An Exercise in Team Building

Contech had insisted that labor cost was off the table. That was good, because none of his workers would have ever proposed working harder for the same pay. Material cost was, though, and he got several proposals to change materials of the parts or to find a supplier that would sell the material for less. Jeff had to explain the cost and time required to qualify any new material or supplier, but said he'd forward the request to purchasing and engineering.

Their machines and tooling were closer to home for the workers, and he got one proposal from the team before that direction pretty much closed off.

In one of the meetings, Betsy said if they had a new lathe, they could make parts faster and they'd be cheaper. She had even done the research into the cycle time a new machine would use for each part and compared it to the cycle time of the current machine and showed the cost savings based on her hourly rate. Jeff said he'd look into it after the meeting.

After everybody went home, Jeff sat down with Muriel.

"How do I give Betsy an answer? What she figured out is right -- a new lathe would decrease cycle time and we could make the parts cheaper. What she doesn't understand is a new lathe costs somewhere around a hundred thousand and it'll take a little over ten million parts at her one-cent cost reduction to pay for it. At the current volume of that part, it'll take fifty years and I'll get laughed at if I propose something like that."

Muriel smiled her fake smile again.

"You'll just have to explain it to her like that. I'm sure she'll understand. They do that at Toyota all the time."

"No, she won't. You've had us tell them every month what our gross sales and net profit were. Gross sales is the number they heard, not the net profit number. The net profit number includes a bunch of crap like warranty reserves and corporate charges. They understand about material and labor costs, but they think everything else is just a way to hide profit because they read about that and see it on television all the time. It also happens to be true in most cases. Even if they do understand those things, they can't imagine that we aren't actually raking in cash hand over fist when they see the gross sales numbers."

Muriel stopped smiling then.

"If the team is going to function as a team, they have to understand how profit and loss works. You have to get them to trust you when you tell them that. I can't tell you how to do that because I don't know the people like you do. You have to figure it out on your own."

Jeff did talk to Betsy and Betsy said she understood, but her face told Jeff she really didn't. After that, most of the team discussions centered around creature comfort things that wouldn't do anything to cost except for spending more money. Muriel was elated and basically forced Jeff to rearrange his department budget to accommodate the additional expenses. She said it was normal for small things to be addressed before big things, and that when all of them had been addressed, the team would tackle the big things. She said that's exactly what happened at Toyota.

It was five months into the program when everything came to a head for Jeff. The materials department had reduced finished goods inventory to one day and he was making parts based on what the next day's orders were. It worked until the day Homer, the mill operator on the fuel manifold line, walked up with a broken mill cutter.

"Stores says they don't have one. What do you want me to do?"

Jeff went to stores and asked Judy why there was no spare cutter. Judy sighed.

"I tried to tell them, but they wouldn't listen. We've used one cutter a year for the past five years, so I had to stop ordering until we used the last one in stock. You took out the last one a month and a half ago, so I have one on order, but they're specials, and it takes two months to get one. I'm expediting the order and the supplier said he can have it to me late tomorrow, but it's costing us triple to get it by then. Sorry, Jeff, but I didn't have a choice. They said having two cutters in stock was muda."

Jeff called Audrey, the production scheduler and told her he had to shut down the fuel manifold line for a day. Audrey didn't say anything for a few seconds, and when she did she sounded frantic.

"Jeff, you can't do that. I just got a fifty percent increase in orders for that part. I have enough inventory to ship today and there are enough parts in assembly to let me ship part of tomorrow's requirements, but since there's no component inventory anymore, we'll shut down the assembly plant if you don't keep producing. I have a bunch more stock on the way because I was planning on scheduling you for Saturday and Sunday so we could get a running start on next week."

Jeff apologized to Audrey and said he'd do the best he could. Muriel was sitting at his desk working on the production charts she did every day, and Jeff decided he'd had enough. He closed the door to his office and then sat down in the chair beside his desk.

