Operations Management For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 23

Ten Mistakes That New Operations Managers Make

Everyone makes mistakes, especially when just starting out in a new job or activity. In this chapter we highlight the top ten mistakes that rookie operations managers tend to make. Don’t feel too bad if you’ve made all of them; even experienced operations managers sometimes make them, too. But if you haven’t yet slipped up on these missteps, just knowing about them increases your chances of avoiding them.

Beginning an Improvement Journey without Knowing your Process

Perhaps the most frequent mistake that even experienced operations managers make is not documenting their existing processes. In any process-improvement project, knowing where you start from is essential. How do you know whether you made any improvement if you don’t know where you started? Although this initial documentation is often considered a waste of time because you end up changing it anyway, documenting the current process uncovers where in the process trouble spots exist — believe us when we say that what’s wrong isn’t always obvious — and is well-worth the time and effort.

If you have existing process documentation, by all means use it. However, your task in this case becomes to check that the actual work and workers follow the documented process. It’s not unusual to find that workers aren’t following a documented process. These discrepancies can ...