Another complaint
addressed the long time between shutdowns. The local
area was staffed to support ongoing operations with a
small day crew prepared to do off-line repair. Having
only two shutdowns caused so much work to accumulate
that even by using additional maintenance resources
from other areas of the plant, completing all the
maintenance was difficult. Furthermore, shutdowns in
other parts of the plant reduced the available pool of
maintenance people.
Clearly, the situation needed change. Otherwise,
the same poor results would inevitably occur. The key
questions were: what to change and how to move the
whole community to a new approach.
The only way to bring about lasting change is to
generate a win-win condition. Then the benefits would
be good for both the coating department and the
overall plant. With a more productive factory, the
corporation would see significant improvement to the
bottom line.
My experience with shutdowns had led me to the
following conclusions about human limitations:
1. Given a few tasks, people can concentrate on all
the details, and those tasks are usually done very
well. Figure 6-1 displays the concept of concentration
on detail versus number of tasks. A single complicated
task is equivalent to a series of semi-complex tasks.
2. People prepare for and bring more energy to the
start of a new work schedule or work challenge.
3. This higher energy level is seldom sustained for
more than three or four days of challenging work.
Figure 6-2 displays the concept of energy level versus
days of challenging, 10-to-12 hour work schedules.
