Managing for Daily Improvement
The working files from the book. Copy them to your own Drive or download them as Excel, then put them to work on your next shift.
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Launch or reset a daily management system in one pilot area: the Week 0 pre-launch checklist, the Day 30/60/90 milestones, a week-by-week log, and the five failures that show up in almost every rollout.
A scaled grid where one square equals two inches of real whiteboard, pre-divided into the four zones a minimum board needs. Sketch your layout, print it, use it as the marking guide when you tape out the board.
A one-shift plan-vs-actual grid with a reason-code column and an issue/action zone. It shows drift while you can still do something about it, and turns a miss into a conversation instead of a post-mortem.
One row per metric with the six fields every metric needs before it earns wall space. A built-in SMART test flags anything not ready for a daily board.
The multi-area version: four area tabs feeding a plant rollup that shows coverage and every single point of failure across the whole operation in one view.
A single-page job aid for when a defect or hazard shows up twice: one risk, one standard, one quick check, one photo. Includes a teach-back sign-off list, because a lesson nobody was taught is decoration.
Answer four questions in order and the worksheet tells you whether you're looking at a system problem, a skill gap, or a will gap. Includes the response scripts for all three, because the fastest way to lose a team is to discipline someone for a problem the system created.
Jobs across, names down, scored 0 to 3 with the scale printed on it. Counts qualified coverage per station and automatically flags your single points of failure.
Define ten metrics once, enter the numbers daily, and the workbook scores every day green or red against target and charts the trend. Built on the one-leading-plus-one-lagging rule so your board never only tells yesterday's story.
Three indicators tracked weekly for a quarter that tell you whether your system is actually working, plus the five-question weekly audit and the warning signs of decay.
One action-log format that works across Tier 1, 2 and 3, with a live closure-rate counter and automatic overdue flagging. Includes the five-line escalation packet and all three tier agendas.
Six questions that find what changed when a station that used to run clean starts drifting. Faster than a fresh 5 Whys, and it routes you to the right next tool.
A card register for a layered audit. One card per routine, sitting red until someone verifies it happened, with each level checking the level below.
A one-page daily checklist organized by time block, in three role versions: team lead, supervisor, and area manager. A weekly review tab scores your completion against the 90% target.
A one-page root-cause worksheet with the guardrails printed on it and a column for the evidence behind every answer. Because a 5 Whys built on guesses is just a faster way to be wrong.
A deeper pass for the chronic problem that keeps coming back after you thought you'd fixed it. Eight steps in order, plus a monitoring log so step 7 is a real check.
A single-page problem-solving form for problems that cross lines, involve suppliers, or carry real safety risk. Seven sections, one page, no bureaucracy-a story that keeps everyone aligned. An A3 can take many forms, this is just one example.
Fill in five lines before you walk over: problem, impact, what you tried, the ask, needed-by time. The back records what came back down.
Six pre-labelled cause categories for when the team has multiple plausible causes or a 5 Whys turns into a debate. Ten minutes gets you a shared map instead of an argument, and it stops the loudest voice from winning.
Plan one improvement cycle: state the hypothesis and what you'll measure, run it with a clear start and stop, compare against what you expected, then adopt, tweak or abandon.
A four-part one-page plan that ties your development to a performance outcome your team feels and puts the practice inside your leader standard work.
Build a default rhythm for where your attention goes when nothing is wrong, plus the two-tier thresholds that tell you when to leave it.
Score which leader checks you actually completed Monday through Friday against the 90% target, then answer the four questions that turn a miss into a system fix.
Sort a situation into coaching, corrective action, or investigation before you speak, with the documentation checklist and three scripts on the reverse.
Ten open questions on one side, the SBI feedback frame and the five Kata coaching questions on the other. For when you catch yourself about to tell instead of ask.
What belongs in the huddle, on the board, one-to-one, and in a text, so people know where information lives and what it's for.
Sort human error from at-risk behavior from reckless, with the right response for each. The reverse is the checklist that rules out the system first.
The agreed first move when plan vs actual slips, quality drops, or near-misses spike — printed so nobody improvises under pressure.
Four printable cards — Tier 1, 2 and 3 agendas with their time boxes, plus the five agenda rules and the four-step deviation review.
