In the course of perfecting the activity in Production Control departments, many questions have been raised for more than ten years, which aim to examine in depth, among other things, the operational needs associated with this post in organisations that develop standardised projects, prototypes or pilot companies. The content of these uncertainties, which are reflected in the lack of knowledge or the lack of regulation of the post, ranges from the limits of their competences to the daily reality and the processes in which they intervene.
To understand the role attributed to Production Control personnel within the organisation, it is necessary to take a brief look at their situation within the standard organisational chart of any process. These departments are necessarily found at the confluence of interdepartmental information channels, in transversal management and in alerting about operational and protocol incidents that directly affect the production process. This allows them to have a privileged seat in the contribution of proposals dedicated to the continuous improvement of processes, or procedures, within the European culture of standardisation.
Faced with this apparently idyllic situation, there is another, tougher one, since, as is to be expected, any subject situated between tensions tends to wear out and, given the complexity of some processes and projects, to frustration. For this reason, it is necessary to have absolute control and differentiation between concepts such as “priority”, “urgent”, “necessary”, “essential”, etc., which arise daily in association with the different tasks we carry out. This personal deterioration, which sometimes affects professional development, is a consequence of the difference in pace between the production process, which is always subject to deadlines and external pressures, and the necessary implementation of protocols that protect the interests of quality and added value of the final product.
The Production Control Area is just another cog in the company's wheel. We are committed to the quality values that we believe should be inherent to the whole set of processes that make up and allow us to deliver a final job with all the guarantees. We are aware that circumstances place us in the middle of the daily maelstrom, acting as interlocutors or mediators between other specialised departments (quality, production, engineering and logistics), covering small doses of all of them and integrating them into our day-to-day tasks. The aim is to improve overall management, even though we know that the operational changes we propose cannot always be met, as it is also necessary to consider other logical interests such as costs and implementation times.
To conclude, I believe it is necessary to reaffirm that the Production Control departments, due to the position they occupy within the general organisation chart of companies, have become a fundamental piece over the years. They are also one of the working groups that are most involved in the overall process, making proactivity a daily tool that meets the needs that clients seek to cover. Commitment, effectiveness, efficiency and experience are mixed in a precision cocktail that defines us as one of the most internally recognised work teams within our clients' facilities.
