Predictable operating performance begins with developing the ability to identify potential operating threats and the resources to analyze and categorize those threats. This effort appears, on the surface, to be a monumental task that would be almost impossible to execute. With the constant demand on any organization to control its manpower resources, so as to assure its continued profitability, setting up such an internal work process would appear to be very unsustainable at best.
If one borrows a page from the Sinclair Group’s Leading From Commitment® (LC) training program, this is truly not an impossible task at all. The program emphasizes an authentic concern and deep-seeded desire to use all resources, namely employees, to provide the intelligence required to recognize small changes that would highlight any possible threat to an operating facility.
We are no longer talking about adding resources to accomplish this task but only about utilizing existing resources to echo changes in operating performance and teaching them to use all of their senses to help pinpoint changes. Now that the Central Intelligence Agency has been defined, it must be solidified by employing the LC training principles, authentic concern and inquiries. That only means there must be deep-seeded desire to accept all information as an important piece of the puzzle. We must make sure every input matters and every employee who contributes feels as though he has been heard. We must truly trust and value each employee as a knowledge source that will keep us operating predictably.
That trust and deep-seeded belief is the source to achieving the ultimate in predictability for any operating facility. The amount of information coming in can get really large and managing it can be overwhelming. That is where your Asset Management System of Choice comes in. Your employee will have to be trained on using your Asset Management System as the vehicle to generating the information exchange. Each employee must learn how to drill down to the asset level to leave all tips that will keep the unit operating predictably. Once that is done and all normal tribal communication like cell phones and word of mouth is halted, we can begin to manage each input with authenticity because the Asset Management System will catalog and categorize each input at the asset level. The data has now become immortalized and can be researched, analyzed, trended and forecasted. Solutions to possible threats will be formed based on patterns of behavior and the nature of the inputs. The results of the research and analyses can easily be fed back to the input supplier, showing him his input really has been valued. That feedback will solidify the process, and a continuous education process will emerge.
Where do the resources come from to research, analyze, trend and forecast future behaviors or even reply to the input supplier what was found when we are running a lean and mean organization so we can remain profitable? This is where the pain comes in. The truth is it is not painful at all; it is just scary to make that leap of faith. The Sinclair Group would say you have to “do less with less” to make this happen, meaning it requires faith this new endeavor will prove itself to be useful enough it will reduce the actual workload, thus requiring less resources overall.
Remember the goal is producing predictable operating performance. Predictability does not mean it is necessary for one to produce 100-percent capacity 100 percent of the time. It means understanding your facility well enough to give advance warning when you will not be able to meet those expectations, which will minimize the effects of our shortcoming when we will be unable to meet the 100-percent capacity mark. The side effect of this approach is one day you will meet that objective of producing 100-percent capacity 100 percent of the time because you have your entire workforce participating with that extra effort.
Please be patient as this process takes time and trust, and trust is an earned commodity. Over time, you will build a communication network of trust that will stand the test of time and a more predictable facility because your most valuable assets, your employees, are at the center of this process.
For more information, email Eric.Freeman@valero.com.
