Last week I received an email from someone
asking me how I had gotten started with the Theory of Constraints and more
specifically an integrated Lean, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints
improvement methodology. I told this person that I wasn’t always an advocate of
this trilogy, but about sixteen years ago I had a life-altering experience that
changed my entire outlook on continuous improvement. In the next 4 or 5 postings I want to
answer this question and share my experiences with you.
Back in 1994 I was working for a major
European-based tire manufacturing company as a Quality Manager reporting
directly to the plant’s Production Manager.
This guy was very much “old school” in his thinking about how a manufacturing
plant should be run. In fact he was pretty much a control freak of sorts and
believed that his way was the only way. And almost as if to remind anyone who
entered his office that he was in charge, he had a prominently displayed
placard above his desk that read, “He who has the gold makes the rules” and he
managed accordingly.
I was a relatively young
man then (late forties, well, young compared to now :) ) without a lot of experience in the manufacturing world
and thought that his way must be the right way since this plant was doing
ok. I had worked under him for several
years until one day he was replaced by a much younger and enthusiastic Naval
Academy graduate who managed quite differently.
Unlike the previous Production Manager, this new manager (who was also
named Bob) was actually very interested in what others had to say and was truly
open to new ideas. Under his leadership
the plant evolved and improved in virtually all areas. Everything was going quite well in our plant
until one day, Bob and the Plant Manager had a major disagreement and Bob left
the company to become the President of a small fiberglass manufacturing company
making parts for the automobile, trucking and camper industry.
That same year the tire manufacturer I worked
for went through a major downsizing and offered its employees a “deal” if they
opted to leave the company. This deal
was based upon how many years of service you had under your belt and for me it
was an opportunity to move on, providing me full pay and benefits for 13 consecutive
months. Since I had always wanted to
venture out on my own as a consultant, this 13 month salary safety net provided
the financial security I needed to make this career change. It wasn’t long after I left the tire
manufacturer that my former Naval Academy graduate Production Manager, Bob,
heard that I had taken this offer and immediately contacted me. He wanted me to come to his fiberglass
company and consult for him. I accepted
his offer and joined him as his interim Director of Quality and Engineering.
Over the course of the next year, we
completely transformed that small company taking it to new heights in terms of
profitability and on-time delivery. In
fact we did so well that within the next year a rather large company who
specialized primarily in making bed liners for pick-up trucks offered to
purchase this small fiberglass company to expand their product line and our
board of directors approved the sale.
Bob was offered a great compensation package to stay, but I elected to
leave and take a position with the USPS (United States Postal Service) as an
Area Quality Manager. My home base was
located in Pittsburgh, PA with frequent trips to headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
My Pittsburgh location was one of
10 Areas within the USPS and as I soon found out, our customer satisfaction
rating placed us dead last among the 10 Areas nationally. When I delved into why our satisfaction
rating was so low, I discovered that there were two primary causes: mail being misplaced or mail delivered to the
wrong location. I introduced designed
experiments to one of our area’s major distribution center’s to determine why
their huge mail sorting machines was misdirecting the mail. The results of this study explained why this
problem existed and when we implemented corrective actions, there was a major
improvement on the quality of our mail delivery. So much so, that we moved from last place to
first place nationally in about six months.
One morning as I was sitting at my USPS desk,
my phone rang and when I answered it was none other than Bob. “Hi Bob, this is Bob, he said. “I’m here at the Pittsburgh Airport and I was
wondering if you could come on out and have a beer with me?” I replied, “Bob, it’s only 10AM!” to which he
replied, “It’s noon somewhere.” Anyway,
I went out to the airport just to see him again, but opted out of the
beer. He had specifically flown into
Pittsburgh to talk to me about a new opportunity he had. Apparently he had taken a new position as
President of a much larger, mid-western company and wanted me to come to work
for him. The position he wanted me for
was at a manufacturing plant based in Western Kentucky and he said he really
needed my help. He was very convincing
and because I trusted and admired him, I accepted his offer on the spot. We never actually discussed what the position
was, but I naturally assumed that with my background, it would be in Quality or
Engineering or some other related discipline.
When I finally arrived in Kentucky two weeks
later, much to my surprise, I found out that my new position was the General
Manager of this manufacturing plant.
Because my background lacked any kind of significant experience in operations,
I was somewhat astonished that he wanted me to run this plant. When I asked Bob why he thought that I was well-suited for this
job, he simply replied, “Bob, all I need is your people skills and your quality
ethic……and besides, we’re probably going to close this plant soon anyway.” He really shocked me with his last statement! We talked throughout the day and just before
he left for the airport he handed me a book and said, “All of the answers to
the problems at this plant are inside this book.” The book he gave me was The Goal by Eli Goldratt.
That evening I started reading it and ended up staying up most of the night
until I finished it. Just like one of
the main characters in The Goal, Alex
Rogo, I had a lot to learn and apparently not much time to learn it.
The plant employed around 260 people and
based upon what I learned from talking to the employees, there were many
problems. I learned things like the
supplier base was not delivering materials on time apparently because we
weren’t paying our bills on time. Add to
that the fact that we didn’t deliver our parts on time and well, you get the
picture. I also discovered that the week
before I had arrived, the people working at this plant had voted on whether or
not to become unionized and apparently just missed being so by 5 votes. It was clear to me that the hourly work force
was not happy with the management team that had been in place.
The first month I took over was not a good
month financially in that we lost roughly $600K and the corporate leadership
was ready to shut the plant down. I asked our corporate office to delay any
action of this nature until I had an opportunity to at least attempt a
turn-around and to my surprise they reluctantly agreed. I have
never felt more like Alex Rogo as I did at this plant, but soon I would realize
how much I respected him for what he had done.
Yes, I realize Alex was a fictitious character, but I truly did relate
to him and what he accomplished.
One of the first actions I took was to call a
meeting of my direct reports just to get to know them and to find out their
take on the business. I must say that
this first meeting was a memorable one, not just for me, but for them as well. When they all were seated, I welcomed them,
introduced myself, and asked them to pass me their office keys. I still remember the look of anxiety on their
faces as they all naturally assumed that I had called them all together to
dismiss them. The silence was deafening
until finally the HR Manager turned toward me and asked, “Sir, are you firing
us?” I looked back at him and said
emphatically, “Hell no I’m not firing you, I need all of you! I don’t know crap about operations!” He replied, “Well, uh, why do you want our
office keys?” I simply turned the
question around by asked him, “Why do you need them?” He replied, “Uh….to get
in our offices.” I stood up, looked at
all of them and said, “You don’t get it!
I don’t want you in your offices…..I want you out on the floor
understanding our problems and listening to our workforce!” The HR Manager said something that I’ll never
forget…..”Even me?”” I looked him square
in the eyes and said, “Where do you think the human resources are?” “They’re out on the shop floor and apparently
they’re not a happy group!” I told them
that the people doing the work have all of the answers we need if we would just
take the time to listen to them. And
with that, I passed out copies of The
Goal and told them that they had three days to read it and that there would
be a test to make sure they had. They
got my message right away!
To be continued..........
Bob Sproull
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