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The Unsqueaky Wheel Might Need
the
Grease
A history major
in college, I was privileged to have Dr. Serf, the department
chairman, as one of my professors. In one class on American history,
we discussed the pioneers and the difficulties they faced each day
as they trekked west. After walking and riding all day, they would
stop at night to eat and rest. The children would gather firewood,
the women would cook, and the men would tend to the stock and
prepare for the next day's travel.
The men would
pull out buckets of some slimy goo and use it to grease the wagon
wheels. They greased the wheels each evening, even though the wheels
were not squeaking. They did this not to fix a known problem, but to
prevent a serious problem from occurring at a most inconvenient
time—imagine a wheel falling off or breaking while trying to outrun
a buffalo stampede or an Indian attack.
In today's work
environment, I often hear management questioning why we consultants
want to look at a process when it's "running so well." Having spent
22 years in operations, I can understand the question. In most
organizations, the front-line, second-line, and often third-line
managers spend most of their day dealing with crises. With broader
spans of control and, many times, a lack of technical knowledge
about what their people actually do, they have only enough time and
desire to address problems at hand—not look for others. The old
adage "It's hard to drain the swamp when you're up to your butt in
alligators" seems to apply.
Just like those
pioneers who crossed the plains, we need today to think in terms of
preventive rather than reactive management. Manufacturing has
recognized the need to keep the production line moving; not only
that preventive maintenance is necessary, but it is more
cost-effective than waiting for something to break and shutting down
the line when it's least convenient. For some reason, the service
industry seems to have ignored the concept of preventive
maintenance. Now you ask, "What can I do when I have so many
problems to fix every day?" Since I like to make lists, here is my
list of things you can do to prevent the wheels from falling off at
a most inopportune time:
Addressing
the Unsqueaky Wheel…
- Don't try to look at everything at once. This leads to
overload and, soon, nothing gets done. Try picking one
well-running process each month and look at it a
little each
day.
- Prioritize-decide which process will be reviewed first:
- How many widgets do we run through this process each year?
- How often do we use this process (hourly, daily, weekly,
monthly)?
- How many of my people (hand-offs) are involved in the
process?
Remember, the larger the volume, the more frequently used, and
the more people involved in the process, the greater the
likelihood of big problems when things go wrong.
- Don't do it all yourself. Enlist the aid of your
people, your peers, and if appropriate, your customers. They will
often hear a squeaky wheel long before it comes to your attention.
Often, they can offer solutions to future problems.
- Develop a list of key indicators, both good and bad, that
will help identify a change in the process:
- The time it takes to produce a widget
- The number of customer service calls received about a
process
- The ratio of widgets produced per employee
- The cost per widget
- The volume and age of the backlog
These indicators will often clue you into a developing problem
before it becomes a crisis.
- Don't wait for major problems before you ask a consultant
to review your operation. They have no vested interest in your
operation other than to provide you with information that will
help you fix the broken wheels, and they will also identify the
unsqueaky wheels that will become problems if not addressed.
We take preventive action every day. We paint houses before the
wood rots, get our cars serviced to prevent breakdowns, and submit
to flu shots. Why not apply the same practice to our professional
lives? Now, go grease some unsqueaky wheels. You never know when the
buffalo will come.
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