Dr.
Edwards Deming was an exceptional person. I first heard about him in late 90´s
when I was in University. I found and I still find his thoughts and teachings,
way forward his time. A Lean thinker and an Innovator. Unfortunately most
companies, and professionals, event College professors, acknowledge his famous
14 points, along with his PDSA cycle (PDCA) cycle. What is often missed, is his
extraordinary philosophy that lead to a country out of the ashes. I think his
Red Bead Experiment his a great proof on what he taught about managers, systems
and the way work was done back on his days (and probably today).
His
controversial thoughts on Individual Performance Review aren´t as well known or
understood as other aspects of his legacy and they might be the most important
lessons from all his work. They are as
relevant today as they were 20 or 30 years ago.
The
quote:
We need to work smarter not harder.
Sadly, today in 2016,
there are a few managers that still think that, a worker who sweat, runs, and
finishes exhausted at the end of her/his shift, are the best ones. Those who
try to work, run, move, sweat less, but still meet her/his targets are the bad
apples that will contaminate others, into seeking working less. I don´t blame
those managers, cause I used to think the same way. Years back, around 2005 I
used to think that way.
I remember that at one production meeting, I said:
We
need to tell them (the workers) what to
do, they just need to do it.
How
wrong I was. I see clearly now, but at that time this was a common thought for
me. And even for others. I remember that when saying that infamous phrase
others nodded with their heads, approving my statement.
But fast
forward to 2016, this kind of thought is still really common everywhere. As
another proof, I saw a LinkedIn job post that caught my attention. It was from
a trendy company. At the end of the job´s details there where enlisted all
benefits this position was offering. One caught my eye, saying. Unlimited vacation days: Work hard and take
time when you need it. Even though the benefit sounded great, immediately saw
the wrong word on that phrase. Work smart and take time when you need it would
have been a better statement.
There
is no mystery that we all want to be comfortable at work. There are so many
articles and studies with scientific evidence that tells you that, when a
worker has the right conditions, his performance will increase automatically. You
can read some here, here and here. I remember that during my days at Ford, we
had the manufacturing standards. Those standards meant to ensure that the
technician would have the right resources available and the right conditions in
place, to ensure that will comply with cycle time, meeting safety, quality, and
cost expectations. Those standards included, number of walks from the
workstation to the rack of materials, light in the workstation, workload (work
content) in the station. I remember that in one chat with my manager of that
time, He told me that he was involved on the meetings to discussed flow of
materials, layout, etc. And one key consideration was that there shouldn´t be a
point on the floor where the bathroom was more than 65 ft away. During these
meetings, the committee involved in the discussion, found that often the 2
elements the worker hated the most were:
- Having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the cycle time.
- Sweating because of heat.
The
way to control the first one, was to place bathrooms closer to the workstations
to avoid stress on the worker because he wanted to go there but the line
couldn´t be stopped. This way a worker could go, and the team leader could
support during his absence for brief periods of time.
The
second condition, the committee thought about air conditioned, but
unfortunately, as the plant was old, couldn´t support the installation of an AC
system, plus the cost was way over the budget. Again, damn cost – benefit
analysis. Will write on a different post about that.
The
thing is that they tried to provide the best conditions they could, for their
workers. They were sure and they knew their efforts would payoff later.
However,
even though ergonomics and work conditions have been recognized in the recent
years, we still have managers who look at you when you leave the office early.
Some others classify people as lazy when they just try to do things easier.
Now, we have to recognize that too often the path from our current conditions
and practices to an easier work environment, process or practices isn’t easy at
all. Cultural and mindset changes may be involved, and this isn´t easy to
achieve. Many of our current managers, bosses, directors haven´t been exposed
to different ways of thinking. Many of them recall and practice the original
management style they learned at the beginning of their careers. I cannot blame
them. After all, they have reach managerial positions with this style and it is
very difficult to change their ways. However, we must think that if we do not
recognize the undisputable facts that conditions, have on the productivity, on
processes (industrial, administrative, services, etc.) other companies will,
and in fact have, taking a competitive advantage over us.
Deming used to think that the majority of problems were due to poor managerial practices. Most of times it is true. It is management responsibility to provide the best conditions for workers to perform. That includes not only physical conditions, but create openness, team work and creative environments where workers can help with ideas, suggestions and experimentation. Recently read a phrase attributed to Taichi Ohno, that stated:
In Toyota we hire people to think.
In order to do so, management must create and environment where workers are allowed to think,
And that´s why is often missed from many companies who think or try to implement Lean practices.
Thanks
for reading, hope to see your thoughts at the bottom.