"Muriel, we're going to shut our customer down tomorrow. It'll be the first time that's ever happened...ever. That means we'll lose our preferred supplier rating and won't get to bid on future business with that customer for at least a couple of years. Put that on your goddamned graph and see how it looks."

Muriel smiled that smile again.

"You don't need to swear at me, Jeff. What happened? Everything's working fine just like we said it would."

Jeff frowned.

"That goddamned team you keep talking about building? Maybe you ought to listen to what the people who run this business have to say sometimes instead of only listening to what the operators say. The operators do have good ideas. I was implementing them before you ever got here and I'll keep doing that after you leave, but there are parts of the business they don't understand and probably won't ever understand. That's why we have purchasing people, schedulers, engineers, and supervisors."

Muriel was still smiling and that smile infuriated Jeff. It was patronizing.

"You didn't tell me what happened. What happened? We can fix it."

"You can't fix it. What happened is you made stores cut their inventory of tools. We broke a mill cutter an hour ago and stores doesn't have a replacement. I called the scheduler to tell her and she told me she was going to schedule us for the weekend because she got an order increase. There's no damned way I can do that without that cutter and I won't have another one for another day.

That'll drain all the inventory, shut down the assembly plant that uses that part, and put us on Saturdays and Sundays for probably a month until we can get caught back up. If you'd bothered to listen to anybody who knows what the hell's going on, you'd know that's why we had two days of finished goods, seven days inventory of components, and spare cutters in stores."

Muriel smiled a little wider and started to say something but Jeff cut her off.

"Would you stop that goddamned smiling every time you start to explain to me how Toyota would do this or Toyota would do that. I'm not stupid and that smile tells me you think I am. We're not Toyota. We're Contech, a small company compared to Toyota. I've read the books. Toyota makes the same number of cars every day even though the demand fluctuates and that's how they're able to maintain low inventories. In order to stay in business, Contech has to respond to our customer's demands nearly instantly. You've made it impossible to do that by forcing us to change everything to what you think Toyota would do instead of how it really works here."

Muriel didn't smile, but she still tried to explain.

"I'm sure if you call the customer and explain the problem, they'll understand. They have to understand, don't they?"

Jeff shook his head.

"Yeah, they'll understand, and they'll bill Contech a thousand dollars a minute for every minute they aren't driving new cars off their assembly line, or didn't you know that's how that works? That cost reduction you keep plotting just went out the goddamned window because we'll be sending them parts at no cost for the rest of the year, maybe longer."

Muriel looked like she was ready to cry, and Jeff felt bad about that. The first shift had already gone home and it was past the time he usually left. He couldn't let her break down in tears right there in his office.

"Muriel, let's get out of here and go someplace so I can explain what I'm telling you. I haven't done a very good job at that, and you really need to understand."

"Pogos" was a little bar ten minutes from the plant. Jeff sometimes stopped off there on his way home to relax if the day had been frustrating. Lately he'd been stopping off every night, and because of that, knew there wouldn't be many people there until after seven.

When the girl walked up to their table and asked what they wanted, Jeff figured Muriel for a wine drinker so he asked "red or white". Muriel still looked teary-eyed, but she smiled a little.

"I don't drink wine. I'll have a vodka martini."

After the girl brought Muriel's martini and Jeff's beer, Jeff looked at Muriel.

"Muriel, I didn't mean to be so hard on you back at the plant. I understand what you're trying to do, and most of what you've done has been good. Your company just tried to change too much, too fast, without understanding about the consequences if something happened. We developed our systems because we had to, not because we just thought it would be an easier way to operate."

Muriel sipped her martini, then frowned.

"Why didn't anybody tell us this. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Nobody told you because we know how consultants operate. Consultants get paid for doing what they say they're going to do. If anybody balks at what they want to do, the consultant views that a something that will make the program fail and they won't get paid. They'll do whatever is necessary to eliminate that threat.

