations of how a company can create a tight link between operations strategy, near term priorities, and daily decision making on the floor. The key is to create that tight link. Otherwise the strategy is on paper and the shop floor is drifting somewhere else.

Take a look at this article for a description of a similar method used to accomplish the same goal.

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