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Daily huddle agenda
A daily huddle is a short stand-up meeting at the start of a shift where a team looks at yesterday's results, today's plan and its open problems, and leaves with actions that have owners. This agenda keeps it to 15 minutes in six blocks: safety (1 minute), yesterday's results by safety, quality, cost, delivery and people (3), today's plan (3), problems and actions (5), escalations (2) and a close (1). Page 2 has a week's action log and a health check the leader ticks each day. The Excel version is a huddle log: start time against plan, length against the target, attendance and the five results as green or red each day, an action log with status and days open, and a summary with the share of green days per pillar.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a daily huddle agenda
- At the start of every shift, for a team of about five to fifteen people.
- When stand-ups drift past 20 minutes or turn into problem-solving sessions.
- When starting tiered meetings, as the agenda for the front-line tier.
- When a new team leader takes over a huddle and needs a structure to follow.
How to fill it in
- 1
Fix the time and place
Same time, same spot at the board, every day. Start on time even if someone is late.
- 2
Fill in the numbers before the huddle
Yesterday's results go on the board before people arrive, so the three minutes are spent on the reds, not on writing.
- 3
Run the blocks in order
Safety first, then results, plan, problems and actions, escalations, close. The times on the sheet add up to 15 minutes.
- 4
Write problems down, solve them later
A problem raised in the huddle gets one owner and a date. The owner and the people needed solve it after the huddle.
- 5
Escalate what the team cannot fix
Write who takes it to the next tier and by when, and bring the answer back to the next huddle.
- 6
Check the huddle itself
Tick the health check daily. Once a week look at it: if huddles run long, problems are being solved in the meeting.
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: an assembly line's day-shift huddle at 06:45, 12 people expected (illustrative).
- Safety: one near miss reported, a pallet left in the aisle by the line end. Focus for today: aisles clear before the 10:00 forklift run.
- Results: safety, delivery (842 of 840) and cost green; quality red (first pass yield 96.1% against 98%, 14 reworks on one torque step); people red (two absences, one covered by a temp).
- Plan: 840 units, changeover to model B at 13:00, a 30-minute PM on press 2 at 10:00.
- Actions: the line lead owns the torque rework, with a 100% check as containment today and the cause by Thursday. Escalated: calibration of the torque tool, to the maintenance supervisor at tier 2, answer by the next huddle.
The huddle took 12 minutes with 11 of 12 people there. The next morning the torque tool was found out of calibration; the quality result was green two days later and the action was closed.
Common mistakes
Solving problems in the huddle
Ten people watching two people solve a problem is the fastest way to a 40-minute huddle. Assign it and move on.
Reading out every number
Greens need no discussion. Spend the time on the reds and what is being done about them.
Actions with no owner or date
'We'll look at it' means nobody will. One name and one date per action.
Only the leader talks
If operators never speak, the huddle is a briefing. Ask the person closest to each red what happened.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite each huddle runs on a Lean Studio board: the team types the day's KPI values into the board while standing there, creates actions and @mentions people without leaving it, and escalates an item to the next tier with the reply sent back down.
In the lean glossary
Free tools
FAQ
Daily huddle agenda: common questions
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