"I've been through this before. No matter how good you are or how well you know your job, upper management always believes you're stuck in the way things are done and somebody outside the organization has better ideas. If you say anything except what the consultant tells you is right, you'll be called on the carpet and accused of not cooperating.

"If you're lucky, that's all that will happen. Some haven't been so lucky in the past. Jerry Myers, the guy who runs the paint department? He was the operations manager until he told a consultant that having operators check their parts half as often would result in quality problems and refused to do it. The consultant went to the VP of operations and told him he couldn't help out Contech if the operations manager didn't buy into the program.

"The next day, Jerry was demoted to supervisor and Larry Johnson, a young guy from Accounting, took his place. Larry did exactly what the consultant wanted but he didn't last long. After the consultant got paid and left, we found all kinds of quality problems in the component inventory. He got fired and Bill, the current operations manager, got promoted from supervisor to operations manager. The first thing Bill did was put the operators back on the original check schedule and the defects went away. So did the cost reduction the consultant claimed was his doing and got paid for.

"The only reason I'm telling you now is the disaster has already happened and I won't get blamed for it. We all like our jobs, and we know when you leave, we can fix what you did wrong and go on with life. If we said anything before that, well...I like eating regularly and sleeping indoors."

Muriel tipped up her glass and downed what was left of her martini, then put the glass down.

"I think I need another drink."

When the waitress brought the martini and another beer for Jeff, Muriel took a sip and then frowned.

"I was just doing what they taught me to do, Jeff."

Jeff was still sorry for talking to her like he was, but he wasn't going to play nice and say it was all right.

"I know. I'm not blaming you for this screw-up, but if I'd started telling you what you wanted to do wouldn't work, what would you have done?"

Muriel shrugged.

"What you said. I'd have gone to Blaine and told him you wouldn't let me do what needed to be done."

"Has that happened before?"

"Yes, at the last company we worked for."

"So, what happened?"

Muriel took a healthy sip of her Martini and then put the glass back on the table.

"The supervisor got fired. I thought it was right at the time. I guess I was wrong."

"You're damned right you were wrong. Unlike what you seem to believe, supervisors don't sit on their asses in their office all day. We're on the floor talking with our workers, finding out what they like and don't like, and trying to fix any problems they have. That's what we get paid to do."

Muriel frowned.

"But at Toyota, it's all the employees who figure out those things, not just one engineer or one supervisor."

Jeff nodded.

"Yes, that's true, but this isn't Japan. Does your boss pay you based upon what you can do or does he pay everybody in the group the same depending upon how the group does?"

"Well, I don't have a lot of manufacturing experience, so my salary isn't as high as some of the others. That makes perfect sense, because I can't do some of the things the others can do."

"In the first meeting, Blaine said all employees of any company are of equal value. Does the way he pays you mean he doesn't think your value is the same as his other employees? If that's the case, he a goddamned hypocrite.

Muriel took another sip of her drink.

"No, that's not what he meant. What he meant was the contribution of every employee has the same value. Some just have different skills than others. It will always be that way."

"Then what makes you think a machine operator would even think about return on investment for a new lathe? You acted like it was my fault it wasn't an economical solution and said I'd have to figure out how to convince her it wasn't. You may have a degree in sociology, but you don't have a goddamned clue about how people think. Betsy is convinced now that she's not smart enough to suggest anything, and the other employees won't either because they don't want to feel stupid when their ideas don't work. I guess you did get your goddamned concensus about that. That's why all the ideas you're seeing are crap ideas like that picnic table and putting more water coolers in each department."

Muriel frowned.

"I never told them we'd implement every idea they had."

"No, but that's what they heard. What they heard you say is their ideas are better than any engineer's ideas, and you'd make sure they were implemented. That sounded so good to them they missed the fine print that says 'if the ideas save money'.

"Once Betsy's idea of a new lathe got shot down, they figure you're just like all the other consultants they've dealt with. You promise something and they end up getting it in the ass. Sorry for the language, that that's exactly how they feel. I know because I ran those same machines for six years before I became a supervisor and I went through three consultants during that time."

