What do you do if your automotive engineers are not meeting key performance indicators?

01/ Follow up, follow up, follow up 02/ Ensure they are clear of performance expectations. 03/ Open discussion of resources and tools required 04/ Provide resources and tools required to be successful 05/ Engineer must execute and perform.

When ever there is underperformance , the biggest mistake to avoid is to give advice immediately. Many years I was giving advice how to improve but noticed that not much improveme has come .But this NLP technique of checking with the employee if it was Training requirement, or knowhow missing, or just laziness of the employee , we can find better only in discussion with the employee. This NLP technique works for the reason as the employee himself or herself will come out with solution and not the supervisor.This way we can get the commitment to work on it by the employee. Start asking question HOW MAY I HELP YOU

review the KPI's with the engineers, Confirm the KPIs are realistic confirm they are SMART, if not review and amend support the engineers as needed to progress key note its a team effort not individual to achieve the KPI's

I would suggest first checking if all KPIs are: 1. Not redundant 2. Useful for any purpose at all 3. Promoting the development of the organization 4. Understood by everybody affected 5. Motivating 6. Measurable 7. Realistic 8. Updated to current environment (internal and external) If they are, then it should be analyzed why they are not met.

An open dialogue on root causes and mitigations is all well, but to do this effectively you must create a safe environment from the beginning. Your team must know that you value their input, that there will be no reprecussions and that you have their back. Only then you will have a creative dialogue. On the other hand, chances are that you never have to have these acute discussions, as your team will point out issues before they become problems.

Setting up a realistic goal is also key to contemplating the results. That is why companies are investing a lot to create a culture where building up sufficient OKRs are of crucial importance. Based on my experience over the years, it has always been evident that most of the employees paying a lot of unnecessary attention to either sluggish or over-promising KPIs and struggling to meet up the targets all year long.

Engagement is an important aspect of performance, both are directly proportional, many a techniques are available to check the engagement or the connect of the team to the task. Improving upon engagement required constant conversations, demonstrating empathy and team celebrations.

As a leader, you are not supposed to identify performance issues when there is no time to react. Communication is crucial to success, mainly in a leadership position. You are the one responsible for establishing an open dialogue with your engineers. Your team will be able to share challenges and roadblocks immediately as they face them to allow you to provide guidance and direction. Do not miss the chance to reinforce the teamwork and how you can all benefit from it when looking to deliver KPIs by redefining the route or changing directions.

Engineers manage KPI through "effectively monitoring processes with early warning system" and drive continuous improvement. If automotive KPI doesn't achieve, the first step should engage engineers or form a taskforce team then go through PDCA or 8D processes to fix it and drive continuous improvement.

#To do their jobs effectively, engineers require the appropriate equipment. Insufficient resources may directly result in subpar performance. Meeting and exceeding KPIs can be greatly impacted by making the appropriate tool and ongoing education investments. #Determine if your engineers have the tools they need to meet the KPIs. This includes having access to training for the newest automotive technology, sufficient testing equipment, and software that is up to date.

The greatest resource to be analyzed is the engineer's knowledge. This is the greatest and most important asset an engineer can have. Software, availability of hours, available workshops, etc. is peanuts considering the risk of an automotive engineer working in an area that he does not master. There is nothing more dangerous than the engineer thinking he knows but he doesn't. Another important point: the engineer who does not meet key performance indicator has a boss. If the engineer is failing, his boss is failing more. It is the leadership's responsibility not to even allow the engineer to do not meet his indicators. Failure is not an option.

Make sure you check your team has everything they need to deliver KPIs. It includes up-to-date software and hardware, adequate testing equipment, and access to training for the latest automotive technologies. You cannot ask them to perform specific tasks, delivering challenging KPIs, if they face a lack of support to do it. Remember, communication is crucial, and in both ways, to success in delivering KPIs.

It is crucial to analyze the root causes and execute basic checks if processes followed are as per SOPs. This might involve assessing factors such as quality reports, resource allocation, workflow efficiency and training needs (if any). Addressing these issues can help realign the team's efforts and improve performance.

Promote a working environment where your team feels empowered to bring resources shortfalls to your attention. Encourage the the team to show you what they are unable to achieve, then have them show you why. Once the barriers are identified, gather solutions from those who are trying to bring the project to fruition.

