Jose Montalvo · Systems & production records

The morning routine

A quick walk of the floor first — lines running, people in place, anything that changed overnight. Then this, in this order, every day.

01

MDI — Managers Daily Improvement

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
The daily meeting, run in a fixed order: safety, quality, delivery, cost, people. Safety opens it and is reviewed above everything else — PSIFs and SIFs, the serious-injury events and the ones that could have been. Quality, on-time delivery and inventory come straight off the KPI metrics. People closes it: what's coming for the crew, recognition, and anything they need to hear from me rather than second-hand.
Why it existed
A daily meeting is worthless if everyone walks in measuring something different, and safety stops being first the moment it is item four.
What changed
One agreed set of numbers in one agreed order, with a second people-side set as back-up — so the meeting ran the same way no matter who was in the room, and every category ended at the same place: the issues tracker.
SQDCP metric definition sheet, two tiers
The definition sheet behind it. Strategic set on top, people-side back-up set underneath. Safety is incidents, near-misses, days since the last one and training completion. Cost is actual vs. budget, scrap, overtime and rework. Every category ends at the issues tracker — which is the next card.Tap the page to open it full size
02

Action item tracking

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
Every open item with a start date, an owner, a department, and a running dated log of what happened until it closed.
Why it existed
Items raised in the morning meeting were dying between meetings. Nobody was lying — there was just nowhere for it to live.
What changed
Nothing closed on somebody's word; it closed on a dated entry. Three filtered views came off the same sheet — open, high priority, completed — so a status question took a glance instead of a meeting.
Facility action item tracker, active list
The active list. Left to right: start date, the item, the owner, the department, then the log — every call, every follow-up, dated. Names and vendor phone numbers are blacked out.Tap the page to open it full size
03

5S housekeeping — assigned, not assumed

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
A weekly checklist per department with the daily and weekly areas each operator initials, and a floor map coloring the whole plant by who owns which zone.
Why it existed
"Everybody cleans up" means nobody does, and the argument always happens at the border between two areas.
What changed
Every square foot of the plant had a name and a day on it, and the sheet went to the supervisor every Monday.
Housekeeping checklist for the tinning departmentPlant floor map coloured by housekeeping owner, daily and weekly
The tinning department's checklist — the task list, the areas it covers daily and weekly, and the Mon–Fri sign-off grid. The map does the whole plant: every zone is coloured to a person, and the circled D and W say whether that area is cleaned daily or weekly. The shadow boards are marked on it too. Names blacked out.Tap a page to open it full size
04

The Saturday cleanup

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
A written, company-wide cleanup of the whole facility — painting, power washing, wipe-downs, the exterior, labelling and decluttering — scheduled on Saturdays and led by me.
Why it existed
The plant was filthy. Dust, cobwebs, broken dock walls, docks too dark to work in. You cannot ask people to keep an area clean that was never clean to begin with.
What changed
It ran on Saturdays, so not one hour of production was given up to get the building back. The 5S zones on the housekeeping map are what kept it that way afterwards — this list is what got it there.

Painting and surface prep

  • Paint both docks
  • Paint the big cafe
  • Paint the slitter department
  • Paint the walls outside the foreman's and safety coordinator's offices
  • Fix holes in the dock walls with cement before painting
  • Paint the fire system pipes red

Cleaning and surface maintenance

  • Power wash the saw room walls
  • Power wash the yellow bumpers
  • Power wash the floors outside
  • Wipe down shelves and bin tops
  • Wipe down forklifts and outlets
  • Wipe down the wood machines and signs
  • Wipe down windows
  • Sweep floors
  • Scrub and mop the facility walkways

Exterior cleanup and safety

  • Pick up trash around the outside of the building
  • Remove broken branches and twigs
  • Remove anything that could cause someone to trip or fall
  • Make sure every bin lid is closed and secured

Organization and labelling

  • Make sure everything on the shelves is wrapped and secured
  • Make sure labels are visible
  • Mark the floors near tinning that hold material for upcoming orders
  • Get rid of anything we no longer use

The original list, as I wrote and ran it.

05

Shop-floor screens

Wieland Metal Services · Operations Manager · 2025–2026

What it is
Slides I wrote for the TVs on the floor — safety reminders in plain language, and recognition for the people who earned it.
Why it existed
Nobody reads a memo on a break-room wall. They do read the screen they walk past twelve times a shift.
What changed
Safety messaging that people repeated back, and milestones that got noticed in front of the whole plant instead of in an email.
Safety-first slide for the shop floor screensMilestone service anniversary recognition slide
Safety glasses, made memorable instead of preachy — "because OOPS is not a job title." And a 15-year machine-operator anniversary put up where the whole floor sees it. The employee's name is blacked out.Tap a page to open it full size