New Look, New Mission, New Post

Change.

It's inevitable. Sometimes it's joyful and refreshing. Other times it is intense and overwhelming. Particularly when it is imposed. The one thing that will never change, is that change will always exist.

The value of change is that it presents opportunity. In order to harness that opportunity, preparation is required.

American labor is facing change. Change due to offshore outsourcing. Change due to technological improvements in manufacturing. But change nonetheless.

Not long after his administration took office, Indiana Governor Mike Pence announced his intent to focus on elevating the capability of the Indiana labor force to attract manufacturing to that state. High tech manufacturing. Manufacturing that requires labor to communicate, lead and analyze.

In a November 2012 issue of Fortune Magazine, an Op-Ed by Nina Easton spoke of the need for a strategy similar to that adopted by Governor Pence. The article shares alarming data supporting that "There are millions of jobs coming online that American workers aren't equipped to fill." As of the date of the article, 3 million jobs have remained unfilled for 19 months, a vacancy equivalent to 6% unemployment. Further, a 2012 ManpowerGroup employer survey suggests roughly 50% of jobs applied for could not be filled due to lack of skill. Approximately 33% of employers "...complain that applicants lack technical competence and hard skills...". A proportion that appears to be increasing.

Think of the advent of smart phones and tablets. These are an outward manifestation of a deeper, larger and more subtle increase in technology, and the manufacture of technological goods and distribution of technological services. From smart phones and tablets we are moving to smart appliances, smart cars and smart homes. There are myriads of applications as technology grows exponentially and with lightning speed. Parts and components of all these technological necessities and conveniences use precision equipment and technique to manufacture, requiring a labor force able to analyze issues, identify improvements, communicate their need and lead process improvement for results.

In the aggregate, can our labor force do that? Who can? That is an easy answer. Look to where the jobs are outsourced. Countries that can court and retain American manufacturers of such devices have been able to meet manufacturing demand by positioning themselves with an educated, cost effective work force. Not in all cases, mind you. There are still brute force labor shops, but on the economic landscape, there is an increase in the education of the overseas competitive work force, while in America, there is a decline.

Change.

It's inevitable. Sometimes it's joyful and refreshing. Other times it is intense and overwhelming. Particularly when it is imposed. The one thing that will never change, is that change will always exist.

The question is, can and will American labor accept it, embrace it and leverage it for competitive advantage to bring jobs back to our country, our regions, our states, our cities and our homes.

I am passionate about helping to facilitate that end. In an effort to help drive this passion I too am embracing change. It has been some years since I have generated regular posts on this blog. I have given my path forward significant consideration. The result of which will bear fruit on this blog with a New Look, New Mission and New Post.

Change. The train is leaving the station. We can get on board or get left behind.

The Door To Change Swings On Small Hinges

The door to change swings on small hinges. That's what my grandmother used to tell me when I was too anxious for something to happen. Her parents crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains in a covered wagon; one step at a time. It took months. One small change at a time. Some days the horizon looked the same as it did the day before. Eventually they made it and saw big change when they finally made their way to the Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. The door to change swings on small hinges.

I think about that statement now, more than ever. I think about economic bubbles. Why do they exist? People want things to happen faster than the economic environment is prepared for them. Take the real estate collapse for example. Many people wanted homes. In many cases more house than they could really afford, or than they needed. This created paper wealth for other people in the form of mortgages. But not enough wealth. Real Estate hedge fund managers saw the opportunity to leverage, already leveraged mortgage paper to generate "wealth". Lots of it. More than they really needed. Then there was a failure, and another and now we have an economic recession we think we might be getting out of. Or maybe not. Time will tell.

Our society seems to have become an "I want it all now" society; at the expense of what? Banks? Bond Holders? Stockholders? Neighbors? Taxpayers? What happened to the idea of frugality? What happened to the idea of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay?

I have come to the conclusion that if you try to make it happen faster than the natural process will allow, someone will nearly always suffer. There are no shortcuts. A thoughtful disciplined approach will get you where you want to be. Patience must be applied and developed. This enables one to see the pitfalls and circumvent them. On the other hand that does not excuse a lack of progress, growth and development either.

