The Incredible Power Of Internal Resonance
Parts
Once I knew this guy who was a well-respected businessman in his field. I’m not exactly sure what kind of field it was; it had something to do with manufacturing electronic parts or something. And to tell you the truth I’m not absolutely certain what his particular job was. Something to do with engineering the manufacturing process, from a human interaction standpoint.
Some manufacturing plants are completely automated, and there are only a few people needed. And even those people are more of monitors, or quality control inspectors than anything else. They make sure the machines are running smoothly, and the end product is what it is supposed to be. They don’t take part in the actual manufacturing.
One that comes to mind is the famous Hershey’s Kiss. It’s called kiss because the particularly machine part that leans over and deposits the small bit of chocolate on the conveyor belt looks as if it’s kissing the belt, hence the name.
I’m reminded of Lucy and Ethel trying desperately to keep up with the candy machine, but I digress.
The manufacturing plant my friend was in charge of was a blend of automatic and human interaction. There were many kinds of things that came in to play. Whether they should sit or stand how long they should work between breaks, what’s the best position to be in when working on these electronic parks. They were fairly small, so they needed to be pretty close.
Because the parts sold for quite a bit of money, the company was quite profitable, so the workers were paid quite a bit, as well as enjoying fairly competitive benefits. So there wasn’t much of an “us vs. them” attitude when it came to management. There was also a lot of profit sharing, so when the company made money, the line workers were pretty well compensated.
So naturally, whenever my friend thought of an idea that would improve productivity, and therefore their bottom line, he never had a shortage of workers who would “beta test” the new design or system.
One of the things that he found most helpful was to keep a completely open line of communication and information. He reported to the general manager, who wasn’t a techie, and who relied on him to maximize the productivity. And directly reporting to him were several line supervisors, who each in turn had several people reporting to them.
When he took over the job, several years ago, it was run in a more or less “top down” type of management system. The boss tells you what to do, and you do it, without question. This is what led to the company almost going bankrupt.
When my friend got involved, he wanted to work on the line himself, in every feasible position before even thinking about coming up with ways to improve productivity. The workers really respected that.
Later, he would meet with his supervisors, and explain in as much detail as he could what would help improve the bottom line. Several times he would take his supervisors to shows out of town to look at different manufacturing equipment to see if would help improve production.
The supervisors, in turn, would always be open to suggestions from those that reported to them. This was a particular industry that wasn’t health related, it was purely consumer driven, so none of the changes in manufacturing needed to meet any federal red tape regulations. So every time even the newest, least experienced workers had an idea, it was frequently implemented, at least on a beta testing level, within a day or two.
It’s fascinating when you think about it. A huge system of several different parts, all working together on the same goal. When you have open communication, and all your parts are congruent, then achieving your targets is very easy.
But when you use the top down style of management, and ignore what’s really going on down in the trenches, you run the risk of losing it all.
The interesting thing is how quickly you can switch from an inefficient system to a top of the line, highly efficient money making operation. Open the lines communication, get all your parts on board, and make sure that everybody knows that you’re all really after the same thing, and success is almost guaranteed.
Any coach knows that when all the players are working together for the good of the team, and not their own egos, you can accomplish great things. You put a bunch of superstars on the same team; you’re likely to do nearly as well as you could, as each team wants to be the star.
But you put a bunch of people together that have only above average talent, but are congruent, there’s not much that can stop you.
What conflicts do you have? Does part of you want something, but part of you wants something else? What happens when they realize they are both manifestations of the same thing?
Something to think about, especially if you ever can’t think of which choice to make. Let your parts have a meeting and see if they can work something out.
You’d be surprised what can happen.
