Hello folks. Its been a very long time since i last posted so as the advice recommends I'm taking a moment to ask a question . I have recently been helping in with a small textile manufacturing company based in Jo'burg.

A little background
They manufacture dog beds for pet shops all over the province and have begun to 'export' to the cape. It is a small setup with 3 sowers 2 cutters, and one manager (who manages all the orders and general stock control.) Currently we pay on a standard 40 hour week wages. As a little background, once on a tight schedule we were requisitioned to make 100 seat covers with zips. The owner had worked it should take about 2 working days to complete. However after a busy week Friday came and they were due Saturday morning. With a little motivation of getting to go home as soon as they had completed the order we were able to complete all the coves in 1 and 1/4 days.

The production and overall motivation is at an all time low at the moment and I have tried a number of incentives to get them more motivated.

In January they implemented a production bonus incentive plan. This meant that each item produced would go into a time sheet and when more than 40 hours a week were worked acording to the amount produced double pay would be applied. This worked for two weeks.
The reason was they complained that 'Bob' who makes 3 items X in an hour is earning more than me because I can only make Item Y in an hour. (Obviously there is very little sense in this reasoning as its time based and not item based)

We where planning a few changes to help. What are your thoughts on the following implementations?

* Biometric scanner - simple clockin feature, however this will now be used more strictly.
* the production bonus incentive plan reintroduced and explained by using a few simple presentations.
* Somehow bringing back daily objectives to finish the quota required for the day. (The problem I foresee is a drop in quality.)

What do you guys think about the suggestions? Do you have anything to add or any experiences in this regard of your own? Anything would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.