When we were in little league, our coaches always had a white board with a layout of the game field that showed us our play, where each player should go and what we should do. As our company has grown, I started thinking about how we could more simply communicate with our team when things change.  When someone calls in sick or when we have a crazy day, what is the best way to communicate how people should shift to different machines or departments?

We basically took a layout of our production department, printed it out and laminated it.  This allowed us to take dry erase markers to write down where each team member would be assigned for the day, and gave us the ability to have a worksheet to move things around until all of the pieces fit well.  Maybe its an idea that could work well in your shop too.