Muriel drained her glass and then said she thought it was time for her to leave. When she tried to stand up, she almost fell over. She looked at Jeff and frowned.

"I guess I should have eaten something to go with the two martinis. I know you don't like me very much right now, but could you take me to get a hamburger and then take me back to my hotel? I don't think I'd better drive."

When Jeff drove away from the hotel he was still pissed. He didn't think Muriel had really listened to anything he said. Tomorrow, she'd be back with her fucking fake smile and telling him how great things were going to be after they got through this next step.

The next morning, Jeff got everybody started except for the fuel manifold line. He was trying to figure out what he was going to do with those three operators when Homer walked up to him.

"Jeff, when we threw all that stuff away, did it really get thrown away or is it still here somewhere?"

Jeff shook his head.

"No, it's still here in plastic bins in a dumpster out back. The manufacturing engineering manager wouldn't let them actually throw anything away until we didn't need it for at least a year. Why?"

Homer smiled a little.

"Well, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to get into trouble, but I can't keep my mouth shut when we're going to shut down our customer. I wasn't supposed to do it, but I had an old cutter in my bench. It was half worn out, but it was still making good parts so I kept it just in case. The only reason I changed it was because we always change them on the first of the year. When we did the 5-S thing, I had to throw it away. If we could find that cutter, maybe we could keep making parts."

Jeff grinned.

"Get the other two guys from the line and let's go dumpster diving."

While Homer went to do that, Jeff called Audrey.

"Audrey, have you called the customer yet?"

"Well, don't. Give me a couple of hours, OK. If we get lucky, we might still be all right."

It took an hour and a half to find the cutter and it had two chipped teeth, but Jeff asked Homer to put it in the mill and see what happened. Fifteen minutes later, Homer brought him the first three parts.

"The finish is a little rougher than usual, but it's still in print. I had Tony lay these three out, and they all passed."

Jeff looked at Homer and grinned.

"Homer, I could kiss you. Let's get to making fuel manifolds again."

Jeff went back to his desk and called Audrey.

"Audrey, we found a cutter. I don't know how long it's going to last, but if it lasts the shift, we should have the new one by the start of second. If that changes, I'll call you, but for now anyway, go ahead and schedule us for the weekend. Just make sure you keep that stock coming."

When Jeff hung up the phone he turned and saw Muriel standing there, except she didn't look like Muriel. She was wearing jeans, a snug top, and blue tennis shoes.

When he didn't say anything, Muriel frowned.

"Do I look that much different?"

"Well, yeah. You look like woman instead of a woman trying to look like a man."

"Thank you, I guess. I just thought I'd come by and tell you we're leaving. I guess it's like you said -- if you shut down your customer you'll lose all the cost reductions we've made so far plus you won't get any new business. Blaine said your CEO called him last night. He didn't go into details about what they talked about, but your CEO ended up telling Blaine he wanted him out of his plant. Apparently there was something in the contract about endangering shipments to a customer being grounds for termination of the agreement."

Jeff smiled to himself, but frowned to Muriel.

"Well, I'm sorry, but like I said, if he'd really looked at how the operation runs and why it runs that way, he wouldn't have made the mistakes he did. I suppose you'll be going to another plant now."

Muriel smiled.

"Actually, I won't. I quit this morning."

Jeff motioned for Muriel to sit down.

"Muriel, if it's because of what I said last night, I was mad about a lot of things and I was taking it out on you when you didn't have anything to do with it. I just wanted you to understand. I didn't mean to make you quit."

"You didn't. All you did was make me see some things about people I should have already known. When I got up this morning, I sat down and thought about what you said, and I decided what you said was right. This isn't Japan and Contech isn't Toyota. I still think the basic theory will work, but you can't just pick up a system from one culture and expect it to work in different culture like Blaine said it had to. All we accomplished was to turn everything upside down and then shut down your customer."