Always consider challenging the status quo when targeting to maximize the opportunity to optimize processes and workflows. Engage your team to embrace a continuous improvement mindset at every opportunity, tackling delays, errors, and process failures to secure KPIs delivery. Streamlining these processes might involve adopting new methodologies like Agile or Lean in your engineering practices. Embrace the chance and make the process easier to comply.

Setting up a robust process and communicating it helps developing common understanding between various teams and foster good team spirit as one understands the responsibility of other parties. It should also be ensured that there is a definite process for revisiting and reviewing the defined process regularly.

#Analyze and improve current procedures and workflows to reduce engineering process inefficiencies, leading to mistakes, delays, and failure to meet KPIs. #Implement new approaches like Agile or Lean to streamline procedures, increase output, decrease waste, and improve work quality, assisting your team in consistently reaching performance objectives.

Nobody ever considered optimizing the Human-Machine Interface on assembly line tools before, but I did. NIOSH (Nat'l Inst of Occupational Safety & Health) EMG-tested it, and discovered a 54% reduction in grip effort when the tool tried to slide out of the test subject's hand...43.5% less when it tried to twist. Since a combination of high-force/high-repetition risk factors results in a 10-FOLD increase for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in those situations, I trained tool crib personnel on the technology. Fast-forward 2 decades... Today's robots have grippers that can benefit from reduced cycle times since better parts handling allows faster movements when the gripper is molded to each part...works for multiple parts, too. Stay tuned...

Be flexible, up to a point, and actively encourage input from the team on ways to improve processes and procedures. A good team leader listens to the team, a great team leader even listens for what they are not saying, there is sometimes some very powerful words in silence. By hearing both sides, this allows you to strip away bad processes and to modify policies and team structure to enable the best outcome for all.

As a leader, you will update and share the road to target with the senior leadership, stakeholders, and shareholders. As you are required to share the status, you must develop a similar agenda with your team. However, don't be restricted to applying the same way. You may realize a different calendar works better for you and your team to review the progress of actions toward delivering KPIs. Use the opportunity to enhance the way you approach all the activities and define changes (when and always that is applicable).

KPIs should be divided into more manageable, smaller goals. As a result, engineers can concentrate on their current responsibilities with a clear grasp of how they fit into the bigger picture, and goals become less intimidating. Keep a close eye on developments, offer constructive criticism, and acknowledge accomplishments to inspire your group. Milestones act as checkpoints to make sure projects are moving along as intended and offer chances to change direction as necessary.

Milestones are a critical reporting necessity to keep managers, investors etc informed of progress. In the project team they are a strategic goal, but need to be flexible and reviewed often. If the milestone can't be met, the team needs to be prepared to deliver real and concise evidence as to why. It is also critical the team is still unified as to achieving the end goal on time.

Strong APQP process is mandatory not only to deliver high quality products, but also to improve the gaps and issues observed during the project. The four phases of the APQP has already defined deliverables which are divided in different gates/stages which are reviewed at certain levels. Its very improtant to prepare a RCA document for any problem during the project, 8D, Lessons Learned are some of the example for it. These documents will enable the team to consider the Risk and Opportunities in the next project.

Don’t micromanage. Keep goals at a high enough level that there is room for thoughts like “well, X won’t work, but Y might and it will accomplish nearly the same thing.” If your dream is to find a way for “X” to work, keep it on your radar. But don’t lose “Y” today due to insistence on tomorrow’s dreams.

There's a reason organization is called this way - it's not a mechanism, but organism. And "culture eats strategy for breakfast". So while clear KPIs are crucial, they are part of "mechanization" process and it all comes down to people. Fostering proper culture with clear and transparent intra- & cross-functional communication can solve issues to the extend that the question of not meeting KPI's won't even be that critical, because you'll have time to react and come up with contingency plan or rebalancing of expectations VS resources before the situation turns into a surprise.

A lot of good insight here, also keep in mind the words "automotive engineer" could be replaced by any position title, and coaching/leadership strategies employed to help them close the gap still apply. I've dealt with engineers, operators, inspectors, managers and sales people all with the same approach. Contrary to common belief in the industry, engineers are people too, and psychology is the science best applied to manage people, especially regarding giving constructive criticism as opposed to reprimanding employees, which often leads to them giving the bare minimum just to not get terminated. To boil it down to the most condensed possible form: Carrot>stick.

Consider gamifying goals. Effectively it’s pay for performance with a twist of fun of done right. One thing that the auto industry has traditionally failed on is not tying in long term product performance and quality to goals. This is an opportunity to build quality, brand loyalty and pride in your product for your engineers.