A production manager is having a shortage of manpower in the production line and there is no one available except him what he will do ?

There should be a reserve manpower for different absence reasons specially in production manning . As the case he or she can fit himself for temporary and or emergency cases although his role will be affected as production mngr.

There is a concept called job enlargment and job enrichment which mean that he should reorganize the available man power to have more than their tasks with a certain benifits and motivations to cover the shortage

Firstly he should utilize  his resources of manpower to get the maximum he can get from the available ones and then he can add himself if  the gab still  not coverd, of course his production qty per day will be less than normal operations but he should ensure that it is with the same quality.

utilize the bottleneck100% , balance the line & do earn to paid calculations.

There is abig question mark on this question is that case is an accident or this will be normal case for some weeks due to this shortage and i'm going to put the two possiblilties as follow:

1- if it is an urgent case and for short time one shift for example , it is better to help by himself as one of the group and same time choose the correct reaction upon this shortage punish for who deserve.

2- but it this case was not an accident this means he must reschedule the plan for production upon the available labors and reports this case to his GM with the new productivity that for sure will be lower than that  with normal labor attendance and hence push the hiring of new labors that enhance the situation.

 

Reshdule production based on available resources (including him/herself if possible) and agreed priorities to minimize impact on promised delivery dates. Here extra resources can be applied (like overtime or an extra shift) to avoide impacting promised delivery dates if required and the extra cost is approved by management. If promissed delivery dates are impacted, slaes must be informed to inform affected customers.

Inform his immediate "Boss" or whoever he answers to that there is a shortage which will need to be addressed but in the meantime to keep production running he will fill the gap until such time as a replacement can be found. "The show must go on"!!!

Implementing lean principles would allow you to have to increase the productivity within same recourses you have got.

1- Value stream mapping.

This visual representation of what tasks and activity that customer is will pay for and what tasks are not

 

2- Implement pull system.

Downstream station triggers production on the next work station

 

3- Set up reduction:

First, separate external set ups from internal set ups

(External set up can be done while machine is working; internal set up can be done while machine is not working)

 

Second, convert internal set up to externals

 

Third, stream line internal set ups

 

4- Implement Total Preventive maintenance (TPM) 

 

 

Productivity is paramount to schedules.It is bad management for a Production Manager to assume the role of an operative simply because manpower is short.As the Production Manager your major role amongst others are planning,organizing, execution these are more of brain work than physical and it is the base on which success is achieved. He or She should in this case rescheduled the manning to use the the most suitable person to bridge the gap created and work out an incentive for the agreed person which will be communicated to the Management.Take a scenerio were a one shift gang closing at5pm at4.40pm suddenly had a breakdown which lasted till4.57pm with Carbonated Beverage on the line. You dont expect the PM to start operating the machine to meet up no,You work out how to make them finish the Beverage happily and still resume next day on time. As a PM I can operate the Filling Machine if for instant the Operator had an urgent call or settling an urgent issue for a moment.

if this case is the normal case you need to use the INCINTIVE SYSTEM with your poeple after deciding the maximum production can get without incintive system then apply the system in accurate manner to reach more production quantity

 

maybe overtime help or 

 

if it is upnormal case then he need to make quick actions more poaple or more overtime or incintive system without overtime of course

i think lf you check first the bottle neek , may be the capacity of the bottle neck  cover ur shortage