The Tier 1 Meeting Agenda That Fits in 10 Minutes

Most tier 1 meetings run long because nobody decided what the meeting is for. The supervisor stands at the board, talks about whatever is on their mind, someone brings up a parts shortage, and 20 minutes later the cell is still standing there while the machines sit idle. A written tier meeting agenda fixes that, but only if it is specific enough to follow at 6:05 in the morning with half the crew still holding coffee.

Here is one that works for a single cell, start to finish, in 10 minutes. A 60-machine shop has run it across 17 cells on two shifts for years, and the order matters more than the wording.

Minute 0 to 1: safety

First thing, every day, before anyone looks at a production number. Two questions: did anything happen yesterday, and is there anything about today's work that worries you. Near misses count. A pinched glove on a chuck counts.

If the answer is "nothing," write the date and move on. Do not fill the silence. If someone raises something, write it on the board with a name next to it and keep going. You are not fixing it in the meeting.

Budget: 60 seconds. If it needs more than that, it is a safety stand-down, not a tier 1 meeting.

Minute 1 to 4: yesterday's board, red boxes only

This is where the meeting gets its shape. The board runs the meeting, not the supervisor. Whoever is leading points at the first red box, and the person who owns that metric speaks. Green boxes get nothing. Not a mention, not a "good job," nothing. Start talking about green and the meeting doubles in length within a week.

For each red box, two things: what happened, and what is being done about it. "Delivery was 12 short. The lathe in station 3 lost an hour on a tool change that took 50 minutes instead of 15. Tooling is looking at it today." Twenty seconds.

If nobody knows why it was red, that is the answer: "we do not know yet." Write a name and a date on the board. The person named goes and finds out. Three red boxes at a minute each is your budget.

No board yet? Print the free SQDC monthly board: a day grid for each letter, colored green or red at this meeting. No email, no account.

Minute 4 to 7: today's plan and what is in the way

Now turn to the hour-by-hour section for the shift about to start. What is the number for today. What jobs are running. What is the one thing most likely to stop you hitting it: material that has not shown up, a machine that came off a repair last night, a new operator on a tight part.

The point of this block is to surface the risk before it happens, not to plan the shift. The shift is already planned. You are asking one question: is there anything you already know about that will make today red. If yes, name it and name who is handling it.

Minute 7 to 10: open problems and the read-back

Read the open 3Cs on the board. Not the details, just the status. "Chip buildup on station 6, owned by Marta, due Thursday, still open." If a due date has passed, ask one thing: new date or escalate to the tier 2 board. Do not let anyone re-explain the whole problem. If it is more than a week old with no movement, it leaves this board and goes up.

Cap this at three items. If you have more than three open 3Cs on one cell board, the cell is not closing problems, it is collecting them.

Close by reading back every name written during the meeting. "Dave, tool change on station 3. Marta, chip buildup, Thursday. Me, material for the 4pm job." Then the meeting ends. Standing, at the board, every day at the same time, whether or not the supervisor is in that day.

Who speaks and who does not

The supervisor should not run this meeting long-term. A team lead or a rotating operator should. When the same person fills in the board and runs the meeting, it turns into a defense of the numbers. When an operator points at a red box and the supervisor has to answer for it, the meeting gets honest fast.

Everyone else speaks only when their metric is red or their name is on a 3C. Nobody presents. Nobody gives an update on something that is green. Maintenance and quality are welcome to stand at the back and listen; they get a name written next to a problem, not a speaking slot.

The tier meeting agenda on a bad day: what to cut

It will run long. When it does, cut in this order.

Cut the open problems block first. The 3Cs are written down and they will still be there tomorrow. Cut the "today's risk" block second; the supervisor can walk the cell after the meeting and ask. Never cut safety and never cut the red boxes. If you only have four minutes, safety and red boxes is the whole meeting, and that is still a legitimate tier 1 meeting.

One more thing to cut: any conversation that starts with "while we're all here." That is a different meeting. Write it on the side of the board and hold it after.

Paper or a whiteboard works fine for all of this. The agenda is the discipline; the board is just where it lives. If you want to see the red boxes and open 3Cs laid out so the meeting can follow them in order, the demo runs on sample data, no signup needed: Try the live demo →