The control knob was set on position '4' and taped. "What does it do?", I asked a supervisor.

"Don't exactly know", he said. "It has something to do with the product thickness control system. Some pretty smart folks must have figured out that '4' was right. I was told not to touch it!"

If this sounds like your facility, let me tell you what comes next. In a month, or a year, maintenance will finally remove this bit of technology and automation. They will say that it is justified because no one uses it, and that the continued maintenance costs should be saved now that times are tough.

Today someone reaps praise for "saving" millions by removing process enhancements that "saved millions" when they were installed ten years ago. Now, I'm not just being cynical. There is a common, avoidable error often made in the implementation of technology and automation. Because of this error, the expected savings of technology may not materialize.

To understand and avoid this error we have to give ourselves a little background.

The Business Process

The difference between, say, a bread making business and a guy with a bread-making machine is tactical. Businesses have processes. They are the "money-making engines" of business; intentional methods designed to produce a particular product consistently. Processes can have a known capability, capacity, cost of quality and unit cost. The "guy with a machine" may be able to turn the machine on, and even produce a loaf of bread, but his initial methods are not necessarily intentional and designed. Too often, what the "guy with a machine" calls process is trial & error & luck.

Business Process knowledge is something over and above the physical capital of the facility and equipment. Strategic engineering will assess technologies, weigh risks, and oversee the initial allocation of capital to facilities, equipment and tools. If this is done well, we say that the process is "strategically correct" At this point, however, the newly staffed facility is just "guys with machines". It is now up to the tactical engineering and operations management to deploy (and if necessary, re-deploy) these available resources for optimal results.

Within a work-center, a business process is an intentional, designed baseline plan for roles, stations, tasks and targets. It is the organized knowledge of who does what, where, when. Some industries recognize that this is not the job of the day-to-day process manager to create tactical processes from scratch. In retail sales, specialty teams move through each location to "set" the store, In restaurant franchises, franchise "schools" and start-up crews help establish the business processes and pass along the process knowledge to management. Process managers should be responsible for the correct and consistent operation of the business process, and should contribute to systematic improvement - but they are not responsible for its invention, or re-invention!

What Added Automation Can Do

You have the picture of process: knowledge of, say, the 128 tasks that must be done every hour, every day, and every week. With experience, processes are improved. The task list grows to, perhaps, 135 specific things that must be done. Seven items are added to the task list because we learn additional things we should do to run the process correctly. They are tasks that become part of the definition of "correct" because they have economic benefit. Each task may only increase utilization or reduce quality risks by a tiny but definite 0.1%, but the return exceeds the cost.

Only strategic re-engineering of a process eliminates tasks. New materials make new tools & technology possible. A strategic re-design of an operation may literally eliminate work and replace the process of 135 tasks with one that requires only 17. For example. a key mechanical device consisting of windings, rotor, shaft and bearings may be replaced by an "artificial muscle". (See the October 13th, 2003 newsletter at http://OperationImprovement.com) The issue of motor-bearing inspection is now moot.

What added technology & automation does is consolidate tasks. If the 135 tasks are initially performed by 135 employees, automation may allow the same 135 tasks to be performed by only 17 people! Automation allows an individual to be (virtually) in many places at once. It may enable tasks to be performed faster, only when needed, or just in time. It may change the economic "sweet spot" of work and return. The original staff of 135 may be able to perform 1000 automated tasks that marginally benefit utilization, quality and capacity.

So,. the new "thickness control" system in our opening story-line may have allowed one worker to perform 100 tasks, make 100 adjustments that keep the process optimized when temperature, humidity or other external factors fluctuate. These "sheparding" tasks of the process team keep the process "robust", successfully productive even in adversity.

The Mistake

The management mistake that undermines the potential of automation is the confusion of task consolidation with task elimination. Automation may change the inspection of a critical mechanical component. Instead of a greasy, hands-on task of visual inspection, we now inspect with an instrument; and we ADD the task of certifying the instrumentation! We haven't eliminated anything, we still have an "inspection" task. The requirement of a mechanical assessment is dictated by strategic engineering. Automation has transformed the task from one that takes 4 hours and requires "wrench" know-how, into two tasks that takes seconds, but may require thermal sensor "know-how".

We compound the mistake by not educating our workforce about how these news tools work, and the importance of the tasks these tools allow them to perform. We don't take into account the new tasks implied by automation - for example, the certification of instrumentation. When automation allows the workforce to be reduced, we often eliminate the very people who have some grasp of the role added automation plays in an improved process.

Finally, if we make these mistakes, then performance measures tend to deteriorate. Quality scores, utilization and unit costs gradually begin to trend in the wrong direction. The number of un-audited and un-maintained automation systems increases. Operators stop reading gauges because they no longer work, and all of our competitive advantage that was supposed to derive from "our people" working "smarter" gradually fades away.

Top management then asks, "if we can't make automation work as a competitive advantage, and if we need 1000 workers to perform 1000 tasks; then where in the world can we find a price-competitive workforce?"

Conclusion

In a modern business, it is unacceptable to have gauges, controls, computer reports metrics, and machine adjustments which are mysterious unknowns to the operations work force It is an untenable position when operations has slipped into a mode where gauges and controls don't work and no one is convinced that it matters. The result is a slow creeping loss of competitiveness that many may not grasp until it is too late.

This mistake is avoided by retaining, organizing and communicating process knowledge. A business must never forget what "brought them to the party"; all of the specific operations tasks that shepard their facility to competitive success. Management needs to recognize that automation is not the "silver bullet" that eliminates work, it adds tasks as well as leverages effort. When it comes to managing a process, there is more to think about when automation is added. Learn the tactical management skill of mastering the tools you have. If you can't run the existing facility correctly and consistently, strategic re-engineering is likely to let you make more expensive scrap faster!!