If you company had a forum...

[HeavyMetalChick]

Social media is the new trend, machinists now have kiosks with computers in every corner...we are on our cell phones all day with an app for everything....

Yesterday I spoke with our IT guy about creating a safety/best practices forum for our corp. We usually share ideas via email or conference calls that take up time...we even discussed having an app for turning in "near misses" or "rsvps" or "safety opportnities" or w/e you want to call them...

If your company had a forum where you could post ideas, questions, and general bitching would you use it? (Assuming that it was a closed forum, moderated by EHS and not "corporate") do you think that would be a successful tool for sharing ideas (which sharing is already mandated in our company, we have monthly and weekly conference calls concerning EHS, all about an hour long with 20/30 ppl on the call) i think this could elimiate some meetings...what do you guys think?

[countryboy1966]

Social Media can kiss__my__ass.

I think it would nicely compliment the lethargy that email communication provides.

[Cornilsn]

When I was heavily involved in a local race track, they started thier own forum with similar goals. One year in, all it was, was a place for the whiners to air thier dirty laundry, bitch, moan, and stir everyone else up to the point that the track nearly shut down with dysfunction.

I'd avoid it.

[Gary E]

Social media is the new trend, machinists now have kiosks with computers in every corner...we are on our cell phones all day with an app for everything....

Yesterday I spoke with our IT guy about creating a safety/best practices forum for our corp. We usually share ideas via email or conference calls that take up time...we even discussed having an app for turning in "near misses" or "rsvps" or "safety opportnities" or w/e you want to call them...

If your company had a forum where you could post ideas, questions, and general bitching would you use it? (Assuming that it was a closed forum, moderated by EHS and not "corporate") do you think that would be a successful tool for sharing ideas (which sharing is already mandated in our company, we have monthly and weekly conference calls concerning EHS, all about an hour long with 20/30 ppl on the call) i think this could elimiate some meetings...what do you guys think?

machinists now have kiosks ...they do??? send them home or to the doctor.... no screwing arround on company time

Social media.... Use it?...... hell no
conference calls successful tool? ....waste of time....

Waste time, production goes down... production goes down, shipments go down....
shipments go down .. revenue goes down...rev goes down
profits go down....then the stock price goes down...

whats the name of this co?... I'll short the stock...

[Gordon B. Clarke]

Social media is the new trend, machinists now have kiosks with computers in every corner...we are on our cell phones all day with an app for everything....

Yesterday I spoke with our IT guy about creating a safety/best practices forum for our corp. We usually share ideas via email or conference calls that take up time...we even discussed having an app for turning in "near misses" or "rsvps" or "safety opportnities" or w/e you want to call them...

If your company had a forum where you could post ideas, questions, and general bitching would you use it? (Assuming that it was a closed forum, moderated by EHS and not "corporate") do you think that would be a successful tool for sharing ideas (which sharing is already mandated in our company, we have monthly and weekly conference calls concerning EHS, all about an hour long with 20/30 ppl on the call) i think this could elimiate some meetings...what do you guys think?

Internal internets (a closed communication system) is becoming common here. It's used for things like the company quality manual (or similar) as it always makes certain employees can see and read the latest updates. It's also a good source of information. It has the advantage that no one can say "I didn't know"

As to "ideas, questions, and general bitching" then I'm nt so sure how good that is. Throwing an idea in the air doesn't really obligate anyone to do anything with it. On the other hand if given to a specific person then maybe. Same with questions. Bitching is definately a "no no". Bitching contra a suggestion as how to improve something is as different as night and day.

Gordon

[cvairwerks]

Using computers for everything is a slippery slope for businesses. Our company has placed all of our manuals, documents, time keeping, work instructions and procedures as well as policy information and comunications on our intranet. During our strike right now, they are busy removing 90% of the computers from the shop floors and hangars. Their reason? We spend too much time on them. Company rules and DCMA requirements state that we can not retain printed copies of anything as the online version is the only official version. If we print something out to use at the aircraft, as soon as the job is done, or our shift is over, the document must be destroyed.

