For why it pays off, see the benefits of tiered daily management; for running the meetings themselves, see our guide to tier meetings.
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
Problems travel up the tiers and decisions travel back down, every day.
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.