Two bad chilies

Today I write about an incident that happened to a famous foods company in Mexico. La Costeña is a foods company with a history of more than 90 years in Mexico. Famous for being one of the first to market chilies in the early 1920´s. 

In the past days has been on the public eye, not for the quality or the taste of its canned chilies, but because a photograph. A couple of temporary associates took a picture unloading trucks. The trucks contained chilies, and in the picture can be seen two associates, one of them seems to be peeing on the products. The picture isn´t explicit as this guy was giving his back and cannot tell wether he was doing it or not. but his pants where down.

The story is that this picture got to the social media, where it went viral and of course, the company was under scrutiny. Obviously the company fired the two workers, but what is worth  to analyse are the responses his president and CEO gave today to a Radio show in the morning. 

Rafael Celorio, president and CEO of the company, gave an interview this morning where he talked about the pictures and provided his points of view on this matter.

He explained that those workers where temporary. This time of the year, he continued explaining, the company hires temporary workers to unload the extraordinary amount of products the plant receives everyday. 

Celorio said that the recruiting process was really good. That they do hire workers based on recommendations given by permanent workers in the plant. And he continued explaining that during this time of the year, they have to hire many workers, and many of them stay in the plant, and others come back the next year.

What bothers me about this, is the fact that the company blames the workers and plays the old game of two bad apples. In a separate declaration the public affairs manager , said that in the plant work 3000 workers, meaning it was impossible to watch everybody at every moment. To my understanding and view, the company lost a precious opportunity to recognize the opportunities within their recruiting process and the root cause as to why, two temporary workers would do something like that. What could have happened that encourage those associates to behave like that. The easy part is to blame the bad apples. The hard one, is to recognize and find why those bad apples got mixed with the good ones.

Companies that hire temporary workers know in advance that hiring temps, is a risk. How can those companies minimize those risks? How can those companies improve the systems where situations like that, simply cannot happened? 

Where was the supervisor? Too many workers to supervise? Was the plant running understaffed? Those are the kind of questions the company should ask themselves. How the system allowed that to happened? Of course, the system, is what should be reviewed. 

Temporary workers deserve the same respect as permanent. They should be trained, coached and empowered too. It is worth to follow the same process to recruit a temporary worker, compared to a permanent one. Since those workers for a given period of time will impact the company the same as a permanent worker. I´m not saying this wasn´t the case. I criticize how hard it is for companies accept there are opportunities to improve. Especially in public. 

Thank´s for reading, would love to read your thoughts.

"Mysterious" lean methods & respect for people

As some of you may know, there is soccer cup being played in the US this month.

The oldest soccer tournament takes place in US. Where national Teams from north and south america will play for the first time to define the best team in Copa America.

Juan Carlos Osorio, writing his findings during a soccer match.

This year the tournament, includes countries from all over America. Typically includes teams from south america with special guests. This year is different, since the cup reaches 100 years. Mexico is playing and had a strong first game, beating 3 to 1 to the powerful team of Uruguay.  Mexico´s Coach, Juan Carlos Osorio has been on the spot. Not only for being a foreign coach training Mexico´s team, but for the strange and unusual ways to train a team.

Watching Mexico´s game couple of days ago, the TV analyst told a story about Juan Carlos Osorio that made me remember how lean methods may seem mysterious, weird or wrong for people who isn´t related to it.

The analyst mentioned that Osorio often, in the middle of the game, would call a member of the team (a player) and would ask him to give his opinion on the game. Which is of course, something very unusual for a coach to do in soccer and I bet is not common in other sports either.

Usually coaches are the ones who give opinions, take decisions, speak up, and players need to obey and follow the strategy the coach impose.

That made me think about how Lean organizations, involve workers in improvements, in operations design, and also in the solutions to solve problems. Successful lean organizations, allow the workers to speak up, point out problems, and work to solve them. They are encouraged to give their opinions and to work on issues or problems. They find purpose on their jobs. How many organizations do not allow people to speak and discourage any creativity inherent in workers? It`s true the common rule in sports and companies is that the leader speaks, everybody else listens, and obey. When a leader admits that needs some input, that doesn´t know all answers or decides that it is necessary to hear workers opinions, people around him/her wouldn´t seem to understand why.

It is expected that leaders know what to do. They should direct, provide answers and guide. How ever, as many lean organizations have taught, listening and showing respect for people often provides greater results in the long run. It is through people engagement that true continuous improvement can be achieved. Clic here  to be re/directed to Toyota's website where they explain further the concept and how along with Continuous Improvements shape the Toyota Way.

Remember during my early days in manufacturing. I was a young superintendent and was often in the floor learning and sometimes doing things myself. I learn better by doing and to really know what the workers were talking about, used to do things myself (whenever was possible). And I remember that one time I heard some managers talking about me, saying that my problem was that I didn´t act as a manager, but as a worker. I imagine they meant that my future was doomed if I continued doing things in the floor. 

Its true, small details such as doing things and getting dirty, or perhaps, ask for a worker´s opinion might seem odd. Even when they are the right things to do. 

What do you think? Why is people surprised about this small details? Do you consider that in some situations these examples could´t be applied?

Please leave your thoughts, would love to read your comments below.

Thanks for reading!