The same is true of investigations. When conducting an investigation, there is nearly always a time line. A target due date. The nature of business dictates such. On the other hand, the quality and depth of the investigation is an exercise of executing proven methods with discipline. This may be painful at first. Over time, investigators get better and better at finding Root Cause and applying the appropriate counter measures. It all of a sudden seems to get easier.

I remember a couple of years ago when I was hammering through investigation after investigation. I usually had 3 or 4 going at the same time. At one time I had 8 investigations I was conducting. It was a grueling time for me, but I kept at it and I stayed true to the process. Then something happened. I realized one day that investigations in general got easier. Upon deeper thought and consideration I realized that I reached a step change in my skill and ability. However, it didn't just happen. It took a lot of little activities repeated consistently time and time again.

In church not long ago, a woman trained in classical performance of the violin, performed a solo. It was powerful and had great feeling. Everyone in the congregation was visibly moved, including myself. I was astounded at the technique demonstrated. When she was through, she sat down and the speaker got up. He thanked the violinist and then made a statement that has since stuck with me. He said, "I'm sure most people don't appreciate the THOUSANDS OF HOURS that went into being able to play such a moving piece for those few moments.

Money and finance, business, having a nicer home or nicer car, conducting investigations and yes, even playing the violin, and doing any of them well, require practice, patience and diligence as the skills and behaviors for success are developed.


In the late seventies, famed actress Shirley MacLaine was asked in an interview at the height of her career, "To what do you attribute your overnight success?" She responded that the overnight success she was enjoying took her 25 years to develop.

The Door To Change Swings on Small Hinges.

Draining The Pond

My father-in-law owns a farm in Preston, Idaho (famous for the film, “Napoleon Dynamite”). There is a small creek (pronounced “crick” in Preston) that intersects the property and feeds a small pond in the center of the property. The story is sometimes told of when the pond had to be drained.

It seems there was some obstruction to the pond effluent. The pond had a small concrete dam with a steel plate flood gate. The flood gate was opened and the pond drained so the obstruction could be removed. As the pond drained, an old rusty Model A Ford began to appear. Once the water level passed the Ford, and as the pond continued to drain, an old refrigerator was seen. After the pond was completely drained, the Ford, refrigerator and other junk in the bottom of the pond were chained to the tractor and pulled out. The pond was then refilled.

Not long ago, I got the opportunity to drain the pond at work. I was assigned an investigation, the purpose of which was to find why we were not able to correctly account for some units of very expensive product. As I pursued the investigation, it was discovered that the operators had just a few seconds to count over one hundred units of product and that this was done about every 2-3 minutes. The counter measure was to create a template, that would be placed over a tray (or case) of units, to see if they looked correct. Voila! Problem solved.

What?! But, wait a minute! You say that there is still a problem with the accountability? Yep, you guessed it. I was assigned another investigation for the same thing not long after the first investigation. So I dug a little deeper this time. The data I analyzed showed that the templates for counting the units of product worked well on the large units, but because the small units were in presentations of nearly 600 units, it was difficult for operators to tell if the count was correct or not. Hence, the potential for an erroneous count was still there. The counter measure implemented at that point was the introduction of an automated visions system that would use a computer and camera to do the counting, taking out the potential for Human Error. Finally! Glad that’s over.

Hold on now! I just got done fixing this problem. It can’t still be happening, can it? Another investigation assigned for the same thing, yet a few weeks later. When will the bleeding stop? In this investigation, I learned there was a new step in the process for additional testing to ensure oxygen content of the product was less than 1%. Final unit accountability of the product was completed before this step was executed. The problem was that a failed unit would be rejected, thus changing the count. This was not accounted for in the planning phase for implementation of this new step in the process; fixed yet again.

Process improvement is often referred to as Draining The Pond. It is the process of looking for incremental improvement rather than betting on big step changes. As you improve productivity through process improvement, you find other opportunities for improvement. The beauty of Fault Tree Analysis, is that you can capture several gaps in the process – junk in the pond – simultaneously by creating a visual of all the hypothetical gaps.

