An Engineering Perspective on Making Meetings More Productive

We talk a lot on this blog about how to engineer better parts for CNC machining, wire EDM, and waterjet cutting services. But for us, engineering is about more than the act of making parts. We also apply engineering principles to other aspects of our business, like our internal team meetings. 

At Arbiser Machine, we know that making a perfect part involves excellent communication and proper planning. We regularly have meetings on our shop floor to discuss production, new opportunities, and challenges in the workplace. 

6 Rules for Engineering Better Meetings

Over the years, we’ve identified six rules for conducting better meetings. But these rules don’t just apply to our machine shop in Georgia. They’re relevant for any business—including the companies of our valued customers. 

In the spirit of sharing our engineering expertise with the greater community, here are 6 rules for making your next meeting more productive: 

1. Identify who needs to be present at the meeting. 

It’s important to address the company as a whole at least once a year at an annual event or a quarterly wrap-up. But you don’t need the entire crew to be present at every single project planning session or weekly update.

Identify and invite only the team members directly involved in the project you’re discussing. In the interest of time and productivity, you can even limit the attendees to department heads or supervisors. Your management team can then distribute the information to whoever else needs to hear it.

2. Clearly define the meeting topic and remain focused on that topic.

Avoid cramming the entire scope of a project into one meeting. You may think you’re saving time by tackling multiple topics in one go. But doing so actually increases the risk of tasks falling through the cracks or someone forgetting a step in the process.

For example, if we’re working on a new part that requires 3 separate machining capabilities, we’ll allocate one session for waterjet cutting, another for milling, and another for polishing to keep everyone focused. 

3. Finish the meeting with a conclusion of findings and future tasks.

Never end a meeting without determining next steps and creating a list of assigned tasks. Ensure that all tasks are designated to the right person, and that they’re aware of their responsibilities. 

It also helps to develop a shareable time and action plan or Gantt chart. Have your team members tick off their tasks as they go along to promote a sense of accountability and accomplishment.

4. When in doubt, schedule a shorter meeting.

Meetings can be a time-suck if you let them drag on. The goal is to find the sweet spot where you’re not just sitting around wasting time, but you’re also not rushing through what’s important.

We hold most of our meetings at Arbiser Machine standing up. Staying on our feet reminds us that brevity is important. We get straight to the point, identify next steps and clear takeaways, then get back to work!

5. Brainstorm sessions have no wrong answers.

We highly encourage team members to speak up during brainstorming sessions, especially when we’re looking for solutions to challenging manufacturing problems.

Our advice to you is to welcome out of the box thinking and emphasize that there are no wrong answers when iterating—just great ideas waiting to be fleshed out.

6. Everyone needs to participate in a meeting. 

Active participation shows that the team understands the topic of discussion and that everyone is willing to contribute to a solution. 

Encourage employees to share what’s working for them. . . and what isn’t. Maybe they’ve come up with a better approach to a process. You’ll never know if they don’t feel empowered to speak up! Open the floor for questions and clarifications to get everyone on the same page.   

At Arbiser Machine, we allot time to plan and discuss every project in detail. As machinists and engineers, we adhere to the 6-P Formula, which states that proper prior planning prevents poor performance. We’ll always choose minutes of planning to save hours of execution.

In addition to streamlining our meetings, we’ve invested in great tools and systems to help us run operations seamlessly in the background. Our quoting platform integrates with our other software tools, allowing us to communicate better with customers and respond to quotes faster. Our custom ERP system enables automated scheduling, quality control, and documentation. And we continuously upgrade our certifications to guarantee internationally recognized quality standards.

We hope that our rules for engineering better meetings help you improve productivity as much as we have here at our machine shop in Georgia. If you like our approach, request a quote and let us engineer solutions to your manufacturing problems!