It's going to be interesting when we go back, as they took away our manufacturing engineer and both manufacturing specialist on our shift over the last few months, as un-needed. Their jobs were to chase data, drawings, manuals and procedures for us. I pity the four supervisors on our shift as they are going to have to be the ones to get all the documents we need now. And under company rules and DCMA regulations, we have to have all the required documentation in hand prior to starting the job. They thought we had lousy productivity when there were 10 of us that could get documentation before....Management can whine and throw hissy fits all they want, but they are the ones that set the rules up and told DCMA that this was how it would be done.

[WILLEO6709]

insults lose the voice tones of sarcasm over email...... gotta get the crew together for a rousing session of BS and teasing or no rapport is built..... besides, somethings just can't be explained with words alone, and it'll be some crusty old timer who comes up with a quip about something utterly stupid that ends up being it.

[smalltime]

Using computers for everything is a slippery slope for businesses. Our company has placed all of our manuals, documents, time keeping, work instructions and procedures as well as policy information and comunications on our intranet. During our strike right now, they are busy removing 90% of the computers from the shop floors and hangars. Their reason? We spend too much time on them. Company rules and DCMA requirements state that we can not retain printed copies of anything as the online version is the only official version. If we print something out to use at the aircraft, as soon as the job is done, or our shift is over, the document must be destroyed.

It's going to be interesting when we go back, as they took away our manufacturing engineer and both manufacturing specialist on our shift over the last few months, as un-needed. Their jobs were to chase data, drawings, manuals and procedures for us. I pity the four supervisors on our shift as they are going to have to be the ones to get all the documents we need now. And under company rules and DCMA regulations, we have to have all the required documentation in hand prior to starting the job. They thought we had lousy productivity when there were 10 of us that could get documentation before....Management can whine and throw hissy fits all they want, but they are the ones that set the rules up and told DCMA that this was how it would be done.

What happens when you all get a computer virus that wipes your system?

Are there any "hard' copies? (IE printed versions?)

Maybe that's what the hissy fits are for.

[Axle]

If your company had a forum where you could post ideas, questions, and general bitching would you use it? (Assuming that it was a closed forum, moderated by EHS and not "corporate")

How do I put this gently? NO! There is no such thing as a closed company forum. The only thing that is closed is that they don't let one employee group see the other employee groups conferences, everything else is open to those higher than the basic working peon. And that will come back to bite you squarely on the ass one day.

(where I work, typing ass in our forums could get me attention from those I don't need it from. Saying ass to my supervisor will be taken in context and forgotten about)

do you think that would be a successful tool for sharing ideas (which sharing is already mandated in our company, we have monthly and weekly conference calls concerning EHS, all about an hour long with 20/30 ppl on the call) i think this could elimiate some meetings...what do you guys think?

It is good as a tool for sharing ideas, and sharing software modules/text/software/etc that is used within the organization.
Could it eliminate meetings? Maybe. But a conference call will always have its place. Depends on how the dynamics of that "meeting" need to work. Same for face to face meetings. Sometimes you need to judge somebodys reaction to something to deal with it effectively, or twist arms as it where. Try and do that on a forum. Is the other guy paying attention? Is he even there? Is he taking something as a passing "suggestion" rather than seriously because it needs attention now everything else be damned.

Alex.

[cvairwerks]

What happens when you all get a computer virus that wipes your system?

Are there any "hard' copies? (IE printed versions?)

Maybe that's what the hissy fits are for.

Nope.....Hard copies are reference only and technically only valid until the end of the shift.

[SND]

My feeling about meetings is that 10% of it might lead to something productive, the other 90% is simply to avoid work.
Now lets have a meeting about how we're gonna meet our current schedule while also getting done the work that is already late.

Oh and I vote no toward open social media. Bulletin board where information is posted just as another means to make sure everyone got the memo is ok.



What happened to keeping the employees in the dark and gossiping?

