How tiered daily management works
Each level of the organisation holds its own short, stand-up meeting at a visual board. The meetings are stacked in time so information moves up the chain within hours, not days.
- Tier 1: frontline team and team leader, at the start of each shift.
- Tier 2: team leaders, supervisors and support functions for one area or department.
- Tier 3: the site leadership team, usually daily, reviewing the whole plant.
- Tier 4 (optional): regional or business-unit leaders reviewing several sites, often weekly or monthly.
Every tier reviews the same core categories, typically safety, quality, delivery and cost, so a problem raised on the line can be traced at every level above it.
The two directions of flow
Issues that a team cannot solve with its own authority or resources are escalated to the next tier, with the context already captured. Decisions, support and priorities flow back down. The test of a working system is whether the person who raised an issue hears the answer, usually by the next day.
What makes it effective
- Fixed times and standard agendas. Meetings start on time, are time-boxed and follow the same order every day.
- Visual boards. Status is visible at a glance, so the meeting discusses exceptions rather than reading out numbers.
- Clear escalation rules. Teams know what they own and what to pass up.
- Action tracking. Every issue has an owner and a due date, reviewed at the next meeting.
- Leader standard work. Leaders attend the tiers below theirs and go to the gemba to see problems first-hand.
Common mistakes
- Turning tier meetings into long reporting sessions.
- Escalating everything upward instead of solving locally.
- Letting actions age without follow-up, which teaches teams that raising issues is pointless.
- Running the tiers at random times, so information arrives too late to act on.
Example
A filler on Line 3 has repeated jams. The Tier 1 team logs it and assigns a temporary fix. Because it needs an engineering change, it is escalated at Tier 2, where maintenance and engineering agree an owner. If capital is required, it goes to Tier 3 for a decision, and the outcome is reported back to the Line 3 team.