Recently my production line has started expanding. One of the new lines has already been set up and is about to trial-produce products from our subsidiary. I knew about this since my interview, when my supervisor mentioned that the system line would expand, there would be new lines, and new products would be introduced. Back then I didn’t think much of it—I just assumed it would mean one extra line, a few more work orders, and some additional scheduling. It wasn’t until we actually reached this point that I realized things were far from that simple.
This subsidiary product is something our system line has never made before, and its complexity is much higher. Yet the entire trial run has been extremely rushed. The new line is still under construction, and many areas on site haven’t even been fully tidied up. Only one line was forcibly squeezed out while construction continued noisily beside it. The company immediately started urging, “The line is already set up; leaving it idle is just burning money,” and quickly demanded that the subsidiary send materials over for trial production.
The problem is that nothing was properly prepared.
Normally, before a new product goes live, at least a week in advance we need to confirm the work order, BOM, version, part numbers, SOP, packaging method, and shipping process. Many things must be run through once so the line knows how to build it, production control knows how to schedule it, and materials knows how to coordinate. This time, even three days before the trial run, I still couldn’t confirm any of these items.
Although the subsidiary supplies its own parts and we don’t need to prepare materials, the real issue isn’t just the parts—it’s that even the most basic BOM hasn’t been fully established, yet they keep pushing us to start the trial immediately. I find the whole situation absurd.
Later I asked sales and found out that the person originally in charge had just taken a week off, so many tasks went unhandled. Even though sales wanted to help, everything got stuck. The entire matter came to a standstill; everyone knew there were problems but chose to look the other way. In the end, these issues usually land on the production controller.
Because production can’t be left hanging, I had to start chasing people one by one—asking who was handling the BOM, who was creating the part numbers, who was testing the labels, who was confirming the barcodes. Many of these tasks aren’t even within production control’s responsibilities, but if you don’t push, nothing moves.
The most ridiculous part was that even the day before the trial run, right before the end of the shift, the line was still testing whether labels could print and whether barcodes could scan. Standing there watching, I felt it was completely absurd. These things should have been verified much earlier, yet they were still being tweaked on the final day.
The official trial day wasn’t any better.
Someone from the subsidiary came to demonstrate the assembly. Halfway through, they suddenly discovered that a part number wasn’t even in the BOM. I was stunned at that moment—because this isn’t a brand-new product. Their own company had already built and shipped it many times. Only when they formally introduced it to us did they realize a part number was missing.
The only thought in my head was: “Then how exactly have you been assembling and shipping it all this time?”
Complaining aside, the work still had to continue. For a production controller, the most helpless part is knowing exactly where everything is wrong and knowing many things shouldn’t be forced through like this, yet production can’t stop, work orders can’t be held up, and delivery dates can’t be ignored. In the end, you can only grit your teeth, coordinate everyone, and patch up all the things that should have been prepared earlier—one by one.
I used to think scheduling was the most important part of the job. Later I realized that what truly makes a production controller capable isn’t just entering work orders into the schedule—it’s finding ways to keep things moving forward amid chaos, incomplete information, and everyone else being stuck.
Although it can be truly frustrating and helpless at times, and you wonder why everything ends up on the production controller’s shoulders, maybe this is just the fate of the role.