[scphantm]

i know nothing about your organization, but my gut reaction every time i get asked about internal BBS is don't do it, waste of time and money. maybe one out of 50 actually get used and the one that does is usually so hopelessly packed full of useless and irrelevant junk that its not worth your time.

my current client has a document management system called Confluence. it is so packed full of junk and disorganized that i refuse to use it. about 2 months ago, bossman in chicago wanted a copy of a design that one of my team members uploaded to confluence. he couldn't find it. just to be an ass and prove my point, i had my guy print the design (he still had a copy on his laptop), hand it to the UPS team one desk over, and have them overnight it to bossman in chicago, 10AM delivery. when UPS handed bossman the envelope he was STILL trudging thru the damn document management system looking for it. The client spent thousands on this piece of junk but because noone took the time to organize it properly, we still email documents back and forth.

same thing happens with internal BBS's they usually get so packed full of useless junk noone bothers with it.

one thing that i have done in the past that worked well was setup a list server, like majordomo, but there are much easier ones to maintain today. basically, its a BBS but in email. that way the user has the ability to either delete or store away anything they find interesting that comes in the list. then if they want to search for something specific, they can still go to the group and search for it. think about it.

Electronic mailing list - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Gordon B. Clarke]

What happens when you all get a computer virus that wipes your system?

Are there any "hard' copies? (IE printed versions?)

Maybe that's what the hissy fits are for.

A back-up system on the other side of the world is possible A fire would/could do as much damage as a virus.

[Gordon B. Clarke]

Some (many?) seem to regard this whole thing as a for or against. To some companies it can be good to other no. I'll give an example. One company I know sent out hundreds of copies of their Quality Manual to customers and potential customers automatically. Bloody stupid in my opinion as they then also had to send out updates and revisions.

I suggested that they put the 1st tier part of the QM on the internet and if any customer wanted more specific information they had to ask.

As to why some companies feel they must audit a certified company themselves is beyond me and I regard it as somebody having too much time on their hands. If there is a particular aspect that raises concern deal with that and only that.

Intranet has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Best when the administration of it is left to someone with loads of common sense. Finding that person might be a problem

Gordon

[Boris]

I would class it as "a waste of time"... sorry

Oh and I'd better explain

If I'm running a shift(as I have in the past), I want the guys under me to come up and say if theres a problem, if I've made a bad call, or some foxtrot uniform has been caused by people further up the chain than me.
Whether I like whats been said or not.

Thats how I view the manager's job where I work now, that I can go upto the shop manager, or the owner and say what needs to be said without need for a forum, meeting or suggestion box.
Besides which, you'll know who posted what and have a written record of it, so I guess no one will be critical because it could be used to dismiss them.

And then also, theres the case of me having my phone out, posting stuff to the forum when the owner comes round and demands to know why his $600 aerospace parts are'nt being machined........

Boris

[i_r_machinist]

My company has a forum. Its called Dilbert.
i_r_

[aerodark]

Whatever happened to face to face dialogue? Handshake deals? Living wages?

[scott.livesey]

i see it as just another reason to be off the floor. we have email, we have handwritten, we have EHS meetings, we do(BOW YOUR HEAD) A3 . All this does if make more stuff to be printed, posted, ignored, then trashed. Latest staff brain storm: every production team leader and every maintenance man(about 35 people) will generate a new A3(the toyota production system kind) every work day(for me that would be 285 days). staff didn't have any idea who would review, sort, and store over 7,000 pages that would be generated each month.
more ideas seem to exchanged over a cigarette(there is only one comfortable smoking area) and a cup of coffee than any other media.
scott

[scott.livesey]

Whatever happened to face to face dialogue? Handshake deals? Living wages?

i would have to look you in the eye to have a face to face or shake hands, a lot harder to lie and bend the truth when i see my reflection in your eyes. living wages went away when we elected Ronnie Ray-gun and completely went to hell when W. was in power. i pay more taxes now then i did when bubba clinton was in power.

[Gordon B. Clarke]

I'm probably more or less repeating myself but I'm neither for or against. If intranet is deemed useful for some things then ok. If not then why bother?

The worst reason for doing it is to appear "smart".