Empathy, A Path
To Continuous Improvement
By Douglas Harrison, APS

Recently I was reviewing controls designed to document overtime in a production department.

One reason stuck out like a sore thumb -- clerical overtime. A little investigation revealed that the department supervisor was spending a great deal of time preparing a weekly schedule for the shop floor. The handwritten schedule contained key information from the work order; the form also provided space for operators to add any notes they might have with regard to any of the units produced. This process took the supervisor approximately two hours per week.

A little more investigation also revealed the following:

1. The IT department had previously created a report that contained most of the information that the supervisor required. The problem was it was not in a user-friendly format.
2. The supervisor knew that he could copy from the AS/400 format and paste into an Excel spreadsheet.

By asking the IT department to add one piece of information to the existing AS/400 report and teaching the supervisor the skills necessary to place that information in the format he required, we were able to reduce the schedule preparation time to approximately 5 minutes.

I learned how to take an empathetic approach to problem solving from this experience.

In this example the IT department had done a good job at providing information they thought the supervisor needed. However, one key piece of information was missing and the report was not in a useable format for the supervisor.

Well, you say, the supervisor should have spoke up. In reality, the supervisor did not have the level of understanding of the system that the IT department had. He did not know what his options were.  If you don't know what's out there you can't ask for it.

By understanding what the supervisor needed, and observing what skills he lacked, we were able to greatly reduce the amount of time to perform a task.

Most importantly, the supervisor now has learned new skills that will no doubt lead to other improvements.

Editor's Note: Douglas Harrison, a regular contributor to APS Quarterly, is Continuous Improvement Manager for Grumman Olson Industries in Sturgis, Michigan.