"Management by Chaos or..." Topic

There's 45 minutes of my life I'd like back!

Yesterday afternoon we had a meeting with the plant manger and our head of QA. The topics of discussion were our existing quality assurance policy and procedures, productivity issues and shop cleanliness. Hoo boy! Okay, the QA stuff was worth addressing, Basically it was a reiteration of policies that most of us knew already. We have new welders that haven't been fully briefed on this and going over it was a good idea for all.

The issues with productivity generated some lively debate from our temporary shift supervisor/lead man with the plant manager about why numbers seemed to be falling and why first shift won't share setup information on new parts that they are running through the PPAP process with second shift requiring us to "reinvent the wheel" every time we see these parts for the first time. Finally we came to our plant manager's pet project, cleanliness.

To be fair the place does look like something you'd find in 1980's Bulgaria sometimes. There are copious amounts of dust from the lasers all over the place. The fact that folks also aren't too careful with where they dump candy wrappers, used product identification tags, backing paper form sanding disks, etc. all adds to the mess. There is also enough used OilDri around the place to power America for the next 20 years. Yes, some concerted effort to clean up the place should be made and a lot could be donekeep the shop clean. But to expect us to sweep around our machines on a daily basis may be a bit much considering how many machines we have and how little time we have to do it. Technically the last 5 minutes of the shift is for cleanup. To pick up the day's debris, empty the garbage cans, etc. that's plenty of time. However my department has one machine that is 15' by 25' in size and the other two are 15' by 50' easy. To expect one person to do a credible job of sweeping in 5 minutes a day is a bit much. The problem is compounded for 2nd shift.

Since there is no 3rd shift (yet) we have to shutdown five minutes early and depending upon what's running we will go right to the 5 minute bell working on our projects, then the lights go out, so no sweep up time. True there are a few moments in between loads or while waiting for a change over that we might be able to get some of it done. but on the whole its a fantasy. He wants to get rid of specialized clean up days but I do not see that happening any time in the near future. This is going to be fun.

Hmmm…so um…why doesn't the management take the job to bring in a couple of people on a cleaning crew at the end of a work day?…or just as easy…assign the task on a rotating schedule where on Monday, Joe and Fred stay 30 minutes extra (paid), to clean up the shop area…On Tuesday it's Frank and Bobs turn…on Wednesday it's Ted and Toms…etc…

Let me guess…the idea of actually paying half an hour OT is the killer…

C'mon Murhp, they don't need to work harder, the need to work SMARTER! Management believes they can increase productivity infinitely by simply demanding it. It's that Captain Picard attitude, 'Make it so. Aye, sir. Is it so, Number 1? Aye, sir. Very well, I'm going to lie down now, ummm, send Councilor Troy to my cabin.'

I gave up on my last job, took a severance package and ran, laughing, all the way back to Michigan. Well, they just cut that site 60%, sold the facilities to another company and are renting back the space for what is left, which means they are all on borrowed time. Every year we filled out a Gallup poll on how things were going. Every year, we dinged management. Every year, the results were posted with a note about the management scores which said, literally, 'You don't understand how hard their job is.' Well, now I've heard that they've been dinged so hard that they've called in the employees and told them to stop slamming them because, obviously, the employees don't undersatnd the questions. 99% of the employees have college degrees, half have PhDs, but the can't read and understand a simple question like 'Do you have confidence in your management?'

We are seeing the last stages of the decline and fall of American industry. Managements only solution to problems is to acquire, devour and defecate other companies until there is only one and it starves to death. Managers eliminate anyone they perceive to be a threat to their positions and fill the void with incompetent dullards and the morons keep marching up the chain until they can strap on a golden parachute and leap off the pinacle.

But I'm a known cynic, so you should just ignore me like you usually do.

Would you prefer "Management by Chaos" or the "Management by Motivational Poster" we have in the wake of (and possibly additional) layoffs?

I've wanted to line the walls with posters from Despair.com to see if anybody would notice.

if they start spouting japanese management terms… run for the hills!

It sounds like the old, old story. Management doesn't
really understand that it's role is as FACILITATOR,
primarily – there to address the problems which the
workforce encounters and then to work out solutions
WITH the workforce.

Too often, this lack of understanding leads to a
dictatorial management style, rather than a collaborative
management style.

Now I'm depressed. The place I work does all of the above…

Quality Control realy does pay for itself, and not just in the long run.
It has to be a corporate religion. Unfortunately, Management has to believe in it, instead of just sending in missionaries to convert the Heathen Workers. You can't baptize with a fire hose. Too much Management seems to think that efficiency and productivity applies only to the workers.

****************

if they start spouting japanese management terms… run for the hills!

Kan-ban!
Toyota Sewing System!

Sepuku!

Spring that one on management, tell them it's the latest thing in Total Quality Management and the only honorable way to atone for their sins.

Streitax I'd love to believe me. Frankly, the QA guys are doing a pretty good job. Most of the problems come from two sources: lack of communication between the shifts and a tendency to push the "Screw It, Ship It" mantra a bit much. So far we haven't had too much of the Japanese style management other than some JIT (Just In Time) procedures. We haven't had motivational posters and (thank GOD) none of the "motivational speaker/seminar" situations. If we ever got that I'd walk out.

You hit the nail on the head Murphy. They don't want to spend any money on it. That is the whole problem. Believe me there are a lot of things that could be fixed and cleaned up. The owner doesn't want to spend any more money than is necessary. We're doing good and he is willing to spend to improve our operation. I can't fault him for that. He's kept the doors open and the lights on when other shops are full of crickets.

Still, if I have one criticism it is that he's still managing the place like we are a little supplier of local industries. We are much bigger than that now and we are playing with much bigger players. We've got to start working on getting ahead of these issues and not keep trying to slap a band-aid on these problems. I'm proud of where I work, as screwed up as it is and I've recommended them to a couple of clients but we've got to tighten up more and more. It's not necessarily hard, just something that is going to require more effort on everyone's part working together, not just "throwing it over the wall" like we do now.

I blame the creation of the MBA.
-Kle.

This guy is a bit older school than that but he is an accountant. Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you. He's been running his own businesses as well as working for some major industrial furniture manufacturers for 40+ years. He's owned my shop for 20 years now. On the whole, he's a pretty sharp cookie. It's just I fear that we are going to goof up one too many times by these band aid approaches and that will kill us. Until then I'll just keep on whistling in the dark.

My wife's direct boss holds 3-4 hours of meetings one day then states that the techs should be billing 90% of their time, a number he pulled out of his rectum. He came from managing tech support at a major health insurance company. Now he supervises 3 people that are overtasked (doing everything from setting up pcs to implementing vmware servers for networks with several hundred clients) and cannot understand that because everyone is a jack of all trades they cannot focus on one type of task. He also is paid based on how his people meet certain metrics but they are not compensated at all for those metrics.