When I was doing these investigations, I was not disciplined in using Fault Tree Analysis in this way, but it would have helped prevent the non-value added activity of doing multiple investigations for the same issue. That is not to say that Fault Tree Analysis will be the end all, be all for any issue. I have been involved in investigations that used Fault Tree Analysis, which did not capture all the potential gaps for the Loss Event. However, capturing more gaps in an investigation, rather than fewer, is a more efficient way of…

Draining The Pond.

Do It, Do It Right, Do It Right Now!

Last week I had a posting called, "Just Do It!" after the Nike slogan, used so often in their advertising. Before, "Just Do It!" was even considered by Nike, I was serving a mission for my church in the late 70's. One of our church leaders had a placard on his desk which said, "Do it, Do it right, Do it right now!" Everyone knew that this was his credo and we made it ours. It has since stuck with me.

So what does the mantra, "Do it, Do it right, Do it right now!" have to do with investigations? The following are my thoughts on the matter:

1. Do It: This simply means "Take Action." If no action is taken, nothing gets done. A Loss Event has occurred. You are aware of it, or previously unaware of the Loss Event, it has been assigned to you for investigation. Take Action. Begin the investigation. Understand the events surrounding the Loss Event and use that understanding to determine Root Cause. The point is, that unless you "Do It," nothing will ever be resolved. No Root Cause will be found.
   
2. Do It Right: When taking action, during the course of your investigation, be sure you are taking the right action. Question everything. Require the appropriate data to support or disclaim all your hypotheses. Talk to the SME's and SMI's, both. Don't be afraid to challenge. Don't be afraid to be challenged. Gather all the data and information you can. Organize it, codify it and prepare it for review and/or approval. Most of all, be sure your Corrective Actions are appropriate and sound and prevent future Loss Events of like kind.
3. Do It Right Now: There is a sense of urgency in business. Any business. The business of work, the business of community, the business of family, all require some sense of urgency to resolve issues and resolve them quickly. Understanding this as investigators, we should take action and we should take the right action. However, waiting does not help at all, we need to take action now! The sooner we take action, the sooner resolution will take place, the sooner we improve whatever process we are investigating, and the sooner we reap the benefits of such.

Life is full of challenges and choices. These are compressed even further in the traditional business environment. Investigators are leveraged to understand why some of those challenges occur and how to prevent their recurrence in the future.

When you are faced with the challenges and choices of life, in your work or otherwise, as an investigator, just remember...

Do it, Do it Right, Do it right now!

Loss Events & Losers

Nobody wants to be a loser. In order to not be a loser, an organization must understand what a Loss Event is. Understanding what a Loss Event is, will enable the organization to investigate the cause of the Loss Event, identify Root Cause, and the appropriate Action or Counter Measure(s) to correct the Root Cause. However, before any of this can happen, the organization must understand what a Loss Event is.

Simply put, a Loss Event, is where something is lost in the process of doing business. I don't necessarily mean the type of loss that would prompt you to go to the lost and found. Rather, the loss is typically measurable in monetary terms, for most businesses. Losses can be the dollar value of down time, defects, a safety incident; you can think of as many examples as there are companies in operation.

The problem is, that any loss event represents lost revenue to the organization. If the loss event is down time, then you have the cost of not producing product, the cost of replacing equipment that was damaged or in disrepair, the cost of labor during the downtime, etc. If the loss event is defects, then you might have the the cost of rework, lost opportunity cost if you cannot rework and have to scrap, cost of equipment or line time to do the rework, cost of overtime to execute the rework or manufacture replacement product, etc. If the loss event is a safety incident, you can follow nearly all the same paths for the cost involved, but you might have some different costs such as doctor's visits, workers compensation, etc.

The point is, that a loss event, in the simplest terms a business can understand, is the erosion of revenue and/or profits. In order to understand the cause of the loss events, organizations will employ formal Root Cause Analysis (RCA). I personally like to use a Fault Tree when doing RCA. Using RCA methodologies will drive the investigator to Root Cause. Knowing Root Cause will enable the appropriate Actions or Counter Measures. The appropriate Actions or Counter Measures will prevent the Loss Event from occurring again. Prevention of another, similar Loss Event provides an incremental increase in the revenue and profits of the organization.

Organizations that have not figured this out, or choose to ignore Loss Events, are Losers, (fiscally of course!)