Like many people who travel as a part of their work, I often find myself in a different airport each week. Along with a change in scenery comes the local rental-car.

Early in my car renting experience, I had that moment of in-decision when the rain starts and the wiper controls are not where I expect them to be. It's nothing more than the fact it is not my car, and I'm unfamiliar with "this week's" rental.

If it was not rain, then it was "sneaky" radios. They seem quiet enough when you first pick up the car. But then, you cruise into range of some low wattage station, and the radio suddenly starts playing painfully loud music... and I can't find the off switch fast enough!

"Pre-Flight"

I quickly adopted a little routine each time I was given a car by the airport attendant. I would ask myself, "Where are the wipers? What are the settings?" Slow? Fast? Off?" and, "Radio Controls."

Over time, this habit became generalized. I would make a point to mentally inventory each and every gauge and control within reach of the driver. After all, cars are similar. For example, once you are familiar with the notion of cruise control, it is a quick matter to locate the controls in each new car.

Of course, I have always been one to read the manual. I have read enough manuals to know 1) that one should not blindly follow the manual, and 2) how to set the blinking time on any gadget!

WHAT IS IT? WHAT DOES IT DO?

This "pre-flight" manner of thinking carried naturally into my consulting and seminars. "What is it? What does it do?", I would ask. We could be studying a machine, a piece of software, or a financial report. The object of the question could be a gauge, a machine control, a statistical item of data (e.g. "effectiveness"), or a software "object property".

If for example, we were studying some kind of machinery with ten indicators and controls, then we would begin the questioning with the most frequently used. What I have found may surprise you. At all levels of the organization, from engineering to operations thru HR & training - Most workers are only familiar with 20% - 25% of the tools available to them. Furthermore, there is often no single resource within the organization who can remedy this problem!

Clearly, in mastering any new skill there are usually a couple of essentials. Most folks with some ambition master those quickly enough, since an ignorance of those critical metrics implies an inability to even be adequate at a job.

Cause... and Effect!

It is those other metrics which make it possible to be excellent at a job.

It is knowledge of those other 7 of the 10 items that can mean the difference between 2% scrap and none!

Why should it be surprising that proper use of the tools available are part of the productivity equation? Workers who understand ten-out-of-ten of the tools for a job and act on that knowledge will always outperform those who only know three of ten.

So, What's the Excuse?

So, when I ask an operator, supervisor, manager, or engineer: "What does this do?" (and they don't know) - what is their excuse?

• "It does nothing, (The designer put it there, for no good reason!)"

• “It used to do something, but no one remembers what."

• "A very smart person put it on setting "2" and told me to never change it!"

• "It's real complicated. You wouldn't understand it."

I don't accept these kinds of answers, and that more than anything else is the thing that has enabled me to make operational improvements when others said it couldn't be done.

A Different Perspective

If no one knows what setting "12" does, how to you find out? Methodically.

Operation Improvement is a specialty. All of the analytical tools that I implement  provide Fresh Facts, information that can be confidently used to make better decisions.

Sadly, many companies spend time and money on "quality initiatives", and nothing ever changes! A "One-Year-Later" inventory of knowledge would still show everyone tweaking the same two controls (on a new and more expensive console), and still ignorant of the other eight. It doesn't have to be that way.

Make your own survey. Do you have SPC charts that are ignored by operators? Management reports that are ignored and filed by supervisors? Gauges that are never repaired because no one uses them? Switches taped to a position with writing that says, "Do not touch!"? Mysterious charts and graphs posted on company bulletin boards that no one understands? You may be rich in opportunities for improvement without a major capital investment!